If you ask me why I’m still a teacher despite my capabilities, the answer is that I like to belong to the system, to a cause greater than myself.
Take for instance today. I said yes to being one of the conversation leaders for the inaugural SgLDC’s f2f party. I might have been nervous, but I felt really chill the entire process because I was attached to someone from the Educational Technology Branch. Only messaged Saravanan a couple of times before today, but rapport was created and we greeted each other like old chums even though it was our first encounter today.
Of course, I shared certain things. But it was so nice to hear from a junior college Literature teacher; a secondary school Computing teacher; a secondary school Geography and Social Studies teacher; a secondary school Design and Technology teacher; a primary school Chinese teacher; and a primary school Maths and Science teacher. All these varied perspectives under one roof. All these different ways of engaging with ChatGPT. I love diversity!
Several themes kept recurring throughout the sesssion:
1. How early should we introduce elementary school students to the world of AI given that ChatGPT only allows 13-year-olds and older teenagers to register for an account? (Let students know that A.I is all around them)
2. What do we do with students who turn in ChatGPT-generated work as their own? (Get students to submit all the drafts of their work)
3. How do we use ChatGPT to stretch our students’ critical thinking abilities, given that the answers are out there already? (Use ChatGPT as a debating companion)
I had so much fun today!
