2024 blogs: an Antidote to AI?
Until the 30th November 2022 free online writing tools could be used to check and to edit writing but were largely incapable of generating under-graduate level essays, creative texts, synthesis etc. That all changed with the launch of Chat GPT and teachers have been scrambling to adjust ever since. Whether we welcome it with excitement or with trepidation will not change the fact that it is apparently here to stay and we must try to find a way of taking its existence into account when creating course content and thinking about evaluation.
I had the pleasure of hearing Alexandre Gefen (CNRS rechercher, author of Vivre avec Chat Gpt) speak in January at the International Seminar on Social Media Discourse Analysis and I was particularly struck by his words that what is important to him is not whether a student uses AI to write his/her PHD but whether or not the PHD is any good. I understood his point as being that at this level of composition the potential hybridity of the thesis does not undermine or lessen the expertise of the doctoral student. Chat GPT generates texts not knowledge.
I must admit that the potential hybridity of texts within the context of my L2 online blogging class seems similarly irrelevant but for perhaps different reasons:
- The writing process is valorised rather than the finished product.
- Rewriting is an integral part of the course and is based on peer/group/teacher feedback.
- Collaboration and group work lie at the core of the course.
- Continual assessment valorises the process of writing, participation and interaction in the final mark.
So, it is with great pleasure that I publish the links to this year’s crop of L2 student blogs. They straddle divergent worlds, cultures and identities, reflect upon what it means to be a distance learner, make literal and metaphorical journeys, patch together fragmented stories and offer up bites of happiness. Their strong sense of voice is a welcome antidote to the formulaic and characterless writing, typically generated by Chat GPT, that an increasingly number of students are submitting in online writing contexts.
Tags : #travel #sharingexperiences #differentworlds
Tags: #cooking #veggierecipe #brazilianrecipe #traditionalrecipe #lebaneserecipe #artandcooking #foodmemories #aroundtheworld
Ecofeminism, Feminism and LGBT+ Spotlighted in Literature as a Journey
Tags: #women #feminism #ecofeminism #LGBT+
Tags: #fantasy#literature#books
Tags : out of the classroom, sharing experiences in distance learning
Tags : #art #literature #creativewriting
Tags : #travels #memories #pictures #tips #aroundtheworld #sharingexperiences
Thanks to Lou for March blossoms.