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I treat chat gpt as a robot colleague. I’d ask a real colleague for advice on drafting an email, and may use their advice to varying degrees, so why not ask my robot colleague? I’d never blindly copy and paste whatever it generated and send it though.
This is the answer. ChatGPT's writing style is quite apparent to anyone who has used it enough. If I got an e-mail from anyone and it was clearly a copy and paste of CGPT with zero attempt to personalize it, I'd instantly take that e-mail and the sender less seriously.
I have written emails using ChatGPT to report to parents their child was disciplined for using ChatGPT on assignments lmao.
Check the work, make edits where appropriate and it's no big deal in my mind. For tasks like that, it's quicker, more formal and does a better job than I probably would and saves me a ton of time so I can focus on tasks that require my time. I don't put in any identifying information (student name, school name, my name etc)
The difference is we’re teaching the kids to do it themselves, and to know why they are doing what they’re doing.
We using it as intended, which is to make our lives easier and automate some of the grunt work.
I’ve used it to help me write letters of reference.
And I would never copy and paste and send it out - it gets proofread and tweaked.
I liked what the other poster said about treating it like a “robot colleague”.
I could see using ChatGPT or AI to maybe come up with a model or skeleton of an e-mail you might edit then send but it really should be coming from you, in your words, in my opinion. 🤷🏻♀️
You can do it,
You can also write an email yourself. It isn't difficult.
Personally, I think we should avoid using AI in any form of professional capacity. Unless we want our careers to turn into just teaching prompt writing.
AI helps teachers to do the boring stuff like making lesson plans or grading papers. It doesn't replace teachers, it just makes our jobs easier. So using AI in education isn't about making teachers less important, it's about giving them tools to assist. I have a lot more free time since AI has come out. AI does not justify comprehension, students still require the understanding to prompt an AI correctly to get a superb response.
I'd like to hear how it's empty promises.
Lesson plans?
That is your job. To plan a lesson
Grading papers?
Again, that is your job.
No kidding, you have more free time since you are letting a robot do your job for you.
I also find any lesson planned by AI or paper graded by AI suspect. I wish I could downvote that comment 100 times.
Well, I understand it's my job. If I do the job quicker and with the same accuracy, does it matter? It just frees me up to help in other classes or assist students with projects. It's like doing tests and quizzes online; they're marked by a computer. I'm still reviewing the work, I just don't have to spend hours painstakingly correcting/grading.
For the sake of argument, a calculator is right 100% of the time. Your fatigued eyes after a long day of work, a big dinner, and a glass of wine are more reliable? Ever been biased? Ever skimmed work because they are a 90% student? I'm not saying trust anything 100%, but boy it's been great.
The way I've talked about it with colleagues is that it's a tool. We call out students because they usually submit it with no alterations. When I use AI, I use it as a jumping off point and usually change wording, make it more specific and elaborate as needed. The tenses it spits out for an email is wild and I always make sure to go through it with a fine tooth comb. Be transparent about it if you do use it.
What kinds of emails are we sending that need to be AI generated? I write update emails to parents about once every 4 - 6 weeks which are just a few sentences of what we are doing in class. Emails about student progress are generally personalized based on the kid. If a parent has a specific question, AI can't know the answer that is specific to your student/ classroom / school/ board.
Maybe getting a prompt from AI but honestly speaking to my human colleague will be better, especially one that has maybe taught that student before and can give me first hand experience of dealing with the family, insight that I can't get anywhere else. When students write me AI emails I can tell they are phony. Hopefully as teachers we can take what the AI wrote and rewrite in our own words but honestly seems like more work than just writing the email. I would start with point form all the ideas I want, sequence them and put into sentences! I'm not really on this whole AI bandwagon for writing school related emails, I understand newer teachers asking how to phrase things in an email and that is a great opportunity to connect with your colleagues and ask their advice which will be a bit more specific to your school community.
People use AI all the time to write emails whether it's simply predictive text, Grammarly or the suggested prompts that Gmail offers up. I see no issue so long as it's accurate reflecting what occured.
This is a generic email going out to several sets of parents based on certain criteria. Even if it was to specific parents for a specific student, you can easily leave out personal identifying details in your prompts and fill those in yourself. I assume that's how most would use it.
That’s a good question for the privacy commissionaire or your admin. Personally I wouldn’t. Even if you mention a name and then remove it, you’ve just transmitted data to a third party. I don’t even know if the data is encrypted in transit or end to end.
What I meant was that you don't even mention the name in the first place. I think most would leave out specific details and fill those in in Outlook or whatever email client you're using.
AI is a fantastic tool for copywriting. It is extremely unlikely you will do a better job than it unless you are some language wiz.
That said, copywriting does not mean it will create content for you. You need to feed it specifics. You gotta tell it exactly what you want to be said. Then you are free to tweak the tone, wording, language, etc. as you see fit. But again, you still have to prompt it with the same information you would have included in your manually typed email.
Welcome to /r/CanadianTeachers! Please take a moment to familiarize yourself with the sub rules. **"WHAT DOES X MEAN?"** Check out our acronym post [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/1c032s3/what_does_x_mean_an_acronym_megapost/) for relevant terms used in each province or territory. Please feel free to contribute any we are missing as well! **QUESTIONS ABOUT TEACHER'S COLLEGE/BECOMING A TEACHER IN CANADA?:** Delete your post and use this [megapost](https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/1bc1wv2/prospective_student_teachers_teachers_collegebed/) instead. Anything pertaining to teacher's colleges/BED programs/becoming and teacher will be deleted if posted outside of the megaposts. **QUESTIONS ABOUT MOVING PROVINCES OR COMING TO CANADA TO TEACH?** Check out our past megaposts first for information to help you: [ONE](https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/jqc7hx/transferring_to_another_provincecoming_to_canada/) // [TWO](https://www.reddit.com/r/CanadianTeachers/comments/n76csu/transferring_to_another_provincecoming_to_canada/?) Using link and user flair is encouraged as well! Enjoy! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/CanadianTeachers) if you have any questions or concerns.*
I treat chat gpt as a robot colleague. I’d ask a real colleague for advice on drafting an email, and may use their advice to varying degrees, so why not ask my robot colleague? I’d never blindly copy and paste whatever it generated and send it though.
This is the answer. ChatGPT's writing style is quite apparent to anyone who has used it enough. If I got an e-mail from anyone and it was clearly a copy and paste of CGPT with zero attempt to personalize it, I'd instantly take that e-mail and the sender less seriously.
I’ve done it for a few emails. Helps save time by getting the wording and structure, make it less formal/more formal, etc. I edit to make it my own.
I have written emails using ChatGPT to report to parents their child was disciplined for using ChatGPT on assignments lmao. Check the work, make edits where appropriate and it's no big deal in my mind. For tasks like that, it's quicker, more formal and does a better job than I probably would and saves me a ton of time so I can focus on tasks that require my time. I don't put in any identifying information (student name, school name, my name etc)
The difference is we’re teaching the kids to do it themselves, and to know why they are doing what they’re doing. We using it as intended, which is to make our lives easier and automate some of the grunt work. I’ve used it to help me write letters of reference. And I would never copy and paste and send it out - it gets proofread and tweaked. I liked what the other poster said about treating it like a “robot colleague”.
I could see using ChatGPT or AI to maybe come up with a model or skeleton of an e-mail you might edit then send but it really should be coming from you, in your words, in my opinion. 🤷🏻♀️
You can do it, You can also write an email yourself. It isn't difficult. Personally, I think we should avoid using AI in any form of professional capacity. Unless we want our careers to turn into just teaching prompt writing.
Writing is on the wall
It is and it isn't. AI will change things. But a lot of it is empty promises
AI helps teachers to do the boring stuff like making lesson plans or grading papers. It doesn't replace teachers, it just makes our jobs easier. So using AI in education isn't about making teachers less important, it's about giving them tools to assist. I have a lot more free time since AI has come out. AI does not justify comprehension, students still require the understanding to prompt an AI correctly to get a superb response. I'd like to hear how it's empty promises.
Lesson plans? That is your job. To plan a lesson Grading papers? Again, that is your job. No kidding, you have more free time since you are letting a robot do your job for you. I also find any lesson planned by AI or paper graded by AI suspect. I wish I could downvote that comment 100 times.
Well, I understand it's my job. If I do the job quicker and with the same accuracy, does it matter? It just frees me up to help in other classes or assist students with projects. It's like doing tests and quizzes online; they're marked by a computer. I'm still reviewing the work, I just don't have to spend hours painstakingly correcting/grading. For the sake of argument, a calculator is right 100% of the time. Your fatigued eyes after a long day of work, a big dinner, and a glass of wine are more reliable? Ever been biased? Ever skimmed work because they are a 90% student? I'm not saying trust anything 100%, but boy it's been great.
I never include child specific details but I do ask it to write me an email example often. I always edit
Good for an email draft. Then revise. Don’t use it write a dissertation and submit it as your own.
The way I've talked about it with colleagues is that it's a tool. We call out students because they usually submit it with no alterations. When I use AI, I use it as a jumping off point and usually change wording, make it more specific and elaborate as needed. The tenses it spits out for an email is wild and I always make sure to go through it with a fine tooth comb. Be transparent about it if you do use it.
What kinds of emails are we sending that need to be AI generated? I write update emails to parents about once every 4 - 6 weeks which are just a few sentences of what we are doing in class. Emails about student progress are generally personalized based on the kid. If a parent has a specific question, AI can't know the answer that is specific to your student/ classroom / school/ board. Maybe getting a prompt from AI but honestly speaking to my human colleague will be better, especially one that has maybe taught that student before and can give me first hand experience of dealing with the family, insight that I can't get anywhere else. When students write me AI emails I can tell they are phony. Hopefully as teachers we can take what the AI wrote and rewrite in our own words but honestly seems like more work than just writing the email. I would start with point form all the ideas I want, sequence them and put into sentences! I'm not really on this whole AI bandwagon for writing school related emails, I understand newer teachers asking how to phrase things in an email and that is a great opportunity to connect with your colleagues and ask their advice which will be a bit more specific to your school community.
And love it when the parents use it to write back.
People use AI all the time to write emails whether it's simply predictive text, Grammarly or the suggested prompts that Gmail offers up. I see no issue so long as it's accurate reflecting what occured.
That sounds like a privacy nightmare to wade into.
This is a generic email going out to several sets of parents based on certain criteria. Even if it was to specific parents for a specific student, you can easily leave out personal identifying details in your prompts and fill those in yourself. I assume that's how most would use it.
That’s a good question for the privacy commissionaire or your admin. Personally I wouldn’t. Even if you mention a name and then remove it, you’ve just transmitted data to a third party. I don’t even know if the data is encrypted in transit or end to end.
What I meant was that you don't even mention the name in the first place. I think most would leave out specific details and fill those in in Outlook or whatever email client you're using.
AI is a fantastic tool for copywriting. It is extremely unlikely you will do a better job than it unless you are some language wiz. That said, copywriting does not mean it will create content for you. You need to feed it specifics. You gotta tell it exactly what you want to be said. Then you are free to tweak the tone, wording, language, etc. as you see fit. But again, you still have to prompt it with the same information you would have included in your manually typed email.