ChatGPT – a blessing or

a curse?

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Let’s get started
with a warm-up

ESL Brains
Look at the tips and discuss the questions.

Write answers on your palm and hope Glance over at your neighbour’s
the teacher doesn’t notice. paper to see their answers.

Write answers on a small sheet of paper and Use your cell phone to have a
unfold it when the teacher is not looking. friend text answers to you.

Record answers on your smartphone

Google the answers in real time.
and place an earbud in your ear.

● What phenomenon do these tips illustrate?

● How common is this phenomenon in your country?

● Have you ever done anything like this? How do you feel about it now?

● How else do people use technology to cheat?

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Let’s learn some vocabulary!

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Read two texts about cheating and decide whose perspective they might present.
A Every year students seem to come up with
new methods of cheating or plagiarizing
and more and more of them couldn’t care
less about maintaining academic integrity.
Obviously, we do what we can to prevent or
expose such cases, in part by running
students’ essays through detection
programmes. However, schools and
universities should crack down on this
problem much harder. We need to protect
high standards of education at all costs.
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B A friend of mine recently copped to using
Google during a test. He wasn’t caught
red-handed, but his results made teachers
suspicious. If you ask me, there’s no way to
prevent students from cheating. It’s not that I
don’t take it seriously, but why do teachers
often see new technologies as a threat? If
schools accepted them as opportunities and
tried to adapt to them, we would look for
new ways to mislead teachers or outsmart
detection programmes much less often.
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Let’s see some possible answers.
a teacher’s perspective
A Every year students seem to come up with
new methods of cheating or plagiarizing
and more and more of them couldn’t care
less about maintaining academic integrity.
Obviously, we do what we can to prevent or
expose such cases, in part by running
students’ essays through detection
programmes. However, schools and
universities should crack down on this
problem much harder. We need to protect
high standards of education at all costs.
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a student’s perspective
B A friend of mine recently copped to using
Google during a test. He wasn’t caught
red-handed, but his results made teachers
suspicious. If you ask me, there’s no way to
prevent students from cheating. It’s not that I
don’t take it seriously, but why do teachers
often see new technologies as a threat? If
schools accepted them as opportunities and
tried to adapt to them, we would look for
new ways to mislead teachers or outsmart
detection programmes much less often.
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part 1/3

Choose the best definition of the words and phrases from the texts.

A. When people cop to something/doing something, they…

1. admit to doing something wrong.
2. complain about something.
3. catch someone doing something illegal.

B. When people maintain integrity, they…

1. ignore ethical principles and standards.
2. reduce the effectiveness of their work.
3. keep behaving in an honest way no matter what.

C. When people are caught red-handed, they…

1. are caught making a mistake.
2. are caught lying about something.
3. are caught doing something bad or illegal.

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part 1/3

Let’s check the answers.

A. When people cop to something/doing something, they…

1. admit to doing something wrong.
2. complain about something.
3. catch someone doing something illegal.

B. When people maintain integrity, they…

1. ignore ethical principles and standards.
2. reduce the effectiveness of their work.
3. keep behaving in an honest way no matter what.

C. When people are caught red-handed, they…

1. are caught making a mistake.
2. are caught lying about something.
3. are caught doing something bad or illegal.

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part 2/3

Choose the best definition of the words and phrases from the texts.

D. When people mislead others, they cause someone…

1. to believe something that is not true.
2. to believe something is true.
3. to understand how important something is.

E. When you run your work through a detection programme, you…

1. want the programme to improve it.
2. want the programme to examine it.
3. want to improve the programme.

F. When people want to outsmart someone, they want to…

1. get an advantage over them by using their intelligence.
2. show them how smart they are.
3. think quickly and make better decisions.

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part 2/3

Let’s check the answers.

D. When people mislead others, they cause someone…

1. to believe something that is not true.
2. to believe something is true.
3. to understand how important something is.

E. When you run your work through a detection programme, you…

1. want the programme to improve it.
2. want the programme to examine it.
3. want to improve the programme.

F. When people want to outsmart someone, they want to…

1. get an advantage over them by using their intelligence.
2. show them how smart they are.
3. think quickly and make better decisions.

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part 3/3

Choose the best definition of the words and phrases from the texts.

G. When people crack down on something, they…

1. break something into pieces.
2. take strict measures against something.
3. relax and take it easy.

H. When people plagiarize, they…

1. pretend to be someone else.
2. advertize their colleagues’ ideas.
3. use another person's ideas or work and pretend that it is their own.

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part 3/3

Let’s check the answers.

G. When people crack down on something, they…

1. break something into pieces.
2. take strict measures against something.
3. relax and take it easy.

H. When people plagiarize, they…

1. pretend to be someone else.
2. advertize their colleagues’ ideas.
3. use another person's ideas or work and pretend that it is their own.

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Let’s think!

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Look at the texts again and finish the sentences.

● I agree/don't agree with the first perspective because...

● I agree/don't agree with the second perspective because...

● Schools should/shouldn't crack down harder on the

problems of cheating and plagiarism because…

● When someone is caught red-handed cheating in an exam,

they should always/sometimes/never get punished
because...

● Using new technologies to help with academic tasks

goes/doesn't go against academic integrity because…

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In a moment, you’ll watch a video titled:

Does artificial intelligence help

students cheat?
But first…
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Read about a new technology called ChatGPT and decide if you agree with
the statements.

ChatGPT is a natural language processing tool driven by AI

technology that allows you to have human-like conversations and
much more with a chatbot. It can answer questions and help you
with tasks such as composing emails, essays and code.

● AI software like ChatGPT can be used by students to outsmart

traditional detection programmes.

● ChatGPT makes learning skills like essay writing unnecessary.

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Watch the video and note down what it mentions about the points below.

A. detection programmes

B. banning

C. writing essays

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Let’s check the answers.
Students can use ChatGPT to write an essay but it is possible
A. detection programmes for an experienced teacher and traditional detection
programmes to reveal the truth.

New York City’s Department of Education has banned

B. banning
ChatGPT but we need to look for ways to use it to enhance
learning.
C. writing essays ChatGPT can write a 300-word essay in less than a minute
(including printing).

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Let’s discuss!

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Discuss the questions.

● What do you think about banning ChatGPT in schools and

universities?

● How might the use of ChatGPT change education in the future?

● What are some of the potential ways to use ChatGPT beyond

education?

● What would you use ChatGPT for?

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Read about the things ChatGPT can do and discuss the questions.

create personalized vocabulary lists with examples in context

write emails
summarize articles, films and documentaries
write code
provide comprehensive explanations of, e.g. processes
translate texts
write fiction and poetry

● How reliable is ChatGPT's ability to generate text and provide answers to

questions?

● How might ChatGPT change the way we work?

● What are some ethical issues that might arise due to ChatGPT’s potential?

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It’s reading time!

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Read about one teacher’s case of using ChatGPT with her students and answer the
questions below.
Olya Kudina, who teaches courses on AI and
ethics at Delft University of Technology in the
Netherlands, has used ChatGPT as a tool in
her own classroom. She presented her
undergraduate students with a debate-style
task using ChatGPT. Initially, her students
were to come up with three arguments and
two counterarguments while supporting them
with academic references. They were
supposed to accomplish this without turning
to AI for assistance.
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Next, they used ChatGPT to complete the
same assignment and compared the chatbot’s
answer with their own text.
The students were quite impressed by how
quickly the chatbot transformed information
into a text, but on taking a closer look they
realized something was wrong.
● What do you think about the teacher’s
approach?
● What do you think the students noticed
about the text produced by ChatGPT?
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Read the rest of the story and check your ideas.

The chatbot was using facts in a misleading way.

When students asked it to provide references
from academic texts to support its argument, it
couldn’t attribute work to the right authors.
Moreover, its arguments were full of false and
illogical reasoning. Kudina’s students arrived at
the conclusion that, contrary to concerns of
widespread cheating, using ChatGPT for blindly
copying answers wouldn’t actually guarantee
them good grades.

Source: Wired

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Let’s talk!

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Discuss the questions.

● Are you surprised by the results of this experiment? Why/Why not?

● Can this experiment serve as an argument against banning

ChatGPT from schools and universities? Explain your position.

● What do the ways in which students use ChatGPT to cheat reveal

about the problems of modern education systems?

● What are some potential problems that might arise in education in

the near future due to the development of AI software?

● Do you think ChatGPT will get better or worse with time? Why?

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Let’s revise!

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part 1/2

Complete the sentences using the correct forms of the words and phrases in the
boxes.
be caught red-handed cop to crack down on maintain integrity
mislead outsmart plagiarize run through

A. Some teachers firmly believe that schools and universities shouldn’t be

_____________________ by the potential advantages of ChatGPT as this software
makes and will keep making mistakes.

B. Students are aware of the fact that we ____________________ all their essays
_____________________ a plagiarism detection programme, which we hope will
help to _____________________ academic _____________________ .

C. The student only _____________________ using ChatGPT to write his essay after
the teacher pointed out all the inconsistencies in the text.

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part 2/2

Complete the sentences using the correct forms of the words and phrases in the
boxes.
be caught red-handed cop to crack down on maintain integrity
mislead outsmart plagiarize run through

D. The school authorities ____________________ cheating after a number of

students ______________________ during important exams.

E. If students stop learning properly, very soon we won’t have anybody who can
_____________________ AI.

F. Professors can be fired if it is discovered that they ____________________ while

they were at university.

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part 1/2

Let’s check the answers.

be caught red-handed cop to crack down on maintain integrity

mislead outsmart plagiarize run through

A. Some teachers firmly believe that schools and universities shouldn’t be

misled
_____________________ by the potential advantages of ChatGPT as this software
makes and will keep making mistakes.

B. run
Students are aware of the fact that we ____________________ all their essays
through
_____________________ a plagiarism detection programme, which we hope will
maintain
help to _____________________ integrity
academic _____________________ .

C. The student only _____________________

copped to using ChatGPT to write his essay after
the teacher pointed out all the inconsistencies in the text.

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part 2/2

Let’s check the answers.

be caught red-handed crack down on

outsmart plagiarize

D. cracked down on
The school authorities ____________________ cheating after a number of
were caught red-handed during important exams.
students ______________________

E. If students stop learning properly, very soon we won’t have anybody who can
_____________________
outsmart AI.

F. plagiarized
Professors can be fired if it is discovered that they ____________________ while
they were at university.

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THANKS!

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