On August 31, the creators behind ChatGPT, OpenAI, published a guide for educators with suggestions on how to use ChatGPT in teaching. This article has taken a critical, constructive look at the possibilities from a Danish teaching perspective.
The guide for OpenAI educators includes examples of how K-12 teachers (primary and secondary school teachers) worldwide use ChatGPT in their teaching. In addition, there are examples of detailed prompts that can help and inspire teachers and students to get started using ChatGPT. Finally, the guide includes a FAQ with nine articles that provide brief information about using ChatGPT and warnings about potential bias and other tool limitations.
It is essential that you, as a teacher, first keep in mind that OpenAI is the author and sender of this guide, even if they have teamed up with several researchers in the preparation of the content. The guide's purpose is to get teachers to use ChatGPT, and here, you, as a user, should be aware that it is a commercial product that OpenAI, in one way or another, makes money. In other words, the buyer's duty of care, caveat emptor, also applies here.
Prompting guides
Not surprisingly, the guide from OpenAI has devoted the most space to providing examples of how to prompt or program the generative language model in the interaction with the user. We believe these prompts can easily be used as inspiration for Danish teachers if they are used critically and with the Danish school model and GDPR compliance in mind.
On the positive side, OpenAI, as mentioned before, has teamed up with several researchers to prepare their guide. An example is Professor Ethan Mollick and Dr. Lilack Mollick, employed at the University of Pennsylvania, who have written several research papers on prompting generative language models. For OpenAI, the couple has developed several examples of prompts that users can use with ChatGPT - or any other generative language model.
We have below, based on one of Mollick's and OpenAI's examples,
tried to make a Danish version of a prompt that works very well if you want to use ChatGPT to provide sparring in the work of generating ideas for a teaching lesson:
You are a friendly and helpful chatbot that acts as collegial sparring for teachers in the Danish primary and lower secondary schools, and which helps teachers plan lessons.
First, introduce yourself and ask the teacher what topic he or she wants help designing a lesson and what grade level their students are in. Wait for the teacher's response. Do not continue until the teacher answers.
Then, ask the teacher if students already have knowledge of the topic or if this is a completely new topic. If students already know about the topic, ask the teacher to explain what they think students know about the topic briefly. Wait for the teacher's response. Do not answer for the teacher.
Next, ask the teacher what their learning objectives are for the lesson; That is, what they would like students to understand or be able to do after the lesson. Wait for a response.
Make the teacher aware of potential bias, cultural issues related to the topic, or other things that may be relevant to teaching the topic. From this aggregated information, create a lesson plan that includes a variety of teaching techniques and modalities, including direct instruction, checking comprehension, discussion, an engaging class activity, and an assignment. Explain why you specifically choose each one.
Ask the teacher if they want to change anything or if they know of any misconceptions about the topic that students might encounter. Wait for a response.
If the teacher wants to change something or mention some misunderstandings, work with the teacher to change the lesson and address the misunderstandings.
Then, ask the teacher if they want advice on achieving the learning objective. Wait for a response.
If the teacher is satisfied with the lesson, let the teacher know that they can return to this prompt and contact you again to tell you how the lesson went.You are a friendly and helpful chatbot that acts as collegial sparring for teachers in Danish primary and lower secondary schools and which helps teachers plan lessons.
The sample prompts that OpenAI has published in this guide focus heavily on how teachers or students can use ChatGPT as a reinforcing tool. On the other hand, there is a lack of guidance on how teachers can teach students to reflect critically in their use of generative AI. This isn't surprising, but it could have been refreshing with examples of how ChatGPT could prompt ChatGPT to reflect with teachers and students on the opportunities, limitations, and ethical challenges of using generative language models in education.
ChatGPT is still the leading example of a generative language model when it comes to answering Danish and Danish conditions. This will probably change as more proposals for Danish-trained generative language models are developed.
However, there are several challenges with ChatGPT about using it in teaching in a Danish context, which teachers must keep in mind. As OpenAI points out, ChatGPT is a technology developed in the United States based on a corpus of texts reflecting American norms and values. In addition, there are many unresolved challenges, e.g., about GDPR, especially when using "free" consumer-oriented services. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you, as a teacher, first consider using SkoleGPT from Future Classroom Lab and CFU at University College Copenhagen or DanskGPT if you want to start teaching generative AI in your class.
