Chat GPT, Stats, and Math: What are we going to do?

Along with everyone else freaking out about Chat GPT (John Dickerson did a nice segment on CBS) I thought I might test it out with a few basic questions from classes I teach. This year my focus is on introduction to statistics, so I thought I would start by asking it a few open-ended and computational questions. 

Education Research Writer: Dual-classing Science Writing and Education Writing

As an educator for a few years (uh...16?) I'm seeing a kind of 'blank spot' in the education landscape; individuals who take education research, and write articles and produce other media promoting the teaching practices from this research. 

Contrast that with science writers who make up a whole industry of reading current science research, and writing for publications like Popular Science, National Geographic, and other national magazines. Sure, we might have organizations or institutions (PERTS, the Rand Corporation, Dana Center, etc.) that create initiatives to support the implementation of one set of best practices or another, but we don't have individuals writing about the most recent advances in education research. Granted, there are breakthrough topics every so often that get printed, seemingly everywhere, like the growth mindset based on Dr. Carol Dweck's work. At the same time education topics are not a regular part of most American's media diet. 

An obvious reason might be that science is very accessible and visually impressive to more people than education research. I mean, who wouldn't want to watch a video of rockets taking off, over watching stock footage of students taking a test? I would! It could also be that the American attitude towards education is transactional; you educators give us knowledge, and in turn we pay your salaries. Suffice it to say, I don't agree with this attitude, and believe it likely hurts our educational outcomes compared to other nations'. 

Back to science writers, what do they do? This list of responsibilities from Indeed.com might come in handy:

• "Writing research-based pieces of content to discuss scientific theories, science trends and news
• Adhering to a particular style guide to make sure all content pieces follow company standards
• Conducting interviews with industry experts, including medical doctors, scientists and academic professionals
• Planning content creation and publications
• Keeping updated on breaking news in science and the types of content that an audience wants to read more about
• Proofing written content before publishing
• Selecting supporting documentation to accompany a news story
• Attending conferences, events and meetings to learn about breakthroughs in science"

The job seems bifurcated: half the time you are collecting information through interviews, reading, and additional research, while the other half the time you are creating content. So how might we revise this list of responsibilities for an education research writer? (Unfortunately we can't just say 'education writer' as that includes diverse jobs such as curriculum writer, journalist who reports on education news (not research), among others.) Doing a simple find and replace of 'science' with 'education' on the science writer list of responsibilities we get:

• "Writing research-based pieces of content to discuss education theories, education trends and news
• Adhering to a particular style guide to make sure all content pieces follow company standards
• Conducting interviews with industry experts, including teachers, educators and academic professionals
• Planning content creation and publications
• Keeping updated on breaking news in education and the types of content that an audience wants to read more about
• Proofing written content before publishing
• Selecting supporting documentation to accompany a news story
• Attending conferences, events and meetings to learn about breakthroughs in education "

Changing six words seems to do the trick, but is such a job in demand? Can someone make a living doing this? I have some more thoughts to share on this, and might try it out in the near future. Do you know someone who currently has this job? Let me know in the comments.