First published in Campus Morning Mail 14th Feb, 2023
Talking to students about ChatGPT from Twitter
Something that is become more and more apparent as the discourse around the generative AI revolution continues is the virtual absence of student voices. We are making a great many assumptions about what they think and what they will do, but are they valid? Emily Pitts Donahoe from the English department at Notre Dame university (US) runs through a recent discussion she had with her first year writing students, touching on academic integrity and the quality of AI outputs.
ChatGPT and Interviewing Learner Personas from Rebecca Hogue
Looking at teaching from another angle, instructional (learning) designers sometimes use ‘personas’ in a design process to centre their work around the learner need. A persona might include demographic information alongside personalities and learner motivations. Rebecca Hogue explores using ChatGPT to have (basic) conversations with personas that might be interested in shifting careers to the instructional (learning) design discipline. As with many AI outputs, it can be a little basic but also offers a convenient framework to refine.
Put Down the Shiny Object: The Overwhelming State of Higher Education Technology from WCET Frontiers
Without realising it, I appear to have hit upon a student centred theme this week. This article summarises some interesting discussions relating to what students want and need from the various education technologies in their institutions – and particularly the way their educators choose them and use them. Key ideas include academic freedom vs consistency, support & training, and cognitive overload from too many new tools.
Addressing Moodle’s ‘Image problem’ from Catalyst
Catalyst is a major host and developer for the Moodle Learning Management System (LMS), so it is always worth being mindful of your source with these posts. As someone who has worked with Moodle in a number of institutions of the years though, the key ideas here certainly resonated. What do you do when a perception emerges that your institutional system seems ‘tired’ or ‘dated’? Is this valid or are there other factors influencing this? How much can and will recent updates to Moodle change this?
The Teaching Game from Wharton Interactive
Developing good learning and teaching practices in educators in Higher Ed has its challenges. This short interactive game developed by the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania does a lot of heavy lifting in showcasing some key concepts as players work through a fun 10 min teaching scenario.