Tag: homework

The hottest disruptive technology to come to education since iPads is ChatGPT. It sounds too simple when I read the dozens of articles that fill the internet so I asked the AI to tell me what it was:

“ChatGPT is a computer program that generates text based on what you type to it. It uses advanced language processing to understand your prompt and respond with relevant, coherent text. You can talk to ChatGPT like you would with a person, and it will generate text that sounds similar to human writing. ChatGPT can be used for a variety of text-based tasks such as having a conversation, answering questions, writing content, and more.”

That is so human-like, it’s scary. So as a teacher, how will you know if an AI is doing student homework? Check out what Ask a Tech Teacher contributor and technology expert, Jodi Williams, has to say about ChatGPT:

Is ChatGPT Writing Your Students’ Homework? A New Technology Will Be Able to Detect It

It has been unthinkable for decades to suspect that artificial intelligence could write your students’ homework, yet it appears to be true with the famous ChatGPT bot. Since it’s relatively easy for a college professor to detect cases of plagiarism manually, it’s much safer when you can represent some proof that a student has used AI-generated writing for an assignment. The good news is that we have a technology that is able to detect it. Currently, Turnitin is able to implement a specific technology that will analyze what has been written and checked in terms of originality and machine learning algorithms. Although artificial technology is always getting better and more cryptic, the tools that are used by Turnitin are also evolving, thus allowing college professors to do the checking and save valuable time. 

TurnItIn Has The Grip On ChatGPT Artificial Writing Tool 

The Battle of Robots. 

The use of TurnItIn provides educators with a great opportunity to get things checked. While it is a commercial tool, it does not reveal the specifics of how things work, yet it uses AI-based technology against machine learning algorithms used by the ChatGPT tool. Now, if you are feeling stuck and need help with writing, it’s much safer to use a plagiarism free essay writing service and discuss your concerns with the trained experts who can assist you in completing your work in a legit way. Sometimes you need just a bit of human assistance to understand the objectives and overcome writer’s block, among other things. Most importantly, it’s a legit way to avoid plagiarism and learn how to analyze and process information. 

Highlighted Parts. 

If locating the parts in question sounds problematic, TurnItIn will also highlight the odd sections with different colors and offer an intelligent search through the Internet to see whether some parts have been copied. The combination of both will help to be sure that there are no false alerts. Some students will also use tools like Google Translate, yet it’s a different matter and not a case of plagiarism. If you know a foreign exchange student, suggest dealing with TheWordPoint service instead to approach things correctly when some grammar and structure correction must be done. It will help to avoid trouble and the possible false alerts that AI-based tools may detect. 

Analytical Reports. 

The best part about detecting ChatGPT with TurnItIn is the presence of built-in analytical tools that will help you to check the report and confront the student if there is a clear denial stage. If a student claims that no ChatGPT has been used, ask for a revision and see if it maintains the same style. Of course, if you see drastic changes, one can assume that other AI tools might have been used, yet it is not always the fact! Use analytical reports and try to do your best to maintain contact with a student!

The Dangers of ChatGPT in Practice 

While there are evident dangers like plagiarism and academic misconduct, it also brings modern students into an abyss of chaos as artificial intelligence technology is not able to understand the text that is being generated. Since most learners do not proofread or edit what’s being generated, it becomes easy for educators to see that an assignment does not make sense. Ultimately, it’s not only the time wasted but an academic future that becomes even vaguer. Therefore, using tools like ChatGPT is dangerous as it doesn’t teach you anything and cannot even be considered a form of cheating per se because it’s way worse than that! 

BIO 

Jodi Williams is a technology expert passionate about learning and innovative teaching methods. She loves to share bright ideas and her discoveries in writing. Follow Jodi to learn new things and find inspiration. 

–image credit Deposit Photos

Copyright ©2023 askatechteacher.com – All rights reserved.

Often, students are expected to work independently at school and on their homework. That is a great idea for learning if you provide simple guidelines that allow them to be more effective, less frustrated. Here are tips to help your children get more out of homework time:

Helping Your Child with Homework: 5 Tips to Help Kids Get Better Grades

Homework is a key part of the school experience. Not only does homework help students get a better grasp of the lesson, but it also helps teach about responsibility. While it’s always a good idea to also teach kids to be independent and do their homework on their own, there’s no harm in providing some help, especially in lessons or even subjects where your child may have challenges with.

In order to effectively help your child with homework, here are some tips that you should know:

Allot time for homework

Helping your child with homework doesn’t just mean doing the homework for them. The essence of homework is giving your child some form of responsibility so let them take charge in accomplishing their homework.

However, what you can do is to help your child in keeping a homework schedule. This further helps your child learn about time management. 

One of the best practices in allotting time for homework is to schedule it before a fun activity such as watching TV or playing, as this helps your child feel rewarded for being able to finish his homework. It is best that you also keep yourself available during this time so that you are there in case he needs guidance from you.

Maintain a conducive learning environment at home for your child

It’s always a good idea to maintain a study room for your child, free from distractions. Or, if a separate room cannot be provided, set a study desk for your child in a part of the room that is not facing things that might distract him while doing his homework. 

The idea is to make sure that your child can focus on doing his homework and that he will be away from distractions. 

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Homework has come under fire the last few years as data surfaced that seemed to support the conclusion that homework is a waste of time. The traditional goals — that homework reinforces school work, provides additional practice on difficult topics, and involves the family — seemed to fall away under the onslaught of naysayers and their numbers.

To many, the shortfalls mean homework should be excised from the education experience. To me, it simply means we teachers must update it — not eliminate it.

If you are committed to the value of homework, here are six suggestions for how to make it more aligned with student education goals:

Make homework relevant

Duke University Professor Harris M. Cooper, says (paraphrased in parts):

Really good homework assignments in subjects such as math and science … highlight skills children use in other areas of their life — sports, games, and everyday tasks like grocery shopping with their parents. A really good teacher is one that takes the skills that [their students] are learning … and uses homework to show them these are the skills they need to enjoy things they do even more

As a teacher, own that. Make homework tie into other parts of a student’s life. After all, isn’t that exactly what education is supposed to do — prepare students for life?

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–this post was sponsored by itslearning, but the opinions are my own.

When I started teaching, homework always involved paper–a worksheet, a poster, a written essay, or something else like that. The problems associated with that approach were endless, including that students couldn’t find the assignment, lost their notes, wrote the assignment down wrong, left their notebook where they weren’t so couldn’t do it, the dog ate it. Even if they did it on a computer, I remember numerous before-school visits from students to use my printer because theirs was broken, out of ink–add your own dilemma to this list. Most of these reasons were true and I did feel for the students, but the end result was always the same: The student didn’t get the benefit of what s/he would have learned from the homework.

It didn’t stop there. Because students couldn’t access school-based materials at home (for reasons like no internet or no digital device), I had to assign homework that could be completed without school resources, by themselves. Group projects were nice, but getting everyone in the same library or house meant parents driving, schedules re-arranged, and time that could have been spent on learning was spent on making arrangements.

It seemed my biggest challenge–as well as my students–was managing workflow.

Thanks to Learning Management Systems, that’s changed.

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At some point in your child’s education journey, you’re going to feel the need for tutoring. Riley Patterson, one of our Ask a Tech Teacher team has experience with this.  She’s a freelance writer who–in her free time–helps students with their homework. She lives in Illinois with her two-year-old Bridgette (who already knows how to count from one to ten) and a pet dog. Riley wrote a great summary of the critical elements to consider as you make that homework helper decision:

Online tutoring service has become very popular in recent years. The internet and the rapid technological improvement are making the world a little bit smaller and are eliminating barriers to learning. Students can now meet with private tutors, who are maybe from another country, through Skype, Google Hangouts, and other mobile communication applications. Online tutor or homework help companies even have their own website and own application for communication. Tutors, especially online, are now easy to find and easy to engage with. Numbers of online tutorial services are popping up everywhere on the internet these.

However, as parents how and when can you determine if your child needs extra help in their studies? Will you have your child be tutored even though they are doing okay in school? Alternatively, do you wait until their grades are already slipping down? Deciding whether your children need tutoring is a major family decision. Do you have the time to arrange a tutorial session for your child? Do you have the resources of financial capability to pay for the service? Would it really benefit your child? Will it affect their self-esteem? These are some of the questions that you need to answer when coming up when the decision whether or not hire a tutorial service for your child. Nevertheless, once you have made the decision to hire an online tutor, comes now another hurdle: How can you have the assurance that you are engaging the services of a legitimate and qualified tutor? Just like in any other services on the internet, the chances of encountering a scam artist are always there.

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By third grade, students can email their homework to you rather than turn in all those pesky hard copies. No more lost work, no more dog-ate-their-homework, no more blaming their mom. They can use their own account or a parents. Once they learn how, it is automatic–and they love doing it this way.Here’s the lesson:

If the lesson plan is blurry, click for a full size alternative.

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By third grade, students can email their homework to you rather than turn in all those pesky hard copies. No more lost work, no more dog-ate-their-homework, no more blaming their mom. They can use their own account or a parents. Once they learn how, it is automatic–and they love doing it this way. (more…)

I only get my students 45 minutes a week. That’s not enough time to teach computer basics AND necessary keyboard skills. So, I give homework. It’s 45 minutes a week of homework:

If the lesson plans are blurry, click on them for a full size alternative.

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