Photo by Erin Nelson.
A student works on a laptop during class at Liberty Park Middle School.
A new form of technology is growing rapidly in popularity and causing some concern in Vestavia Hills City Schools.
ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, is one of several new online content generators, which responds to prompts from users and can answer questions, write poems, essays, songs, speeches and more. It is trained to detect what it says is “misinformation” and also rejects what it deems as inappropriate or harmful, according to both reports and numerous tests conducted by the Vestavia Voice.
Other tools in development include Google’s “Bard” and Baidu’s “Ernie bot.” Microsoft’s existing tool “Bing” will also incorporate technology created by OpenAI, per a company press release.
The technology makes available in seconds what in the past would have required “immense amount of brain power,” said Whit McGhee, director of public relations for Vestavia Hills City Schools.
For example, McGhee said the technology can write a poem about plants in the style of William Shakespeare: “Oh, gentle plants that grace our Earth below, With verdant leaves that shimmer in the sun, Your beauty fills our hearts with tranquil glow, As we behold your splendor, one by one.”
ChatGPT’s influence is growing by leaps and bounds, according to a report by Reuters. It took Netflix 3½ years to get to 1 million users. It took Twitter two years. Facebook achieved 1 million users in 10 months, while Spotify surpassed the mark in five months. Instagram outpaced them all, obtaining 1 million users in 2½ months.
ChatGPT had more than 1 million users in five days.
Vestavia Hills High School English teacher Ben Davis said the technology is “really impressive,” though it does not “dig in” like teachers want their students to do.
Still, Davis said several students have been caught trying to use the technology to cheat, a major concern with ChatGPT, which not only can produce original content but can create different responses to the same prompt.
Still, there are some “bugs” to be worked out, McGhee said. It cannot recall information after 2021 or speculate about the future, and its responses may not always be what teachers are seeking.
Using technology to try to score higher than another student or improve a grade goes against the school’s code of ethics, Davis and McGhee said.
McGhee said tools are needed to help educators ascertain whether submitted content was written by a student or by a bot. While websites like turnitin.com detect plagiarism, they cannot, at least as of yet, determine whether the content was written by a human.
“We need to teach students the ethical use of this technology,” McGhee said.
Youth Leadership Vestavia Hills takes the lead in teaching digital citizenship to younger students, he said.
While ChatGPT and similar sites are blocked on school computers, McGhee said that solution will only last for so long.
It might lead to a change in the form of assessments, both McGhee and Davis said. Davis said it might force teachers to go back to handwritten assignments.
ChatGPT does not just present a challenge when it comes to preventing cheating, but also in how it can disrupt the importance of learning, Davis said.
“I learned a lot about writing from working in my dad’s furniture shop in Pelham,” he said. “Knowing how it [furniture] is constructed and why. …. Not knowing makes it weaker, less refined.”
In the same way, simply using technology to create content instead of learning how to properly create a poem, essay or other type of assignment weakens a student’s writing, which Davis said is “like a human superpower.”
“It’s going to be very uncomfortable as they go to read it,” he said.
McGhee said the technology does not nullify the need for great teachers.
“There is a human element in everything we do,” McGhee said.
As advanced as this technology is, McGhee said it will only become “exponentially more advanced.”
“For a kid entering kindergarten, this is the most rudimentary technology they will see in their lifetimes,” he said.
Still, McGhee said he is hopeful that Vestavia’s reputation will remind students of their responsibility.
“Vestavia Hills has always been a community that has focused on academic excellence,” McGhee said. “It’s always been a point of pride that they [students] did it themselves.”
See below for examples of how ChatGPT compares to a real student's essay:
Can you spot which of these was written by a high school student in Vestavia Hills and which was written by ChatGPT? Answers below.
Prompt: Explore the topic of parenthood/childhood using the poems, "My Mother's Van" by Stephen F. Austin and "The Cord" by Leanne O'Sullivan in an essay. Be sure to explore the author’s purpose.
Essay 1:
At different times in our lives we feel as if our parents are too caught up in bell bottoms and eight tracks to understand the problems that we go through everyday. We feel misunderstood, feeling like there is just no way you could ever explain how you feel. You feel as if you are traveling through life with no help, no guide, and no one to be there when things go wrong. “The Cord’’ and “My Mothers Van,” both describe to us the differences between how situations are handled as adults and children. These poems significantly demonstrate childhood and parenthood through the journey of life.
Leanne O’ Sullivan and Stephen F. Austin both describe relationships between children and their mothers. In “My Mother's Van,” there is a symbolic relation between the mother and the van. It can be perceived throughout the poem that they did not have much, but the value of the van meant everything to the mother. The van traveled many places with the children as it explains, “Even now it idles outside the houses/ where we failed to get better at piano lessons,/visits the parking lot of the ballet school/ where my sister and I stood awkwardly/ at the back” (1-5). The mother did as much as she could with what little she had. Through piano lessons, ballet lessons and more, the mother was always there along with the van to pick them up.
Not only did the kids have dreams, but as the poem goes on, it explains how passionate the mother was through her writings in the sketchbooks, her projects, and her paintings. The dreams that the mother had made, never got the chance to be accomplished. Later in the poem, it describes the pain the daughter feels from the passing of her mother. It is not directly stated that the mother has passed away, but through this quote,“Sometimes, now,/ I look out a window and I belive I see it,/see her, waiting for me beside a curb,/ under a tree, and I think I could open the door,/ clear off a seat, look at the drawing in her lap,/ which she began, but never seemed to finish” (21-26). It can be inferred that she, nor the van is there anymore. As young children we do not always appreciate the valuable things in life that we need to be thankful for. We take lots of things in life for granted. A person never knows how much they have until it's gone.
In the poem “The Cord,” the telephone cord is used to symbolically represent an umbilical cord. The young girl does not have an open, healthy relationship with her mother. She describes to us how she, “spoke to friends who recognized the/ language of our realm...toying with the idea of hair dye and suicide,/ about the boys who didn’t love us,/ who we loved too much” (6-11). She was able to talk to her friends that understood her problems and could relate to the struggles that she was going through, the struggles she could not talk to her mom about.
While feeling neglected and not cared for, the daughter shelters herself in her room, where she stays for hours on the phone. This poem distinguishes the distant relationship between the daughter and her mother. Every hour of the day the daughter shows how she neglects any form of communication with her mother. She is very isolated, as it appears due to the mother standing there, while watching the cord stretch further away from her, gathering closer into her child. Regardless, we can understand that the mother keeps her distance and respects the daughters privacy through the quote, “My mother never complained about the phone bill,/ what it cost for her daughter to disappear/ behind a door, watching the cord/ stretching its muscles away from her” (16-19). It can also be recognized throughout this poem that the daughter is depressed, when it mentions her, being in her own world, or own realm. Although most people while struggling with different scenarios everyday enjoy having someone around, the relationships in this poem are disconnected, as if they were living in two different worlds because of the lack of communication. Although they do not have the ideal relationship a child and parent are supposed to have, the phone cord symbolizes the umbilical cord, that being the only thing that holds them together, which stabilizes a somewhat strong relationship between the two.
Parenthood shows how important it is to always be there for your child, no matter how hard life can be, no matter what circumstances you may have, your children and their dreams should always be the number one priority in a parent's life. My Mothers Van, shows that in many ways. Parenthood is visible in The Cord by the mother protecting her child, and caring for her daughter, while still allowing her to have the privacy she wants and have enough freedom that every teenage girl should be able to have. The difference in the lives of children and parents are very distinct from one another in so many ways. In this day and age, children and adults think completely opposite in most cases. Although it can be challenging for a parent to understand the emotions their child may be feeling, in the end, to a parent, their child is the most important thing in their life.
Essay 2:
Parenthood and childhood are two integral parts of human life that are often celebrated in literature. Through poetry, authors can effectively convey their thoughts and emotions about these topics. Stephen F. Austin's "My Mother's Van" and Leanne O'Sullivan's "The Cord" are two poems that beautifully explore the relationship between a parent and a child, and the challenges that come with it. In this essay, we will analyze these poems and explore the author's purpose in writing them.
Stephen F. Austin's "My Mother's Van" is a poem that reflects on the speaker's childhood memories of their mother's van. The poem starts with a description of the van, which is old and rusted, and the speaker's mother, who is "always singing off-key." The speaker then recalls how they used to ride in the van with their mother and how it would make them feel safe and loved. The poem ends with the speaker acknowledging that the van is now gone, but the memories of their mother and the van remain.
The purpose of this poem is to celebrate the bond between a mother and her child. The speaker's mother may not have had the latest or the most luxurious car, but it was enough to make the speaker feel loved and protected. The poem also highlights the importance of childhood memories and how they can stay with us forever. The speaker's mother's van may be long gone, but the memories of their rides together are still fresh in their mind.
Leanne O'Sullivan's "The Cord" is a poem that explores the complex emotions that come with parenthood. The poem starts with the speaker recalling the moment they held their child for the first time. The speaker describes the moment as both beautiful and terrifying. As the poem progresses, the speaker reflects on the responsibility that comes with parenthood and the fear of losing their child. The poem ends with the speaker acknowledging that their child is growing up and becoming more independent, but the love and connection they share will always remain.
The purpose of this poem is to explore the fears and joys of parenthood. The speaker's initial fear of holding their child for the first time is a common feeling among new parents. The poem also highlights the weight of responsibility that comes with being a parent. The fear of losing one's child is a natural emotion that all parents feel, and this poem beautifully captures that. The poem also explores the bittersweet feeling of watching one's child grow up and become more independent. While it may be difficult to let go, the love and connection between a parent and child will always remain.
In conclusion, "My Mother's Van" by Stephen F. Austin and "The Cord" by Leanne O'Sullivan are two beautiful poems that explore the relationship between a parent and a child. The purpose of these poems is to celebrate the bond between a parent and child, and the challenges that come with it. "My Mother's Van" celebrates the importance of childhood memories and the love that a mother can provide, regardless of material possessions. "The Cord" explores the fears and joys of parenthood and the bittersweet feeling of watching one's child grow up. Both poems beautifully capture the emotions and experiences that come with parenthood and childhood, and the importance of the connection between a parent and a child.
Answers: The first was written by a high school junior in 2019, while the latter was written by a bot. The bot was given the same prompt, though it failed to produce the requested 900 words to be about the same length as the student essay. The student's essay received a grade of 82.
Ben Davis’ feedback on the ChatGPT essay: “This essay would get a D or F because it lacks substance. Though there are some impressive aspects, it does pull directly from the poems to give proper evidence. Some of the sentences in the intro (#2) contribute neither to the momentum nor the meaning of the paragraph, or seem rather sophomoric (#4). The evidence from the body paragraphs reference parenthood, but they gleen a very surface-level interpretation of the poems. They focus on the direct and obvious lines but ignore the emotional significance of parental sacrifice that a computer could not comprehend. The conclusion seems impressive at first, but it again falls short because it doesn't capture the purpose of the poems.
“I do find it remarkable. And I could see the technology doing a great job on a history or science paper. However, when it comes to nuanced analysis, it has a few hiccups. But in ten years those will be resolved. I could definitely see students using this as an idea generator.”
