Is ChatGPT a 'conspiracy' in education?

"My student is in the second grade of junior high school. I usually have little supervision. When my child is doing homework, he secretly uses ChatGPT to search for questions. How can his grades be improved like this? I am worried to death." Ms. Li, a parent who volunteers her children to apply for the High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China, said anxiously. Seeing that her child was about to enter the third grade of junior high school and face the high school entrance examination in one year, she felt very anxious.

But Ms. Li’s husband, Mr. Zhao, disagreed and said: “ChatGPT can provide students with learning materials and suggestions. It is a simple and easy-to-use learning aid. For a dual-income family like ours, it can be regarded as an educational student A good helper. The key to letting children use ChatGPT is to find a reasonable method to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages."

As an artificial intelligence language model, ChatGPT quickly became popular on social media once it was launched, becoming a historical The fastest-growing consumer application. As ChatGPT continues to gain popularity, it not only allows more people to participate in following the trend, but also triggers a series of discussions and thoughts. Among them, the possible impact of ChatGPT on education is one of the topics that has attracted much attention.

Some critics pointed out that the use of ChatGPT in education will encourage cheating and plagiarism. Some scholars also believe that ChatGPT will force positive reforms in traditional education. For education, the rise of ChatGPT has set off a "conspiracy" to encourage cheating and plagiarism, or a "conspiracy" to promote positive changes in education, which has caused considerable controversy in the education community.

Embracing Education Opportunities Highlight

Facing the potential controversy in the "ChatGPT craze", how to see as clearly as possible the changes and opportunities that ChatGPT brings to education, and obtain the "optimal solution", It has become the focus of research in the educational field.

According to Tan Wei, representative of the Beihai Municipal People’s Congress and founder of Xinvit Education, ChatGPT, as an artificial intelligence language model, can provide a large amount of more accurate information and answers in a short time, which is very important for users’ learning and Convenience is provided in consultation and communication. In addition, the continuous development of artificial intelligence technology will also provide more possibilities for the functions and effects of products such as ChatGPT. ​​​​

Tan Wei believes that artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT will bring four major values ​​to the education industry.

First, provide convenient learning and consulting services. Through artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT, students and educators can access rich knowledge and relevant information anytime and anywhere, and at the same time obtain answers and suggestions by interacting with them to improve learning and work efficiency.

The second is to promote the popularization of education. Artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT can help areas that lack teachers and educational resources obtain better educational resources, thus promoting the popularization and balanced development of education.

The third is personalized education. Artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT can provide personalized learning content and services based on user needs and interests to meet the learning needs of different students and help students better master knowledge and skills.

The fourth is to promote educational innovation. Artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT can help educators better explore and innovate education and teaching methods and forms, carry out more flexible and diverse teaching activities, and promote educational reform and innovation.

The powerful functions of ChatGPT are constantly highlighting its value in educational innovation. However, no matter how good technological innovation is, it will ultimately fall on the industry. Faced with the current "white clouds and dogs" business format, ChatGPT may intensify and trigger new changes in the education industry.

Currently, ChatGPT is only positioned as generative AI, and its powerful background database and algorithm have brought endless imagination to the world. Along with the huge business opportunities, there will also be unbearable industry pain. Chen Jianzhi, a professional member of the Computer Society of China and the principal of Enjoy Future Programming School, analyzed from an industry perspective that when artificial intelligence changes the world, it will definitely change the lives of many people. Learning and embracing change should be the eternal theme of mankind. He suggested that from now on, people should seriously think about the discussion on the development of artificial intelligence and the changes in the quality type and demand direction of the next generation of talent training.

ChatGPT will embody great value in resolving "contradictions in the teaching process caused by individual differences among students under a comprehensive and balanced education system." Chen Jianzhi said frankly: "The current system requires teachers to try to balance the imbalance in the teaching class, but individual differences exist significantly, making it difficult to meet students' personalized learning needs. The emergence of ChatGPT makes it possible to "teach students in accordance with their aptitude" in the teaching process. And it is practical." He gave an example: "The concept of 'thousands of people, thousands of faces' proposed by some educational technology companies will be implemented. Teachers can use artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT to improve teaching efficiency. Hierarchical teaching and personalized learning are expected to be used on campus. can be realized."

For Zhang Haochi, a senior practitioner in the education and teaching industry, the view that "ChatGPT breaks the traditional teaching model and makes it possible to 'teach students in accordance with their aptitude'" resonates even more with him. "Many students are reluctant to ask questions. They feel that their questions are too simple, they are embarrassed to ask them, or they are unwilling to contact teachers and classmates for other reasons. ChatGPT can help some students with 'social fears' learn to ask questions. For them, Obtaining answers by asking questions on ChatGPT can gradually form positive feedback for learning." said Zhang Haochi, MathHub manager and university subject competition coach.

Fu Qiuyu, who has won the gold medal in the ACM regional competition, also knows the importance of learning resources. In Fu Qiuyu's view, the greatest application value of ChatGPT at this stage is that it can provide students with massive and targeted learning resources anytime and anywhere, freeing teachers and parents to a certain extent. ​​​​

Honey? Arsenic? The trade-off

However, there are advantages and disadvantages. As an application method of artificial intelligence technology, ChatGPT also has its limitations. ChatGPT's answers are subject to training data sets and algorithms, and may be affected by some biases and misinformation. In some cases, ChatGPT may misjudge or not understand the question, resulting in inaccurate answers and unable to meet the question-answering needs in education and teaching. “When using artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT, it is necessary to fully consider risks such as data privacy and security, discrimination and bias, impact on students’ social and communication skills, false misinformation, and misguidance. Corresponding measures should be taken to mitigate these risks and protect User interests and social interests can better empower education and teaching. At the same time, it is also necessary to continue to pay attention to and study the solutions to these risks, and constantly improve and improve these technologies." Tan Wei suggested.

Considering from the perspective of industry application, ChatGPT is still in its infancy, and "imaginative" scenarios and functional applications still need to call API (Application Programming Interface) to use. Chen Jianzhi said that there are certain usage thresholds for ChatGPT. With the update of data and the improvement of computing power, more and more training institutions will find commercial application scenarios.

The application environment of training institutions is very suitable for trying new things. Chen Jianzhi introduced that in training institutions, teachers can use platforms such as ChatGPT to flexibly design targeted course goals based on the characteristics of each student, and all this teaching The whole process management can be automatically tracked and summarized, and shared with teachers and parents, so that "home-school co-education" can form a joint force. For the problem of uneven educational resources, independent learning can be used to make up for it. Students can independently evaluate and choose their own development direction based on their interests, and use ChatGPT's vast knowledge base to conduct independent learning and conduct staged evaluations.

Zhang Haochi and Fu Qiuyu, who are engaged in education, have some concerns and doubts about using ChatGPT in daily teaching work. Zhang Haochi told reporters: "The essence of artificial intelligence is 'training' rather than 'understanding'. The answers given by ChatGPT are 'trained' based on massive data, so they will inevitably be filled with a large amount of 'pseudo-scientific' data. Therefore, we compare The worry is that although ChatGPT can "package" many answers as very scientific, they are actually full of errors. In fact, many colleagues have tested this product and indeed found this problem."

GPT- The release of GPT-4 has allowed us to see another upgrade in AI's ability to understand user intentions. Zhang Haochi also saw from the recently released GPT-4 that this technology will accelerate its application in the education field. Its innovative functions based on images and human commands for corresponding operations further liberate teachers' productivity and are more friendly to many teachers who do not have much computer foundation. Zhang Haochi also longs for and looks forward to the birth of ChatGBT, which truly focuses on the field of education. It can realize that after each answer, a reference list is attached, and students can click to view it when they need it.

For Fu Qiuyu, who is engaged in informatics education, the limitations of ChatGPT are even more memorable to her. She admitted that the previous version of ChatGPT was good at generating fluent, grammatical, and question-related sentences, but this did not mean that it could perform human thinking tasks such as mathematical calculations and logical reasoning, and it was difficult to ensure that the information it gave was completely correct. . "We have done experiments and it has given many wrong references and mathematical derivation. At present, ChatGPT is more suitable for some industries with high error tolerance rate," she said.

However, Fu Qiuyu does not think that ChatGPT is a "complete failure" in the education industry. She believes that teaching assistants, admissions and other tasks are suitable for ChatGPT to intervene.

"In the past, the 'head teacher' of the institution was mainly responsible for answering some questions from parents about entering higher education. Simple questions from students were mainly responsible for the 'head teachers' of the institution. However, the head teachers recruited were often inexperienced and had a high attrition rate. ChatGPT can serve as a virtual teaching assistant , after certain training, it can provide students and parents with basic question answers, learning suggestions, homework feedback and other services. There is no need to worry about staff loss, and it also has the advantage of responding anytime and anywhere. At the same time, ChatGPT can be used as An intelligent customer service robot provides enrollment consulting services. With certain training, it can provide timely responses to potential customers in a more professional manner," Fu Qiuyu said.

Let ChatGPT "fly for a while"

Although ChatGPT has given the education community a mixed attitude, every new technology that enters human life is always accompanied by excitement and doubt. At this stage, ChatGPT has shown broad application prospects in the education field. So, why not let ChatGPT "fly for a while"?

Tan Wei told reporters that ChatGPT has great potential in the field of education and can help students and teachers achieve more personalized, efficient and intelligent learning and teaching models. In her opinion, ChatGPT may present five major application scenarios in the education field.

The first is intelligent tutoring. ChatGPT can be used as the core technology of the intelligent tutoring system to help students and teachers communicate intelligently and provide targeted learning suggestions and feedback to achieve more personalized and efficient learning.

The second is the intelligent answering system. ChatGPT can be used as the core technology of the intelligent answering system to help students answer questions online, analyze students' answering situations and thinking processes, and provide accurate assessment and feedback to promote students' learning and progress.

The third is language learning. ChatGPT can be used as the core technology of the language learning system to help students learn and practice language, provide dialogue and communication that simulates real contexts, and improve students' listening, speaking, reading and writing abilities.

Fourth is the chatbot. ChatGPT can be used as the core technology of chatbots to help students communicate and consult online, and provide various services and support to enhance students' learning experience.

Fifth is an intelligent mentor. ChatGPT can be used as the core technology of intelligent tutors to help students plan and manage study plans, and provide learning resources and suggestions to achieve more personalized and efficient learning.

What is even more exciting is the role ChatGPT plays in promoting the education industry. Chen Jianzhi envisioned: "The learning style in the future vision is autonomous, free and happy. In the future, the social attributes of schools will be further improved, the functionality based on knowledge transfer will be reduced, and even teachers will be gradually replaced, and the evaluation of the direction of further education will There will be multi-dimensional innovations in standards and selection models. No matter how the future develops, the next generation of talents cultivated based on creativity and innovative thinking will continue to lead artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT in the direction and goal of helping humankind to develop sustainably."

"My hope is that it can solve the problem of 'repetitive' labor. Things like answering questions may not be of much significance in future education. In the future, oral examinations and interviews may become tests Whether a student masters knowledge is a more important factor. If students are liberated from repetitive problem solving, they can focus more on creative matters." Zhang Haochi analyzed from a teaching perspective.

ChatGPT’s development prospects are by no means based on “excellent” technical functions alone. It also depends on social choices and the assessment of its functions, risks and values ​​by all parties. This evaluation involves comprehensive considerations of technical, social and even ethical aspects. As Tan Wei said: "We should rationally look at the advantages and disadvantages of similar products such as ChatGPT and give full play to their advantages. At the same time, we should continue to explore and develop more accurate and humane artificial intelligence technology. Generally speaking, artificial intelligence such as ChatGPT Intelligent language models will bring more convenience and innovation to the education industry, promote the popularization and improvement of education, and help promote the development and progress of education."

Careful consideration is not to badmouth ChatGPT We should give ChatGPT more perspective and discussion space before re-examining ChatGPT. Perhaps it is a "conspiracy" in education.

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