Wednesday, January 25, 2023

How Are Knowledge, Information and Data Related To Each Other?

 How are the concepts of knowledge, information, and data related?  As education leaders, these concepts are central to our work. For our students, being able to see the connection between knowledge, information and data is a key to becoming an independent learner.  We talk about knowledge using terms that emphasize our belief that knowledge does not have boundaries.   Knowledge can be built. Knowledge can be grown. Knowledge can be expanded.  Experiences and opportunities can add to existing knowledge.  Education standards are a way to describe a continuum of knowledge and skills that stretches from kindergarten through high school.   One way to define knowledge and make a connection to information, is to think about knowledge as a result of organizing and interpreting information in a meaningful way. Layered onto that are the learner’s personal experiences and insights.  I like this definition because it does NOT include memorizing information.  And, as I spend more time interacting with ChatGPT,  it has the ability to access thousands of pieces of information, organizing it to respond to conversational queries. The part of the knowledge definition that AI isn’t bringing to the conversation is personal experience and insight.  So knowledge really has no boundaries if we can continue to access information, and have new experiences leading to new insights and interpretations of the information we are constantly gathering. ChatGPT can be a partner in this process. 


What about data?  If knowledge comes from the act of organizing and interpreting information, then information comes from organizing and analyzing data.  Data can be numbers, text, images, hash marks, observations, symbols. Data by itself is just data. It is the organization and interpretation of the data, and putting it in context that results in useful information.  How does this affirm or make you think differently about your data discussions/data protocols? I think about OTES/OPES, and MTSS.  Knowledge of students is tied to data.  Being intentional about identifying what information you already know about the students and what information you need to build on that knowledge can guide your decision on what data to collect and how to organize it.  Looking at data as a team adds each member’s own experience and insights to the data conversation, expanding the knowledge that comes from the work.    How can you help your students see the connection between data, information and knowledge - and why their own experiences and insights are a part of the process of building knowledge? ( and how AI like ChatGPT can be a resource in doing this?}  How can we remind ourselves that in a world where we are surrounded by data, and by information - it is our ability to find insight and inspiration through the process of organizing, re-organizing and interpreting information in a wide range of contexts that continues to grow our own learning. 


IMPORTANT NOTE: I know many districts are discussing ChatGPT.  As in all new technologies, it is always important to think about student and staff data privacy, student acceptable use, and safe student access.  Artificial Intelligence is a tool that will continue to expand into the education space.  My ChatGPT webinar session looked at how a student could use the tool in a positive way - as a balance to the conversations around how AI can be used as plagiarism, a legitimate concern.  Currently, the age requirement on ChatGPT is 18+ years of age.  As educators, looking at the tool through a student lens may give you insights on how we can use ChatGPT and other AI to help us find more efficient ways to support all learners in our classrooms.   


ChatGPT Data Privacy Policy https://openai.com/privacy/ 
ChatGPT Terms of Use https://openai.com/terms/ 


Resources To Spark Your Thinking

 

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Wednesday, January 11, 2023

How ChatGPT Can Meet The Individual Needs of Teachers and Students And Change The Way We Think About Writing

I was thinking about what to write as my first Talk-OH-Tuesday of this new year. So I asked the newest AI tool, ChatGPT, to write a Talk-OH-Tuesday in the style of Char Shryock.  And here is the first important thing to note about this new Artificial Intelligence tool - It is not familiar with me, or my writing style and preferences, so it can not write in a style similar to me.  What it was able to do was write a short blog about the importance of emotional intelligence in the workplace. I asked it to try again, and it wrote a second blog about good communication.  Both of the blogs contained accurate information, although there is no guarantee that ChatGPT will produce accurate information. It is not connected to the internet, instead it pulls from a large database of knowledge layered over human language patterns. What I felt was missing from the writing was a “voice”, the unique word choices or phrasing that moves a piece of writing from stilted to flowing. I noticed that the writing is sometimes repetitive and that the transitions feel choppy.  I interacted with ChatGPT for an hour, trying science concepts, math problems, poetry, writing to different grade levels, summarizing stories, creating recipes, writing in Spanish, and even writing a bedtime story. I approached it through a lens of curiosity.  Here is what I found. 


First, I wondered how we can think differently about student research and writing based on the capacity of ChatGPT and other AI tools. It’s the real elephant in this post.  This isn’t a new conversation, just a new technology.  Students excel at finding work arounds for writing their own essays. One headline read ‘ChatGPT, the Death of English Class”. Nope. A change in English class, but certainly not the death. There is so much that can be learned by engaging with a text, and with others who are engaging with a text and bringing a variety of experiences to a text. Build on that. Audit your assignments, what is the purpose of the student writing? What other ways can they demonstrate their thinking? Stop assigning essays that can be written by a chatbot, or google searched, or found in someone’s old school “test file”.  Spend time on the process of iterations/drafts of writing, refining thinking, establishing voice, word selection, choosing and evaluating evidence. Let the chatbot write an essay and spend time as a class improving and critiquing it. Revisit how you incorporate the speaking and listening standards in your lesson planning, at any grade level.  Listening and discussing anything, fiction or informational text, builds vocabulary, and allows students to make connections between existing and new knowledge. Students learn when they have the chance to hear the thinking and questions of their peers. And remember, the chatbot is not an internet search engine. The information that it shares may be accurate, it may also be inaccurate or a mix of both.  Teaching students how to verify information and to work with AI as a tool that can make their own learning or work more efficient are important skills.


Next, I wondered how teachers could use this tool to meet the individual needs of students in their classroom.   What I found is ChatGPT can quickly write summaries and explanations of a concept or a novel at a variety of grade levels, adjusting vocabulary and sentence structure accordingly.  It can also do this in Spanish.  Teachers can use this to create short text sets for students to work with in class when the focus is on building content knowledge or building academic vocabulary. The chatbot will even pull the academic vocabulary words out of the text it has just written if you ask it to,  or it will incorporate academic or Tier 3 content words in the passage if you include them in your prompt.  It can be used to support vocabulary development for English Learners. It has a broad knowledge base and can be accessed for any content area.  I used it to write 5 math story problems with missing addends, and then translate them into Spanish.(This took it all of 30 seconds) I asked it to write basic knowledge paragraphs about science concepts at different grade level complexity, and then rewrite them in Spanish.  There is a lot of potential for efficiently creating individualized passages for students.


Finally, I pushed the edges of the chatbot. I asked it to write poems.  It can write different forms of poetry without actually understanding the imagery that words can create. So, it writes poems with really wonky rhymes and word selections.  Poetry is a form of writing that requires synthesis, inference, analysis and intentional word choice.  If you are looking for a writing task for students that is difficult for AI to replicate in any content area, having them share ideas through poetry is one option to consider.  I encourage you to create an account and try it yourself.  It has the capacity to regenerate a response to a question or task you present it, while keeping track of the prior responses. Look at the differences between each version.  Try giving it word limits, ask it to write to a certain grade level, ask it questions that you or your students wonder about. Fact check it.  Think about how it may be a tool to make your work more efficient or support your students. It literally wrote 5 math story problems in 15 seconds! Try having it write from a variety of points of view.  Bring your own lens of curiosity to your exploration of it. You can see all of the things I tried HERE.  I have also included some additional resources on the role of AI in the future of work and in education. 


Resources to Spark Your Thinking 



Upcoming Learning Opportunities

  • Achievethecore.org Math - All Things Fractions for Grades 3-6 (asynchronous)

  • The Ohio Council of Teachers of Mathematics is hosting a virtual Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Town Hall on Thursday, January 26th at 7:00 PM. The topic of this virtual town hall meeting is "Pedagogy of Voice"  This virtual event is FREE and open to everyone. Register HERE
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