The Question of Equity in the Age of ChatGPT

Budget constraints are not a foreign concept to K-12 teachers who often have to turn to crowd-funding type grants such as Donors Choose in order to bring the latest and greatest tech to their classroom, let alone bring basic supplies like books to their classrooms. It took a global pandemic to increase access to one-to-one devices with middle schools and high schools across the nation reporting 90% of students have access and 84% of elementary students have. Now, districts have to budget to maintain the devices and evaluate which subscriptions are worth keeping. Will the controversial “ChatGPT” make the cut?

More importantly, how can school leaders afford to not teach students to use these technologies, as the world is becoming more reliant on AI? A Recent EdWeek blog, shared that data support that schools in more affluent areas use technology for creating, whereas in lower socio-economic areas, technology is used for independent practice and “drill and practice” based assignments. How will this model translate to the use of AI and conversational bots in the classroom? It could mean that students from lower socio-economic status schools use the technology for lower-level tasks like basic question and answer, whereas more affluent communities would use it for more critical thinking skills. That’s assuming that all students would maintain access to technology.