Meet Mr Suhaili.

In Singapore, we have two teachers to guide and mentor the students from each class. He was my Co-Form Teacher for a couple of years. We forged a fast friendship. He even invited me to his home to celebrate Hari Raya Puasa (when Malays celebrate their New Year). It was a significant gesture - one that told me that we had transcended the chasm between colleagues and friends.

So, he was having some difficulty whipping his graduation testimonials into shape. He teaches students air-conditioning maintenance and refrigeration, so writing is not his forte. Anyway, I saw a friend in need and told him that I would take time out of my schedule to help him polish his testimonials.

You guessed it right. To expedite the process, I thought I would leverage ChatGPT. 

It took some time for him to register an account with ChatGPT because we are just so overwhelmed with having to handle multiple accounts and profiles that it took a while for him to locate the right email address that would allow him to verify a link. Because I was such a fervent believer in the prowess of ChatGPT, I kept encouraging him to stay the course and promised him that the results would be worth it.

After what seemed like eternity (actually it just took five minutes, but given our time-starved world, every second lost is productivity un-utilised), he managed to log in to ChatGPT. 

I then selected a paragraph in which a lot of sentences were written in the past continuous tense. I got him to copy and paste it on ChatGPT and type the prompt proofread so that it could work its magic.

Except that Mr Suhaili typed “prove it”. 

This was when I realised that a digital divide existed, even for those of us who worked as teachers. He is by no means a dinosaur, but I guess because I’m about two decades younger than him, I find it easier to adopt new technologies and incorporate them into my life. 

Anyway, not an issue. I wrote down “proofread” for him on a piece of paper so that he could do the subsequent vetting independently. Before long, he got the hang of it and used ChatGPT like a pro. 

Today’s experience gave me the realisation that some people around us might need more hand-holding than we expected. So, I’m motivated to carry out an introductory ChatGPT workshop next year and get my senior colleagues to set up accounts and taste its prowess for themselves. After all, it’s super nice to teach someone else to fish!