Dear Reader,

I'm having an absolute blast experimenting with ChatGPT! Thank you for the tremendous support and response to my email two weeks ago. It's been incredible to hear about your personal experiences with ChatGPT. It seems like some of your kids' schools are already in on this tech marvel, while others are still scratching their heads in utter cluelessness.

Here is a secret that one of you let me in on— Poe! Quora's answer to the AI race. With Poe, we can bypass all those pesky restrictions in Hong Kong. Now, I'm truly cooking with FIRE! Talk about empowering technology… Feels like I’m bypassing mom and dad’s screentime rules! 😜

Last week, ChatGPT came to the rescue again, but this time for my youngest daughter with dyslexia. Let me set the stage…

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where your child is assigned something at school, but somehow it ends up becoming your assignment too?

Well, it seems I keep redoing the same assignment for all three of my kids at my kid’s school in fifth grade when they are required to speak at something called the "Global Issues Conference (GIC).” This capstone event is pure genius. Modeled after TEDx conferences, ten to eleven-year-olds delve into major global issues and are tasked with researching, investigating, designing, and presenting on a chosen topic, complete with a speech and a call to action.

I vividly recall my initial thoughts when my oldest child embarked on this journey. I thought the school was absolutely nuts to force ten-year-olds to undertake such a mammoth task. After all, they were still missing their permanent cuspids! Researching at this level wasn't something I remember doing until graduate school.

Months of dedication go into this project, with endless hours spent researching, writing scripts, and crafting presentations. It's truly a colossal undertaking, especially for a kid with dyslexia.

But fear not, for in this grand adventure, we have found our knight in shining AI armor—ChatGPT! And it has become Zoe's superhero sidekick.

Because my daughter faces unique challenges as a dyslexic student, reading, writing, and comprehension can be particularly demanding for her. One of the most remarkable features of ChatGPT is its ability to convert written text into speech. This means that instead of struggling with reading, she can now listen to the content, making it much easier for her to access information and engage with her assignments, articles, and other text-based materials.

ChatGPT also provides invaluable writing assistance. Dyslexic students often grapple with spelling, grammar, and sentence structure, which can affect their overall confidence in expressing themselves. Thankfully, with real-time suggestions and corrections from ChatGPT, my daughter has been able to enhance the quality of her written work.

Finally, when it comes to inquisitive research, ChatGPT provides you with a wealth of information at a simple ask. However, it is important to note that students must drill down on source material, as some of the links that the AI spit out simply did not exist!

Initially, my daughter wondered if using ChatGPT was somehow cheating. So, I asked her a simple question: "Is it cheating when you discuss ideas with your dear old mom?" ChatGPT is merely an extension of that, a virtual brainstorming session with someone way smarter.

And the most important thing?

We were doing it together.

This gave me an opportunity to talk about original ideas where you make connections of information found from various sources. The importance of attributing the source and properly citing research. She was tempted to cut and paste parts of her chats into her paper, but we discussed who that was serving? Taking something from an AI robot and passing it as your own is robbing yourself of the opportunity to communicate something in a way that is truly original.

Hence my love for Giphys.

As we approach the grand finale of Zoe's "Global Issues Conference," I am grateful for the invaluable support ChatGPT has provided her throughout this process. It has truly been a transformative experience, and it reinforces the notion that technology, when used responsibly and creatively, can make a significant difference in our children's education.

I’ve also been sharing some of my insights into ChatGPT with other mom business owners as well! Last week I sat down with Mums at Play to Chat about ChatGPT. While mompreneurs can be the most innovative and creative with resources, they also tend to be the late adopters for technology. If you aren’t part of this dynamic and resourceful network, follow Mums@play on IG.

Please share with me your in the trenches parenting stories about AI! I love hearing from you.

Peace, Love, and Hairgrease,

Arcadia