I teach Secondary V in a Montreal school where each student has their own computer. Fascinated by the public appearance on November 30 of the chatbot ChatGPT — “Chat” for “conversation” and “GPT” for “Generative Pre-trained Transformer” —, and once familiar with the tool, I decided to tell my students about it and use it in class. Here is the brief enthusiastic account of my daring and memorable educational experience.
At the beginning of my course, I first reiterate to students that my class is a safe space, that they can trust me, that what they say about their use of ChatGPT will have no impact on my attitude towards them and that no one will be “betrayed”. I therefore honor my promise even by writing this text, because obviously no names will be revealed.
“Who knows ChatGPT? Who has already used it for their work? Tell me everything in detail! I had decided to start strong. While a number of students wonder what I’m talking about, I feel that those already in love with the robot are disconcerted, ambivalent; they dare not divulge their military secret to the enemy; for them, it’s as if I were asking them: who cheated in their homework?
And, slowly, in this course which already promises for me to be epic, with muffled words, embarrassed, even hilarious! tongues loosen; a few courageous people reveal themselves: “I used it in Contemporary World to write an argumentative text, I got 92%. » « Me, in French, to inspire me for a production written around a novel by Anne Hébert; I got 53%. » « In history, to summarize events of the XXe century, I got 88%. “In English, for an oral presentation, that gave me 80%. » Then, the inevitable: « I used it in your lesson, M’sieur, you didn’t see anything, I had everything good… » The whole group laughs, myself included!
I then invite a student to use ChatGPT in front of the class to explain how to use it well, to test its limits and strengths. A pupil, who discovers the existence of the diabolical device, bewildered, asks me: “But why are you showing this to us? », meaning: but, why are you teaching us to cheat? What an excellent question; we will come back to this in class later.
Some want to query the gear first as if it were the game Ouija “Does God exist? or “How do we know if someone likes us?” or “Explain to me the way women think [oui, oui !] or “How to access happiness?” ” Then, we test it on school questions: “Summarizes the first 75 pages of The life ahead “ ; some find errors in the response. We are jubilant. I take this opportunity to talk about the importance of critical thinking. A student takes out her math notebook and dictates her homework for the day: “A circle has its center (-5.8) and is tangent to the y-axis. Determine the equation of the circle. The class is waiting, effervescent… The machine takes its time; she answers, all the students exclaim, overwhelmed: IT WORKS!
And the questions abound: is it plagiarism? Are we going to ban it at school? Can we ask him anything? Why does it sometimes respond well, other times not? Is it free? Is this the end of school?
In a controlled hubbub, the students comment and answer each other: “I’m going to try it tonight. “Warning, it makes mistakes, so you have to check the content produced by reliable sources so you don’t look crazy! “You still have to paraphrase the relevant answers to avoid plagiarism, as we already do for our searches in books or on the Internet. I see that as an additional source. “You have to be critical: we have to remain autonomous and creative in our work, we could become lazy and incompetent if we rely only on this system. In addition, we could be had if a teacher decides to evaluate us without our computer, orally or with paper and pencil. “If we only work with the robot, we won’t learn anything!” “No, it allows us to learn more, and faster. »
The discussion is spirited and fascinating. I love to teach.
Since then, I have decided to use ChatGPT in class, and develop new ways of working and evaluating that take into account this new resource.
Curiously, surreptitiously, as the lessons pass, it seems that Chatgpt’s magic is withering away, and, as it would for a toy, it sets in like a disenchantment. Students understand that, even with the help of the new patent, they must do as before: ask their teacher or their friends, ensure the validity of information found online, rewrite texts, learn to ask the right questions to get the desired answers. Yes, they still have to think, remain critical and work hard to develop the skills and acquire the expected knowledge.
For now at least.