I've said it in another thread, but if you have to ban a tool to preserve the value of some course or examination then it's likely they have little to no value in the real world.<p>In most cases the courses are fine, but the examination probably isn't testing anything useful if it can be cheated with tools like ChatGPT. For example any maths test which only tests students on problems which are easily solvable by a calculator isn't testing any skill of real world use. But this doesn't mean maths itself isn't valuable, just that the test isn't.<p>In some cases like programmers and writers, ChatGPT might actually be eroding the value the current curriculum. For example, I'm not sure if there's much value in learning things like basic SQL queries anymore which was something I had to learn when studying computer science. ChatGPT is great at writing SQL queries if you're able to tell it exactly what you need.
I mean, something like chatGPT (that will refuse to invent things) is perfect for student companion. It's endlessly patient and willing to explain every word you don't understand. No teacher can do that to this degree. If i were a teacher i d want to offload work to it.
ChatGPT is just a tool, like a calculator. Calculators are banned in certain circumstances and required in others. At first they were probably seen as cheating, but then the system realized they could be used to enhance what kids learn. Why take away a tool that could be used everywhere in life? That's not how progress should work. The system should evolve to embrace such tools, but the obvious problem is that it just won't happen quickly enough, and in the short term they will be used for illegitimate purposes, and so we just ban.
Some of the Calculator analogy comments downstream are inaccurate.
300,000 students in the United States compete in the AMC 8/10/12 exams every year. Calculators have always been banned. The official policy[1] states sternly in uppercase -<p>---
AMC 8
The only materials that students are allowed to have on themselves during the competition are writing utensils, blank scratch paper, rulers, and erasers. NO CALCULATORS OR PHONES AND SIMILAR ELECTRONIC DEVICES OF ANY KIND ARE ALLOWED. No questions require the use of a calculator.<p>AMC 10/12 - AIME
The only materials that students are allowed to have on themselves during the competition are writing utensils, blank scratch paper, rulers, compasses, and erasers. NO CALCULATORS OR PHONES AND SIMILAR ELECTRONIC DEVICES OF ANY KIND ARE ALLOWED. No questions require the use of a calculator.
--<p>Mathcounts[2] is kinder, but only a little bit - "Calculators are not permitted in the Sprint and Countdown Rounds, but they are permitted in the Target, Team and Tiebreaker Rounds". There are 500+ chapter rounds every year, plus 56 state rounds, & each school sends upto 12 contestants, so again a very large number of students compete in these exams with no calculator.<p>Note when they say "No questions require the use of a calculator" - that's quite a dubious claim. For eg. the question which is bigger 9^10 or 10^9 ? With a calculator it becomes trivial. Without, you take logs to base 10 and do some simple arithmetic by hand. For most trig problem sets, you'd have to know the standard sines & cosines. With a calculator that becomes moot.<p>[1] <a href="https://www.maa.org/math-competitions/amc-policies" rel="nofollow">https://www.maa.org/math-competitions/amc-policies</a>
[2] <a href="https://www.mathcounts.org/programs/official-rules-procedures" rel="nofollow">https://www.mathcounts.org/programs/official-rules-procedure...</a>
I wonder if the script can be flipped to both encourage the use of ChatGPT and scrutinize its output among students. I imagine that analyzing the results of ChatGPT output for something like a routine essay prompt requires a higher degree of precision and subject-matter expertise than writing the essay itself.
I'm sure they're concerned about essay writing, but my kid has been using to help with physics and math homework. Not for basic calculator functions, but it's surprisingly good at giving formulas for complex problems. You can ask things like how to calculate the angle in degrees of fired projectile given initial velocity and range and it will give a formula. Then you can rephrase for how to solve for velocity given range and angle.
If I recall anything about my days in the DOE, a motivated student won’t have any problems getting their hands on a banned ChatGPT on a school network.
I've read this nice quote which I can't correctly replicate without butchering:<p>"Schools are banning chatGPT but children won't let schools tamper with their education"
This is just going to mean students use it from home or from their phones. And the issue is that you can't prove ChatGPT has been used, so cheating is that simple.
this story made me realize we’re amazed by chatgpt’s ability to answer our questions. But how about chatgpt’s ability to evaluate our answer to its questions ? Never seen prompts of chatgpt acting like a teacher. Wonder how that would look.