ChatGPT: How Bay of Plenty educators are preparing for increased use of AI technology

A person on a laptop using artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT. Photo / Alex Cairns

An artificial intelligence tool that can generate essays, stories and poems which could potentially be used by students to cheat has been labelled an “exciting disruptor”.

One Tauranga principal believes schools need to “harness the ability of AI rather than be scared of it”, while an academic says learning how to use AI programs such as ChatGPT will prepare students for the future.

The Bay of Plenty Times spoke to several educators about how the chatbot can help teachers and students, while also addressing concerns about plagiarism.

ChatGPT, released in November, is a chatbot created by American company OpenAI.

NZ Herald previously reported multiple New Zealand universities were looking to rely less on essays to assess learning and move towards in-person assessments like oral examinations or presentations.

Toi Ohomai-Te Pūkenga head of kaiako [teacher] success and innovation, Josh Burrell, said they were taking a “positive” approach to the “really powerful” tool.

Burrell said it would benefit both students and teachers, but would also present “challenges” around the academic integrity of work.

Tertiary providers would have to “continually adapt” as technology improved, he said.

“This is a transformation in the way that society will operate moving forward. There’s not gonna be many aspects of humanity that won’t be touched by AI,” he said.

“As educationalists, we have a responsibility to ensure we are equipping our students to adapt to these technologies so they can make the best use of them in a positive way as they move into our workforce.”

Burrell said a team of Toi Ohomai staff had been working with faculty tutors to see how the programme could be used as an “efficiency tool”.

Toi Ohomai head of kaiako [teacher] success and innovation Josh Burrell.

For example, ChatGPT could take a text-heavy PDF or powerpoint presentation and develop a set of multi-choice questions “in a matter of minutes”, he said.

It would typically take “multiple hours” for one teacher to take a resource and turn it into a set of multi-choice questions, he said.

Earlier this month, Turnitin released software that identified the use of AI-generated writing in academic work.

Toi Ohomai staff had also been “extensively” testing this detection tool, which was doing an impressive job of identifying any AI-generated content, he said.

Burrell said Toi Ohomai had a “comprehensive” set of policies around academic integrity which included the expectation of submitting original work.

Students were expected to reference AI as a source, which would only “become more important” as its use increased, he said.

ChatGPT could assist students in research, producing revision questions and flashcards and translating content into different languages.

Most importantly, students needed to learn how to “critique the tool” for accuracy and use it “respectfully” in assessments, he said.

“We can’t allow our students to fall into the trap of just accepting the answers or the responses that AI gives us.”

University of Waikato pro vice-chancellor of teaching and learning, Tracy Bowell, said the development of AI was a “fluid, fast-moving situation” and described ChatGPT as an “exciting disruptor” for universities.

Bowell said integrating AI into teaching required time, reflection and care. A team of staff had been putting the technology to the test since November, she said.

They were working on guidelines around how lecturers could incorporate the use of the tool in courses, along with advice on designing assessments to make it harder for students to cheat.

Bowell believed the development of AI would lead to a rethink around how assessments were structured, particularly traditional writing exercises.

In paper outlines this year, students were told if they used AI to produce work that was passed off as their own, it would be considered cheating, she said.

Bowell told the Bay of Plenty Times the university had a responsibility to teach students how to use AI “ethically” and “critically” and take these skills into the workplace.

“We can’t simply turn our back on the tool because we wouldn’t be meeting our responsibilities to prepare students well for the workplace.”

Digital equity, risks around academic integrity and reinforcement of bias were among her biggest concerns around the use of ChatGPT in academia, she said.

Tauranga Boys' College principal Andrew Turner. Photo / Mead Norton

For Tauranga Boys’ College principal Andrew Turner, AI tools like ChatGPT reinforced the importance of teachers “knowing their students” and having systems in place to “authenticate” schoolwork.

Staff had been reminded to “have a good knowledge of their [students’] capability” and to encourage them to always reference sources, he said.

Turner said the programme did a “really good job of throwing out an essay”, but it did not cite any of its sources.

“There are checks and balances every teacher can put in place.”

The tool had “massive potential” with regard to how it could be used in education, but Turner said people needed to “be careful it doesn’t replace actual intelligence”.

Ōtūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon said a staff member was doing “additional study” into ChatGPT so the school could “carefully” navigate what was “a new frontier”.

It was important for schools to “harness the ability of AI rather than be scared of it”, he said.

“It’s incumbent upon us to explore its possibilities, because it’s not going to go away. It’s going to become more and more refined - and so we need to be ahead of the curve.

“We have got to be more over-prepared in order to help our kids navigate this brave new world.”

Ōtūmoetai College principal Russell Gordon.

Gordon said the tool could be “used for good” in a school setting, but pointed out users had to be 18 or older.

It could be used by teachers who could provide students with an AI-generated report to critique. This would help improve their writing skills, he said.

Like Turner, Gordon said his worries around plagiarism were eased by the fact teachers had a “good understanding” of students’ writing ability.

If teachers were suspicious about a piece of writing, they could ask the chatbot if it was produced by AI, he said.

Ministry of Education strategy and integration general manager Pauline Cleaver said it was working on developing guidance for schools around the use of AI technology.

Cleaver said there were both “opportunities and risks” around using AI in the classroom.

“Because AI can acquire bias, students may not be aware that the answers given by AI apps may be incorrect or inaccurate.”

AI’s ability to write “poems, stories, musical lyrics and essays” may also require the focus of learning and assessment to shift, she said.

This could involve teaching “students to be more creators of technology and have the ability to think critically about its use, as opposed to only consuming technology”.

Cleaver said blocking or banning AI was “not necessarily” the best long-term approach and the ministry would need to “strike a balance” to maximise the benefits AI offers.

In February, The New Zealand Qualifications Authority provided a range of advice to teachers and principals regarding the use of ChatGPT and other AI programmes.