"Mother used to warn me not to talk to strangers, but this 'thing' is different."
"Hello everyone! I was quick this time and brought another 'intriguing' concept to share with you all. Today's post is about Magic School's ChatBot!"
This time, I was tasked to have a conversation with a chatbot pretending to be any character I had in mind and write a report on it. As a naturally devoted history freak (Only my mother can call me that, grrr! 😡), I asked the bot to enact Otto Von Bismarck and answer my questions by adopting his authentic style. I addressed a total of 10 questions and somehow learned more than 5 words! (It was better than having a bundle of word lists, trust me.) Furthermore, the bot was quite consistent in each answer it gave me and even supported its stance on controversial topics! (Don't ask whom it was about. 😅) Also, it was quite easy to get answers from it since it provided me with elaborated responses without needing to ask for further clarification. After I was done with this part, I accessed Magic School's feedback tool to proofread and to offer helpful suggestions to improve my report. Though it was irritating to be scolded by a non-human creature (It'd probably beat me up if it was a human 😓), I adhered to the given recommendations, for I deemed them helpful. Long story short, the overall process was quite easy, and I did not face any hardships.
Now let's be serious!
From a pedagogical perspective, I would most likely be tentative to make use of such a tool in my classes. The main reason behind this is that students are not fully aware of what generative AI is, and they do not consciously use it. There is a high chance that they may abuse the capabilities of the tools and cause unfairness. BUT just because I am concerned about it doesn't mean that I would prohibit it. In fact, I would sometimes allow them to use AI to provide feedback for their writing assignments so that my students could consider making subtle changes to improve the efficiency of their work. I'd also resort to ChatBot to provide my students with an environment where they can practice their language skills to disburden the lesson load. In other words, I would use it as a chatting partner and a relatively professional critic.
Let's be more specific.
For my own teaching branch, that is, English language teaching, AI tools are quite beneficial. They allow students to practice their writing skills by acting as conversation companions in any particular topic (e.g., astrophysics, philosophy, etc.). Concordantly, their choice of vocabulary while conversing with students is quite native-like, contributing to students' familiarity with the colloquial language. However, these and many more benefits of AI also come with their pitfalls. To be specific, students are not actually involved in a real-time conversation, meaning that they do not fully experience what we have in the real world. This leads to a decrease in reaction time while also causing fossilization as a result of repeatedly used discourse patterns. Since our task as English language teachers is to raise communicatively competent speakers, it is crucial that we have a balance between artificial and authentic environments.
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