How to Use ChatGPT for learning at School (4 tips)
If you’ve been following the media discussion about generative AI bots like ChatGPT, one of the big objections many people have against it is that it will make it easier to cheat at school or university. You could simply have the AI write an essay for you, or give you the answers to a particular math problem. However, AI can help as well as harm in an educational setting; let’s go over some of the ways you can use AI at school.
AI As a Writing Tool
The first and most obvious way to use a language-based AI like ChatGPT is to use it as a writing tool. Of course, by that we don’t mean to have the AI write your essays for you, but rather to improve them.
For example, say you’re stuck and can’t figure out a way to say something, or don’t know how to start the essay in the first place — something even professional writers struggle with. You could simply ask ChatGPT to give you a few ideas to work with. The trick here is to keep yourself honest and not simply copy and paste the output, but use it as an inspiration. There’s nothing wrong with taking some help.
AI can also help in less direct ways. You could use it as a way to improve your writing, by simply asking if a piece of text could be improved. This kind of content checking may seem like it’s skirting the bounds of ethics, but we figure if the original text is all yours there’s no real harm. After all, you could argue that spell checkers are a form of AI too, and we use them every day.
Though we don’t blame people for worrying about students copying and pasting AI-generated content, there’s a lot to be said about AI-assisted writing. The work is clearly still your own, you just got some help with it from an electronic friend.
Use AI to Improve Learning Habits
AI can be used for a lot more than just writing, though, and chances are that some of the best ways to build new and better learning habits already live in your pocket. Using a digital assistant like Siri or Alexa, for example, you can set up a schedule that will remind you when to study.
You could even use ChatGPT to ask how to set up the schedule, but all you’ll get is tips. The actual decision on what to do when is up to you. Still, having your digital assistant set up a schedule and then seeing those reminders pop up on your phone will help you greatly.
Another important habit to build is to ask questions when you don’t understand something. Even before the advent of generative AI you could just enter your questions into Google, but asking ChatGPT seems to have a much lower barrier to entry. Also, the answer is cut and dried right in front of you, you don’t have to synthesize it yourself from multiple sources.
That said, you do need to be careful: ChatGPT doesn’t know anything itself, it generates answers based on what it has found. We really wouldn’t ask it anything that isn’t factual. Asking when the Second World War started is fine, asking why it started is probably a bad idea. Also, when asking anything, make sure to add that you need the answer in simple terms.
If you don’t add something along those terms, you’ll get a massive text dump that may end up confusing you more than helping you and which is the opposite of what you’re trying to accomplish.
AI as a Study Buddy
Generative AI like ChatGPT can also be an excellent study buddy. For example, the ability to ask questions can be used as a way to take better notes. Besides simply jotting down what your teacher is saying, you can work out a lecture or class by asking the AI questions about things you don’t understand, or even to provide some background information. Chances are, the AI can do this better than a human study buddy could.
Generative AI is also great for creating flashcards: you ask it for something (we went with key dates in Canadian history), and then take that information and add it to a flashcard template like the one offered by Quizlet or Brainscape or one of the many sites like them.
If you’d like to go a step further than flashcards, ChatGPT can also make small quizzes for you, like a study buddy should. Though you’d like to have to “feed” it some information on more specialized topics, on simple Wikipedia-style content it can generate a few interesting questions without any input from you.
Though our examples are pretty basic, it should give you a good idea of what’s possible when you enlist the help of an AI when studying for school or university.
Participate in AI-Related Projects
Finally, AI can be helpful in more advanced coursework. Think of getting a head start when coding, say, or figuring out machine learning. Also, you can use your work with AIs to show that you know how to handle them, a skill that doubtlessly will be in high demand in years to come.
After all, as much as people are opposed to using AI for writing essays, many in the technology industry are more than happy to have AI help people code. If you can, without breaking any rules, do the same at school, you’re giving yourself a head start for when you enter the workplace.
AI can also lower the barrier to entry to a lot of things. For example, if you don’t know how to code but you need to crunch some financial data for a paper you’re working on, you could ask ChatGPT to write the code for you. If you’re studying social science, you can have machine learning algorithms analyze the data you gathered during a field study.
If you’re still in school, there doesn’t seem to be a limit to the things AI can help with. From helping you study better to learning skills you otherwise couldn’t, AI can be a game changer that helps you make the most of your time at school or college; just make sure to find out what you’re allowed to do, first.
If you’re curious about more AI and ChatGPT tips, see our other articles like How to write better prompts for ChatGPT and 8 ChatGPT prompts to enhance your email writing.