In the year 2023, it seems like more and more students are using technology in every class. Whether that be Google Classroom or Pear Deck, the integration of new technologies to the American education system allows teachers and students to interact with learning in ways that have never been done before.

As part of our innovative technology initiative, we had been asked to create a lesson that has our technology at its center. I created a lesson in which students write a response to a prompt, then use ChatGPT to create an A.I. produced response to the same prompt, participated in a whole group peer review, critique the A.I. responses in the same manner, then integrate peer feedback into their responses. The main goal of this lesson is to help students develop their own writing styles while also introducing them to a new way to use technology for responsible learning that they are likely already using. 

Throughout the process of creating this lesson, we both gave and received feedback from our peers. This experience of giving and receiving critiques with my peers has been extremely interesting, as I was able to experience what other people’s classrooms are like just through how they wrote their lesson, implemented technology, and described their students. I really appreciated much of the feedback I received from my peers. In particular, I tried to incorporate feedback in regards to Universal Design for Learning (UDL), choosing to add in a projector. I, however, chose not to add in a timer for my students, as I find that it stresses my students more in our already limited time together (I only see them twice a week for 30 minutes at a time).

As I was reviewing my feedback, I kept thinking about 21st Century Learning. My first reviewer had mentioned that they liked how I was having students first engage in self reflection and then do peer reflections, and 21st Century Learning expresses the importance of that, “learners are responsible for one another's learning as well as their own. Thus, the success of one learner helps other students to be successful,” (Laal, 2012). 

One piece of feedback that I chose not to act on was a piece suggesting a timer for the activities. Beyond any personal grievances I have with a timer, I decided against using one for two reasons. First, I teach in extremely small periods of time (each session lasting no more than 30 minutes) the time it would take to set up the timer for each part would take up time I would rather use teaching. Secondly, timers tend to stress out students more than it helps them, as shown in a study of college students, in which students report that using timers did indeed make them feel more stressed when doing tasks (Olipas, 2020). There are definitely benefits to using timers, but for my particular setting, I find them more hassle than they are worth. 

One piece of feedback I did act on was allowing students to work with ChatGPT individually rather than as a group. I really liked this idea as I had originally thought to just provide them with the response the A.I. had generated for them all to work with as a group. Now, I have each student entering the prompt into ChatGPT themselves so they can see the program create the response in front of them. I think this way, students can feel more involved in the exercise, plus I would be interested to see if the A.I. created the exact same response for each student. Attached is a sample of an A.I. response to the prompt students would work with. 

Overall, I feel that we as an educational system need to stop steering away from the newest technology that students are using outside of school. As a student, I had been told to never use Wikipedia, but now it is a part of classes and research just as any other tool. I want the students of tomorrow to be able to use whatever tools they have in a responsible manner, and to me, that starts with teaching them how to use tools like ChatGPT responsibly. 

References:

Google. (n.d.). Classroom Management Tools & Resources. Google for Education. https://edu.google.com/intl/ALL_us/workspace-for-education/classroom/

Laal, M., Laal, M., & Kermanshahi, Z. K. (2012). 21st Century learning; learning in collaboration. Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 47, 1696–1701. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2012.06.885

Olipas, C. N. P., & Luciano, R. G. (2020). Understanding the Impact of Using Countdown Timer on the Academic Motivation and Computer Programming Anxiety of IT Students: The Case of a State University in the Philippines. INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF SCIENTIFIC & TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH, 9(3), 235–240.

OpenAI. (2022, November 30). ChatGPT. https://openai.com/chatgpt

Pear Deck, Inc. (n.d.). Homepage: Pear Deck. Homepage | Pear Deck. https://www.peardeck.com/