Before we worry about ChatGPT, let’s enjoy it
If you’re a teacher, it is very unlikely that you haven’t heard about ChatGPT. But in case you haven’t, to put it simply, ChatGPT is a chatbot developed by OpenAI and launched in November 2022.
This tool has raised many concerns among many professionals, but especially educators as ChatGPT is likely to be used by our students to do their homework, write their texts, etc. I do understand that there are plenty of reasons to be worried. However, I am saving the talk about the negative impacts of ChatGPT for another day as I feel more eager to explore the wonders that this powerful tool can provide.
Teachers of teenagers tend to be careful when choosing authentic materials because we don’t want to use outdated materials in our lessons. For this reason, I am often asked which songs are popular among teenage learners at the moment. So I decided to look that up using the website and this is the result I got:
As you can see, for this search, I didn’t get a very assertive answer. But what it suggests us do in the first paragraph is exactly what I do to discover what people around the world have been listening to.
The next one was very surprising! I asked ChatGPT to create a warm-up activity to be used with a student who had learned “would you rather…?” and I couldn’t be happier with the result. Take a look below:
Except for number 7, which is about work, all the questions seem to be very appropriate for a teenager. I’m definitely using it. And it could also serve as a controlled practice activity.
Speaking of controlled practice activities, the next one was the most shocking to me! I asked ChatGPT to create a speaking task, and to my surprise not only did it create the task but it also gave me the instructions and example prompts to be used. Plus, it gave me an additional note.
I encourage you to explore ChatGPT with an open mind. In this video you can find a quick tutorial:
How to Use ChatGPT by Open AI for Beginners
Have fun!
