Category: Digital
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The AI Iceberg: Understanding ChatGPT
Analogies are useful for understanding complex ideas, and there are plenty of complexities for educators trying to wrap their heads around ChatGPT. In this post, I’ll try to explain some of the features of the chatbot and the model it’s built on top of. I’m deliberately avoiding any kind of analogy that represents the AI…
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The AI Assessment Scale: From no AI to full AI
AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT have kicked the hornet’s nest in education. From articles declaring the “end of everything” (writing, the English classroom, the entire education system…) to claims that AI will revolutionise education, we’ve seen the full spectrum of hype. What we’re yet to see much of, however, are practical solutions for dealing with…
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Teaching Writing in the Age of AI: Assessment and “Cheating”
This is the fourth post in a series on Teaching Writing in the Age of AI. The first post provided an overview of some of the changes we’re facing as the number of AI writing tools increases. Post two covered conversations about academic integrity, and the third post offered some practical advice on teaching students…
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A New Level of AI Essay
I’ve written a number of posts this year about Artificial Intelligence and education. Next week, I’ll start my PhD exploring AI and writing, and it’s fair to say I’ve been down the rabbit hole. The rate of change is very rapid, and it seems like every week a new app is released which builds on…
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Review: Simple Tools by Martin Jorgensen
When I first received a copy of Martin Jorgensen’s Simple Tools I expected a book filled with suggestions for apps and digital tools to use in class. In fact, there are only a few recommendations for tools scattered throughout the text. What I found instead was a much more purposeful and systematic method for selecting…
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Interview with Mike Sharples: Story Machines
Feature image by DALL E & Leon Furze I had the pleasure of speaking with Mike Sharples, coauthor of Story Machines, which is available now from Routledge. You can also check out Mike’s AI story writer at https://story-machines.net/ if you want to try your hand at writing (or co writing) an AI story yourself. Transcript…
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Review: Story Machines by Mike Sharples and Rafael Pérez y Pérez
Mike Sharples and Rafael Pérez y Pérez’s Story Machines: How Computers Have Become Creative Writers presents an entertaining account of Artificial Intelligence, and of both human and machine creativity. Having heard Mike Sharples talk on a podcast about his ideas regarding the future of Artificial Intelligence, I expected the book to be looking forward into…
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Robot revision: Year 12s versus the machines
I’ve been posting a lot recently about AI in education, particularly the potential impact of AI writers in the English classroom. I’m being optimistic too: I don’t think that AI writers are heralding the end of days for human authors. Nor do I think we’re ushering in an age of dubious ethics and constant cheating…
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Replacing myself with robots: Why I’m leaving the classroom
There are a few reasons why I’ve decided to leave the classroom. I’m lucky – I’m not burned out or disenfranchised with education. In fact, I’ve never felt more enthusiastic about education as a whole, despite the complications of a first semester fraught with the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic. But the lockdowns, remote learning,…
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An AI wrote this essay (and then I had to mark it)
I’ve written several posts now on the potential impact of AI in education, especially in the English classroom. These have explored AI co-authored essays, the ethics and critical literacy of robot writers, and most recently an exploration of how we might use AI for creative writing. But I have not used an AI writer to…