Eastern Carolina educators share thoughts on artificial intelligence

GREENVILLE, N.C. (WITN) - Technology is evolving and that includes how it’s being used in the classroom. For both teachers and students, a new door is opening for the use of artificial intelligence and resources like ChatGPT.

ChatGPT can be a valuable tool for both teachers and students, by generating creative writing prompts or ideas, which can be helpful for students with writer’s block.

For teachers, it can help create interactive learning experiences and even serve as a virtual teaching assistant, but when it comes down to writing assignments, a new software is being introduced on the platform ‘Turn It In,’ that papers and essays are submitted on at ECU.

ECU College of Engineering and Technology instructor Melinda Doty says that there are new opportunities for students and that using ChatGPT can be valuable for students, and she’s excited about what the future holds for students at ECU with this new technology.

While concerns are being expressed about academic integrity, ECU will not be changing its plagiarism policy because of it.

“Our current policy about academic integrity already is inclusive in what is plagiarism or fabrication and those already include things like artificial intelligence so at this point I don’t see a reason to change that,” ECU Professor and chair of the faculty Anne Ticknor said.

While the policy may not be changing, teachers say that they will continue to emphasize the importance of doing their own work and sourcing the information they find.

“If it did not come out of your brain and in your words, you have to source it and you have to put where you found the information. Make sure it’s in your words and not ChatGPT,” Doty said.

ECU instructors attended a panel Monday to help them understand the ways they can utilize artificial intelligence like ChatGPT and how they can use it in their classrooms and will have the chance to attend more this month to talk about artificial intelligence in the workplace, talking about distance education and learning technologies and how to transform research practice through artificial intelligence.

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