Jerry Nixon is a member of the Board for Front Range Christian School.
Generative AI, like ChatGPT, is a rapidly advancing technology that is generating a lot of excitement, especially in education. It has the potential to transform the way we teach, the subjects we teach, and what it means to be educated. Over the years, technology has repeatedly disrupted academia, and generative AI has the potential to have a greater impact than any other technology that has come before it.
If you’re unfamiliar with generative AI, head to the primer section at the end of this post for a brief overview. Once done, return here to learn about Front Range Christian School’s approach to ChatGPT and tools like it.
For instance, in the recent past, learning management systems changed the way teachers assess students, online collaboration tools changed how students work together on projects, e-books changed access to textbooks, digital libraries transformed research methods, and digital whiteboards revolutionized the classroom experience.
Generative AI has the potential to impact education in multiple ways. It can summarize books for students, draft reports, proofread a CEW (claim-evidence-warrant writing response), generate thesis ideas, and combine several resources into a single, comprehensive conclusion. In the same way that calculators transformed mathematics, CAD redefined architecture, and the internet changed everything else, generative AI has the potential to affect all academic disciplines.
At Front Range Christian School, education goes beyond just teaching a particular subject. It is about fostering lifelong learning, critical thinking, and spiritual and social maturity. Our goal is to prepare students for the real world. Today’s students graduate into a world with generative AI, and it is important for us to consider the potential negatives and positives of this technology, and balance these in ways that best serve students.
Recently, New York Public Schools banned the use of generative AI in the classroom due to concerns that students may rely on it too heavily to complete their work, ultimately hindering their genuine learning experience. Other school districts followed suit with similar concerns. At Front Range Christian School, we approach education differently by working in partnership with families and emphasizing character development, in addition to academic learning.
FRCS acknowledges the importance of generative AI and its impact on education. We believe in teaching our students how to use it effectively, while also encouraging them to critically evaluate its influence on their education, future, and society. While there may be certain areas within our school where generative AI is not appropriate, a complete ban on it would not be practical or effective. Instead, our approach must be to educate and empower students to make informed decisions while promoting responsible attitudes they can take with them to college.
We aren’t yet sure how to use generative AI most effectively in subjects like English, History, Bible, Science, and Art. However, what is certain is our commitment to Christian education while preparing your students for the real world. Our approach to generative AI today and tomorrow will be one of balance. We will strive for excellence in all aspects of education while incorporating every relevant tool, like generative AI, to ensure that our graduates are ready for the challenges of the future.
Like you, we believe the foundation of Christian education begins at home. Parents play the crucial role in shaping their students’ attitudes towards excellence, responsibility, and integrity through their own words and actions. We come along side our families by reinforcing these important values and principles. If you are a parent or guardian, I encourage you to start a conversation around generative AI with your student. For example, what are the potential problems? What might our world change because of these technologies? How should a Christian scholar use tools like this? These questions will drive important conversations.
But rest assured, through all of this we are unwavering in our commitment to support and guide your students on their journey towards lifelong learning, critical thinking, and spiritual and social growth. We remain dedicated to providing a nurturing and challenging Christian environment that cultivates these qualities in every student, regardless of technology trends.
A Generative AI Primer
Generative AI is a type of artificial intelligence that can create new content, such as text, images, or music. ChatGPT is a popular example of a generative AI model that can generate human-like text responses based on the input it receives.
ChatGPT is a language model that has been trained on an enormous amount of text data, which it uses as input to generate its outputs. Some of the sources the model has been trained on include:
- A vast amount of websites
- News articles from various sources
- Almost every book ever written
- Almost every translation of the Bible
- Almost every Bible commentary
- Almost every Dictionary
- Almost every Encyclopedia
- Almost every Academic article
- Almost every Patent & law & ordinance
- Almost every Screenplay & movie
- Almost every Song & poem
- Millions of social media posts
- Millions of conversations and dialogues
- All of Wikipedia up until a few days ago
This extensive range of text sources allows ChatGPT to generate outputs on a wide range of topics, making it a versatile tool. However, it’s important to note that the quality of the output is tied to the quality of the training data, so some limitations and biases may exist in the generated text.
Think of it like a super advanced autocomplete tool that can generate full sentences and paragraphs, rather than just completing a few words. It does this by using a vast database of information and patterns it has learned from the text it has been trained on.
It’s important that educators, parents, and students remember that while the technology is advanced, it is not perfect and may generate content that is incorrect, biased, or inappropriate. Policy documents regarding its use aim to ensure its safe and responsible deployment. In fact, proving tools like this can be made safe is one of the reasons Chat GPT was created – first by Elon Musk, now continued by Microsoft through the work of Open AI. It is an incredible glimpse at what tools are just around the corner.
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See also: Raising children in the Digital Age
