TESL NB Webinar: Harnessing the Transformative Power of AI in English Language Teaching
Date and Time: Saturday, Feb. 18, 2023 (1:00 – 2:00 AST)
Presenter:
Ismail Fayed- TESL NB Representative to TESL Canada
Project Director, Educational Technology & Assessment
Yorkville University
Abstract
Since December 2022, many educators have questioned the validity of existing academic
practices and assessments and warned of a significant threat to academic integrity using AI
tools like Open AI and ChatGPT. Others have seen this as a game-changing opportunity for
better educational practices. English language teaching is at the heart of this situation,
where technology is an equally crucial new opportunity and a challenge that could change
many of our practices in ELT.
AI chatbots or Open AI technology uses advanced technologies like Stable Diffusion and
GPT-3 to produce original and creative new content. Most shared reports discuss how AI
systems generate ideas and relatively original smart content using a set of related
parameters. This could be personalized to the writer’s specifications in no time! Since there
is no previous work for the student to copy, and, thus, not being detected as not original to
most plagiarism tools. Most of these reports still ignored the considerable potential of these
tools where practicing the language skills could be moved to a different unique level.
In this webinar, the presenter will give some background details about the recent release of
AI autoregressive language models in developing authentic teaching and learning
opportunities. The webinar will summarize how AI models work, how to use them, and how
to integrate them into teaching and assessment with examples. The webinar will also
highlight possible recommendations for better and proactive academic assessment planning
to avoid the risks of AI generic content or academic misconduct.