Equity Issues Derived from Use of Large Language Models in Education

One of the emerging challenges in Education refers to diversity. Existing differences in a classroom can be a source of wealth and beauty. But they can also be a source of tensions that can generate conflicts. These conflicts are directly associated with the existence of privilege deriving from these differences. One source of these privileges can be provoked by the emerging new media. They can increase what is called the digital divide, challenging the educational stakeholders to promote an equitable and fairer learning environment. We will discuss in this essay some dimensions of the digital divide that can emerge from the called large language models (LLM, e.g., ChatGPT) in computing education. Issues concern not only plagiarism problems but also another level of digital literacy, referred to as lifelong learning competencies. Part of the domain of these competencies will require a level of mediatization through LLMs, leading us to understand another kind of literacy: the prompt literacy (concerning the ability to interact appropriately via prompt with LLM).