With the craze about generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, Google Bard, and Github Co-Pilot, there has been a big discussion on its place in the classroom. During this semester in our Software Engineering I class, we were not only permitted to use tools like ChatGPT, but encouraged, in order to document how the tools have aided us, the benefits, and the shortcomings. Throughout the semester, I have used ChatGPT numerous times to not do my work for me, but to supplement my learning and develop a more streamlined workflow.
The biggest benefit to the open use of ChatGPT and Github Co-Pilot is that syntax never became an issue. A big learning curve for some of these classes are the massive amounts of different methods, libraries, and syntax that come with learning a new language or framework. Scouring through documentation becomes a time-consuming, and sometimes complicated process. By using ChatGPT, I was able to filter through what I did not need, and find what was truly relevant to what I was doing, without looking through pages of sometimes confusing documentation. This has allowed me to focus more on the content of each module, i.e. the logic behind the programs we are creating and the process behind that rather than “Hm, I can’t remember what method to call when I want to split an array at each occurance of a character.”
Another benefit to using ChatGPT was the ability for it to teach you concepts, 24/7. Of course, there are other resources such as Stack Overflow, Google, Youtube, the lecture screencasts, but none of them come close to the adapability of generative AI. I could have ChatGPT explain concepts to me in seconds, while also having it adjust its language to fit something that I understood. It was like having a teacher with you all the time, who can easily explain any concept to you in different contexts, whether you need a simplified version to understand, or a more indepth, complex explanation to dive deeper in. It was the TA that could answer your questions even when you were studying at 4AM. One of the biggest benefits to a lot of technology is accessibility, and generative AI brings a new level of accessibility to students to have more resources, shaped and molded exactly how you see fit.
Of course, there are many shortcomings of using this technology in the classroom. One of the most notable being plagirism. It is all too easy to ask ChatGPT to write me a program to complete this weeks WOD, copy and paste it, and submit it. However, there are numerous things wrong with this. It discourages critical thinking, it discourages actual learning. When the service is abused, it becomes a crutch rather than a tool. It becomes akin to something like auto-correct in smartphones, where kids stopped feeling the need to learn how to spell properly because the computer does it for you.
There is also the huge issue that ChatGPT is not always right, which is especially relevant in this course. Generative AI may be helpful in getting the general concept or framework down, the code that it produces is, a lot of the time, just plain wrong. If you think about it, ChatGPT is a glorified search engine, complied using millions of datapoints. Not everything you find on Google is correct, and to that same point, of course not everything on ChatGPT is correct. Too many people think of these tools as all-knowing deities while they are just a mass of previous human knowledge. We need to be engaging in critical thinking to combine the general ideas that it gives us, and produce our own quality work.
The use of ChatGPT in the classroom has been an astronomically help in learning new concepts, streamlining my workflow, and writing quality code, but it does have its downfalls that need to be monitored carefully. When used correctly, it is a tool that will evolve the way we learn, but abused, it can lead to a worse experience. I believe that the ICS department embracing this new tool is a step forward, and even if there are hiccups in the beginning, when aren’t there when making new strides? In a few years, Generative AI in the classroom will be an integral part of our learning experience.