\u201cWe looked at it together just to see what it could do, and what the students noticed is that it does in seconds something that the students are building up to learning over the course of the semester,\u201d George says.<\/p>\n
Across campus, professors are wrestling with how to use artificial intelligence in their classrooms. There are concerns that ChatGPT threatens to normalize plagiarism \u2013 and in journalism, create fake news. Some professors are redesigning their assignments in response.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are times when I look at it and just think, \u2018Oh my gosh, this whole thing makes me want to run off to the woods and forget about it altogether.\u2019 But we can’t do that,\u201d says Writing Studies Associate Professor Ronald Brooks Jr. \u201cWe’re at the same spot that math teachers were in when having to deal with Excel spreadsheets, and if you go further back, with calculators. I think we’ll figure it out.\u201d<\/p>\n Last month, Brooks joined a Montclair discussion on ChatGPT and similar technologies that draw on artificial intelligence. The faculty panelists \u2013 with expertise in writing, computational linguistics and semantic parsing \u2013 offered their perspectives on the technology, including how ChatGPT might change teaching and learning. (Watch: ChatGPT and the Future of AI<\/a>).<\/p>\n \u201cWe have this technology now and so how do we respond to it? It will completely redefine how we teach writing, and for many of us, redefine how we teach,\u201d Brooks says.<\/p>\n Brooks offered advice for professors wondering how to teach in the age of artificial intelligence. First, make the class accountable. \u201cMake it really clear if you don\u2019t want students to use AI writing in your class,\u201d he says. But, secondly, don\u2019t be afraid to introduce it. \u201cThis technology will be available to them when they get out into the working world. So why not start with it and see where it takes you?\u201d<\/p>\n In the class demonstration with George\u2019s journalism class, students discovered its limitations. It was difficult to get on to ChatGPT as the free software has been overwhelmed by users testing its ability. And while ChatGPT quickly generated readable prose (it works by referencing its vast repository of digital information, including training sets, books, Wikipedia articles and other online writing), the news story it turned out contained notable errors.<\/p>\n “It was making up quotes from students who didn’t exist,” says sophomore Avery Nixon, a Film and Television major with a Creative Writing minor. \u201cIt was getting the facts wrong. If you didn’t know it wasn’t true, it would probably look okay. But it was a bunch of random things mixed together, and it wasn’t factual at all.”<\/p>\n Jonathan Howell, an associate professor of Linguistics, tackled the issue of teaching students to use IA in a recent op-ed<\/a> as a Star-Ledger<\/em>\/nj.com guest columnist. \u201cIt should come as no surprise that students have started to embrace ChatGPT,” he writes. “They are, after all, digital natives. They have never known a world without algorithms. Algorithms that optimize web searches, curate social media feeds, filter r\u00e9sum\u00e9s, deny loans and health insurance claims, suggest the next word in your text message, and more. They accept algorithms as a necessary and pervasive, if somewhat creepy, part of ordinary life.”<\/p>\n Howell says he recalls the \u201cextreme reactions\u201d when the internet came along, \u201cIt’s interesting to see some of the same things play out with ChatGPT where you have some school districts and universities saying we have to ban this thing completely and figure out how to detect people who are using it.\u201d<\/p>\n The ÌÇÐÄvlog Office for Faculty Excellence has hosted webinars and posted practical advice<\/a> on its website, including assignment design. This includes referencing class materials and notes in written assignments, including visual prompts, connecting to current events, and replacing written assignments with ones that require students to submit an audio file, podcast, video, speech, drawing, diagram or multimedia project.<\/p>\n \u201cMy one main piece of advice I would give to teachers is this: Make the assignment personal to the experience of the students because then they’ll actually want to do the writing or the assignment,\u201d Brooks says. \u201cMaybe that\u2019s a little too idealistic but at least that personal connection is something that the computer can’t do.\u201d<\/p>\n Story by Staff Writer Marilyn Joyce Lehren<\/a>.<\/p>\n You May Also Like:<\/strong><\/p>\n![\"Male](\"\/responsive-media\/cache\/newscenter\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/15\/2023\/03\/111819_8041_CHSS-Jhumpa-Lahiri-Discussion.jpg.0.1x.generic.jpg\")
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