From EddSurge 8/11/2023

AI is turning things upside down in education these days.

One example: Students organized a conference last weekend for professors across the country that was designed to teach the educators about ChatGPT and other new tools, and to encourage them to use them this fall. That’s right, student volunteers put together this online conference to teach their future teachers.

And educators showed up in force. More than 2,000 people attended at least part of the event, according to lead organizer Johnny Chang, an incoming grad student at Stanford University, with 90 percent of those indicating they teach at colleges or schools.

Speakers included some big names in education and tech, including Khan Academy chief learning officer Kristen DiCerbo, Harvard University professor Chris Dede and Wolfram Research founder Stephen Wolfram.

Most of the moderators were college students who are excited about the possibilities of AI to improve education and make it more interesting. A refrain throughout the weekend was that educators should try AI for themselves and not simply throw up their hands in fear that students will use chatbots to cheat.

“Once they know the limitations, they stop being so scared of these tools,” says Chang. “We’re encouraging educators in classrooms to try to implement it and use it in classrooms.”

The biggest concern discussed at the event was making sure students around the world have equal access to new AI tools — and that educators have access to training to use them effectively and ethically.

“Maybe some private colleges will have funding and resources and may have access to move quickly, but some others like public and two-year colleges won’t,” worried Chang. “Having access to these tools is going to be very essential.”

He said his favorite moment in the event was at the opening session, where participants said hello, revealing that educators and students had shown up from many countries, including Australia, Canada, Taiwan, Vietnam and many more.

Plenty of professors remain concerned about the potential impacts of ChatGPT on academic integrity, even if they’re open to adopting the tools to improve teaching. As we recently reported, some of those instructors are spending their summer breaks giving their homework assignments a makeover, hoping to make them harder for students to outsource the work to chatbots.

The student organizers are now working on a report that will synthesize what they learned during the event — even though no one is giving them a grade on any of this.

– Bob