ChatGPT Teaching Talks Series – Center for Excellence in Learning and Teaching

AI in Teaching Series

Posted on February 20, 2023November 28, 2023

Teaching with AI Course

Several educators completed our “Teaching with AI” Canvas course as a self-paced or hybrid teaching and learning cohort for fall 2023. During our discussion, we addressed the following queries: What is the significance of ChatGPT and other generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)? What are the pedagogical and ethical implications should instructors be aware of while teaching with AI? How are students incorporating AI, and what are the implications of such usage for our classrooms?

Are you interested in participating if we offer a future “Teaching with AI” course? Please email us at celt-help@iastate.edu.

Upcoming Talks

We are in progress of finalizing our spring 2024 programming schedule.

Upcoming Funding

A subset of Miller Faculty Fellowship funding will be devoted to AI-related projects. Proposals are due in early December.

Previous Talks

“How to Teach with Generative AI: Supporting Students and Designing Learning Experiences,” presented by Dr. Abram Anders, Interim Associate Director of the Student Innovation Center and Associate Professor of English, and Emily Dux Speltz, a Ph.D. candidate in the Applied Linguistics and Technology program in the Department of English. Watch the How to Teach with Generative AI Recording (61 minutes) and review the AI Ethics Tutor Lesson Plans and Resources (Substack page).

“Experimental Insights into Writing-Classroom Applications of Grammarly and ChatGPT,” presented by Jim Ranalli, Associate Professor of English. Watch the recording of the Experimental Insights into Writing Presentation (55 minutes) or review the Experimental Insights into Writing Slides (PDF).

“Are Students Reading the Textbook? Where Artificial Intelligence and Learning Science Meet”, presented by Heather Dean (ISU Bookstore) and Dr. Rachel Van Campenhout (VitalSource).

“Applying AI-Generated Practice to Textbooks to Improve Teaching and Learning,” presented by Dr. Kelly Odenweller (COMST) and Dr. Rachel Van Campenhout (VitalSource). View Kelly & Rachel’s Talk.

“Advantages, Questions, and Fears Around AI Uses in Creative Practice.”, presented by Assistant Professor in Art and Visual Culture Johnny DiBlasi and Olmo Amato, Instructor of Photography at the ISU Rome Program. View Johnny & Olmo’s Talk.

“Preventing Cheating with AI: Strategies for Dealing with ChatGPT Misuse,” presented by Christine Denison, Roger P. Murphy Professor in Accounting / Associate Professor. View Denison’s Talk.

“Pallbearer for the Term Paper: Beyond ChatGPT,” presented by Michael Bugeja, a distinguished professor at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, January 3o, 2-3 p.m. View Bugeja’s Talk on YouTube, download the Talk bibliography (docx), and read the recent essay, “If AI kills the essay, I will be a pallbearer at the funeral” (Poynter Institute, January 24, 2023).

“How to Use ChatGPT to Boost Your Research and Teaching,” presented by Abram Anders, Associate Professor of English and Director of Communication Innovation. Access these presentation slides on Ander’s blog.

Series, Webinar: Advantages, Questions, and Fears Around AI Uses in Creative Practice

In our Chat GPT Teaching Talks Series, faculty members discuss their strategies while teaching in this new educational landscape of Chat GPT or generative artificial intelligence that uses machine learning to generate human-like text in response to users’ prompts. Johnny DiBlasi and Olmo Amato, both with the College of Design, will present our fourth talk in this series:

Over the last few years, and now with the explosion of AI tools as seen with the release of ChatGPT, AI is inching closer and closer to becoming more embedded in our daily lives. How will these technologies affect our lives, industries, economies, health, etc? These big questions are coming up, and in a lot of ways, the development of these technologies is happening in big part as a vehicle to start considering these issues as a society. Some of the initial designed uses of these technologies such as ChatGPT and Dall-E 2 are to be creative for us – to generate novel text and images. These generative AI models have sweeping implications for creative practitioners in the arenas of image making and wordsmithing. Assistant Professor in Art and Visual Culture, Johnny DiBlasi and Olmo Amato, Instructor of Photography at the ISU Rome Program will present their research and creative practice which employ generative AI in their art making processes in different ways.

Learn about the history, ethics, and contemporary practices surrounding the use of Generative Artificial Intelligence by visual artists as well as ways to leverage AI in your own creative projects.

Note: This Webinar Will Be Recorded

Johnny DiBlasi is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher whose practice sits at the intersection of art, science, and technology and explores various processes and forms. He works with computational media, data, networks, and artificial intelligence to create interactive installations or computational works that fuse site-specific data structures into a physical architecture. Through various works, he explores the aesthetic possibilities of data gathered in real time and how these aesthetic experiences can connect an audience to the pulse of the landscape in which they coexist. DiBlasi exhibits his works and installations nationally and internationally, and in 2021 he was awarded a Fulbright US Scholar Award for his research and creative project conducted in Vienna. DiBlasi is Assistant Professor of Scientific Visualization and Digital Media in the Department of Art and Visual Culture at Iowa State University. He earned an MFA from the Photographic and Electronic Media program at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, MD. DiBlasi teaches studio courses in video, 3D modeling, web design, creative coding and interactive media. Recently, he co-founded a new arts collaboration named [phylum] which brings together other artists and researchers working at the intersection of science and technology. Prior to teaching, DiBlasi worked as a photographer and web designer.

Olmo Amato earned an M.Sc. in Neurobiology from Sapienza University of Rome. In addition to his studies, he dedicated himself to photography and experimentation with digital manipulation techniques. As a photographer and filmmaker, he has worked with fine art printing and post-production. He teaches basic and advanced photography at ISU Rome, the Pantheon Institute and the Adams Center for Experimental Photography. Since 2019 he has held seminars and workshops on the relationship between photography, visual perception and neuroscience.

He utilizes analog and digital photography techniques in his works, combining archival photos, original shots and artificially generated images through photomontage. In 2018 he won the Setup Prize as Best Artist under 35, the MalamegiLab Prize and Tiziano Campolmi Prize in 2019, and his works were presented at various international and Italian festivals, galleries and contemporary art fairs.

Together with Samuele Sestieri, he wrote and directed the film “The Bear Tales” which was selected for the 33rd Turin Film Festival at the 2016 Rotterdam International Film Festival and numerous other international film festivals.

Series, Preventing Cheating with AI: Strategies for Dealing with ChatGPT Misuse with Christine Denison

In our Chat GPT Teaching Talks Series, faculty members discuss their strategies while teaching in this new educational landscape of Chat GPT or generative artificial intelligence that uses machine learning to generate human-like text in response to users’ prompts. Christine Denison, professor with the Ivy College of Business will present our third talk in this series:

In today’s technological landscape, students have access to powerful AI tools like ChatGPT, which can make cheating easier than ever. In this talk, we will address the issue of students using AI to gain an unfair advantage and discuss strategies for preventing this behavior, including alternatives to assignments that are vulnerable to ChatGPT-aided cheating. We will also explore techniques for detecting ChatGPT-aided cheating and discuss how to deal with problems as they arise.

Note: This Event Will Be Recorded

Series: How to Use ChatGPT to Boost Your Research and Teaching with Abram Anders

In our Chat GPT Teaching Talks Series, faculty members discuss their strategies while teaching in this new educational landscape of Chat GPT or generative artificial intelligence that uses machine learning to generate human-like text in response to users’ prompts. Dr. Abram Anders, Associate Professor of English and Director of Communication Innovation will present the second in this series:

This workshop is designed to empower faculty with the knowledge and skills to harness the power of ChatGPT, a cutting-edge language generation model developed by OpenAI. We’ll start with a high-level overview of how ChatGPT works, its capabilities, and its limitations. Next, we’ll dive into real-world applications and use cases of ChatGPT in both industry and higher education contexts. The highlight of the workshop is a hands-on opportunity where participants will learn basic and advanced techniques for developing prompts and generating outputs using ChatGPT. Faculty will have the chance to experiment with these models and see firsthand how they can enhance their research or teaching. Lastly, we’ll explore the future of AI and writing and its potential implications in higher education. Join us and discover how ChatGPT can help you be a more productive researcher and teacher!

Dr. Anders has expertise in academic, business, and professional communication with applications for creative collaboration, learning design, innovation and entrepreneurship, and leadership. He is also currently developing an experimental undergraduate course, “ENGL 222X: Artificial Intelligence and Writing,” which is expected to be offered at Iowa State in fall 2023.

Dr. Abram Anders, Associate Professor of English and Director of Communication Innovation

Note: This Event Will Be Recorded

Series, Pallbearer for the Term Paper: Beyond ChatGPT with Michael Bugeja

In our Chat GPT Teaching Talks Series, faculty members discuss their strategies while teaching in this new educational landscape of Chat GPT or generative artificial intelligence that uses machine learning to generate human-like text in response to users’ prompts. Michael Bugeja, a distinguished professor at the Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication, will present the first in this series:

With the advent of AI chatbots, professors are looking for ways to ensure the integrity of the term paper or to do away with it entirely and replace it with a better pedagogy. Michael Bugeja, the distinguished professor, has been at the forefront of consumer technology with more than a dozen articles in Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He was among the first to critique Facebook in January 2006 before many even realized that Iowa State students were interacting on the platform. He was key in criticizing the avatar world of Second Life and arguing against higher education investing in it, requiring students to adhere to the company’s terms of service rather than the Iowa State student handbook. He supports educational technology, including Canvas, which provides online discussion boards to engage students in class content. An advocate of research that informs teaching, Dr. Bugeja has created a multi-digital learning platform for media ethics that engages students in face-to-face classes and online. In his discussion of the term paper, he demonstrates how learning is enhanced if roles are reversed, with professors writing the term papers and students critiquing them.

Read Michael Bugeja’s recent essay, “If AI kills the essay, I will be a pallbearer at the funeral” (Poynter Institute, January 24, 2023).

Michael Bugeja, Distinguished Professor, Greenlee School of Journalism and Communication