Earlier in the week, I had the great pleasure of speaking with Year 10 students about what lies ahead for them as they commence their Senior School journey. I talked particualrly about study habits, encouraging them to keep refining the things that are working for them. I challenged them to try new things in order to hone their habits and to become more efficient. I proposed that good study habits usually take a little more effort than most students are prepared to invest. For example, not many students take the time to make a weekly planner. However, those that do find that it helps them to stay organised, allows them to schedule all the things that they want to do as well as the things that they need to do, and, overall, encourages them to be efficient with their time. Similarly, most people don't want to avoid distractions when studying, it just doesn't seem that important. Yet, those that do, find themselves more productive. I look forward to following up with Year 10 later in the year to find out how they are progressing.

One of the things that may come to influence study habits is developing technology. Through the paring of chatbot technology and Artificial Intelligence (AI), ChatGPT by OpenAI has caused a lot of noise, and much debate, since its release in November of 2022. As staff and students return to schools, the media has run a number of pieces predicting the consequences for education.

If you're not familiar with the term, ChatGPT is an AI-driven natural language processing tool that can converse with people, respond to questions, write essays and complete well-defined tasks. It functions like an online chatbot where a user types a question or prompt, and ChatGPT AI presents a response. The user can refine the output by further questioning the AI to achieve the desired outcome. It is this feature that makes ChatGPT stand out from previous iterations of AI-enabled Chatbots.

In schools, we must be aware of the implications that emerging tools like ChatGPT and other responsive AI models could have on the teaching, learning and academic outcomes of students. Barker College is monitoring these developments with great interest to ensure positive educational outcomes for our community.

To give you an idea of what we're talking about, what follows is the response that ChatGPT gave (in about 10 seconds) to the question of the likely implications of ChatGPT on education.

ChatGPT and other advanced language models have the potential to revolutionise education in many ways. Here are a few examples of how ChatGPT could be used in the classroom:

Automated Essay Grading: ChatGPT can be trained to understand and grade student essays based on specific criteria, such as grammar, organisation, and content. This would allow teachers to spend more time providing individual feedback to students, rather than grading papers.

Personalised Learning: ChatGPT can be used to create personalised lesson plans for students based on their individual needs and abilities. This would allow teachers to focus on the areas where each student needs the most help, rather than teaching to the middle of the class.

Virtual Tutoring: ChatGPT can be used to provide virtual tutoring to students who need extra help outside of class. This would allow students to receive personalised instruction in a convenient and flexible manner.

Language Learning: ChatGPT can be used to create interactive language-learning programs that can help students learn a new language more effectively. This would allow students to practise speaking and listening in a more natural and interactive way.

However, there are also some potential downsides to using ChatGPT in education. One concern is that it could lead to a reduction in human interaction and personalised feedback between teachers and students. Additionally, it could also lead to a greater reliance on technology, which could be detrimental if the technology fails or is not available.

Overall, ChatGPT and other advanced language models have the potential to greatly enhance education, but it is important to use them in a responsible and thoughtful manner, taking into account both the benefits and potential downsides.
ChatGPT

Best wishes for the year ahead (this is me again, not the bot).

Greg Longney

Greg Longney is a teacher of History and the Director of Teaching and Learning. His Masters of Education (Research) focused on how History teachers understand disciplinary knowledge and how they communicate it to their students. In 2017 Greg has been part of the National Emerging Leaders Program and in 2018 he has worked with a team of staff on the Elevate program to investigate high potential learning at Barker College. Greg continues to teach History from 7-12 and still regards the classroom experience as the most rewarding aspect of his role.