3 ways ChatGPT can make your life easier
This article is a bit different to our usual content. It responds to requests from a couple of our users for more general advice on using ChatGPT to save time and upgrade their day-to-day lives. One of the ongoing discussions in many schools is around work-life balance, teacher wellbeing, and mental health - so I wanted to suggest a few ways that tools like ChatGPT might benefit teachers (or, indeed, anyone) even at this early stage of the AI revolution.
Like many teachers, I found ChatGPT in early 2023 and at first considered it a bit of a novelty. I asked ChatGPT to write a sonnet about Star Wars. I asked it to write a limerick about former prime minister Liz Truss. (For those UK teachers among you, feel free to read the limerick in question at the bottom of the article.) Along the way though, I also realised how useful a tool it could be - both for teaching, and for life more generally. Here are a few ideas for how ChatGPT can make your life easier outside of the classroom and lesson planning, based on my own experience.
Number 1: Learn about any topic in seconds
In a blog aimed at teachers, this seems like a good place to start. As educators, we know the value of continuing learning and development - and ChatGPT is very useful in this regard.
Yes, I know, ChatGPT occasionally hallucinates (makes things up). But it is improving all the time, and it is already right overwhelmingly more often than it is wrong. Combined with its incredible power to summarise and prioritise almost the whole of human knowledge within seconds, this makes ChatGPT an unbelievably powerful tutor,
What should you ask ChatGPT to teach you? Well, what do you want to learn about? That’s the beauty of it: It’s up to you. But here is just one example, prompted by a conversation I had with family while wandering around the stunning Spanish city of Toledo over the half-term break:
Any readers who are experienced at using ChatGPT will immediately see that this is not the way to get the highest quality results: A really high quality prompt (as we use for the Teaching AI lesson resource generator) usually includes more detail about the role you want ChatGPT to adopt, the specific information you want, and the format you would like the output presented in. But this simple prompt was more than enough to get the overarching summary I was looking for here! See below for a snippet from the response.
Number 2: Get ideas you may never have considered
Whether it’s when your lesson planning or in your down-time, it’s easy to get stuck in a bit of a rut. If you’re like me, you’ll have a set way of doing things that you stick to most of the time: a set format for your starter slides, a set list of places to go for a relaxing hike on the weekend, etc. But breaking out of that routine can be incredibly good for your wellbeing and for your teaching - and ChatGPT is a great partner when you’re trying to shake things up.
Is there an aspect of your life you think could be a little less routine? Just explain to ChatGPT what you already do, and ask for its ideas for how to broaden your horizons! Here’s a recent example I tried, when I realised my wife and I kept going back to the same 3 or 4 places for weekend walks when there were doubtless many other places to enjoy near to where we live. Here was my prompt:
“Give me 10 specific ideas for places to go for a walk in nature in South Yorkshire or the East Riding of Yorkshire. I’m looking for walks that are at least 2 hours long, and suitable for a circular walk. Alongside water (river, canal, seaside, lake, etc) would be ideal, but not essential.”
And here are a few of the results:
A few ideas for relaxing walks in South Yorkshire and the East Riding.
We’ve already been to some of these places before - and number 6 is a real stunner - but there are also a few that I hadn’t ever heard of, much less visited. Because ChatGPT leans towards places that are mentioned relatively often in its training data (i.e. vast swathes of the internet), I know the results it gives me are likely to be fairly representative of the types of things I would have recommended if I asked several friends or acquaintances with similar interests to me - but I don’t need to do a full survey of my friends to get the information!
You could do something similar when looking for inspiration for a meal plan, a holiday destination, a paint colour to complement your interior decorating style - or, indeed, an engaging way to structure a revision lesson. Just remember, as with all things ChatGPT, it pays to be specific and give details of what you want.
Number 3: Check yourself before you wreck yourself
The final thing I find myself using ChatGPT for almost daily is editing, checking - and even sanity-checking - my ideas and written work. Having ChatGPT to hand is like having a trained editor, copy-editor, advisor, or coach to hand at all times. (A trained human could undoubtedly fulfil any of those roles more effectively, but they would also be less available and would most likely charge you significantly for their time.)
You can use ChatGPT to make sure you have spelled or formatted something correctly, to suggest ways you could improve a piece of work or an idea, or even to provide counter-arguments for a course of action you are considering. Here’s a recent example I used. It’s related to teaching, but there are also endless places in my personal life that I have found a similar approach helpful. Look what I almost forgot to order!
Would I have noticed this myself? Definitely. Would it have been before the lesson? Possibly. Could I have been more careful and thorough in the first place? Of course - and I won’t forget to ask for limewater next time!
I have had success asking ChatGPT to copy-edit an official letter, help me troubleshoot a DIY project, and even play the role of an Ofsted inspector to give me feedback on a lesson plan. There are lots of possibilities - as ever, it’s down to you to decide how to use ChatGPT and other AI tools to your advantage.
Conclusion: You’re in charge
In short, ChatGPT can be whatever you need it to be - within limits. The key is to remember that it is only a tool, and you are the human who is ultimately responsible for using it responsibly. If ChatGPT occasionally gives you false or poor quality results, it’s your job to spot them and sort it out: You can’t just say, “Oh well, ChatGPT said it so it must be true.” The technology just isn’t that advanced. This is why at Teaching AI, we are very clear that each individual teacher is ultimately responsible for their own lesson resources. Our AI-powered lesson resource creator can draft any one of 30+ resource types for you, but it’s up to you to make sure it’s perfect for your class and your course before you use it.
For those of you who have scrolled right down to the bottom to see the limerick I promised you at the start of this blog post, here it is:
There once was a lady named Liz
Who dealt in trade, goods, and biz
She negotiated tough
For British stuff
And now our economy is in fizz.
I didn’t say it was a good limerick.
