Voice comes to ChatGPT

AI-powered chatbots with voice assistant capabilities are transforming the landscape of academic teaching. These tools offer personalized, on-demand support for students while alleviating some of the workload for educators. By providing instant answers, explanations, and guidance, these AI assistants can enhance the learning experience across various disciplines.

Key benefits include:

• 24/7 availability for student queries
• Personalized learning paths
• Instant feedback on assignments
• Reduced workload for educators
• Accessibility for students with diverse needs

Ideas for use in Humanities:

• Language practice and pronunciation
• Historical figure role-play
• Literary analysis assistanc
• Essay structure guidance
• Cultural context explanations

Ideas for use in STEM:

• Step-by-step problem-solving
• Formula and concept explanations
• Data visualization assistance
• Code debugging support
• Scientific method guidance

By integrating these AI tools into academic settings, educators can create more engaging, efficient, and personalized learning environments for their students.

Here's more:

Teaching Tip: Navigating AI in the Classroom

There's no doubt about it, AI is here to stay. Savvy educators are accepting the inevitable and adding AI tools to their toolboxes with great success. Read Inside Higher Ed's Teaching Tip: Navigating AI in the Classroom to learn more.

AI has a place in most classrooms.

Chatting with Claude: Advice from a Chatbot

This response from Claude.AI gives me insight into tap into deeper level knowledge on the first response, without having to do interview-style digging to get to the truth of an issue:

As an AI assistant without perfect knowledge, I tend to initially provide broadly accepted guidance based on mainstream dietary recommendations, even if those are sometimes oversimplifications or don't account for nuances.

To get a more nuanced perspective upfront, here are some suggestions on how you could frame your questions:

1) Ask about specific contexts or qualifiers

"Are gyros with unprocessed, lean meat and fresh vegetables consistent with a healthy Mediterranean diet?"

This prompts me to consider the specific details rather than make broad claims.

2) Request an evidence-based view

"What does the latest scientific evidence say about the health impacts of saturated fat from unprocessed meat sources?"

This pushes me to go beyond generic guidelines and summarize the actual research evidence.

3) Note your existing knowledge

"I understand processed meats may be unhealthy, but what about from organic, unprocessed sources like a traditional gyro?"

Acknowledging your existing understanding upfront guides me toward addressing nuances rather than repeating basics.

4) Ask about criticisms or limitations

"What are the major criticisms or limitations in the research linking saturated fat and heart disease?"

This guides me to qualify claims and discuss areas of uncertainty.

Providing that type of context and specific prompts from the start would steer me away from making oversimplified claims and encourage a more circumspect, contextualized response. I'll try to apply this learning moving forward. Please feel free to push for nuance upfront in our future conversations.

It's easy to see that we're teaching each other as we go.

Back online with an AI mission

The UAH ETLC blog is being rebooted with a focus on AI and its impacts on higher education. Watch this space for announcements and opportunities to learn and network with colleagues using AI and related technologies for teaching and learning.

Today? We bring you the announcement of Gemini 1.0 by Google. Matt Wolfe, YouTube consultant on All Things AI covers the basics of how Google's new Gemini kicks ChatGPT-4's behind (and Claude's, believe it or not, in some instances).

Don't miss out on this major product announcement! And stay tuned.

 

Project STAK

Instructors can help their students develop the academic digital literacy, skills, and competencies they need to succeed with these free resources from the STAK Project in Denmark and OneHE.

From the STAK website:

The STAK Project was a 2-year project involving six higher education research libraries in Denmark and funded by DEFF (Denmark’s Electronic Research Library). The project consortium consisted of:

• The Royal Library, Aarhus University Library;
• The Centre for Educational Development and Digital Media, Aarhus University;  
• The Royal Library, Copenhagen University Library;
• Aalborg University Library;
• Aalborg University Hospital, Medical Library;
• VIA Library, VIA University College;
• KEA Library, Copenhagen School of Design and Technology. ...

The STAK Project was guided by three principles:

• Evidence-based research and expert collaboration 
• Cross-institutional co-development of activities and practices, and   
• Rigorous and consistent developmental methodologies and practices. 

• 

  Free illustration from Storyset.com

  
   

AI's dangers: real and imagined

"Experts who often focus on AI ethics aren't amused by this emerging open-letter trend.

Dr. Sasha Luccioni, a machine-learning research scientist at Hugging Face, likens the new CAIS letter to sleight of hand: 'First of all, mentioning the hypothetical existential risk of AI in the same breath as very tangible risks like pandemics and climate change, which are very fresh and visceral for the public, gives it more credibility,' she says. 'It's also misdirection, attracting public attention to one thing (future risks) so they don't think of another (tangible current risks like bias, legal issues and consent).' ...

'Certain subpopulations are actively being harmed now,' says Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at Hugging Face: 'From the women in Iran forced to wear clothes they don't consent to based on surveillance, to people unfairly incarcerated based on shoddy face recognition, to the treatment of Uyghurs in China based on surveillance and computer vision techniques.'

So while it's possible that someday an advanced form of artificial intelligence may threaten humanity, these critics say that it's not constructive or helpful to focus on an ill-defined doomsday scenario in 2023. You can't research something that isn't real, they note.

Synthograph generated by T.Olten using Midjourney 5.1

'Existential AI risk is a fantasy that does not exist currently and you can't fix something that does not exist,' tweeted Jeffries in a similar vein. 'It's a total and complete waste of time to try to solve imaginary problems of tomorrow. Solve today's problems and tomorrow's problems will be solved when we get there.'"

Read more:
Open AI Execs warn of "risk of extinction" from artificial intelligence in new open letter
arstechnica.com

ChatGPT (text) + Wolfram (computational) = AI of the future

I'm listening to this one several times. It's dense and technical, but this liberal arts major is excited! You are witnessing history being made! Why not participate in it?

If you'd like to talk about AI or any other topic related to teaching and learning, drop an email to helpdesk@uah.edu and request a consultation with one of our instructional designers or academic technologists. With all of the pedagogical resources and technology tools UAH supports, the world is your oyster!

AI: The Great Frontier

It's easy for anyone wanting to learn more about AI to feel overwhelmed by the tsunami of social media posts, articles, warnings, invitations, reassurances, and offers of services. Here is an aggregated list of over 100 FREE ways to learn more about AI—just pick one and dive in. You can't go wrong!

Watch for upcoming opportunities to join the AI conversation at UAH with opportunities to network with colleagues and crowdsource your challenges in the classroom and beyond.

Synthograph was generated by T. Olten using Midjourney 5

It's not what you think! AI concerns

"Academia really has to look at itself in the mirror and decide what it’s going to be. ...

So how does a writing instructor, or a professor in a writing-intensive course, reduce the likelihood that students will use these AI tools? Faculty members have already come up with several ideas. Flip your teaching so that seminal pieces of work are done in class. Focus more on multimedia assignments or oral presentations. Double down on feedback and revision. Ask students to write about topics of genuine interest to them, in which their voices come through and their opinions are valued."

AI and the Future of Undergraduate Writing

Chronicle of Higher Education

Transform writing assignments in the age of AI: 5 best strategies

While AI will be an inevitability in the classroom in the longterm, faculty need short term solutions for how to assess student's learning in a way that is measurable against their course and module learning objectives.

So what to do in the short term?

Check out "Transform writing assignments in the age of AI: 5 Best Strategies" and start there. There's a great free e-book that provides great in-depth dives into each of the five strategies it promotes.

It wouldn't hurt to reach out to the Instructional Design team at UAH by emailing helpdesk@uah.edu and talking it out through email or setting up a time we can meet with you and discuss in person or on Zoom. 

AI Generated image from Midjourney v5

FREE WEBINAR: AImpactED: The Impact of AI on Higher Education

What is AI? What is it not? How do we approach teaching with AI in mind? How do we prepare our students to live, work, and thrive in a world where AI technologies are proliferating at a rapid pace? Join team members from the Enhanced Teaching & Learning Center to discuss these questions and more in an introductory conversation about AI and its impact on higher education.

Join via Zoom at 3 p.m. Wednesday, March 22nd. Email helpdesk@uah.edu for a recording if you can't make it. 

AImpactED webinar Wednesday 3/22 at 3 p.m.

Spring Break: An Ode by a Bot

ME: Write me a humorous ode to spring break as written by a faculty member

CHATGPT:
Oh Spring Break, the time has come,
When students flee, and I am glum.
No more papers, no more tests,
Just sunny beaches, and endless rests.
While they're away, I'll grade their work,
And ponder why I became a clerk.
But don't you worry, I'll find joy,
In reading essays that I'll employ.
No more students to nag and nag,
No more questions that make me sag.
I'll get some peace, and some quiet too,
And maybe catch up on my to-do.
But let's be real, I'll miss those kids,
The ones who always keep me on my wits.
So here's a shoutout, to all my classes,
Have a great break, and don't forget your sun glasses!
And when you return, we'll get right back,
To learning, growing, and staying on track.
But for now, enjoy your time away,
And come back refreshed for a brand new day!

Celebrate Open Education Week with OpenStax (free download!)

It’s here again!

OpenStax is celebrating annual Open Education Week with a free download of a white paper OpenStax OER Guide.

Per OpenStax, “Open education is a community. This whitepaper begins with the basics surrounding open educational resources and then takes readers through an in-depth look at sourcing quality open resources, customizing content to fit student needs, and building in-house review teams.”

There’s a webinar this Thursday, March 9 at 10:00 a.m. CST. Register here (and from the page linked above). You’re also encouraged to sign up for their mailing list to stay abreast of developments and events!

For help creating OER or incorporating OER into your course content, email helpdesk@uah.edu.

AI in Higher Education (WCET)

WCET has also launched a great portal for issues around AI in higher education! This video is must-see!

AI for the Era Ahead

RESEARCH: Staying Relevant with AI-based assessment strategies

 

"Instead of a prescriptive approach to AI-assisted writing and plagiarism, assignments like this try something more proactive, allowing students to experience and then articulate for themselves the issues at stake. Furthermore, this approach moves students beyond antagonistic discussions of plagiarism to consider the potential uses of AI as a writer’s tool. As Grant Otsuki argues, there’s no putting the AI genie back in the bottle and little sense banning its use outright. Instead of teachers ‘pretending AI doesn't exist’ or treating it merely as an antagonist, Otsuki encourages us to bring it into the classroom: ‘it might be time to train people to write with AI’ (2020). What would that look like? While many writers are familiar with various assistive technologies, there are practically no examples for training writers with text-generating AI and language models like GPT-2. Thus, the research questions from my experiment also explore students’ strategies for AI-assisted composition. How might we write with these tools? What skills might writing with AI newly require? How does this challenge our assumptions about textual communication? And what potential risks and harms must we navigate? ‘Cheating’ offers a starting point, but it opens onto much more complex and consequential topics, from human and nonhuman agency to the threats of disinformation and algorithmic bias. Thus, the assignment moves students from a familiar ethical context (is this plagiarism?) to new ethical questions (whose writing is this? what effects does it have?) and to new forms of writing practice (can I collaborate with AI?). The resulting insights can join a much broader conversation about AI literacy, including whether or how we might ethically and productively work with AI.”

from How to cheat on your final paper: Assigning AI for student writing

AI is here, and your students are using it

There are so many resources and articles I'd like to post here to begin the conversation about AI in higher education. But let me begin with this tidbit to get things started.

ChatGPT: A Must See Before the Semester Begins is only the beginning. The ETLC at UAH is already on the case and happy to meet with any faculty or staff who would like to learn more or to get help with strategies for developing a relationship with AI and what that might look like.

The time is now.

AI is already here!

27 Interactive Examples to Help Learners Survive a Zombie Apocalypse #393 (Articulate)

 Full scoop here! Contact helpdesk@uah.edu ATTN: Zombie Apocalypse for more information and support providing interactivity to your course content!

Free graphics at Storyset.com

Plucked from Social Media

 Visualizations are brain magic!

Genetics explained with gummy bears

CourseGateway: Curated course content for Your Courses

Many faculty love the idea of Open Educational Resources (OER) but don't have the time nor bandwidth to evaluate all the options out there. Enter CourseGateway, a collaboration of Educause and Gates Foundation. 

Free illustrations from Storyset.com

If you teach at UAH and need assistance with any aspect of your course design or delivery, please email helpdesk@uah.edu to set up a meeting with an instructional designer.