Category Archives: Resources

What’s ChatGPT? Why Should I Care?

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“Change has a bad reputation in our society. But it isn’t all bad —
not by any means. In fact, change is necessary in life —
to keep us moving, to keep us growing, to keep us interested.
Imagine life without change. It would be static, boring, dull.”
Dr. Dennis O’Grady

As time moves forward, innovative products are created and introduced to the world. When this happens, it can become a minor bump in the road or a major disruption that can alter the direction of our lives. How we respond to the “new” will inevitably affect those around us and inform others in their response.

In recent months, one such technology was introduced. ChatGPT is a language model developed by OpenAI that will require us to reevaluate how we engage with our students and colleagues. In this blog post, we will explore the benefits that ChatGPT can bring to education, including streamlining administrative tasks, facilitating personalized learning, and improving access to information.

One of the best use cases for AI and technology, in general, is to take care of repetitive and mundane tasks, to free up valuable time for engagement and building rapport with your students. You can use ChatGPT to draft summaries of your course content, announcements, and other resources. Think about the time-consuming tasks that you do on a daily basis that can now be handed off to your virtual personal assistant to do the first drafts.

In conjunction with your current teaching content, you can take advantage of ChatGPT, to customize materials and resources for students. As an example of this workflow, you can utilize ChatGPT to provide initial feedback for student writing. Before meeting your students for a follow-up on a learning activity, students can use ChatGPT to help with grammar, spelling, vocabulary, style, and coherence. Using ChatGPT to provide real-time feedback and improve the student learning experience, enhances engagement and the effectiveness of personal interactions. It is important to remind students to always use their own judgment and critical thinking when evaluating suggestions provided by ChatGPT.

Acting as a virtual assistant, ChatGPT, can provide students from various backgrounds with help to “level the playing field”. Students can work through course materials and learning activities, rather than focusing on easily identifiable errors due to privileged, Western conventions of education, they can focus on stated learning outcomes and goals. ChatGPT may provide insights into students’ learning patterns and preferences by giving a third-party analysis of their work. Faculty can build upon this interaction without being bogged down with basic mistakes and work towards higher learning outcomes.

To conclude, I asked ChatGPT to finish the rest of this paragraph: “ChatGPT (and other AI innovations that are bound to follow) is a tool. How you wield the tool is…”

This is the response: “…up to you, but it’s important to keep in mind the ethical and responsible use of such technology. The potential for AI to transform society and improve our lives is tremendous, but it’s crucial to consider the consequences and make sure it’s used in a way that benefits humanity as a whole. The development of AI should align with principles such as fairness, transparency, accountability, and non-discrimination. With proper governance and regulations in place, AI can be a powerful tool for positive change and growth.”

Want to try ChatGPT? The actual bot: https://openai.com/blog/chatgpt/
Note: when you sign up for access, you will need to provide a valid phone number that can receive SMS for verification.

From Northern Illinois University’s Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning – ChatGPT and Education

Here is a list of curated resources from BryanAlexander.org. The following are discussions Bryan Alexander held around ChatGPT in his Future Trends Forum:

Accompanying Blog article – https://bryanalexander.org/future-trends-forum/chatgpt-and-higher-education-last-week-and-this-week/ 

Tips for Reducing File Size

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Do you have large document files that you are trying to send to colleagues or upload to an online site such as myLesley, VoiceThread, OneDrive, or SharePoint? In many cases, compressing your files, images, and videos will help to reduce your overall file size and meet size restrictions.

As a best practice, when uploading large files you will want to make sure that you are using a fast, stable Internet connection.

Documents (Microsoft Word)

You can reduce the file size of your document by compressing images. The compression options reduce both the file size and image dimensions based on how you intend to use the picture, such as viewing on screen or in an e-mail message. You can compress all images in the file or just the ones that you select.

For more information see:
Reduce Your File Size in Office for Mac
Reduce the File Size of a Picture in Microsoft Office (PC)

Presentations (Microsoft PowerPoint)

You can reduce the file size of your presentation by compressing images and media content. The compression options reduce both the file size and media dimensions based on how you intend to use the media.

For more information see:
Reduce Your File Size in Office for Mac
Reduce the File Size of a Picture in Microsoft Office (PC)
Compress Your Media Files

PDFs

You can reduce the file size in your PDF by compressing the entire PDF. This will reduce overall file size.

For more information see:
Optimizing PDFs in Acrobat Pro
Reduce the Size of Your PDF Online using Small PDF

Images

You can reduce the file size of your images by resizing. Please note that resizing an image will slightly reduce the image quality.

For more information see:
How to Resize a JPEG Using Paint in Windows
How to Resize a JPEG Using Preview in Mac OS X
How to Resize a JPEG Using an Image Resizing Website

Video

You can reduce the file size of your videos by saving in a different format, resizing, or compressing the file. Please note that this may slightly reduce the video quality.

For more information see:
How to Reduce Video Size Using Handbrake on PC
How to Reduce Video Size Using Handbrake on Mac
How to Reduce Video Size Using iMovie (Mac)

Atomic Learning is now Hoonuit!

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Hoonuit logoYou have eLearning resources at your finger tips with Hoonuit–formerly known as Atomic Learning. If you had the opportunity to use Atomic Learning before, you know that this online tool provides you with on-demand personalized learning. Hoonuit (pronounced “who knew it”) has evolved beyond software training and now features software and technology training, student resources, instructional strategies, leadership resources, and online teaching/blended learning resources.

What kinds of resources does Hoonuit offer?

Hoonuit features a robust library of eLearning content for faculty, students, and staff including:

Software and Technology Training:

  • Microsoft Office Products
  • Collaborating and Sharing Using Office 365
  • Adobe Creative Suite
  • Google
  • And more!

Student Resources:

  • Preparing for a College Workload
  • Becoming a Good Note Taker
  • Strategies for Working in a Group
  • Avoiding Plagiarism
  • Successful Time Management
  • Networking and Internships
  • And more!

Instructional Strategies:

  • Questioning Strategies
  • Assessment of Learning
  • Writing Effective Learning Outcomes
  • Digital Video in Class
  • Universal Design
  • And more!

Leadership Resources:

  • FERPA
  • Successful Time Management
  • How Do I Grow My PLN?
  • Leadership Styles
  • And more!

Online Teaching/Blended Learning:

  • Creating Engaging Lessons Online
  • Succeeding in an Online Class
  • Being an Effective Online Student
  • Effective Online Discussions
  • And more!

A l list of some of the available resources may be found here: Hoonuit Higher Education Resource List.

Sounds great! How do I access Hoonuit?

Simply go to http://atomiclearning.com/login/lesley and log in with your myLesley username and password. You may also click on the Hoonuit module on your myLesley Home tab.

Introducing Kaltura Media’s Interactive Video Quiz

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Kaltura Media’s new Interactive Video Quiz tool allows users to seamlessly embed multiple choice questions at any point in a video through a user-friendly interface. As viewers watch the video, the questions will appear at the chosen points and the video continues after each question is answered. Flexible settings allow creators to choose whether viewers can repeat sections, skip questions, revise answers, get hints, and discover the correct answers, allowing the Interactive Video Quiz to be used to increase engagement, test knowledge and retention, gather data, and more.

The following video tutorial will walk you through the process of creating an Interactive Video Quiz.

More information on creating an Interactive Video Quiz may be found here: Creating an Interactive Video Quiz.

Interested in seeing the video quiz from the student perspective? The following video tutorial will walk you through the process of taking an Interactive Video Quiz as a student.

Using the Deep Web for Research

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Doing research for a paper or project and relying only on Google can mean never seeing the most useful content. It may be locked behind a password. Fortunately, the Lesley Library has databases full of articles, ebooks, videos and images available to you as a Lesley student, faculty or staff person.
 

To get started, go to the ‘my library’ tab in myLesley and start searching. Don’t forget to Ask a Librarian if you need help.
SearchLibrary

Common Craft has over 80 videos like the one above. View their video library and contact elis@lesley.edu for assistance embedding it in your myLesley course.