How Teachers Can Harness AI in Our Work
A workshop for the Center for Learning and Teaching at the American University in Cairo and Equity Unbound
Anna Mills, English Instructor at Cañada College
October 24, 2023
Licensed CC BY NC 4.0
Welcome!
Please share your name, college, and
Slides, open for commenting:
What to expect
How useful is AI? �Quotes from a New York Times article by Francesca Paris and Larry Buchanan
Is that AI hype? Let’s see.�Before we use a language model, some caveats and ground rules
Presentation by Anna Mills, licensed CC BY NC 4.0.
Disclosure��Rule of thumb: If you would credit a human for similar assistance, credit ChatGPT (and remember the unknown human authors it was trained on)
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Sample ChatGPT text in quotes with an asterisk, integrated into my textbook section on template phrases for critiquing AI outputs
Sample disclosure from my textbook
Privacy: Don’t share sensitive or private information with ChatGPT, especially not student writing or data
From the OpenAI Privacy Policy
“We may use Personal Information for the following purposes:
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Verification: Check all ChatGPT outputs
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Remember, the algorithm is designed to play a guessing game. ��What would the humans write next? How would a human writer likely continue on from the prompt?
Statistical prediction based on human data
Researcher and “AI humorist” Janelle Shane Twitter profile photo
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Check for bias as well as inaccuracy
a
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Wait, should we even be using ChatGPT or other AI text generators?
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A host of other concerns surround the training and use of language models (See Teaching AI Ethics by Leon Furze)
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I continue to wrestle with these questions, but I am using it for certain things because
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Using ChatGPT isn’t necessarily “phoning it in.” We can use it to help us think and to push our thinking, not to skip thinking
I first saw articulated this approach articulated by Kyle Booten, an English professor at University of Connecticut at AI FUTURES: An Interdisciplinary Conversation on LLMs and the Future of Human Writing
Presentation by Anna Mills, licensed CC BY NC 4.0.
Prompt it to reflect back and draw out our ideas
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Or ask it for help with the parts of the work that aren’t about developing core ideas, for example,matching specific formats and styles
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Techniques for getting the most out of ChatGPT
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“Prompt engineering”? It doesn’t have to be technical.�Just try.. No arcane knowledge needed!
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Simple, but maybe not obvious
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You’re directing; it’s the actor
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Get ChatGPT to help you get the most out of it
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Some recommend complex, multilayered prompts that give detailed instructions and context
Rob Lennon’s popular thread Anatomy of a ChatGPT MegaPrompt
More on getting the most out of ChatGPT and other AI systems
Presentation by Anna Mills, licensed CC BY NC 4.0.
But don’t get hung up on making the fanciest prompt! Many use simpler prompts successfully.
A dialogue with the chatbot can help us clarify and articulate what we are after
Even a general request for suggestions might be fruitful. In this case, one of the five suggestions resonated with me (using bullet points).
Let’s see this in action:
Some uses for writing and language teachers
Let’s see some of this in action
Language instruction: explanations (a Poe chat excerpt)
Language instruction: examples tailored to topics of interest to students (a Poe chat excerpt)
I’m going to talk through some highlights of the chat transcripts below. Then I’ll invite reflections on what stands out to you either in how I prompted the system or in the responses I got.
What stands out to you in these chat sessions?
What questions or comments do you have?
A few other ways we might use language models
Ask it to help you identify discrepancies, like an auditor (see this sample prompt for a comparison of a state and local outline for the same course )
Presentation by Anna Mills, licensed CC BY NC 4.0.
Ask it for editing and style feedback
Sample prompt: “Does this email come across as friendly? List sentences that might be read as negative, cold, or hostile. For each, suggest a more friendly alternative.”
See an example of ChatGPT’s suggestions�
Don’t let it take control. Consider each suggestion.
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�For example, I asked ChatGPT for suggestions on how to reword the category descriptions in my resource list�
My prompt: “Below are the categories in a resource list on AI text generators and writing in higher education. For each category, could you list the original version, two alternate titles, and a discussion of why each alternate title might be preferable?”
Sample from the output:� “Original: Scholarship
Alternate 1: Academic Research on AI Text Generators
Alternate 2: Scholarly Works on AI-based Text Generation”
See more of ChatGPT’s suggestions
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AI for Learning Designers by Dr. Philippa Hardman
Uses for Research: These apps build on language models combined with search to help find and summarize sources
Poe.com’s web search did fairly well in this trial on Gaza aid (Reuters, Al Jazeera, The Guardian)
Cautions on AI research tools
ChatGPT is designed to mimic patterns. Automate the purely formal…but check!
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Technical assistance? It might have very good suggestions. And again, it might be wrong.
I now turn to ChatGPT or Claude when I’m looking to figure out a technical problem though I take what it says as unreliable. See this sample chat.
Here I explain what I want to know about Google Sheets data and ask for a formula
Presentation by Anna Mills, licensed CC BY NC 4.0.
What are some tasks you have coming up? Would you want to use a language model to help with any?
Presentation by Anna Mills, licensed CC BY NC 4.0.
Now we all try? Share at
https://bit.ly/GenAINotes
Choose one kind of assistance you would like from a language model, make an account if you need to, and try out a prompt. Share your notes and takeaways on how it went! https://bit.ly/GenAINotes
Let’s share–what have you tried? What has worked? What hasn’t? Tips? Questions?
�Anna Mills�annarmills.com
X/Twitter: @EnglishOER
LinkedIn: anna-mills-oer
Slides: https://bit.ly/HarnessAIAUC��This presentation is shared under a CC BY NC 4.0 license.