Week 2 of #8WeeksofSummer asks: What is an acceptable entry point for K-12 or Higher Education use?

The first consideration in considering age-access is to look at the legal issues. According to the FTC, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) limits the use of services and data collection for children under 13 years old. OpenAI (the company that created ChatGPT), specifically says that they do not knowingly collect information from children under 13. Further, they state that anyone under 18 needs a parent’s consent. I do not believe, as with other internet software, that there is a way to identify any child under 18. It works on a self-reporting system, and many children do not correctly report their age.

Instead of focusing on the age rules and restrictions, let’s focus on using artificial intelligence (AI) in the classroom. You can produce something for students of any age using ChatGPT and engaging students. For students using AI legally, you are looking at high school and above. We know that students will use the product, legal or not. But, you can direct some of that. What if you use ChatGPT to create questions asking for two truths and a lie about a situation? Students can partner together to research to understand which is which (Adam Moler). Students can learn to modify their questions by asking ChatGPT, receiving a less-than-stellar response, and redoing their questions. This process, which I teach students doing research, is a matter of redefining your question to get at the material you need. The more specific you get, the better response you get. We can do the same with ChatGPT or other AI systems.

You can have students ask ChatGPT for an essay on a topic they are studying. Then the students can annotate the essay with references that back up the essay. For younger students, you can take a modern device, like a news conference, and ask ChatGPT to create a news conference of a historical figure. The students may read that and then write their own. Or they may read aloud to each other about their person. The third grade history wax museum can get an upgrade.

AI is a powerful tool that works some of the time. It’s limited and capable of being twisted. It makes up facts when necessary. We can use this product with our students. We just need to remember that we can’t trust them. And, most important of all, we can teach and show our students how to evaluate the products of the AI system. If our students learn to judge reliability, then it is well worth our time and effort.