Don't Fear the ReaperGPT: Chatbots Won't End the College Essay

They may just save it. But more on that in a moment. ChatGPT has come in like a wrecking ball and many professors are scrambling to catch up. Others may pretend it doesn't exist. As a technical university, we should stand at the forefront of technologies. Think about it, which technology have we ever fought against and won? Near zero. The internet was going to destroy teaching. Even the spell checker in MS Word was considered a threat, as was the word processor itself. Certainly, someone feared the impact of typewriters at some point. ChatGPT may make plagiarism easier in the beginning much like the internet did, but we survived the web's impact and we will survive this. So, below are some ideas for using ChatGPT to enhance the student experience in our classrooms and make for better student work in the long run.

Use ChatGPT as a writing tutor:
We have a writing center at NYIT and students utilize it to improve their writing. ChatGPT has the same capabilities. Students can submit their draft and ask ChatGPT to analyze. It's important to tell students to have ChatGPT highlight both areas for improvement and the sample's strengths. The latter can boost student confidence. Having an inanimate object analyze writing may be more palatable for some students than having a human critique their work.

Have ChatGPT rewrite classic scenes:
This can be a lot of fun. Having ChatGPT rewrite a scene from A Doll's House where Nora tells Torvald she is going to spend money to get the children smartphones yielded a scene that delivers the same themes as the original in a context modern students can grasp. This helps with engaging students with the key elements of the opening and fosters further reading. Telling ChatGPT to write a scene from Hamlet in the style of Tarantino, Peele, Scorsese and others also creates a modern version that demystifies the complex texts. Having students do this in class in groups creates an atmosphere of engagement and inclusion.

Simplify poetry:
One student struggling with writing a sonnet asked ChatGPT to create one based on their chosen topic. This helped the student see how they could take the centuries-old format and incorporate modern themes. This helped them when they decided to write their own, as they saw the structure as it was produced. Of course, ChatGPT's output may be simplistic but it serves as a good starting point for students.

Replace Summary Sites:
Students will undoubtedly go to Sparknotes, Wikipedia and other summary sites. With the right instruction on what to ask ChatGPT, the results can offer more insight rather than mere summary. This helps students both learn to ask the right questions and find more easily-digested summaries that can help them remove the barriers to reading.

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