Very interesting article in the New York Times that advocates using ChatGPT in the classroom. Starting with the clearly true premise that the Genie is already out of the bottle, the author challenges us to try to imagine how we can educate better by incorporating the capabilities of ChatGPT (and its even more capable successors yet to come) into education.
I completely agree with this point of view, partly because we have no choice. About half a century ago, when affordable digital calculators came out, we lessened our collective focus on teaching the mechanics of arithmetic. And that, in turn, freed up precious classroom time to focus on teaching higher level mathematical concepts.
There are many similar examples that illustrate the same principle. Access to more powerful tools does not inherently destroy creative thinking. On the contrary, it can accelerate it.
For example, I no longer need to go to the library to look things up, because now I can access Google → Wikipedia → primary sources without leaving my desk. That change has allowed me to be more creative and productive in my professional life.
So now the real fun begins. Taking as a premise that ChatBots will be freely available to everyone, in ever more powerful incarnations, how do we rethink education to be even better?
The young minds in future generations will have far more knowledge at their fingertips than we had when we were kids. We should focus on harnessing that power to promote creativity and critical thinking.