ChatGPT in Africa

I recently had the opportunity to introduce my friends at Grand Maria School in Uganda to ChatGPT. Although a few had heard of it, none had used it or seen it in action.

Now here is the part that I found most interesting. In North America, when teachers learn about ChatGPT, one of their first responses is to worry about how students may be using it to cheat – to do their homework for them.

For my Ugandan teacher friends, there was very little skepticism. Because their students have very little access to technology at school, little or no access to technology at home, and NO school access to the internet, they do not even see it as a tool for cheating. Instead, they saw ChatGPT as a tool that could save them enormous amounts of time.

Here are some of the prompts that we explored:

•Please create a menu for a traditional Ugandan celebration meal for 50 people. Include a shopping list.
•You are the principal of Grand Maria School, a primary school of 750 students in Uganda. Write a letter of recommendation for student who has just completed primary 7. This student, David, has excellent marks, is well-disciplined, is God-fearing, and is good at badminton and swimming.
•Write a newsletter to parents of Grand Maria School indicating that the report cards will be sent on line and parents will not need to come to school to pick them up.
•Write a poem in rhyming couplets from the point of view of a frustrated Ugandan boda-boda driver.
•Write a 5 paragraph essay on the topic “Is it safe to travel in Uganda?”
•Summarize this essay into 3 sentences.
•Write a lesson plan for teaching place value to one millions to 12 year old students.
•Thank you. Now please provide 10 sample questions to use with the students.
•Write a multiple choice quiz about the basics of using Microsoft Powerpoint.

By the time I had finished the showcase, a few teachers had already signed up for a ChatGPT account and others were brainstorming ways that they could use it. At this point, this technology serves as an equalizer.

In Zambia, I will also be doing some office staff technology training. We will for sure look at ChatGPT as the demographic there will be even less likely to be aware of ChatGPT and other generative AI tools. Perhaps an update will follow.