Teaching – Nigel Caplan

Questions to Ask before Using AI in Education

These are the questions I’m asking myself, and which I’d like other educators, instructional designers, AI enthusiasts, and ed-tech promoters to ask

I can’t open my social media feeds or email these days without seeing another article about teachers using generative AI products (ChatGPT et al.) or an ad for a book promising 100 AI prompts for educators. I’m skeptical and concerned about the implications of using these products as teachers or with students. These are the questions I’m asking myself, and which I’d like other educators, instructional designers, AI enthusiasts, and ed-tech promoters to ask, too:

Why I’m not excited by (or even using) generative AI

Between all the hype and doom-mongering over AI text generators (ChatGPT and their ilk), there is a blunt reality: these products and the profit-seeking corporations that market them are not our friends and they have no place in education at this time.

Genre Explained!

Do you have questions about genre-based writing instruction? We have answers! 40 of them!

Genre Explained is a new book of frequently-asked questions (and answers!) about genre-based teaching. Together with my amazing co-authors, Chris Tardy (University of Arizona) and Ann Johns (San Diego State University), we provide a guide for teachers who are new to genre, those who are genre curious, and experienced genre teachers who want to share the pedagogy with colleagues and administrators.

Available now from the University of Michigan Press. Use code UMS23 for a 30% discount just for reading my blog!

Genre-based writing, “preparation culture,” and the marshmallow test

Trying something new here. I’m sharing my pre-recorded presentation from the 2022 TESOL conference, where I spoke as part of the Second Language Writing Interest Section panel on genre-based writing across ESL contexts.

My bit was supposed to be about teaching genre in intensive English programs (IEP), but I took the opportunity to reflect on the mindset of “preparation,” which I think is an impediment to good writing instruction. Along the way, I take swipes at the five-paragraph essay (of course), traditional points-and-average grading, and the obsession with assessment.

At the end, I introduced the approach that Ann Johns and I take in our new textbook, Essential Actions for Academic Writing, available now from University of Michigan Press.

Ungrading online discussions

The fact that we are not graded each week lessens the fear that we might miss a task/quiz/reading and in fact, I think it encourages us to do/read more widely because there is not so much pressure to do perfectly on one assignment. It’s kind of like a buffet (where we have to try everything, but will like some things more than others and can get add’l servings!)
I also tend to like to participate in discussions a lot; sometimes this makes me feel self-conscious because I don’t want people to think I’m contributing so much just for a good grade. But your course isn’t set up that way, so I don’t have to worry about that perception.
participant in an MA TESL course (used with permission)

Two weeks into my ungrading experiment, and things are going quite well. One of the interesting side-effects has been a shift in the way I ask students to engage in online discussions. The go-to method in online teaching is to require a certain number of posts and replies, perhaps with a rubric that differentiates between substantial and superficial responses. But that leads to a checklist attitude, increases stress, and results in very dull discussions. In addition to encouraging minimum effort (what’s the least I have to do to accumulate points?), it also discourages students who actually do want to engage, as seen in the feedback I quoted above. I hadn’t thought about it from that perspective, but it makes complete sense.

Ungrading the Grads

I’ve been reading and thinking a lot about ungrading in the past year. Gmail always tries to autocorrect the word to upgrading, which as my colleague pointed out, is actually quite apt. I happen to have an unusual schedule of 3 very different graduate courses this spring, so I’m going to dive in and ungrade/upgrade the whole lot of them. And blog about it, of course.

Books available online

Just a quick note to let you know that many of my books are available in electronic format for online teaching, learning, and study:

Don’t hesitate to contact me if I can help you get access to my materials! Good luck out there.

Keeping our distance: What we did next

In my last post, about a century and a half ago (OK, two and a half weeks), I described how we took the English Language Institute at the University of Delaware online in ten days. Now we’ve finished three weeks of remote instruction, how’s it going?

Not bad.

Which, all in all, is pretty good. Continue reading “Keeping our distance: What we did next”

Going live: What we did and how we did it

As intensive English programs like ours are shifting from face-to-face to remote and online classes around the world, I thought it would be useful (if only for posterity!) to document what we have done at the University of Delaware English Language Institute.

My view is largely of the academic side. There is a whole complex layer of administration and student support going on as well, where my colleagues have moved mountains to recreate advising, tutoring, registrar services, and extracurricular activities for the coronavirus universe. But in terms of teaching and learning, these have been our steps so far, forming a rough timeline of a very rough time. Continue reading “Going live: What we did and how we did it”

Remote ESL/IEP Teaching

They said keep a journal … yeah, that’s not going to happen, but I am happy to share two documents I created as part of training the English Language Institute faculty to move to remote instruction as our campus rapidly shut down in the last few days due to the spread of the novel coronavirus. I presented these as part of hours of in-person and (later) online workshops and demonstrations spread over 3 slightly hectic days.

We decided to limit our technology to platforms licensed and supported by the University which we felt gave the biggest return on the investment of time without making excessive demands on faculty who are less comfortable with technology. So we’re primarily using Zoom for “live” teaching, and Canvas (our LMS) and GoogleApps for those feeling a bit more adventurous.

These Google Docs are licensed with Creative Commons so you can copy, adapt, and share them. Hope they’re useful to other programs living through these challenging times!