The growing interest in ChatGPT has been reflected in SEDA’s JISCMail list discussions. This software needs our careful attention and so SEDA is delighted to offer the following events to share opinions and identify emerging practice/policies.
| 8th February 12.00 – 12.30 | A non-technical introduction to ChatGPT Sue Beckingham and Peter Hartley This half-hour online session will provide an introduction to ChatGPT from the user perspective for anyone who has not seen it in operation and is wondering about the range of things it can do. There will also be time to respond to questions and queries. Session recording Presentation slides |
| 1st March, 12.00-12.30 | An updated non-technical introduction to ChatGPT Sue Beckingham and Peter Hartley This half-hour online session will provide an introduction to ChatGPT from the user perspective. It will be especially useful for anyone who has not seen it in operation and is wondering about the range of things it can do. This is updated from the session delivered by Sue and Peter on February 8, to take account of subsequent announcements from Microsoft and Google about their future plans for this technology. These announcements suggest that software like ChatGPT will shortly be accessible to everyone across education through standard software like Microsoft Word. There will also be a completely new set of examples to illustrate how ChatGPT and related technologies can be used. Session recording Presentation slides |
| 8th March, 12.00 – 13.00 | Generative AI for Academic Writing and Assessment: Issues and Opportunities Mike Sharples New generative AI systems such as ChatGPT are powerful general-purpose language devices. They can hold conversations, write plausible student essays, summarise scientific texts, produce lesson plans, and draft academic papers. But they have a serious flaw – they are language models not knowledge bases; they output “continuations” not facts. As such, they need to be approached with great care. In this talk I show examples of their use and misuse, discuss the implications for student assessment and plagiarism, suggest new opportunities for creative writing and argumentation with AI, and end with some implications for educational development and policy making. Mike Sharples is Emeritus Professor of Educational Technology in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University and is the co-author of the book which is a great introduction to this form of software and its development https://www.routledge.com/Story-Machines-How-Computers-Have-Become-Creative-Writers/Sharples-Perez/p/book/9780367751975 Session recording |
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