Special Educators are constantly drowning in paperwork and “to-do” lists. What if something was out there to make our job easier and lighten the load on our brains? Welcome ChatGPT (artificial intelligence). I’m sure you have heard the positives and negatives of artificial intelligence entering the mainstream world. The reality is artificial intelligence is here to stay, so let’s use it as a tool to make our lives easier as teachers.
What is ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence language model designed to generate human-like responses based on input prompts. It has been trained on a vast amount of text data, allowing it to understand and produce coherent and contextually appropriate text. Special education teachers can leverage ChatGPT as a powerful tool to enhance their teaching practices and support their students’ unique needs. However, it is important to stress that ChatGPT is a tool, not a replacement for our personal judgment or expertise. To get started, create a free ChatGPT account by clicking here. Many developers have created artificial intelligence integrations into various programs. For example, Canva now includes a “magic write” tool where you can use the AI tool within Canva applications. A free iPhone app for ChatGPT is also convenient to use. Download it in your phone’s app store.
How Does ChatGPT Help Special Educators?
The opportunities to use ChatGPT in the special education teacher world is nearly limitless! It can help with administrative tasks including writing parent letters, teacher reports, and more1 ChatGPT or AI can give you ideas for engaging lessons and even recognize patterns in student data. It can help you brainstorm ideas for new IEP goals based on your student’s current level of functioning. Furthermore, ChatGPT could help you draft a present level of performance for your student’s IEP if you give it the information it needs. The more information you provide ChatGPT, the more accurate and helpful information you will get in return. It is not meant to be an end all, be all. ChatGPT is meant to get you started, but you should revise as necessary.
How Do I Get Started?
The ChatGPT system gets to know you as you use it. So, it might sound weird but, introduce yourself to ChatGPT once you sign into your account. Let them know what your position is and what type of students you teach. In addition, tell ChatGPT about your personality or what tone of voice you usually write in. You could even give ChatGPT an example of your own writing and it will remember it. I wanted to write a back-to-school letter to my parents at the beginning of the school year. See below for a part of the interaction I had with ChatGPT:
ChatGPT’s response gave me a great starting point; however, I might not use its response word-for-word. Now, I will need less brain power to begin a letter to parents from scratch!
Important Things to Note
- DO NOT use real student names, your real school name, or other identifiable information.
- ChatGPT should only be used as a starting point. It’s important to fact-check and revise as necessary. According to OpenAI FAQ, ChatGPT is not connected to the internet, and it can occasionally produce incorrect answers. It has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021 and may also occasionally produce harmful instructions or biased content.
- If ChatGPT’s response was not quite what you were looking for, provide more information and ask it to try again. ChatGPT tends to give long-winded responses.
ChatGPT holds great promise for special education teachers, offering opportunities to personalize instruction, support communication, and enhance classroom practices. While it’s essential to approach ChatGPT with a critical mindset and consider important ethical and privacy considerations, its potential benefits cannot be overlooked. Integrating tools like ChatGPT can empower special educators to create inclusive, engaging, and effective learning environments for all students as technology advances.
45 Prompts for ChatGPT
Once you create your ChatGPT account, start playing around with what it can do and how it can help your individual situation. Need more ideas? I created a free resource with 45 different prompts you could give ChatGPT to make your life as a special educator easier. Check it out by clicking the link below!