AI Tool Demo: Creative Uses for ChatGPT in History and ELA
Assistant editor Daniel Leonard shares a few interesting applications of ChatGPT that teachers have adopted to drive critical thinking and deeper analysis.
Open AI’s large language model chatbot, ChatGPT, took the world by storm when it was launched in November 2022—and, nearly two years later, teachers are still finding creative, new ways to use the tool in their classrooms.
There continues to be much debate: While some educators are concerned that the chatbot stifles learning by automatically outputting responses with no thought required on the part of the user, others are more optimistic about the tool. In fact, we’ve heard from a number of teachers who are using ChatGPT for critical thinking activities that help their students hone their analytical skills—and reckon with the limitations of the tool itself—in a fun and engaging way.
History teachers, for example, are getting ChatGPT to role play as historical figures, from Cleopatra to Einstein. Their students interact with these digital imitations of figures from history, asking them questions and learning more about their lives. Then, students are asked to cross-reference ChatGPT’s output (which is often error-prone) with reliable external sources, fact-checking the AI and better understanding its tendency to “hallucinate” answers.
There are a multitude of ways to use the tool in English class, too. While some English teachers are also trying out chatbots (of fictional characters), or using ChatGPT in writing lessons, others are having the tool output text that can be compared to famous works of literature—like Shakespeare’s sonnets or Lincoln’s speeches—so that students can better analyze the unique tone and style of various writers (and see how ChatGPT’s own tone tends to be quite bland in comparison).
Edutopia’s assistant editor Daniel Leonard walks through these teacher-tested ChatGPT use cases—showcasing some prompts to try out, the kinds of responses educators can expect to receive, and how to use them to drive critical thinking in the classroom.
To read about other creative ways teachers are leveraging AI tools in the classroom—from image-generators to language apps—check out Leonard’s feature for Edutopia, “9 Tips for Using AI for Learning (and Fun!).”