Tuesday December 5, 2023 | Tuesdays for Teachers to Lunch and Learn | noon - 1pm EST

Please share the link with any of your colleagues, no need to register, just stop by and learn tips & tricks to apply to your teaching practice.

Tuesday, December 5, 2023  from noon to 1pm | Join our Zoom Meeting: https://stcc-edu.zoom.us/j/98710764766 

Topics for discussion: 

• Raising our students' voices listening/conversing with them on their perspective of using AI/ChatGPT in an English 101  level classroom. 

• After a semester working with AI/ChatGPT join to hear STCC students opinions on the experience.

Some excellent resources from Peter Shea, Middlesex Community College

ChatGPT Articles of interest: 

AI Overview

• More AI: in case ChatGPT is not enough for you, check out: There's an AI for That! Look for an AI to do just about anything.

• Google unveils ChatGPT rivel. By Catherine Thorbecke. CNN . Google unveils a new chatbot tool dubbed “Bard” in an apparent bid to compete with the viral success of ChatGPT.

• Educator considerations for ChatGPT. By OpenAI. Retrieved February 2, 2023. This page provides a brief overview for educators seeking to learn more about the capabilities, limitations, and considerations for using ChatGPT for teaching and learning. While this page focuses on ChatGPT and the OpenAI AI text classifier, many of these considerations are also relevant to the use of language models for teaching and learning more broadly.

• Massachusetts bill aims to regulate ChatGPT. By Ellen Fleming. 22NewsWWLP. January 31, 2023

• ChatGPT for Teachers. By Evan Dunne. In this short booklet, Evan explores the various ways that ChatGPT can be used to enhance your teaching practice. Evan provides tips and prompts for effectively implementing ChatGPT into your teaching practice and discusses the potential problems that ChatGPT may create in the education sector.

• ChatGPT & Education. a primer from Torrey Trust, Ph.D. January 4, 2023. A quick read on basics.

• Microsoft Bets Big on the Creator of ChatGPT in Race to Dominate A.I. By By Cade Metz and Karen Weise. New York Times. January 17, 2023. As a new chatbot wows the world with its conversational talents, a resurgent tech giant is poised to reap the benefits while doubling down on a relationship with the start-up OpenAI.

• People are already trying to get ChatGPT to write malware. By Danny Palmer. ZDNET. January 9, 2023. Analysis of chatter on dark web forums shows that efforts are already under way to use OpenAI's chatbot to help script malware.

AI ChatGPT & Pedagogy

• On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots: Can Language Models Be Too Big?  By Emily Bender et al., March 2021 Proceedings of the 2021 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency, March 2021.

• Emily Pitts Donahue, Twitter thread on discussing ChatGPT with first-year writing students, February 10, 2023. Student perspectives on AI tools and writing:

• Guest Post: AI Will Augment, Not Replace, By Marc Watkins. Inside Higher Ed. December 14, 2022. Language models are imperfect tools—amazing one moment and frighteningly inaccurate the next. Still, the rate these tools are being deployed and readily adopted means that we’re all likely to use some form of AI assistance in our writing, if we aren’t already. This is why it is crucial for us to teach our students about these models, how to use them ethically and what it will mean for their writing process.
  Two tools mentioned in the article: 

  • Elicit an AI tool similar to ChatGPT. Elicit uses language models to help you automate research workflows, like parts of literature review. Elicit can find relevant papers without perfect keyword match, summarize takeaways from the paper specific to your question, and extract key information from the papers.

  • Explainpaper an AI tool similar to ChatGPT. Upload a paper, highlight confusing text, get an explanation.

• Don't Write Like a Robot. By  James M. Lang and Michelle D. Miller. The Chronicle of Higher Education January 30, 2023. Beyond the new technology’s implications for the classroom, what can ChatGPT teach academics about their own writing?

• Teaching: Rethinking Research Papers, and Other Responses to ChatGPT. By Beth McMurtrie. The Chronicle of Higher Education. February 2, 2023. Among the many concerns educators have about ChatGPT, the core one seems to be that students will allow artificial intelligence to do their thinking for them.

• ChatGPT, AI-Generative Tools, and Education...my turn...  By Lance Eton. January 31, 2023. Lance is a technology guru who shares that everyone has their thoughts on ChatGPT and definitely has some contributions and thoughts for this discussion.  

• Designing Assignments in the ChatGPT Era. By Susan D'Agostino. Inside Higher Ed. January 31, 2023. Some instructors seek to craft assignments that guide students in surpassing what AI can do. Others see that as a fool’s errand—one that lends too much agency to the software.

• 10 Things Teacher Can Do With ChatGPT to Save Time. By Monica Burns. Clsss Tech Tips. January 30, 2023. 

• ChatGPT and the Future of Education: Learner-Centered Approaches Leading the Way. By Dr. Sonn Sam, Big Picture Learning. Education Reimagined. January 25, 2023. The future design of education cannot exist without a balance of human experience and technology.

• Embrace the Bot: Designing Writing Assignments in the Face of AI. By Eric Prochaska. Faculty Focus. Just as pocket calculators, personal computers, and smart phones have posed threats to students learning math skills, AI seems to be the new tool poised to undermine the use of writing assignments to assess student learning.

• Alarmed by A.I. Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach. By Kalley Huang. The New York Times. January 16, 2023. With the rise of the popular new chatbot ChatGPT, colleges are restructuring some courses and taking preventive measures.

• ChatGPT Advice Academics Can Use Now. By Susan D'Agostino. Inside Higher Education. January 12, 2023. To harness the potential and avert the risks of OpenAI’s new chat bot, academics should think a few years out, invite students into the conversation and—most of all—experiment, not panic.

• 6 Ed Tech Tools to Try in 2023. The Cult of Pedagogy. By Jennifer Gonzalez. January 11, 2023. Listen [or read] Jennifer's annual tech tools episode that starts with an overview of ChatGPT. For anyone teaching writing this is a must read/listen along with the other 5 tools reviewed.

• What are we doing about AI essays? Faculty Focus, January 4, 2023.  This article speaks to the teacher in all of us. How will you meet this technology and change your teaching?

• A Teacher's Prompt Guide to ChatGPT aligned with 'What Works Best'. By Andrew Herft. This is a short instructional teachers guide to using ChatGPT… By following this guide, you will learn how to effectively incorporate ChatGPT into your teaching practice and make the most of its capabilities."

• ChatGPT: A Must-See Before the Semester Begins. By Cynthia Alby. Faculty Focus. January 9, 2023. Cynthia urges us to consider the possibility that ChatGPT is handing us an opportunity to work with students far more than we talk at them. My hope is that this shake-up will force us to address the underlying problem—that while humans are naturally curious and will often pursue out-of-school learning with great fervor, much in-school learning feels trivial and tedious.She goes on to ask a higher question worth consideration: If your goal was to make learning so meaningful, worthwhile, and alluring that students wouldn’t dream of cheating themselves AND make your own job deeply satisfying, what would that look like?

• Teaching: Will ChatGPT Change the Way You Teach? By Beth McMurtrie, The Chronicle of Higher Education, January 6, 2023. First, if you want to make your assignments AI-proof, that’s likely impossible. These tools can be used in large and small ways. Here are some of the ideas from digital-literacy experts, writing instructors, and teaching and learning specialists.

• ChatGPT: Teachers Weigh In on How to Manage the New AI Chatbot. By Larry Ferlazzo, Education Week, January 3, 2023. Looks at the pros and cons of ChatGPT.

AI ChatGPT Detection & Response

• Did a Fourth Grader Write This? Or the New Chatbot?  By Claire Cain Miller, Adam Playford, Larry Buchanan and Aaron Krolik. December 26, 2022. To better understand what ChatGPT can do, the New York Times decided to see if people could tell the difference between the bot’s writing and a child’s. [You will need to log into NYTimes to view this article in its fullest]. 

• North Carolina Professors Catch Students Cheating With ChatGPT. By Brian Gordon. The News & Observer, Raleigh, N.C.Government Technology. January 12, 2023.  University professors are grappling with the implications of students having access to ChatGPT, an AI chatbot that can write about anything from cookie recipes to computer coding to Jane Austen's literary techniques.

• My First Chat With the Bot.  By Brian Strang. Inside Higher Education. January 12, 2023. Uncanny, creepy and bland: Brian Strang reflects on his chat with the artificial intelligence language model ChatGPT and the threat it does (or doesn’t) pose to writing instruction.

• A college student created an app that can tell whether AI wrote an essay. By Emma Bowman. NPR. January 9, 2023. Teachers worried about students turning in essays written by a popular artificial intelligence chatbot now have a new tool of their own. Edward Tian, a 22-year-old senior at Princeton University, has built an app to detect whether text is written by ChatGPT, the viral chatbot that's sparked fears over its potential for unethical uses in academia.

• An A.I. Pioneer on What We Should Really Fear, By David Marchese, New York Times, December 21, 2022

• Is Ths the Start of an AI Takeover?  By Conor Friedersdorf, The Atlantic, January 4, 2023. A longer Q&A diving into the deeper predictions for the future of bots.

• What is ChatGPT and how to use the AI tool effectively. By Patrick Devaney, ghacks.net, December 30, 2022. A retro look at the 2022 AI articles and speaks of DALL-E a powerful image producing AI source.

• ChatGPT: Understanding the ChatGPT AI Chatbot. By Samuel Greengard, eWEEK, December 29, 2022. Fueled by AI, ChatGPT pushes natural language processing to a new level. It generates machine text that looks like something a human would write. ChatGPT and AI are rapidly redefining and rewiring the way humans and machines interact. In the coming years, ChatGPT and others will enable new products, services and features. Read and see if you agree.
   

If you have any questions, please reach out to Mary Wiseman mwiseman@stcc.edu 

Tuesdays for Teachers to Lunch & Learn Session

• Who are the teachers you remember?

• What did those teachers say and do to make a lasting impact on you?

• With all the challenges you have, what inspires you to continue teaching?

If you are looking for a way to recharge and refocus your teaching practice, consider joining a series of informal lunch & learn sessions on Tuesdays, noon to 1pm to reflect on what your teachers have taught you and how you can move their passion and inspiration forward to your students.

Objectives: reflect upon how our own teachers have impacted us and think about ways we can incorporate those practices into our own teaching. 

• No registration required, no pop quizzes, no book required, and no stipend is being offered. 

• Just join us for collegial time to commune and share with other teachers & faculty.Participate, show up, and eat lunch while online is OK and be ready to share memories [if you’re so compelled] and have sticky notes or paper and pen/pencil at the session. No pressure.

Reading:

Julie Hasson, author of Safe, Seen, and Stretched in the Classroom: The Remarkable Ways Teachers Shape Students’ Lives, is unpacking her book one chapter at a time. Follow her as she guides you through the readings. Take 10 minutes to watch, reflect and challenge yourself. 

Spring 2023 Meeting Dates

Upcoming Meeting Dates: This recurring Zoom link will get you into all the sessions: https://stcc-edu.zoom.us/j/98710764766  

• Tuesday, April 11, 2023 noon to 1pm

Past  2022 Meeting Dates & Notes

Fall 2022 Meeting Dates: This recurring Zoom link will get you into all the sessions: https://stcc-edu.zoom.us/j/98710764766  

• Tuesday, September 20, 2022 noon to 1pm

  • As you are engaging with your students, keep in mind how cold calling might impact students. Consider rethinking participation in your classroom [in any modality]. I would like to discuss the topic of engagement in the classroom-any modality. 

  • Serena Shorter shared the School Reform Initiative’s protocols resource page she mentioned in our Zoom. Serena advises that it does take some time to explore the protocols and find what meets a particular need. She suggests diving in and finding some new ideas by exploring what is in here. 

• Tuesday, October 18, 2022 noon to 1pm

Please read this short article From Retention to Persistence by Vincent Tinto. He describes three major factors that shape student motivation to stay in college and graduate: self-efficacy, a sense of belonging, and perceived value of the curriculum.

Let's consider discussing:

• Self-Efficacy: How do you see your students believing in their skills? How do you encourage your students to believe in their skills?

• Sense of Belonging: What are you doing to create a sense of belonging to your course | program?

• Value in your Curriculum: What are you offering in your curriculum, that is valuable for your students? How are you making connections?

Another article, worth a read: How Not to Handle Student Failure. The firing of an NYU professor prompts one of his former students to reflect on her own teaching. Bernsten, L. (2022, October 13). The Chronicle of Higher Education.

• Tuesday, November 22, 2022 noon to 1pm

Restaurateur Will Guidara's life changed when he decided to serve a two-dollar hot dog in his fancy four-star restaurant, creating a personalized experience for some out-of-town customers craving authentic New York City street food. Please watch the 14 minute Ted Talk video below [it can be shorter if you speed up the video]. 

Be prepared to discuss ideas on how we-as educators- are  in the business of relationships and memories [think of your curriculum, outcomes, objectives].

• What hospitality and services can we provide for our students to give them a sense of belonging?

• How are you making your students 'feel' when they are in your classrooms? 

  • How might you improve those feelings?

  • What gestures are you communicating with your students?

  • How are you 'listening' to your students?

• What other thoughts bubble up from watching this video?

Ideas on Motivation Generated at the May 17, 2022 Gathering

• Ask students what they want & need etc.

• Offer choice, 

• Allow journaling, in written form, audio, video, allow quotes, poems, images-whatever motivates the student to 'communicate their ideas'. Or they could chart their feelings.

• Give polls - enormously- to check for comprehension or whatever you want to measure. 

  • Polls too on hot topics

• Offer clear instructions

• Try discussions boards to keep conversations moving.

• Keep trying different ideas...

• Communicate to your students how challenging it can be to stay motivated and tell them what motivates you and how you overcome your challenges.

• Took a free online class- motivated by feedback.

• Having students join each other in thought partners/groups -small groups to study together, ask questions of each other.

• Showcase student work

• Identify where the students are coming from, be empathic, meet them at their energy level.

• Ask how the students they want to be communicated with...what is their preference of communication- method?

  • Keep the choices to whatever you [as faculty] can handle i.e. email, text, phone call, social media