Virtue? Chatbots? Hard to believe, but it could be true, according to some STEM teachers.
According to Jake Price, assistant professor of mathematics and computer science at the University of Puget Sound, artificial intelligence, when used correctly, could help strengthen math instruction. Price commented, “Computers are really good at doing tedious things. We don’t have to do all the tedious stuff. We can let the computer do it. And then we can interpret the answer and think about what it tells us about the decisions we need to make.”
Price also noted that math has always changed with changing technology. “A hundred years ago, people were using slide rules and doing all of their multiplication with logarithmic tables. Then, along came calculators,” he said.
The University of Washington’s Min Sun feels pupils should use chatbots as personal tutors, asking them to explain operations they have trouble comprehending. Sun also said teachers can use ChatGPT to tailor the level of math problems to a student’s specific level of understanding.
And with the help of AI, students can focus on big picture aspects of computer science, such as software design questions.
All this is coming at a time when American students are not performing particularly well in math and science. It’s possible that Chatbots may succeed in helping students where traditional teaching methods have failed.