Conversation robots such as ChatGPT make it difficult for teachers at the end of the school year. Students use it to cheat on assessment work or exams… sometimes even in primary school.
Marie-Pier, a sixth grade teacher, has two students who recently admitted to using ChatGPT as part of assessment work done at home.
His own son, who is in his fifth year at another school, also recently exposed another student who used ChatGPT to do class work, using the computer he uses daily due to “learning disabilities.”
“There is a lot of talk about it among teachers, even at primary school. This also happened in other classes at my school. I think it is still quite common,” says Marie-Pier.
Some students have a good understanding of the tool and what it can do, with one youngster even asking ChatGPT to give him an answer using the vocabulary of an 11-year-old, he told his teacher.
“They know it needs to be adjusted,” she says. It certainly poses a challenge on a cognitive level. We try to make them aware of the fact that it is plagiarism, but it is still quite complex and they are still young to understand these things. They tell us: it’s there, why shouldn’t we use it?”
A ‘wave’ that is also shaking secondary schools
More students in high school are using ChatGPT to cheat this year, according to several teachers with whom The newspaper spoke in recent days.
“I really felt it in April. I said to myself: we have a problem there,” says Hugo Laplante, who teaches chemistry at a high school in Quebec.
This teacher estimates that 6 to 7 of his 40 students could have used artificial intelligence to write a recently submitted assessment paper that was completed at home.
Faced with this problem, the teacher chose to engage in classroom discussion with his students, “instead of playing police.” Several young people subsequently admitted to him that they had used the conversation robot, which he said raises fears.
“ChatGPT, when used properly, is an extraordinary tool. It can give you clues and provide context, but do young people have the maturity to use it that way? I have serious doubts,” says Mr Laplante.
At another high school, several students with computers running learning support software used ChatGPT during a writing test spread over several class periods, the authors said. Newspaper a French teacher who requested anonymity. The situation is so widespread at this school that a re-examination is organized for these students.
“We’re starting to see some this year, but there are certainly more slipping through the cracks. The students will brag about it and it threatens to become exponential,” he fears.
Another French teacher, Valérie Lauzier, says that this year two of her students managed, thanks to a computer trick, to use ChatGPT during a writing test written on the computer in class, even if the writing on the computer had to be done on a safe platform. At his school, all students have a Chromebook.
It was an exercise for the fifth ministerial secondary writing test, but it was still evaluated, according to the teacher. Both students had to retake their writing test.
“For me the main problem is intellectual cowardice,” says M.me Lauzier. We have to respond, I don’t think we are upstream. Rather, we are in the process of being picked up by the wave.
“We are really left to our own devices”
As ChatGPT increasingly infiltrates the work of primary and secondary school students, teachers feel alone and are calling for clear guidelines and stronger weapons to lead this fight.
“I would like our service centers to give us guidelines and tools,” said Hugo Laplante, who teaches high school chemistry. It really is as if it didn’t exist. We do everything as we think, we talk about it in the staff room… We are really left to our own devices. »
Several teachers are using artificial intelligence detection tools available online, but none are 100% sure, notes Mr. Laplante, who instead noted “inconsistencies” between one tool and another.
For the same work, one software might indicate that the text was written almost entirely by an AI, while other software might indicate the opposite, he noted.
“If we had some more efficient tools, that would definitely help us,” says French teacher Valérie Lauzier. It is currently not always easy to search everything that is offered online, she adds: “There it is left to the discretion of the teacher. That puts us a bit in the bush.”
“Everyone is overwhelmed”
This new reality “adds another layer” on the shoulders of teachers, regrets Josée Scalabrini, president of the Federation of Education Unions.
Teachers must now monitor and compare the integrity of homework, while imposing stricter supervision on students using a computer in the classroom, indicating that the one calling for in-depth reflection on the place of digital in school.
“Everyone is overwhelmed right now,” she said.
At the Federation of School Service Centers we indicate that we are “engaged in accelerated learning”, while we want to “guarantee an ethical use of the tool based on critical judgment”.
“When the use of ChatGPT becomes better known and mastered, beacons will certainly be introduced later, as happened a few years ago with the use of social media. To support their employees, the school management annually collects their development needs. Teachers thus have the opportunity to express their needs in this area,” said a written statement.
On the part of the Quebec Federation of Educational Institution Management, President Nicolas Prévost indicates that “schools have everything at their disposal to block these tools”, as access to certain websites has already been blocked in several institutions.
However, Mr Prévost recognizes that it is possible that some students are able to circumvent the control measures that have been introduced.
For his part, Simon Duguay, who teaches media education in secondary schools, recommends addressing the issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence in the classroom, clarifying what is and is not allowed, and adopting good working practices to learn.