The Creative Ways Teachers Are Using ChatGPT in the Classroom

Peter Paccone, a social studies teacher in San Marino, Calif., has a new teacher's aid helping him in the classroom this year. He plans to defer to his helper to explain some simpler topics to his class of high schoolers, like the technical aspects of how a cotton gin worked, in order to free up time for him to discuss more analytical concepts, like the effects of the first industrial revolution. "What I feel that I don't have to do any longer is cover all the content," Paccone told a group of more than 40 educators in a May Zoom workshop, which he organized. If artificial intelligence is on the cusp of reshaping entire aspects of our society--from healthcare to warfare--the first realm that leaps to many minds is education: Asked a question online, the ChatGPT chatbot will produce an answer that reads like an essay. So as students and teachers prepare for a new school year, they are also grappling with AI's implications for learning, homework, and integrity.