ChatGPT and other AIs challenge education sector – the International Baccalaureate supports their use but educators are concerned about the opportunities to cheat
- OpenAI’s groundbreaking Large Language Model (LLM) chatbot, ChatGPT4, is the main focus of attention
- While IB’s Matt Glanville supports them, Tim Kaiser of Canadian International School believes they are the biggest challenge he has faced in his career
Hong Kong’s international schools have been dealing with tremendous challenges in recent years. After the disruption caused by the 2019 protests and the pandemic, this year was meant to be the year things finally got back to “normal”. It was all going well until March and the release of OpenAI’s groundbreaking Large Language Model (LLM) chatbot, ChatGPT4.
The capabilities of the application have stunned the world and produced a torrent of articles about a possible AI apocalypse. The education sector has been rocked too. ChatGPT4’s ability to produce writing that mirrors that of a human has thrown into doubt the validity of homework and student essays. Certain school districts across the US have already banned access to ChatGPT due to these fears and others.
The International Baccalaureate (IB), the governing body of curricula for most of Hong Kong’s international schools, made the following statement back in March:
“The IB believes that artificial intelligence (AI) technology will become part of our everyday lives – like spell checkers, translation software and calculators. We, therefore, need to adapt and transform our educational programmes and assessment practices so that students can use these new AI tools ethically and effectively. The IB is not going to ban the use of such software but will work with schools to help them support their students on how to use these tools ethically in line with our principles of academic integrity.”
Essentially every single meeting I’ve gone to in the last three months with other heads of school and principals – networking events, conferences and workshops – this has been the number one topic of discussion
The IB’s official policy as of now is to allow students to quote ChatGPT and any other LLM tools in essays as they would quote any other source, and that nothing taken from ChatGPT may be passed as original work. However, there is great concern among educators about the opportunities for plagiarism that ChatGPT offers, and how to deal with them.
“When AI can essentially write an essay at the touch of a button, we need our pupils to master different skills, such as understanding if the essay is any good or if it has missed context, has used biased data or if it is lacking in creativity. These will be far more important skills than writing an essay, so the assessment tasks we set will need to reflect this,” says Matt Glanville, head of Assessment Principles and Practice at the International Baccalaureate.
Tim Kaiser, deputy head of school at Canadian International School (CDNIS), is set to become the school’s head of school in August. He is one of the few international educators we spoke to willing to go on the record and discuss the issues with AI in education.
Kaiser is upfront about the fact that ChatGPT is one of the greatest challenges he has faced in his 30-year teaching career and says that many other school leaders feel the same way.
“Essentially every single meeting I’ve gone to in the last three months with other heads of school and principals – networking events, conferences and workshops – this has been the number one topic of discussion,” says Kaiser, who has worked at CDNIS for 27 years in all.
Kaiser says that CDNIS, an IB school, will follow the IB’s policy regarding ChatGPT for now, but he’s acutely aware of the danger of plagiarism that the software creates, and how tackling that danger will be a major focus of his tenure.
“When AI can essentially write an essay at the touch of a button, we need our pupils to master different skills, such as understanding if the essay is any good or if it has missed context, has used biased data or if it is lacking in creativity
“There’s always been opportunities to cheat but ChatGPT is different in that it can get you what you want by pressing a few buttons,” he explains. “I think because kids are young they don’t quite know how to give credit where credit is due – that’s a hard skill to learn and takes a level of maturity that some of kids aren’t ready for even in high school.
“‘Did you really write this?’ is a question that’s going to haunt a lot of people.”
Kaiser doesn’t think CDNIS will outright ban ChatGPT any time soon, as he considers it and other AI tools as the likely future of work and academia. He believes it’s important to strike a balance “somewhere in the middle”.
Kaiser’s final piece of advice to teachers, students, and anyone else whose lives are being affected by ChatGPT and other AI tools – don’t let them take away your critical thinking skills and, in turn, humanity.
“If you’re a critical thinker and trained to be a critical thinker – and we’re proud that we produce critical thinkers at CDNIS – show that off. Show that you’re good enough and in fact you’re probably even better because you’re probably able to really think about tasks in a more intentional way than somebody who just regurgitates information from ChatGPT.”
