The recent release of the AI ‘ChatGPT‘ is causing some serious chaos in higher education.
Many educators are throwing shade on the tech and labelling it the death knell of traditional methods of learning and teaching.
It’s completely understandable why some people feel this way.
Inputting commands into a chat box and watching the speed and quality (?) of the response the AI model generates can be rather alarming. It’s natural for some people to react by insisting it is shut down.
I sit among a growing number of academics who think that this technology should be embraced.
My positive outlook comes from playing with AI tools for many hundreds of hours.
If my time spent playing with AI tools has taught me anything, it’s that AI is going to impact every aspect of our working lives.
Accepting that it’s here and designing ways to (responsibly) integrate it into learning and teaching is the logical way forward.
Embracing AI in Higher Education: Moving beyond the Negative Narrative
It is a common observation that the media tends to focus on sensational and attention-grabbing stories, rather than positive or nuanced ones. Not always true, but often so.
In the case of AI and higher education, media coverage has focused on ‘cheating’, and how universities can put policies and procedures in place to ‘manage the AI problem’.
What’s not getting a lot of voice is the potential benefits of AI, such as improved learning and teaching.
Media coverage of AI can create an unbalanced perception of the technology among the public and educators, who may be misinformed about its capabilities and potential impact on their field.
Unlocking the Potential of AI in the Classroom to further students’ careers
The dominating media narrative (i.e. punishment, restriction) could be considered rather offensive by students, not to mention detrimental to their future careers.
Why?
Because the majority of students don’t sign up for a university course so they can cheat their way through.
Most students are seeking to graduate with skills and knowledge.
They also want to gain skills for succeeding in the new world of work.
Sure, students could plagiarise all their university assignments using ChatGPT.
But, there have long existed myriad ways to cheat.
Most students don’t.
A Perspective of AI in Higher Education from an Academic “Expert”
As an academic, I was inspired to demonstrate the potential of AI as a tool to enhance learning, teaching, and scholarly research.
Given the abundance of discussions being centred on academic integrity, I felt it was important to provide an additional perspective and demonstrate some of the technology’s capabilities and limitations in the field of higher education.
If you find the video useful, please share it so we can bring nuance to the debate of AI in higher education.
📝 For a sample of AI-generated writing, see my earlier post where I put the AI Jasper.ai to the test 🙂
