ChatGPT is one of the most discussed inventions at the moment. While most conversations center around the threat it poses to people's jobs, another area of concern is the impact it will have on learning and the development of writing skills. In this article, we consider the potential of the language model by OpenAI to positively and negatively impact writing skills development and learning among students as well as possible ways educators can approach the development.
The Bright Side
On the positive side, ChatGPT can provide students with instant feedback on their writing. This can help them identify and correct mistakes, improve their grammar and sentence structure, and expand their vocabulary. Additionally, ChatGPT can assist students with generating new ideas and organizing their thoughts, which can be particularly useful for students who struggle with writer's block.
Furthermore, ChatGPT can also help students improve their writing speed, by providing them with faster and more accurate word suggestions and suggestions for sentence structures. This can allow students to write more efficiently and effectively, which can be particularly useful for students who are working on time-sensitive assignments.
The Dark Side
There are also potential negative impacts of ChatGPT on writing skills development and learning in students. One of the main concerns is that students may become too reliant on ChatGPT, and may not develop the critical thinking and problem-solving skills that are essential for good writing. Additionally, students may also become less motivated to learn and practice writing skills, if they believe that ChatGPT can do all of the work for them.
Another potential negative impact of ChatGPT is that students may use the software to plagiarise. ChatGPT can easily generate text passages that are almost identical to existing texts, making it easy for students to copy and paste entire sentences or paragraphs from other sources. This can be a serious problem, as plagiarism is unethical and punishable.
The Way Forward is Moving Forward
ChatGPT has come to stay. Educators can use a variety of methods to distinguish between self-authored writing and writing generated by ChatGPT. For example, educators can manually review students' writing, looking for signs that the writing may have been generated by ChatGPT. This can include looking for writing that is overly formal or robotic, or for writing that contains unusual or unlikely phrasing or vocabulary.
Also, educators can conduct interviews with students to ask about their writing process and the sources they used to generate their writing. This can be used to detect any suspicious patterns or inconsistencies in the students' responses.
Furthermore, educators can become familiar with the writing style and the level of writing skills of the student, and use that as a reference point to identify any significant deviation from the student's usual writing style.
In conclusion, ChatGPT has the potential to positively and negatively impact writing skills development and learning in students. To maximise the benefits and minimise the risks, educators should consider using ChatGPT in conjunction with other writing instruction methods and tools, such as peer review, writing workshops, and writing guides. Additionally, educators should also teach students about the importance of proper citation and plagiarism prevention, to ensure that students understand the ethical and legal implications of using ChatGPT.
Image: ChatGPT
