Shock and Awe: talking ChatGPT with sociology majors
Disbelief, nervous giggles, jaws dropping, incredulity, knowing smiles of triumph. Those are some of the reactions when I showed ChatGPT to my class of sociology graduating seniors. After some preamble, I just got to the point: I showed ChatGPT in action.
Only a few of them had heard or tried ChatGPT so the majority of the 25 students had no idea what I was introducing. Those who had never heard about it were blown away.
At the time, we were working on a sociological paradigm called public sociology, which students had mostly come to understand, so I had ChatGPT tell us what it is. It was exactly what we had come to understand after reading the long Michael Burowoy classic speach to the American Sociological Association in 2005, in which he lays out the case for public sociology.
To further drive home the point, I told them I have an 8 year old daughter. From time to time, she asks me what I do. What is “so-she-ology”, she says? So with my class, I asked ChatGPT to take the academic definition of public sociology and re-write it for a third grader. It did and it was pretty amazing; we all laughed.
Then we returned to a concept from the beginning the semester, which is harder to grok than public sociology, C. Wright Mills famous “the sociological imagination.” I had ChatGPT explain that one and sure enough it was better than what almost all my students can achieve on their own.
At this point, a nervous giggle and knowing looks spread across the room. I could tell what many of them were thinking: how can I use this to cheat or put in a different way make my life easier?
Sensing the shift in mood, we moved into a conversation about plagiarism and digital tools. The class was split but most students understood this technology as a tool to cheat, which they said was wrong, but maintained that it could be used as a tool, much like predictive type, grammar check, wikipedia, and the Internet more broadly.
One student challenged the emerging consensus and questioned whether using ChatGPT is plagiarism. We discussed the university policy on academic integrity. But some said, “But how will you know.” That’s still a good and open question.
Zach and I will write about approaches to plagiarism for faculty, students, and administrators at a later time.
Other observations from the following weeks:
One students said she is now using ChatGPT to build her resume.
Another student said she is using it to prepare a personal bio that she has to write.
Other students said they are now using it to get help on sociological concepts or to figure out where to start on a paper or research. When I asked them “how do you know it is accurate or truthful content.” They either couldn't answer or didn’t really care. Gulp.
Other students said they are interested in using it to help write professional and effective emails. I told them that my wife, who is a 5th grade teacher, asked ChatGPT to write a letter to a teach saying their kid is being bullied. My wife admitted it was a better letter than 80% of the letters she receives from parents.
Overall, the use cases are myriad and students seem to have lax standards for accuracy, for better or worse. They see the use value and they are using it.