Students banned from chatbots, yet teachers can have them write homework

Queensland state school students are banned from using ChatGPT, but public and private teachers have been given the “green light” to use chatbots to draft homework and emails.

Chatbots use artificial intelligence to simulate conversation, with ChatGPT rising to prominence in late 2022 for its ability to generate text, such as song lyrics, business ideas and essays, while some feared it would replace human jobs or be used by students to cheat on assignments.

Amid the rise of AI, Queensland Teachers’ Union (QTU) and Independent Education Union – Queensland and Northern Territory Branch (IEU-QNT) co-published a resource for teachers, with a traffic light framework considering legal, industrial, professional and educational issues.

“Green” meant using AI to reduce workload or support learning without undermining the role of the teacher or harming learning, and “indicate [teacher] autonomous, professional decision-making”.

Examples included using AI to generate emails to staff, write articles for newsletters, draft homework questions and text for students to critique, and draft lesson plans.

“Amber” – such as automated essay scoring or plagiarism detection software – required wider consultation to prevent undermining the teacher’s role or negatively impacting learning.

“Red” – such as chatbots for entirely self-directed student learning or relying on AI to deal with a teacher shortage – were problematic and not supported by the unions.

QTU president Cresta Richardson said it was important teachers remained at the centre of teaching.