Should I block ChatGPT?

Many districts are struggling with ChatGPT. Should we allow it? Should we block it? What should we do?

A quick recap
ChatGPT is a tool that will generate human-like responses to questions. Many schools (especially higher education institutions) have seen a rise in students using ChatGPT to generate research papers. This has led a lot of schools to blocking ChatGPT.

Let's look at a few reasons why you SHOULD NOT block ChatGPT, and then look at a few reasons why you SHOULD block ChatGPT.

Why you SHOULD NOT block ChatGPT

1. You can't fight the future. Calculators, Wikipedia, and ChatGPT are all REAL tools in the REAL world. Find a way to educate your students to responsibly use the tools they will encounter.
2. Students can easily access the tool from home. Blocking the tool at school simply shifts the use of the tool out of supervised and guided environments.
3. ChatGPT is a POWERFUL tool for teachers! Lesson plans become almost a joy to build with ChatGPT as an ally. 

 Why you SHOULD block ChatGPT

1.  Students are probably younger than ChatGPT allows in their Terms of Service.
2. The responses have been observed to at times be controversial or offensive.
3. The responses can be error prone.

So what do I do??
What is the savvy district administrator to do? The most important thing you can do is to be purposeful. Have an open dialogue with educators, students, parents and board members about your overall content filtering philosophy and strategy. Remember WHY you filter content, and as a district, write it down. Follow your own policies and procedures, and if you don't have solid ones - now's the time to think them through.

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