CICAE has organized the conference ‘Open Artificial Intelligence and Chat GPT: Opportunity or threat for education?’, yesterday at the Camilo José Cela University, where experts have shared their thoughts on the challenges and opportunities that this technology poses for schools, teachers and students.
César Gómez de la Cal, head of the Department of Educational Design, Innovation and Technology at the SEK Educational Institution, addressed the challenge of teaching in the era of artificial intelligence. He stated that “artificial intelligence has been a subject of research and development since the 1950s and its evolution has been constant since then”.
For the professional, some of the disadvantages of technology such as Chat GPT is that its coherence in writing is not always accompanied by contrasted information, which can generate disinformation that appears credible. However, he considers that in the educational field it is a useful tool to encourage inquiry and research, provide better answers than the usual search engines, explain concepts, develop computational thinking skills, design personalized mentors and, especially, prepare students for the jobs of the future, which will have these improved possibilities.
His department colleague, Dr. Begoña Sopena, an expert in the development of learning in knowledge in an ICT environment, explained that “these resources present us with opportunities to develop new methodological approaches that support the development of a critical spirit in students or their ability to analyze and evaluate information“. Sopena considers that a benefit of artificial intelligence is that it allows the “personalization of learning, with content itineraries adapted to the needs of students.” It is also an aid for data analysis in education, “such as in identifying trends in student performance, detecting the risk of school dropout before it occurs or supporting administrations in making decisions and designing strategies to improve learning”.
The expert stated that student privacy and data security should be a concern in education. She understands that it is “necessary to develop educational policies that regulate artificial intelligence in terms of accountability and transparency to eliminate biases in algorithms and protect students against discrimination based on race, ethnicity, gender or economic status”.
How can GPT Chat be used in the school?.
Josep María Ginjaume, head of St. Peter’s Schools and member of the CICAE Board of Directors, told of the evolving plan they are carrying out at their school to include possibilities such as Chat GPT in the daily life of the school. He explained that the school’s faculty and management have met in recent months to draw up a policy of use, including the adaptation of Chat GPT in the educational activity of teachers and students, as well as providing all of them with internal training.
Ginjaume argued that there is no point in considering as a “threat something that can be a challenge and offer improvements in learning, understanding its limitations”. In the philosophy of his school is to offer the student motivation to “want to learn”, which requires time, but greater benefits in the student’s growth than anti-plagiarism tools.
Teresa Carrer-Micó, Curriculum Coordinator y Career Advisor en St. Peter’s School, concluyó la sesión con ejemplos de cómo han integrado Chat GPT en el día a día del colegio. Una de sus máximas es que el uso de Chat GPT está guiado por el profesor, que ya está facilitando consejos al alumnado para sacarle provecho para su aprendizaje. Algunas de las tareas que ya han probado junto a sus alumnos se encuentran la combinación de documentos de estudio, usarlo como un miembro más en una discusión de un trabajo en grupo o mejorar la habilidad de crear preguntas rigurosas o académicas por parte de los alumnos.
He acknowledged that it poses a challenge for assessment and guarantees the acquisition of learning, although it also offers other facilities for teachers, such as creating educational resources for the classroom, analyzing writing style and detecting common student errors.
This conference was carried out with the institutional collaboration of Camilo José Cela University and Madrid Optimismo Digital.
General Assembly of CICAE 2023.
The meeting was held after the XII Annual General Assembly of Associates of CICAE, which reviewed the management of the organization in the last year and the review of the activities organized. On the other hand, the attendees reflected on the strategic objectives of CICAE, proposed new lines of action and highlighted some of the most important initiatives of this period, such as the Benchmarking and Education Meetings for the learning of managers and teachers, the Pre-University Debate League or the training courses for its associates.
