More Teens Say They're Using ChatGPT For Schoolwork, a New Study Finds (npr.org) 53
A recent poll from the Pew Research Center shows more and more teens are turning to ChatGPT for help with their homework. Three things to know: 1. According to the survey, 26% of students ages 13-17 are using the artificial intelligence bot to help them with their assignments.
2. That's double the number from 2023, when 13% reported the same habit when completing assignments.
3. Comfort levels with using ChatGPT for different types of assignments vary among students: 54% found that using it to research new topics, for example, was an acceptable use of the tool. But only 18% said the same for using it to write an essay.
2. That's double the number from 2023, when 13% reported the same habit when completing assignments.
3. Comfort levels with using ChatGPT for different types of assignments vary among students: 54% found that using it to research new topics, for example, was an acceptable use of the tool. But only 18% said the same for using it to write an essay.
good! (Score:2)
They keep up with the times—who needs Google anymore?
Re:good! (Score:5, Interesting)
They keep up with the times—who needs Google anymore?
There was this same hysteria about pocket calculators, then again with symbolic math packages. As long as the student demonstrates comprehension of the larger principles and only uses the tool to help make the process quicker it’s fine. Simply plugging in your math homework to chatGPT and mindlessly copying the answer should get the same result as not showing your work in math.
Re: (Score:2)
There was this same hysteria about pocket calculators, then again with symbolic math packages.
Calculators are different. To use a comment from a post I'm about to make: Naah, definitely not the same as calculators. With calculators you often still needed to know formulas and theories. In my electrical engineering classes, you can have the most powerful calculators in the world, and it wouldn't help you bit if your didn't understand the theories.
Or this comment: As a former college teacher who has had this
Re: (Score:3)
Naah, definitely not the same as calculators. With calculators you often still needed to know formulas and theories. In my electrical engineering classes, you can have the most powerful calculators in the world, and it wouldn't help you bit if your didn't understand the theories.
But this is the same as LLM. You can use LLMs to generate an answer, but if you don't know how to use the tool then the LLM will generate junk answers. Teachers need to developed new techniques to teach students how to use the tools. For example, for assessments don't just stop with facts -which an LLM can give. Ask the students to provide citations for the sources of those facts and provide explanations for why those sources are reliable.
Re: (Score:2)
The LLM will generate junk answers in any case.
for assessments don't just stop with facts -which an LLM can give
Facts ... and alternative facts ... and imaginary facts ... and ...
Ask the students to provide citations for the sources of those facts and provide explanations for why those sources are reliable.
All of which an LLM will happily invent, just like the, er, "facts" that it spits out.
Checking citations is a laborious process that is going to further burden teachers that are already busy, tired, and overworked. The nature of assessment needs to change, sure, but that isn't going to work.
Re: (Score:2)
The LLM will generate junk answers in any case.
Facts ... and alternative facts ... and imaginary facts ... and ...
All of which an LLM will happily invent, just like the, er, "facts" that it spits out.
That's exactly my point. Teachers need to adjust from teaching facts to teaching how to judge those facts. This is exactly what people need to be learning today.
Checking citations is a laborious process that is going to further burden teachers that are already busy, tired, and overworked. The nature of assessment needs to change, sure, but that isn't going to work.
Teachers have always had to adjust their assessments to new times. A freshman physics test from 1890 will look nothing like a freshman physics test in 1990. This is no different, and it's what professional teachers should be doing anyways.
Re: (Score:2)
Have you ever tried OpenAI o1 ?
Even ChatGPT 4o can give you citations and reasoning thats really good.
Go ahead and try it, before you post such nosense.
Example:
I asked ChatGPT the following: "Read this news https://www.cnet.com/tech/serv... [cnet.com], give me 3 sentence summary, and then find relevant sources and cite oppinions of others, in the end give a summary on the global opinion on the topic, maybe separated in 3 or 4 groups"
Output:
1) TikTok has filed a legal challenge pushing back against state-level efforts
Re: (Score:2)
AI a tool like a calculator, can cheat with either (Score:2)
As a former college teacher who has had this exact conversation, AI is 100% cheating. Calculators are tools. AI is like using the answer sheet but all the answers sound the same and are mostly made up.
Calculators can be used for cheating. Some calculators can be loaded with formulas for example. A 1980s Ti-30 could be programmed with a formula.
AI can be a tool. My use of ChatGPT has been very comparable to using an encyclopedia, matter of fact I've often used Encyclopedia Britannica's AI service, which falls back to ChatGPT. With respect to computer programming AI is also a tool that can dig up info, entirely comparable to picking up an old textbook to use as a reference.
AI can do more that write a
Re: (Score:2)
There was the same hysteria about writing, when it comes to that.
"O most ingenious Theuth, the parent or inventor of an art is not always the best judge of the utility or inutility of his own inventions to the users of them. And in this instance, you who are the father of letters, from a paternal love of your own children have been led to attribute to them a quality which they cannot have; for this discovery of yours will create forgetfulness in the learners' souls, because they will not use their memories;
Re: (Score:2)
It ain't going away. Teach how to use it. (Score:5, Informative)
LLMs are here. They aren't going away. So consider the facts:
1) Teaching how to responsibly use the tools is part of the education process. Student should be taught how to accurately enter in prompts to get the results they want, how to review those prompts for accurate information, and how to implement that information into their own work.
2) If your homework or assessment can be beat by ChatGPT, then it wasn't a good assessment to begin with.
3) If teachers accept that students are going to be using the technology, then they can use that to dig deeper into the subject matter. It's just like calculators in math classes in the 1970s, 80s, and 90s. Yes, kids can use them to cheat on arithmetic, and people today can't do complicated calculations in their heads anymore. But so what? Computer Spreadsheets made people so much more productive and accurate that whole corporate departments just don't exist at all anymore. And people still have jobs.
Re: (Score:3)
Although, it's useful in a legitimate way for writing essays too. Before writing the essay, discuss the topic with ChatGPT. Ask why so many people think ABC about the issue, and why more don't think XYZ. Ask it to check your recollection of who did what. Bounce a new idea off it, and discuss its plusses and minuses. Then w
Re: (Score:1)
If your use of AI makes you freeze up like a deer in the headlights when asked about your essay, you've cheated.
That's not entirely fair. I think it should be that "If your use of AI makes you freeze up like a deer in the headlights when asked about your essay, then you haven't used to tool correctly."
Teachers need to teach how to use the tool correctly, not wish the tool would just go away.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
I really wish schools would stop using the word "cheating" entirely. It's not "cheating" to use tools. It's not "cheating" to ask for help.
Honestly, being a project manager, the worst thing about our education system is how it instills this notion of "cheating" into students. Like, if you don't do someing 100% by yourself with no help at all, then you "cheated". NO!!! Please, for GAWD SAKES! If you don't know an answer, don't guess and pretend you know. Ask for help!
Re: (Score:2)
hint: not teachers
Re: (Score:2)
No one does yet. Not really.
But the answer is not to wish it would just go away. Professional teachers have to learn too.
Re: (Score:2)
Teachers are not subject matter experts. They are teachers. Sometimes depending on the scenario, they do know their subject matter. Anecdotally, my university professors did know their subject matter quite well... and it was the other way around... they were bad at teaching.
But in k-12 classrooms, teachers typically, may be well versed in pedagogy, but not specifically knowledgeable in the subjects they teach.
Even worse though, is that teachers are arg
Funny coincidence (Score:2)
Happened to come across this short video [imgur.com] of what transpired in a college setting when a student used AI to submit assignments four minutes after they were handed out. For those not wanting to watch, it didn't end well.
Re: (Score:3)
I question the prof’s approach to the situation. Give the student a zero on the assignment? Sure. Write them up for an incident of academic dishonestly? Yup. But publicly confronting and kicking them out of the class is a bit histrionic. That video is not a good look for the prof, in at least 3 different ways. And totally unnecessary
Re: (Score:2)
Naa, I am with him. Academic misconduct this blatantly has to be publicly called out because otherwise others will do it as well.
Re: (Score:1)
A college level assignment can be beat by a chat bot in 4 minutes was a bad assignment.
Re: (Score:2)
The quality of the "results" she handed in were not discussed.
Re: (Score:2)
The video shows some common but very misguided beliefs about chatbots. The silly toy did not "watch those videos for her" neither is an LLM a "cheating tool". I would have liked to see the instructor check "her" work for completeness and accuracy, which I expect would have been a nice lesson on why chatbots shouldn't be used in place of the assigned material.
(Off topic: did he really waste 50+ minutes of limited classroom time on some youtube videos?!)
Re: (Score:2)
Off topic: did he really waste 50+ minutes of limited classroom time on some youtube videos?!
My guess would be this was an exercise in concentration and endurance. Depending on the student skills, that may be needed. And she failed that even worse.
Re: (Score:2)
Well. The prof did the right thing kicking her out. Maybe she will learn from that, maybe not. But she does not strike me as very smart for not delaying that submission, so the chance is small. But he had to try.
Twas ever thus (Score:3)
Students have been using google for years and IME ChatGPT rarely adds much value compared to Google unless you want it to write bad prose for you. Even in my day we just grabbed library books and transcribed a lot of the text which was probably easier to get away with because the professors couldn't easily check.
Specialization (Score:3)
Humans do not have genetic memory. At some point humans are going to have to accept that as our technology increases, any single persons ability to understand the entire concept goes down. It will not be possible in a humans lifetime to learn every aspect of a given thing. We will be at a point where specialization has to start being trained for at an earlier and earlier point in life AND we will be using tools to assist earlier and earlier. The concept of having to do it first in your head without assistive technologies will slowly be forced to be left behind.
Does it matter? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Your post is A) somewhat reflective of reality and B) what everyone who can't stand English class says when they're a kid.
If you don't enjoy Shakespeare, that's one thing. You can point out the plays were written for common audiences. You can point out they recycled classic plots. You can point out the ridiculously high innuendo to plot-moving line ratio. But Shakespeare WAS a genius; few can write that well, and you can know this by seeing how poorly many of the 'competent' imitators do.
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Does it matter? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: Does it matter? (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Indeed. It is sad but true that smart kids need to learn deception in this society. Well, only when they need the grade. But this is an opportunity to teach them that teachers generally are not that smart and quite a few are assholes.
Re: (Score:2)
What are they using ChatGPT to answer? I've previously said, in one paraphrased form or another, that teachers don't want original thought, they want regurgitated thought. .
Sad as it is, yes. That was my experience here (Europe) as well. Now, whenever I teach (most of my time now, all academic), I try very hard to avoid that. And I ask open questions in exams and whenever somebody writes something I did not expect, I am already positively disposed to that and will grade it as well as possible. This makes grading exams more effort, and takes more time and thinking, but also more rewarding for me. I guess most teachers, whether school or academic, just want to minimize their wo
Re: (Score:2)
L
You wont always have ChatGPT in your pocket (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
As someone else above mentioned, who cares if students use chatgpt. Just give them a closed book final worth 40% of the grade. The problem is, schools have zero interest in failing anyone. Ever. I've seen college students whine and the teacher extends the due date or allows for unlimited make up work. It's insane. That happened last spring in my sociology class (very easy class, zero reason anyone couldn't get that done).
So really, we could easily undermine ChatGPT and just testing for learning but that wou
Re: (Score:2)
You can also do open-book, closed-Internet. I just did an exam with "you may bring as much paper as you like". A lot of students had very well prepares summaries of the lecture and all had at least reasonable ones. That is about the best preparation possible.
Comparisons with a "pocket calculator" are invalid (Score:1)
If you look at a sample of someone's writing, even if it's just a few paragraphs, you can learn a *lot* about them. You can learn something about whether they have a logical and well-organized thought process, and whether they can tell the difference between a meaningful/interesting statement and a meaningless or tautological one. You can learn something about their degree of intellectual honesty (in the words of George Orwell, "insincerity is the enemy of clear language"). You can also usually tell whet
Re: (Score:2)
Great ideas! Now get the school board and principle on board, as well as the parents. No one really gives a hoot if kids are learning. They just want the good grades so they can skate through and go to college and hopefully get some more good grades. Since we have a K-12 pipeline to college, there is zero incentive to hold anyone back in high school. They just can PAY $$$$ up and take remedial courses at the college level, then some Democrat can promise to forgive their student debt.
All working according to
Re: (Score:2)
P.S. Your post is 100% correct by the way, it's just not practical given how backwards USA is.
As a prof... (Score:4, Interesting)
I am seeing quite the change in difficult courses. ChatGPT has eliminated the middle of the normal curve.
The good students are still good, in fact, even better with ChatGPT as a tutor.
Meanwhile, the weak students are now hopeless. Apparently, they don't bother to study at all, since ChatGPT can do their homework for them. Meaning that they score near zero on exams.
Picture an upside-down normal distribution. Lots of top grades, lots of horrible grades. Almost nothing in the middle. That's what I'm seeing in certain classes. I suppose it does serve to separate the wheat from the chaff...
Re: (Score:2)
Yep. I talked this over with students. The smart ones realize they need to put in about the same amount of work as before (because they can) and that makes them better. The dumb ones just rely on ChatGPT and learn nothing. Before they at least learned the basics.
I have to admit, I was trying to get a distribution like that before in exams, namely by making things easy once you had some insight and making it very hard without that insight. It sometimes worked, sometimes not. With this effect, it becomes easy
More adults say they are using ChatGPT for work (Score:3)
Time for a paradigm shift (Score:2)
With the invention of easy-to-access AI, we'll need to change how we teach children. Leverage the AI to become personal tutors for every child. Teachers will flip their shit but nobody's saying they should go away. We need some new thinking here. AI is a super power, we shouldn't try to avoid it. We just need some new thinking. Maybe instead of a book report the student interacts with an AI chatbot that has a conversation with the student about the book. If I were paying a tutor I'd expect that person
chatgpt (Score:1)
And the smental-skill gap widens (Score:2)
Using ChatGPT for homework? How incompetent and mentally lazy do you have to be for that?