• Keep an open mind about ChatGPT and similar AI tools
• AI bots can help personalise learning experiences for students
• ChatGPT can make learning interactive and more engaging
• Use of ChatGPT can lead to better learning outcomes
• Can offer several benefits to teachers and educators
• Ethical concerns of misusing ChatGPT are real
• Sri Lanka’s education system will undoubtedly benefit
• Can assist in developing diagnostics for assessing Learning Losses

If Sri Lanka’s education sector wishes to harness the benefits of innovations such as ChatGPT, which has immense power to change how education takes place world over, local educators should start by acknowledging the existence of Large Language Models (LLM) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) bots like ChatGPT and how its usage is becoming ubiquitous in education, said Education Forum Sri Lanka Co-Founder and former Secretary to the Ministry of Education Dr. Tara de Mel.

They should then recommend using it for benefiting educators, at least in universities and higher education institutions, she added.

In an interview with The Sunday Morning, Dr. de Mel said that for teachers to benefit from this tool, teacher training institutions like the National Colleges of Education should start discussing AI bots and similar tools in education, which are now globally available.

“Start de-mystifying Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, and remove the ‘fear’ surrounding AI. Address the concerns expressed by sceptics and cynics, using facts and empirical data. Inform our teachers how the world is racing ahead in these domains whilst we are lagging far behind,” she advised.

ChatGPT, which has taken the world by storm, has the power to change the education sector for better or for worse, depending on how it is harnessed. It has seen mixed reception world over, being banned in some places and embraced in others. What are your views on ChatGPT in relation to the education sector?

When in November/December 2022, the new AI bot ChatGPT ‘exploded’ into the public domain, globally, schools and universities were stunned and also very curious. Whilst its benefits in education were being exposed daily, sceptics, cynics, and doomsday ‘naysayers’ had loads of advice to offer, not just on ChatGPT, but also on the ‘evils of AI’ and related innovations.

With an open mind, let’s first examine the potential benefits of ChatGPT and similar AI tools:

• Since ChatGPT is one of the newer LLMs, it can access vast areas of information and can read billions of articles and data from research studies and other verifiable information from the internet. Thus saving hours of time, like when using Google or a similar search engine.
• These AI bots can help personalise the learning experience for each student. They can offer clarification and feedback to their queries on a given topic and can assist in preparing for assignments and facilitate collaborative learning.
• Such AI tools can adapt to each student’s level and individualise the pace of learning, so that one-size-fits-all need not apply to every member of the class. After all, diversity in learning abilities is common to any classroom, be it in Sri Lanka or overseas.
• Students can access ChatGPT at any time, making it easier for them to get answers to their questions, even when traditional classroom hours may not be available. Covid-time learning may have indeed benefited from ChatGPT had it been available then!
• ChatGPT can make learning interactive and more engaging, by enabling students to ask questions, participate in discussions, and get immediate feedback.
• Use of ChatGPT can lead to better learning outcomes as students receive personalised assistance and can learn at each one’s individual pace.

What kind of an impact do you think it will have on educators and students?

 As mentioned, ChatGPT is an AI LLM. A Large Learning Model is a large neural network that has been trained on volumes of text (apparently trained on some billion words of text). Therefore it can offer several benefits to teachers and educators. Examples:

• ChatGPT can assist teachers in creating lesson plans, identifying appropriate teaching resources, and developing educational content that is tailored to the needs of their students.
• It can facilitate classroom discussions, by assisting teachers to initiate problem-solving learning, triggering creative discussions, by providing students with additional resources, and providing feedback on their responses.
• ChatGPT can help teachers to create personalised learning experiences for each student by recommending relevant resources and activities, based on their individual needs, and learning needs and learning styles.
• It can make education more accessible to students who have disabilities or who may be unable to attend traditional classroom settings due to various reasons.
• Teachers can save time by automating certain tasks, such as marking, grading and assessment. This would free up teachers’ time, allowing them to focus on more student interaction, personalised interaction and providing feedback one-on-one.
• ChatGPT can assist teachers in their own professional development by providing them with relevant resources and training materials.

Do the advantages of ChatGPT outweigh the disadvantages and if yes, how?

 I would say yes, the advantages of ChatGPT seem to far outweigh the disadvantages.

Common ‘disadvantages’ are:

• While ChatGPT’s uses are numerous, some students can potentially misuse it by relying too heavily on it for answers, instead of learning the material themselves. Some students may use ChatGPT to cheat on assignments or exams by feeding it with information they haven’t learned or understood.
• Plagiarism is a common concern of educators, and some universities have already devised methods to detect such potential plagiarism.
• The ethical concerns of misusing ChatGPT are real. Therefore it’s essential for teachers and educators to educate students on the appropriate use of ChatGPT and to monitor its use to ensure that it’s used for its intended purpose and to not ‘throw away’ this valuable tool for its potential misuse.
• Issues concerning data protection is another concern, and certain governments are looking into this aspect as well. However, I personally don’t believe that banning ChatGPT is the answer to all these concerns.

I am reminded how, when computers and internet-based learning were first discussed, there were people (albeit a few), who said that exposure to computers at a young age was akin to exposing children to cyber-porn! So let’s be mature and reasonable when talking of these new innovations which have vast potential benefits in education and learning and are here to stay!

How has this development been met in Sri Lanka? Has there been even an acknowledgement of its existence, for starters?

 Not to my understanding.

 Can the local system benefit from ChatGPT and, if yes, what kind of approach should the sector adopt? Will the ability to automate some routine tasks, which ChatGPT provides, lessen the burden on Sri Lankan teachers, who are already stretched to the limit?

 Undoubtedly the local system will benefit!

The large majority of Sri Lankan teachers are thirsty for knowledge and exposure to new innovations. They would naturally want to be on par with peers overseas.

Also, as mentioned above, the benefits of ChatGPT to educators are massive. But in Sri Lanka, with just a small number of teachers having access to devices like laptops and the internet, I don’t think universal access to ChatGPT amongst our educators will happen anytime soon.

Are those heading our education sector able to look at such innovations and assess what they mean for Sri Lanka? Do they have the required capability and capacity?

 They should and they must! After all, they owe it to our students and teachers.

It may be useful for those heading the education sector to reflect on how several reputed universities and schools across the world are currently using ChatGPT to enhance their teaching and learning processes.

For instance, Stanford University is using ChatGPT to improve students’ writing skills. Georgia Tech has implemented a chatbot powered by ChatGPT to provide students with personalised career advice. OpenAI (the creators of ChatGPT) is working with universities such as UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon University to explore its potential in education.

‘Alarmed by AI chatbots universities start revamping how they teach,’ wrote the New York Times, a few weeks ago (see https://www.nytimes.com/2023/01/16/technology/chatgpt-artificial-intelligence-universities.htm).

It’s more about democratising the access to information, education, and learning methods, rather than teachers and educators only holding the monopoly for the same.

Can ChatGPT help recoup Covid-related learning losses in Sri Lanka?

 Absolutely, yes. One of the biggest benefits ChatGPT could offer at this stage is to assist in developing diagnostics for assessing Learning Losses (LL) in different grades. 

It can show details of how other countries assessed LL from 2021 onwards and subsequently share best practices from more developed countries on how they rolled out catch-up learning, and how they consolidated learning, in an age and grade-appropriate manner.

What steps should Sri Lanka’s education sector take in the immediate term if it wishes to harness the benefits of ChatGPT?

 1. Start by acknowledging the existence of LLM and AI bots like ChatGPT and how its usage is becoming ubiquitous in education. Then recommend using it for benefiting educators as mentioned, at least in universities and higher education institutions.

2. In order for teachers to benefit from this tool, teacher training institutions like the National Colleges of Education should start discussing AI bots and similar tools in education, which are now globally available. Start de-mystifying Artificial Intelligence and machine learning, and remove the ‘fear’ surrounding AI. Address the concerns expressed by sceptics and cynics, using facts and empirical data. Inform our teachers how the world is racing ahead in these domains whilst we are lagging far behind.

3. Whilst being cautious about possibilities of over-reliance on AI bots (e.g. ChatGPT, GitHub Co-pilot), and whilst ensuring that ethical considerations and detection of plagiarism are in place, it is imperative that educators are knowledgeable about using these innovations and that they share these with their students.

What is ChatGPT?

ChatGPT is an Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022. It is built on top of OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 and GPT-4 families of Large Language Models (LLMs) and has been fine-tuned (an approach to transfer learning) using both supervised and reinforcement learning techniques.

ChatGPT was launched as a prototype on 30 November 2022. It garnered attention for its detailed responses and articulate answers across many domains of knowledge.

Its uneven factual accuracy, however, has been identified as a significant drawback. Following the release of ChatGPT, OpenAI’s valuation was estimated at $ 29 billion in 2023.

Although the core function of a chatbot is to mimic a human conversationalist, ChatGPT is versatile. For example, it can write and debug computer programs; mimic the style of celebrity CEOs and write business pitches; compose music, teleplays, fairy tales, and student essays; answer test questions (sometimes, depending on the test, at a level above the average human test-taker); write poetry and song lyrics; emulate a Linux system; simulate an entire chat room; play games like tic-tac-toe; and simulate an ATM.

ChatGPT’s training data includes many pages and information about internet phenomena and programming languages, such as bulletin board systems and the Python programming language.

(Source: Wikipedia)