Day 0 – Welcome
The 12 Days of AI from the University of the Arts London will begin on 30th November 2023.
The ‘course’ is designed for professionals (lecturers, librarians, technicians, educational developers) working in higher education who are interested in how artificial intelligence could be useful in developing their own professional practice. It does not assume that you any prior knowledge or experience and is aimed at those who are new to the world of AI, although those who have some knowledge are very welcome to join and take part in the discussions.
To find out more about the programme, how it works and what it will cover, explore the other blog pages.
If you’re here, you likely are already registered at Eventbrite, but if you’re not, register to receive an email alert for each day’s posts.
Complete the pre-course activity
Watch the introductory video
We made an AI generated introductory video using HourOne. What do you think of it?
Join the Discussion
Say hello! What is your name? What is your job? Where do you work? What AI tools have you used?
There is a spectrum of views about how and if artificial intelligence should be used in education. At one extreme on this spectrum some see it as essential to deliver the best possible experience for students and something that we should fully embrace. Towards the other end of this spectrum others are much more skeptical about its use and believe that it will probably led to an intensification of our already heavy workload, see this recent article on Generative AI and the Automating of Academia. (Lawrie and Donna who wrote this article are joining us in conversation on 13 December. Register on Eventbrite if you would like to join the event).
What do you think? Leave an initial comment about your thoughts:
- Is the use of AI in education a good thing?
- Is it just part of the neo-liberal agenda intensifying workloads in education?
- Should we be embracing it or resisting it?
Or just say hello and say something about yourself!
Leave a reply in the Comment Box below (all comments will be moderated and then made public) or post a Tweet on X using the hashtag #12DoAI about what you think
Hello. I’m a content creator and career consultant, working in the online learning and teaching as well as lecturing space.
I am excited that the use of AI, will allow a deeper exploration of knowledge and an obvious way to flip the classroom learning.
Hi Susan you sound very enthusiastic we hope you enjoy the next 12 days!
Hello. I’m Carys, an Educational Developer at UAL. Thanks all for setting this up!
I don’t currently have strong opinions about AI, although this may change as I learn more. I’m interested particularly in AI as an assistive technology tool and would like to know more about the potential for AI in student and staff inclusion.
Re: the video, I’m curious about the chosen avatar (a conventionally attractive woman with an American access). I am vaguely aware of concerns about how AI might reproduce existing inequalities along lines of gender, race, etc. So I’m wondering who AI views as normative, and if the short video is a reflection of that.
Hi Carys there definitely is potential for AI to help with assistive technology – some of the future #12DoAI posts will give examples and address this issue. The AI video I created is very typical of the AI video making tools out there – your right the about the chosen avatar, it does highlight the limited options available – Normally I would have created my own video of me taking to a camera – but would this be any better? i.e me – a white, middle aged, straight man? Maybe in time the avatar choice will broaden – but it still has a long way to go to give it a human touch!
Does the avatar really have to be a facsimile of a human? Surely there are other more fun / exciting / imaginative options? 🙂
Hello, my name is Sheldon Chow and I am Associate Dean of Learning, Teaching & Enhancement at LCF. I’ve used ChatGPT, Dall-e, Claude and Firefly before.
In terms of the video, I found it pretty basic and generic. While it looked good and the voice matched well with the voice, it wasn’t particularly exciting. Also the facial expressions of the character weren’t very animated against the words being spoken. Also I noticed that if you turned on captions it was using North American spelling.
In terms of my feelings about AI, I think that as with any tool there will be positive and negative benefits and while the industry is to a certain extent still learning how they will incorporate these tools we (i.e. those in HE) will need to keep on top of these developments and see how we can support our students in their use while helping students to keep an eye on the ethical aspects.
Hey Sheldon good to see you here – I suspect you will know a lot of the AI tools over the next few days – but hopefully there will be a few surprises for you too!
Hello, I am a multimedia artist, photographer and Media Design Lecturer and would like to explore more about AI.
I have used Open AI/ Dalle and the Photoshop firefly function before.
Hello my name is Patricia. I have been trying to use CoPilot in MS 365 without much luck but interested to know more.
Hi everyone
I’m Sue, a Vocational Education Trainer, Educational Designer, teaching the Certificate IV in Training and Assessment in Alice Springs, Australia. Glad to see this running, having participated in several iterations of the 12 Apps of Christmas in years gone by (thanks Chris).
What do I think about the video – it’s one of the better ones I’ve seen, though I hope there’s a choice of (hmm, what are they called – are they personas?) fake people with different accents. The hand gestures almost look realistic.
Is AI in education a good thing? Early days for me – I think it offers a lot of opportunities, potentially some huge time-savers. The workplaces that we’re training people for will expect that their staff can use relevant AI, so I think we have to be able to model how to do that well.
And with over 700 of us here, hopefully we’ll get some great ideas through collaboration.
Hi Sue numbers keep rising every day – up to 850 now! I think this type of open platform really does show the beauty of global interactions – its amazing that you can ‘tune in’ to the conversations fro Alice Springs! Hope you learn a thing or two over the next few days!
Hi, I’m Jas – I’m a researcher at the University of Liverpool. I don’t know anything about AI really, other than ChatGPT is quite popular and its use in sci-fi films. I’m excited to get to grips with it so I can have more of an opinion.
Hi Jas great to have you here! I haven’t assumed any prior knowledge about AI so get stuck in and ask questions in the comments box – there is a lot of expertise in this space 🙂
Hi I’m Christina Roe and work as a library assistant in LCC library. I am new to AI and have only messed around with ChatGPT.
Hi Christina and Welcome – you might find the recording in the AI Conversations section (at the top of this page) where we had a useful session on How AI is affecting HE Libraries.
Hi I’m Si, a digital academic developer supporting HE course teams in learning and assessment design using technology. Our strategy is to take an explicitly educative approach to engaging students in understanding and effectively and ethically using AI. Early days but have just published some staff guidance around this, with student guidance coming soon. I knew you could make videos with AI produced avatars .. is the intro video here that? If so the quality of the image is amazing! (Had sound off and captions on as in a dentist waiting room ..)
Yes, the intro video is made with an AI avatar.
Hello! My name is Rachel and I’m a learning technologist at the University of West London. I come from an arts background and have dabbled with some AI tools, but am more interested in understanding the possibilities of AI relating to educational aims and outcomes. I’m moving into an academic developer role soon and want to share best practices for appropriate AI usage within HE. The video was very “uncanny valley” which was a bit distracting and unsettling!
I agree about the video – and learnt a new term in ‘uncanny valley’.
Hi Rachel and welcome – when I first heard the term ‘uncanny valley’ I thought it was a play on the TV series ‘Happy Valley’ but I know differently now! And Yes I agree its a good description of the video! I suppose the bigger question is what should we do about this? …to be discussed!
Hello, my name is Rosalyn Masterton. I am a lecturer in biological sciences and I am an AI novice and know little about it but interested to learn more. I am keen to learn how to incorporate AI into my teaching and I am aware our students use ChatGPT.
Hi all,
My name is Sukhtinder based in Leicester and working at De Montfort University (note any views I add here are my personal view ☺).
The video was interesting as my mind had a preset that this was generated by AI so I automatically expected a degree of synthetic delivery based on the human AI generated presenter, that said the content, pace was clear and I received the information with clarity. I guess the AI generated human did not have the natural gestures and individual quirks – I guess personality coming across. Looking forward to hearing more and engaging with this resource.
Hi, I am Emily, a Teaching Enhancement Officer at the University of Hull. I am gradually building up my AI knowledge but find it hard to build up my enthusiasm – I think I am getting old, because it feesl like yet another thing to have to create resources and support for…
This is also how I feel!
Hi,
I am Robert Chang, academic support lecturer at Camberwell. My first impression of the AI generated video is a stereotype. Having a quick look at Hourone.ai, I am curious about what physical and costume features the data have been coded so as to represent the look of a CEO, presenter… It seems that stereotypes could be reinforced by AI generated output. Whether AI is a good thing or not really depends on what is used and how, where, when and why it is used. That is to say, my immediate answer is context dependent. I don’t know if generative AI is conceived for educational purposes, and therefore I doubt about the neo-liberal agenda. However, its introduction may enhance the efficiency as well as effectiveness of many students’ and staff’s work in HE. Certainly, there’s no way to resist AI. I can only embrace it and consider how to use it ethically, critically and effectively.
I look forward to exploring various AI tools in this course.
Hello, and thanks for inviting me to the event. I teach academic skills to foundation year students and also English for overseas students. I have used ChatGpt several times. The material it created for me was bland but useable. It translated an academic abstract from English into acceptable Chinese for a student. More usefully, for their English, it reduced the same abstract into simplified English. It came up with several ideas for an essay that my students have to write (though we had already noted most of them) and apologised for being a little out of date.
On the whole, I regard GAI with horror, awe and fear, rather as I imagine a peasant farmer felt on seeing the first Mercedes Benz combustion engine bellowing into sight through his ancient village.
I hate the AI ladies that you asked to introduce the course, and the AI illustrations that Substack writers now use to illustrate their articles. I can’t understand why we are not using humans for that kind of thing – there must be hundreds of actors and illustrators who could knock off something with real character in a couple of hours, and not for much money.
Look forward to the course!
Hello I’m Mark Vincent – I work across colleges for UAL providing Language Support to international students. I’m interested in how AI can be integrated into pedagogical practice – currently many practitioners are wary of AI generated responses to summative assignments however, I believe now the genie’s out of the bottle we need to seek creative ways to assimilate it into student learning. I’ve used Chat GPT and Bing so I’m a novice myself. The video was well produced and presented.
Hi, I am Ruth. I’m looking forward to learning more on AI. The big government conference a few weeks ago was in my neighbourhood – at Bletchley Park. I’m a content developer/producer.
The video mentions, ‘tabs across the top’. These do not exist.
Hi Ruth,
Thanks for joining us.The tabs mentioned is the menu that you should have across the top of the page (or if you’re on your phone in a hamburger menu).The menu should read What is #12doAI?, Daily Tasks, Want to Learn More? and Need help?
If you still cannot find these, could you please email me a screenshot of your page to teachingexchange@arts.ac.uk.
Thank you, Hannah. I can see those tabs on this page – just not on the page with the video – so I think all is fine. Thank you
Great! Happy learning!
Hi – I’m part of the team here and looking forward to the contributions. I’m an artist, UAL learning technologist and educational research student at Lancaster.
I think a critical perspective on AI in ed is the place to start through a practical engagement. We need to try things to figure out their value, but also ensure we consider the ethical concerns as we do so. To my mind there is a huge neo liberal agenda at play, but those outcomes are not the only ones possible.
I’ve spent a lot time with the image tools and thinking about possible uses like creative ideation for fine arts subjects. This video does seem quite dull and boring in terms of engagement but is certainly polished. I wonder if the addition of things like some ‘personality traits’ and imperfections would have greater affect ? I suppose we need to ask, why would we use a synthetic persona in the first place ?
Hi all, I’m Michael, an academic developer at the University of Reading, England. I’ve used free versions ChatGPT3 and DALL-E, as well as Google Bard.
The following are my top line thoughts prompted by the Day 0 questions. I agree with Dan McQuillan that generative AI should be resisted and will lead to an intensification of workload that will open another front on the class war. However, outright banning the use of generative AI tools on university campuses is not the answer. Across their entire degree, students should be consistently informed of the ethical challenges generative AI tools pose; AI outputs should be rigorously critiqued in class and in assessment tasks. On the academic development side of things, we must be prepared to equip overworked academic colleagues with the skills to teach students about critical use of gen AI and to evaluate the module descriptions and learning outcomes ChatGPT will surely be producing to meet tight T&L committee deadlines. We must steadfastly reject and resist any notion that gen AI tools will make us more efficient and ‘able to do more’ in our day-to-day practice.
I am open to changing the views above, and look forward to reflecting on my position in light of the next 12 days of the course!
Thanks for sharing your views Michael, I personally agree with you. I look forward to the interesting conversations this platform will bring.
Thanks, Damien. Looking forward to these conversations as well!
Hello!
Looking forward to exploring AI tools with a group, I have some knowledge but I want to learn more!
It seems impossible to avoid AI. so better to embrace it and make it another tool for students to use
Hi, I believe we need to embrace AI and want to learn how best to so that as an educator in the University sector.
I am lookiing forward to learning lots, beyond Chat GPT!
Hi All, I am a lecturer in the School of Education at Aberystwyth University (Wales, UK). Excited to be part of this course,. I regularly use GPT4 for work as well as ResearchRabbit, SkyBox AI, Nighcafe and Dall-e. I am fascinated by this whole topic, and look forward to extending my knowledge and practical skills. I am on the University’s working group, developing training and policy for our staff and students, and so I think this will be super useful. I am also part of the Wales Collaborative for Learning Design that is looking to explore / inform how AI is affecting and will be implemented across all education levels in Wales. I do believe that while the AI siatuash will have some workload implications due to the constant upskilling we’ll require and reviewing / developing policy, practice and training, in the long run it will massively reduce our workload so we can focus on what really matters in education, which is educating and supporting our students. Not sure if that’s a bit naive 😀 Have a fab week all 🙂 Panna
Hi Panna, nice to see you here! 🙂 I’ll be interested to hear what you think about the tools and activities in this course.
Hi Panna thanks for your comments – it sounds like you have explored quite a few tools and what they can do – I’ll have to look up SkyBox is it any good? Also it would be good to hear more about the Welsh experience – is there a link to the Wales Collaborative for Learning Design?
Hello, I am a Spatial Designer and a lecturer at MA Narrative Environments at Central Saint Martins. Our students are using AI more and more and feel I would really benefit from understanding the applied realm of AI (beyond tapping a few silly questions on Chat GPT)…
Hi Xavier great to have you on board – I’d love to hear how your students are using AI! Are they using it for spacial design on their course? What tools are they using? Could you share any of the things they are doing with it?
Hi, I’m Sandra-Jane. I am a Lead for Learning and Teaching at CDN in Scotland and I’m involved in supporting the CPD of college lecturers.
I’ve dabbled a bit with using AI tools but am still a relative novice although I’m interested in learning more. Up until now I have found the end results variable and am not totally convinced that it would really save experienced lecturers much time – but the rate of improvements that are being made might mean this isn’t the case for much longer. I believe that the use of AI in education could provide an opportunity to speed up completion of some of the more common routine admin tasks etc. I do have some reservations in relation to it’s potential for misuse, not in terms of plagiarism in assessments as many people fear, but in the ethics around how LLM work and access information and on the ‘possible???’ deskilling of staff. It is, however here to stay, so I’m up for learning all about it so that we can make the most of the positive opportunities that it can provide, whilst being mindful of any negatives that arise.
I too, found the choice of avatar interesting in the video. How we choose to represent ourselves to others always is an interesting topic – one that is often loaded.
Hi Sandra you raise lots of good points here – Even though I helped to develop the 12DoAI I remain of the skeptical end of AI and what benefits it will bring us. But there are times when I can see its beneficial and the pace of change is amazing (and scarey) too. just to give you an example – think about how the sub-titling software in videos has progressed so rapidly – 5 years ago it was very problematic but tools like YouTube and Panopto do a great job with it now – which is so great for students who are deaf and have hearing difficulties…
Hi, I am Alejandro Escobar, Technical Coordinator for the Creative Technology Hub at LCC, I have been embracing the use of AI tools for more than a year, I believe it is a good idea to explore what is possible and nurture debates and conversations around the topic.
Thanks for your comments Alejandro – If you get the chance it would be great if you could show us some of the AI examples you have developed over the next 12 days!
Hi all,
I’m a Learning Technology Advisor at the University of Huddersfield. Admittedly I’ve not used/sought out many AI tools beyond the ones built in to software, but I’m wanting to explore the use of AI further as it becomes increasingly embedded in more of the tools we use.
Opinions on the video – It’s great to think there are tools to produce quick materials such as this and hope these develop and get better. My only issue with any type of video like this (be it AI produced or not) is the robotic voices we hear – Obviously they are much much more natural than they ever been but I personally still find them a bit off-putting.
Yes agreed Steve! I guess things will progress more and we will get more naturally speaking ai videos – but will this be a good thing? I’m not so sure?
Hello, I’m a lecturer in Business and Management at Bath Business School, at Bath Spa University. I’m the Employability Champion in our department, and I’m very keen on teaching students the ethical use of AI, to prepare them for the workplace.
Hi Rose your point about the ethical use of AI is SO important – check out the link to the AI Conversations at the top of the page for more discussions about this – also this Friday’s discussion is on Gender Bias in AI – Can anything be done about it? which you might be interested in?
Hiya,
I am Kristina Thiele, an immersive experience designer and Associate Lecturer at Ual CCW in immersive technologies. I have been using AI in generative ideation processes for over a year now and am enthusiastic about the speed of advancement this technology has brought to the design discipline. If AI isn’t part of your process in design it will be very soon, in my opinion, so as educators we should embrace the technology and see where we can embed new processes into our workflows. Although daunting, as the advancements are extremely fast we need to see this as an opportunity rather than an obstacle.
The video was ok, although a bit ‘uncanny valley’ as some of the others suggested. The mouth and sound were not quite synchronised. I have used AI sounds/voices before and there are some than are better than others. But for this exercise I think it did what it was supposed to do.
Hi Kristina great to see you here! Your insights into AI and especially AI image generation will be really interesting to hear later on in the 12DoAI 🙂
Hi
I’m an educational developer at Royal Holloway, University of London. I haven’t used AI myself but would like to start using it so I can see it’s potential in order to support others in their teaching and assessment practices. I found the AI generated video rather superficial and not very convincing or motivating. Like all technological advancements through the decades, I don’t think AI can be ignored. I think it’s a case of embracing it and learning how it can be utilised in education to support and enhance learning.
Hi Lynne – Great profile photo btw!
Yes whatever we think about AI we cant ignore it – even if we don’t agree about using AI in education the aim of the 12DOAI is to at least show what some of these tools can do – and then develop a critique of them!
Thanks Cristopher,
I laughed when I noticed my profile pic as it’s a lovely memory of years ago where I’m holding one of my grandchildren – goodness knows which one as I now have 9!!! The experiences they bring could NOT be replicated by AI I’m sure!
Lynne
Hi I’m Sandy, I’m a digital learning specialist working in HE and public sector. I used Bing AI, ChatGPT in Notion and mostly the AI function in Adobe creative cloud apps such as firefly and Premiere Pro. I see great potential of generative AI in content creation of digital learning and accessibility.
For the opening video, I agree that it’s not as engaging as presenting the course with the actual SME but it’s a good start with the limited budget and time to create media for online courses.
That’s true Sandy the video was very easy to make and very quick (and free) – whether its better than a real human is up for debate!
Hi there, I’m a lecturer in learning and teaching, so my students are members of teaching staff at my institution. I care about learning, making it both ethical and effective. I’m open to ideas to use AI for learning and teaching, while recognising there are risks and limitations, too. I did find the video a bit off-putting. It was clearly not natural and the woman’s lips made her seem on the verge tears at times! That said, I understand why you used it :-). Something like this could save time, because all the author needs to do is to write the script and then generate the video. I look forward to the upcoming tasks.
Hi Mary – yes some interesting thoughts about the video – I could have just done it myself using Panopto (or something similar) – once I had the script it wouldn’t have taken much longer to do it myself. In some ways the AI video is slicker than what I would have done – but it really does miss that human factor..even the ums and errs and hesitations can actually make the thing more watchable…although I’ve also been on the verge of tears making videos in the past:) Glad you are hear to check out the forthcoming tasks!
Hi I’m Steve, I’m a Learning Technologist at the University of Huddersfield, and I’ve been heavily involved in our institutional response to AI.
The video is an interesting one, I don’t think a talking head alone is particularly engaging, but if it were presenting with some visual aids it might be. I find that the pricing for tools like HourOne, Synthesia etc are out of our reach, it’s the kind of thing that if it was available for a one-off cost rather than SaaS I would be a lot more interested, but several tens of pounds per month is going to get past the people who hold the purse strings here.
However I have managed to do something similar (albeit creating an animated rather than human-like character) using text to speech software and Adobe Character Animator.
(If anybody wants to see it, this is the video I created using Descript to create the voice and Adobe Character Animator)
https://videohud.cloud.panopto.eu/Panopto/Pages/Viewer.aspx?id=67597d76-c27c-47b3-a040-b04c00b72d77&start=0
Oh I really like what you have done here Steve, using Descript and Adobe Character Animator – the video is very engaging – more so than the one we posted today. The video says that you have enabled Turnitin’s AI detection at the University of Huddersfield? Is that still the case? We haven’t enabled it because of the amount of false positives that it generates – How is it being used? Do you have issues with it?
Yes, we are still cautiously using it but with safeguards in place that it can’t be the only evidence put to an Academic Misconduct case, more as a prompt for further investigation. The fact that is doesn’t “show it’s working” makes it very difficult to consider it credible evidence, it’s difficult for a student to defend their position against “computer says no”.
Thanks for sharing this Steve.
Hello! I’m a spatial designer, cultural strategist and design educator teaching on MA Narrative Environments at Central Saint Martins. I’m familiar with a handful of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT, DALL-E, MidJourney, Stable Diffusion etc. and use Otter in my work when conducting interviews / social research but eager to learn more! I am pro AI being used by students and interested to understand what referencing systems should be implemented where it has been a significant collaborator and when referencing is needed and otherwise. I’m excited by how AI can push practice forward and open up new possibilities and hope this course will expand my knowledge so I can better support my students.
Hi Claire great to hear from you – yes the 12DoAi aims to show you what can be done with these tools – and its definitely the case our students are already using them – we will discuss these issues in more depth as the 12 days evolves.
Hi… I work in Technology Enhanced Learning at the University of Cambridge. I’ve played around with ChatGPT and DALL-E and I’m interested in finding out about more AI tools and how I can use them in developing e-learning content.
Hi Richard ChatGPT and DALL-E are on the list and we will look at these and there alternatives…
Hello, I’m Lisa – an Occupational Therapy Lecturer at the University of Salford – am interested in all things ‘tech’ which has led me to sign up for this however am very aware that some of my colleagues have different views and some of our students are not as competent with technology as we like to believe so I look forward to some interesting discussions about the use of AI in academia!
Welcome Lisa, yes in my view academics need to investigate the use of AI in their subject area to better prepare their students for the future. Onward and upward!
Hello, I work at the University of Surrey where I’m the digital learning ecosystem manager.
As we develop the institutional approach to AI I’ve familiaisred myself with ChatGPT and various image generation AIs to help me with my work.
I think, potentially, there are great applications for AI in education – from automating some processes to being a source of inspiration. However, there are also risks involved, the use of gen AI in assessment submissions being a well-known one.
So I think AI in education should be embraced, but thoughtfully and with care. It will require changes to practice and process, but probably for the better (e.g. authentic assessment etc.)
Hi, I’m Amy, based at Central Saint Martins at UAL. I feel quite open to AI but still trying to work it all out of course. I like some of the discussions it’s opened up about the nature of assessment in particular. I really feel uncomfortable about the proliferation of the ‘generic’ person, usually a woman, though. I think this happens a lot in real life and we could do without more of it! Looking forward to these discussions.
Hi Amy,
Yes I agree, most AIs have been trained based on the assumptions, biases and stereotypes of their creators, and it needs to be addressed.
Hello everyone, I’m a senior learning designer at the University of London. We’ve been dabbling in exploring what AI can do for us for the past year. I’m looking forward to seeing what this community thinks and the opportunity to explore some new ideas! I’m hoping some of my colleagues will join us. Thank you Chris for the encouragement to post here!
Hello All,
I am Timos, a Principal Lecturer in Digital Education at London Metropolitan University.
I think AI offers many opportunities and challenges in education in general and HE in particular. As various Generative AI tools for text, image and video generation have been released ‘in the wild’, it is impossible to ban, so, thoughtful, ethical and critical adoption of these tools might be the way forward. This is challenging due to the lack of regulatory and legal frameworks around their use and creates a need for staff and student ‘AI literacies’ to be developed.
Looking forward to the conversations – Chris and team, the ’12 days of AI’ is an excellent idea!
Thanks for joining us Timos, we look forward to your input on the subject : )
Hi, on an accessibility note, having much difficulty reading white text on black background. Squinting a lot, I’m an Ed Dev tech consultant constantly amazed by what the new LLMs can do. Built a web app this morning with much help from ChatGPT-4, in a quarter of the time it would usually take. Very sympathetic to the fears over AI but looking forward to HE embracing co-creation with AI. Feel much for new u-grad intake – the cognitive landscape will be different when they graduate. A pressing need, then, for HE to embrace AI. Good to be able to be on this event. Thanks
Hi John,
Thank you for bringing the contrast issue to our attention, I will see if something can be done about it.
Hi again John, just to say we have increased the text kerning slightly to improve readability. If this is not enough I would suggest using a web browser extension like BeeLine Reader to customise readability at your end.
Hello! What a great initiative this is!I am an Associate Lecturer at LCF with lots of retail experience outside of academia.The capabilities and impact of AI will be enormous and I think it is critical that education tries to harness these and grasp the significant opportunities that lie ahead – for our students, our staff, our internal infrastructure and the broader retail/fashion industry ahead of embracing a seismic change to how education will be delivered.
It’s therefore great to see some much needed training and exposure to AI over these 12 days which I am sure will open up so much to engaging in this fascinating capability and its potential.Well done for setting this up!Looking forward to a great few days…
Hi Adam, Thanks for joining us! Exciting times indeed : )
Hello, looking forward to learning about AI rather than just reading about it. Thanks to the UAL 12DoAI Team for running it. I am Marion, retired as a HE lecturer but working as a consultant, and I can see AI as a paradigm shift in HE especially for assessment.
Hi everyone! Really looking forward to this, as I prefer to learn with others and really value hearing everyone’s perspectives and thoughts. I’m in student support/success at the University of Manchester. I understand a lot of our hesitancy, but I am truly blown away by the possible use of these tools around access and inclusion. I think it is also a chance to really get to grips with supporting students to reflect on their learning and understand what they might be “outsourcing” to these tools (and the implications of doing so). Plus, of course their potential impact on assessment. I’m also someone who uses the tools regularly to help get some of those more tedious tasks!
Hello! I’m an academic tutor at Bedfordshire University and I’m really interested in the role AI seems to be carving out for itself in education. In terms of the video, I couldn’t help but wonder if AI generated content will merely scale perfection. Instagram filters suddenly seem so last season. The choice of model is interesting. Also, assuming that technical features will improve with time, I already miss the presence of human imperfection. I’m looking forward to learning about the appropriateness of AI tools in teaching & learning and I appreciate the literature that has been provided to guide our understanding – thank you!
Hi everyone, I’m in Brisbane and working as an educational designer at a university. I use ChatGPT quite a bit in my job, and have also tried a few image generators like Designs AI. I’m all for embracing the use of AI, but one of the challenges I face in my job is maintaining academic integrity in the assessment tasks I design. I’m really interested in hearing everyone’s varied perspectives on AI and extremely excited to be shown some new tools to work with.
Hi everyone,
I am Asanka Munasinghe, Staff and Faculty trainer for Learning Management system and integrated technologies.Truly Appreciate this opportunity and amazed on how fast the AI and related technologies grow. I am from a science and engineering background looking forward to the program. I believe AI is a technology that we need to master on and that is the only way to stop misusing and encouraging the right way to use .
Hi, I’m Karen. I am in the Organisational Capability and EDI space (HR) at Charles Darwin University (Darwin, Australia). My limited knowledge is around ChatGPT. I know this is a key topic in our Education Strategy teams for design/learning etc. and is on the radar for key capability gaps of our staff for 2024 planning therefore I was pretty excited when I saw this program shared recently. Keen to know more!
Hi all,
I’m an educational designer (and soon to be lecturer) at a university in Naarm (Melbourne) Australia. I started the year engaging with a lot of articles and webinars about AI but quickly found it really difficult to keep up, so I’m looking forward to some bit-sized chunks and interesting discussions!
I found the video very much in the uncanny valley – in some scenes the avatar had a very fixed stare and didn’t blink at all, and the intonations were very level.
I have mixed views about AI. I can see lots of possibilities, but I’m wary of how fast the technology is rushing ahead of our ability as a society to make effective choices and legislation around it. I’m particularly concerned about the ethical aspects of it – what data feeds it? Who has been exposed to what in order to clean that data? Who has had content stolen or used without consent? What biases are implicit in the data that is driving the various AIs around us? Who is profiting from it and what are their intentions? Who will lose out? How well do users actually understand what they are getting (particularly an issue for ‘research’ and ‘support’ uses).
As an educational designer I often see people rush to ‘use’ technology without stopping to consider what they want to use it for, developing a proper understanding of benefits and risks, thinking through what outcomes they are really working towards, or considering which tools are actually the most effective – and it’s not always (or even usually) the newest shiniest one. AI is yet another item that falls into this category at the moment for me.
Hi everyone, lovely to hear from you and thanks to Chris R for this. I’ve been an academic developer working with staff on technology for their teaching. I’m glad to learn more about AI but I fret about how we talk about it (as ‘intelligence’; as ‘learning’; as ‘thinking’) and how we feel when we interact with it, and whether this will be different for children and students who will use it naturally and regularly for lots of their learning tasks.
Really looking forward to the next 12 days 🙂 – Neil, Associate Dean Student Experience and a big advocate of technology for learning
Hi everyone, my name is Cat and I’m a Learning Technologist at Queen Mary University of London.
I thinkg it would be difficult to resist AI at this stage.
I’ve used ChatGPT at home and at work, and I’d be keen to find out about more AI tools. Looking forward to the 12 Days of AI.
Hi, I’m Andy and I teach in HE focusing on the Performing Arts and the use of technology in performance. Really interested in exploring how AI can have an impact in this area and especially how it might be used as a creative tool for students. Yes I’m sure it will have its risks, as with any new technology, but if we can be pro active and find relevant and sustainable uses for AI to aid the creative community (rather than replacing them!) it will have a fantastic future.
Do we need to log in on this page and should we be seeing a daily task for today?
Hi Patricia, I don’t think you need to login as such. New daily pages are being published everyday at 10am UK time : D
or soon after 10am 🙂
Good morning!
I am Damien, Learning Technologist at Central Saint Martins (UAL). I have predominantly been using ChatGPT to summarise textual content and provide templates for coding and planning, and MidJourney for visual storytelling experiments. It is part of my role (and an interest of mine) to investigate new technologies so I am looking at further AI implementations in the creative industry such as sound, 3D and moving images.
I will also be helping hand during the 12 days of AI. Good to meet you all : )
Hi, I’m Laura, a senior lecturer from Kent Law School, University of Kent. I have no experience of using AI tools, but am keen to understand their potential including benefits and concerns. Thanks.
Hi – this is great – thanks so much for all your work. I’m in educational development, also at Queen Mary University of London, and view the possibilities of AI positively, as a disrupter, a tool, an enabler – and realise that to effect it for the ‘good’ of HE I need to know much more! It is so hard keeping up with technology per se, and AI is a complex fast moving field. I grasp the 12-Days-of-AI gratefully!! Again, thank you! The videos – clear, clean – and like others above was thinking about needing a range of representation, and also reflecting on the conundrum that creating any avatar is difficult. I am looking forward to seeing and hearing more just about this – as well as everything else!
Hello. I’m a Senior Learning Technologist at Royal Holloway, University of London. I started out with the Open AI playground a couple of years ago and now routinely use Chat GPT 4, Dall-E and Claude2 at work and at home.
I am yet to explore the possibilities afforded by AI-generated video. I did not find the Hour One introductory particularly engaging, enjoyable or memorable, but can recognise the advantages of rapidly produced multimedia content. One thing that struck me is that the research-informed advice regarding optimal online learning video length – no more than 6 mins – needs to be revised downward for avatar-led content. (https://www.researchgate.net/publication/262393281_How_video_production_affects_student_engagement_An_empirical_study_of_MOOC_videos)
Teaching, assessment, research and service delivery are all affected by AI. Rather than the extremes of embracing or resisting AI, HEIs should be critically engaging with it in terms of understanding its capabilities and impact.
Hello,
My name is David, and I am the Educational Technologist at Liverpool Hope University UK. Like many I have been testing a selection of AI tools like ChatGPT, DALLE-2, Bard, Claude and Pi.ai. with variious amounts of success. .
I believe that AI technology will rapidly continue to develop over the next couple of years, and that we will hopefully see even more innovative and transformative applications of AI in Higher Education.
Hello there. My name is Antonis and my pronouns are they/them and he/his. I am an Assistant Academic Support Librarian working at CSM library. I have zero experience with using AI and I signed up for this course to see what possibilities it can offer, and especially how the library can keep on top of the new opportunities and also ensure that we can support student queries with this.
Hi, I’m Sarah, I’m an educational developer at the University of Limerick, Ireland. I really liked the HourOne video and hope she comes with an Irish accent as an option!
I think embracing AI and being positive towards it’s usefulness and contribution is important. I think this will mean changes in our practice and equally time to change our teaching design, particularly assessment.
I don’t think AI is going anyway so better embrace it than deny it.
Looking forward to these 12 days.
Thanks for running this initiative.
Hi everyone, I’m Ellie Hannan, I work as an E-Learning Developer at Manchester Met Uni. I’ve played abour with Bing, ChatGPT and Dall-e before. I am excited by what it could potentially offer, but am concerned about the ethics of it, and uncertain about the IP and copyright aspects of the content created. Looking forward to trying some new tools and getting a better idea of how I could use it in my role.
Hi all, I’m working at University of Surrey as a Digital Learning Developer.
I have been working with my colleagues in Surrey institute of Education and the wider University staff in creating guidance and support materials for staff and students on the use of generative AI in teaching, learning and assessments.
So far I have experimented with ChatGPT, Microsoft Bing and some image generation tools such as DALL-E. I’m looking forward to experimenting with more tools in the future.
My personal opinion is that AI can be used ethically and mindfully to enhance teaching and learning. There are potential risks associated with AI as with any new technology and that’s why being aware of these is very important.
We should embrace new technologies and try to use it to create a better future for everyone.
Hi I’m James. I have recently finished my PhD at the University of Liverpool and would like to develop my knowledge in AI to improve my job prospects.I consider myself a lamen when it comes to AI.
Welcome James! We have the whole spectrum of AI users signed up to the 12DoAI from beginners to very experienced users – Do join the conversations – even asking questions is very useful for all of us to think about 🙂
Hi everyone, I’m Beccy Dresden, an online learning consultant/freelance learning designer working with a range of higher education institutions to develop online courses and support the development of in-house staff’s digital capabilities. I’ve only really used ChatGPT so far, mainly as a tool to speed up identifying key content areas in topics that are new to me, but I’m currently involved in co-creating a short CPD course for which my colleague is testing a wider range of AI tools. Like many others here, I’m interested in the potential of AI, particularly to take on the more mundane aspects of my work, but I am concerned about ethical and IP/copyright issues. Also, like one of the first commenters above, it worries me that badly prompted AI could mean a proliferation of content that completely ignores EDI considerations, something that can be challenging enough when dealing directly with human content creators!.
My name is Tatiana Costa and I work as a Digital Learning Advisor at the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film at Queen Mary University of London.
I use Chat GPT, Google bard. Scribe, tried Nolej and Tome. I believe that we need to accepted that AI is here to stay and that we need to embrace it, take the advantages we can to improve our work and learn as much as we can to fight the downsides of it.
Hi everyone. I’m working at UCL as a Learning Technologist, whilst also studying a PhD part time based on virtual reality for skills training.
I like to try technology early, so have been sampling AI tools for a while now, though am yet to find one I stick with. I am also interested in the issues (Gen)AI brings up in terms of ethics, diversity, inequity in education etc.
This course will hopefully help me find something to make my research a bit more efficient too!
Hello,
I’m Liam and based in London.
I’m a Digital Skills Tutor/E-learning Coach and like many people I’m looking to get a better understanding of the benefits and limitations of AI within an educational context.
Hi Everyone
I’m Gary. I work in the Finance team at Central Saint Martins and am not, nor ever have been involved in teaching. I’ve always had a creative side, but never had the resources or opportunity to explore it fully. If you were to say to me “Picture an apple” I wouldn’t be able to conjure a visual image in my mind, nor do I have the artistic skills to be able to draw or paint one beyond a very basic apple shape. I just “know” what an apple looks like, if that makes sense? I have, however, always been fairly good with words, and being able to use AI to convert text to image has opened up a whole new creative world for me, and given me the opportunity to explore avenues that would otherwise have been closed. Suddenly I have a way of converting my thoughts and ideas into images. It’s quite mind-blowing what can be done just using free online tools, as is the speed at which things seem to be moving. It all feels very “Punk” to me at the moment in the way that the status quo is not so much being challenged as destroyed, and the establishment is running scared as the old guard, who for so long have held all the power, watch these formidably powerful tools become so easily available to the masses. Yes – there is a very scary side to AI. No-one knows where it’s heading. If we did, it wouldn’t be so exciting. Just like everything else which challenges the norm though, it will be tamed and brought under control. Sadly embracing it and incorporating it more into teaching is part of that process, but it does need to be done as it is already embedded in our lives to a far greater extent than many people realise, and it certainly won’t be going away anytime soon. I will be retiring in a couple of months, and I am looking forward enormously to being able to spend much more time exploring the strange and exciting world of AI.
Hi Gary great to have you on board!
Yes suddenly these ai tools seem like they releasing our creative potential! They could keep you very busy your retirement! Hopefully you will find a few new interesting ai tools in the next 12 days!
Hi Gary great to have you on board!
Yes suddenly these ai tools seem like they releasing our creative potential! They could keep you very busy your retirement! Hopefully you will find a few new interesting ai tools in the next 12 days!
Hi, my name is Rossie and I am faculty and program coordinator for fashion management postgraduate program at Humber college, Toronto, Canada. I have basic experience with open AI, elicit, beautiful AI,firefly.
I think the existence of AI will bring another dimension to academia which will both speed up and complicate teaching. There will be advantages and disadvantages many of which we are not even aware of now. I hope AI will be used as a tool to enrich learning but it could very well be the tool to end traditional learning. The door is wide open to possibilities.
Hi, I’m a Senior Lecturer in Design at Western Sydney University. My experience includes using AI tools like ChatGPT, Dall-e, Claude, and Firefly. I have been dabbling in developing GPT’s for specific roles.
From an academic perspective on AI, I recognise that like any technological tool, it presents a mix of benefits and drawbacks. As the industry continues to explore the integration of these tools, we in higher education must stay abreast of these advancements. It’s crucial to not only assist our students in utilising these tools effectively but also to guide them in understanding and considering the ethical implications inherent in their use.
Hello everyone,
I work in administration. Through curiosity, I have encountered generative AI in my personal life and have dabbled in using software that embeds AI into its function, such as Microsoft Designer. My understanding of AI debates is more around the use of AI-generated art, though I am hoping to broaden my knowledge.
Whilst I believe that AI is a fantastic tool to facilitate (and here I must emphasise the word facilitate) work by creating a frame, allowing individuals to focus time more appropriately, perhaps freeing up more time to produce novel ideas, over-reliance or misuse of AI can cause major issues.
One core concern that I have observed in AI-generated art are the ethics surrounding how AI is trained, with many individuals whose livelihood depends on being able to create art, coming forward to say that tools have been trained using their art, without their permission, finding remnants of their signatures in AI-generated pieces. This then raises the issue of people obtaining custom art for free/low costs as opposed to commissioning art, making art a less viable career path, resulting in fewer new artists, and losing the chance to create innovative pieces/ use new media. On the flip side, AI can provide a scaffold for art, allowing artists to increase their income by refining generated art in place of making pieces from scratch, and may increase the value of original pieces.
Some of the above issues may also apply to academia if we see writing and education as art forms. Writing, like art, will carry elements of the individuals who have created the work, yes, one may be asked to write in a scientific manner, however, we do not all think the same and therefore our writing carries minute traces of who we are and the way our lives have shaped us (for example, the author Cormac McCarthy uses limited punctuation).
Where is the information used to generate essays taken from? Have the authors of the material consented to the use of their work? If a student were to sell their thesis online then they would face consequences, one could compare this to offering up work to train AI.
However, AI could also make universities more inclusive, students from abroad, or with differing educational backgrounds may have differing abilities when combating English grammar. AI can provide a tool for an excellent, novel idea to be formatted clear way, it can also assist with outreach, and allow students to focus on novel exciting developments.
But then, are we also discriminating against individuals who do not have confidence or experience in using technology such as AI? Are we already discriminating based on our reliance on technology?
The use of AI isn’t black and white and requires clear regulation, both for those using AI and those involved in creating AI.
I apologise for the lack of clarity in my reply, as I simply threw my thoughts at a page, perhaps running this through and AI could have helped with clarity and persuasiveness.
Hi I’m Alice I work in the Digital and Technology team at UAL. I’m late joining this course so thanks for letting me join. I’m interested in the opportunities and threats of AI – how it can be used to benefit society and learning/creativity, and what interventions are needed to ensure this happens. From a self-interested perspective I also want to ensure that I’m as ready as I can be for changes to the jobs/skills market. I think AI has great potential to be used to make the world a better place but there are many ethical dilemmas. I’m interested to learn more and from a technical perspective I’m constantly being surprised and impressed, I use ChatGPT, Bard and Midjourney fairly regularly.
Hi Alice and welcome – no such thing as late on the 12DoAI ! ….also I’m not even sure its a course? But then again what else shall we call it? Anyway – enjoy 🙂
Hello – thank you for inviting us to the course. A little late to the party (as always!)
I did look on the first day but didn’t have time to comment then. I’m Ros and I am Digital Accessibility Adviser at the University of St Andrews in Scotland.
The video was very basic. It had an American accent, despite being created by a British University. The Captions were very close to the title, which made them a bit difficult to read. As someone who lip reads, I would have found this very difficult, as the face was hardly moving. I would have much preferred a welcome from a ‘real’ person- but I can see why some people would use such an avatar.
We probably don’t need to debate whether the use of AI in education is a good thing – it is a ‘thing’ and we need to make sure that it becomes good – that good practice is shared. We must never shoe-horn the technology into existing practice without having a good reason for using it. Having said that – it often takes a leap in thinking to make sure that we do see opportunities which we potentially could not imagine in other ways.
It has the potential to alleviate some of the workload burden, but it depends on how we use it. We can’t resist it – but we embrace it with caution and critical judgement.
Hi, very late to the party but hoping to catch up. I’m Helen G. I work with Andy and Ashani at University of Surrey. I’m a digital learning designer and I help staff develop skills, learning activities and content for their online courses. I’m particularly interested in digital accessibility and the potential of AI to assist with this. I’ve played with ChatGPT and used it when developing a digital accessibility learning pathway, mainly for a second opinion about the design and if I had left anything crucial out. Also, used it to add mark up to a table to make it more accessible, and I liked the way it helped to teach me as well as solve the problem.
I’ve also dabbled with Bing image creator, making Halloween images for a puzzle my colleague Ashani developed, which was fun. I’ve found DALL-E and Bing can be good but they don’t handle text very well, coming up with some bizarre spelling of common words, so have often had to edit images further to be of use.
Regarding video from text, I haven’t really found much use for yet beyond generic, ‘Well done all for your hard work’ type videos. I think a personal recording is more engaging for a ‘Welcome to the module’ vid, conveying more enthusiasm for the subject or one using the tutor’s voice with an avatar could be better.
As others have mentioned, more clarity about copyright, ethics and AI tools would be welcome; this area is a concern and feels a bit liminal at the moment.
Hi everyone!
I’m starting to catch up now as I was so busy last week. My name’s Rhiannon, I’m an e-learning specialist and Learning Technologist working at the University of Manchester. I’ve dabbled in ChatGPT but mostly use AI for creative inspiration via the built-in tools in apps I regularly use, such as Canva’s Magic Design, Adobe Photoshop’s generative fill and Microsoft Designer. I don’t think the use of AI in education is inherently good or bad. Its potential benefits include helping to reduce educators’ workloads and mental loads, which is huge! But so is the issue of copyright, ethics and data concerning AI. Content that people have worked hard on and deserve payment and credit for could be acquired fairly but then subsequently inputted into a chatbot by anyone, without the initial creator’s consent. I’m still trying to wrap my head around this issue!
(The Hour One video was okay but I found some of the character’s facial features moved oddly and it was off-putting! Definitely cheaper/faster than filming but I think a voice recording with a picture of the presenter’s face would work just fine :))
Hi There,
I have used ChatGPT to quickly develop some copywrite for desciptors and analysing learning objectives. I have free sample AI also used to the generate some video content, using chatgpt to help develop the narration, and anther video AI to brainstorm the format of the short video, including transitions and special effects. I am intersted to see how it can be used with learners to create authentic assessments.
I have used ai a couple of times to generate copywrite or to help me understand something. I have also used it to generate ideas for video, including the narration the potential video editing and transitions. Im interested in being able to base assessments on it that reduce the chances of plagiarism.
Hello everybody, finally made it here. The messages went to my spam folder. I am Chrissi working in the School of Education at the University of Leeds. I have been experimenting with generative AI since Jan 23, almost a year now, only using free versions. We have also curated early ideas by the open education community and published an openly licensed book on using AI in education curating 101 ideas. See https://creativehecommunity.wordpress.com/2023/06/23/oa-book-101-creative-ideas-to-use-ai-in-education/ we hope this will be useful in some capacity. I have learnt a lot from colleagues and students. Chrissi
Hello, I’m Leanne and I work as Surveys and Student Voice Manager at the University of London, although a few months ago I was at UAL! At my new institution they are using AI in a lot of different and interesting ways, as my colleague Anna mentioned above, but I have never used it and I’m sure I don’t fully understand how it works! I’ve been asked to work on a project involving AI and I hope the 12 Days of AI will help me with some of that background into.
I think it is potentially a good thing, used anywhere, if it saves human labour and is used carefully and ethically. However, if it replaces human jobs without society adequately compensating for this, then it is potentially very destructive. I also find it worrying that people often talk about how it will make communication easier for students and others for whom English isn’t their first language – it might make communication *look* easier, but is it true communication? There’s too much potential for someone to use it to ‘write’ something but not fully comprehend the end result, meaning they put their name to something without fully understanding it. And as a writer, I would find it tragic if AI was used to iron out the quirks and idiosyncrasies of a person’s own communication style, creating a static, generic form of writing. But on the other hand, it might elevate writing as an art form, as people dedicate their time to figuring out what they can do that AI cannot.
Embracing it or resisting it? I would say we need to be critical, and think carefully about the expectations that we create by popularising AI. How would we want AI to be used in utopia?
Your question “is it true communication” really resonates with me. A common topic we’ve been discussing in our Friday webinar series AI Conversations (find more info under Want to learn more? in the menu) is critical thinking around which tools and platforms really work for your purpose. And teaching students to not trust anything and everything an AI puts out – something we’ve seen across every day’s discussion. We’ve also discussed the issue of replacing jobs. It may replace some jobs, but there will be more human jobs created as a result. For example with translation – if I translate my video from English to Portuguese (a language I don’t speak) would I then need to hire a human translator to correct the translation? Or do I hope it’s correct and post something without knowing what it’s been translated to?
Interesting points Hannah – it would be interesting to explore the area of AI for translating – which is such a skilled, nuanced and potentially high stakes area. I think there is a scene in Douglas Adams’ “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” where choosing the wrong word leads to a whole Galaxy descending into conflict and ultimately being swallowed by a small dog. It would be interesting to explore the translation potential without the possibility of similar canine intervention. 😉
Hi there! I’m Nicole and work as a Director of Academic Program and Senior Lecturer in Public Relations at Western Sydney University in Australia. I have dabbled a little with ChatGPT and heard about various AI tools at conferences and seminars, but my experience is fairly limited. However, I am keen to learn more and embrace AI as another tool in my learning and teaching toolkit. It is also really important for me to understand the impact of AI tools on the Public Relations industry so that I can share this with my students so they have the most up-to-date information and skills, to ensure they are career-ready.
hi everyone! good to meet you all here~~ i am a bit late to start this course!
I am Amy and work as an instructional designer in HKUST. I am scared of knowing more AI after I designed and developed the self-paced course in Aug to our faculties. But I know I can’t to escape AI so I started to make a friend with AI and am willing to know each others more. That’s why I am here 🙂
Amy
No such thing as too late! Thanks for joining in. I think AI can be scary at first – but it’s just a tool to use, made by humans and for humans. (That’s what Creative Computing Institute’s (CCI) Mick Grierson said in a webinar yesterday for anyone else who attended!) So it’s important to be critical about the different tools through the learning process.
I’m Wenqing, a learning technologist at UoP, England. I use ChatGPT every day, and it’s a helpful tool that boosts my work productivity. However, I’ve noticed some concerns, especially about students using it for their studies. Academics seem worried about potential cheating in exams, leading to discussions on redesigning assessments to ensure AI is used critically.
Hi, I’m and eLearning developer and web admin. I’m a little worried to see if AI might replace the design element of my job. I’ve used ChatGBT a couple of times for some text work and to try and generate some avatars from photos, but the avatars weren’t very successful. How long did it take to generate the introductory video? The lip syncing isn’t great, but maybe that was the point to not make it too ‘real’?