Thursday, May 25, 2023

When Chatbots Provide Health Advice on the Internet

 

 

By Lilian H. Hill, PhD

There is so much health news in the media. It's in new reports, in social media, in books promoting one perspective or another, in magazines, and just about everywhere you look. Often the information seems contradictory and the headlines scream. Don’t eat fat! Avoid gluten and carbohydrates! Drink more water! Alcohol is bad for you, no wait … It’s good for you as long as it’s red wine. Adopt a plant-based, keto, or Mediterranean diet! There is just so much noise, it’s enough to make you give up and head to your favorite doughnut shop.

The health advice is not limited to diet. Instead, it extends to many other health decisions. Exercise until you sweat or until it hurts (otherwise known as no pain, no gain). Lift weights, do Pilates, Tai Chi, Yoga, walk 10,000 steps, and run marathons. Get outside and meditate! Avoid the sun, except oops, you need some sun to make Vitamin D and avoid depression. Vaccinate, or don’t vaccinate, depending on who you listen to.  Take supplements, take vitamins, take your medicines, and take off-label prescriptions to lose weight and overcome addictions. This list could go on and on.


With all the contradictory and confusing health information, many people have taken to consulting “Dr. Google” with both positive and negative effects. It is hard to discern what is valuable and applicable to your own questions and confronting your doctor with your internet pearls of wisdom may not go well. 

Friday, May 19, 2023

Adult Literacy: Definitions, Types, and Competencies

 

The classic sense of literacy involves reading, writing, and arithmetic, sometimes referred to as the three Rs. Some people may think that literacy and reading are interchangeable, however, literacy also includes language, writing, speaking, and listening. Literacy helps us to understand and interpret information and our experiences. In this podcast episode, Lilian Hill defines adult literacy and explains the different types of literacy competencies. Listen to the episode and join the online forum.

 

Listen to Podcast

  

 

References

Belzer, A., & Greenberg, D. (2010). Adult basic education. In C. E. Kasworm, A. D. Rose, and J. M. Ross-Gordon (Eds), The handbook of adult and continuing education (pp. 189-197). Jossey-Bass.

UNESCO. Functional literacy. Retrieved from https://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/functional-literacy

UNESCO. Literacy. Retrieved from https://uis.unesco.org/en/glossary-term/literacy


Friday, May 12, 2023

Digital Citizenship: Meaning, Practices, and Examples

 

With all the responsibilities of adult life, you may be distressed to learn there is another type of citizenship that is currently under discussion. With all the great things the internet makes possible, there are dangers. Therefore, there are practices we must learn to use the internet responsibly. In this podcast episode, Lilian Hill explores digital citizenship– its meaning, practices, and examples. Listen to the episode and join the online forum.

 

Listen to the Podcast

 

 

References

Ellipsis Education (n.d.) How to be a good digital citizen. Retrieved https://ellipsiseducation.com/good-digital-citizen

Terrell (2021, December 13). The definition of digital citizenship. Retrieved https://www.teachthought.com/the-future-of-learning/definition-digital-citizenship/

Friday, May 5, 2023

Digital Footprints: Steps to Protect Yourself


When you are visiting different websites and conducting online searches you may believe you are doing so anonymously, but you leave behind a digital footprint everywhere you go. In this episode of Information Literacy, Dr. Lilian Hill explores digital footprints, what you leave behind online, and steps you can take to protect yourself from exposure of private information. 

 

Listen to Podcast

 

References

McGowan, E. (2021, July 8). What’s your digital footprint? Avast. Retrieved https://blog.avast.com/what-is-your

Morgan Stanley (2022, May 17). Strategies to help protect your digital footprint. Author, Retrieved https://www.morganstanley.com/articles/digital-footprint-protection-strategies

Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Exploring the Role of ChatGPT in Teaching, Learning, and Publishing

 


Join us for a free webinar on the role of ChatGPT in teaching, learning, and publishing. For more information and how to register for the webinar go to https://scoc-consulting.com/free-webinar-on-chatgpt.



Friday, April 28, 2023

ChatGPT and the Publishing Industry

Have you always wanted to write a book, and yet you don’t feel you have enough knowledge, time, and energy? Well, now instead of taking the time needed to develop the expertise, writing skills, and determination to write that book, you can write one in a single day. And you can get it published instantly, too. In this episode, Dr. Lilian Hill explores how ChatGPT has impacted the publishing industry. Listen to the episode and join in the online forum.

 

Listen to Podcast

 

References

Jacob, A. (2023, March 22). The ups and downs of ChatGPT for Publishers: Maximize your revenue but at what cost? Monetize More. Retrieved from https://www.monetizemore.com/blog/chatgpt-publishers/

0uz (2023, February 18). ChatGPT Revolutionizes the publishing industry: Are AI writing taking over best-seller lists? Gizmochina. Retrieved from https://www.gizmochina.com/2023/02/22/chatgpt-ai-writing-books-amazon/

Silva, C. (2023, March 3). How ChatGPT and AI are affecting the literary world: Who owns a story written by ChatGPT? Retrieved from https://mashable.com/article/chatgpt-ai-books-literary-magazines

Smith, W. A. (2022, December 16). What does ChatGPT mean for news publishers? Arena. Retrieved from https://arena.im/post/what-does-chatgpt-mean-for-news-publishers

Friday, April 21, 2023

How ChatGPT Influences Academic Publishing

 

We have been discussing algorithms, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The issue in the news that is taking up a lot of attention is ChatGPT. We have written about it before, but the question of its influence on academic journal publishing is useful to consider. On this episode, Dr. Lilian Hill explains how ChatGPT influences academic publishing. Listen to the episode and join in the online forum.

 

Listen to the Podcast

References

Flanagin, A., Bibbins-Domingo, K., Berkwits, M, & Christiansen, S.L. Nonhuman “Authors” and Implications for the Integrity of Scientific Publication and Medical Knowledge. JAMA. 2023;329(8):637–639. doi:10.1001/jama.2023.1344

 

Getahun, J. (2023, January 16). ChatGPT could be used for good, but like many other AI models, it's rife with racist and discriminatory bias. Insider. Retrieved https://www.insider.com/chatgpt-is-like-many-other-ai-models-rife-with-bias-2023-1

 

Open AI (2023). ChatGPT (April 10 version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

 

Stokel-Walker, C. (2023). ChatGPT listed as author on research papers: many scientists disapprove. Nature, 613(7945), 620–621. https://doi-org.lynx.lib.usm.edu/10.1038/d41586-023-00107-z

 

Teixeira da Silva, J. A. (2023). Is ChatGPT a valid author? Nurse Education in Practice, 68, 103600. https://doi-org.lynx.lib.usm.edu/10.1016/j.nepr.2023.103600


Friday, April 14, 2023

Effective Ways to Employ ChatGPT in Instruction


It has been a concern for instructors that ChatGPT increases student cheating, but cheating is not new. While much discussion has been devoted to methods of detecting and preventing students from using ChatGPT to write papers, a more constructive view might be to look for ways that ChatGPT can be used to augment instruction and improve student learning. On this episode, Dr. Lilian Hill explains the effective ways to employ ChatGPT in instruction.  

 

You may be interested in reading this article on Learning with ChatGPT published by the American Association of University Professors.

 

Listen to Podcast

 

 

References

Cliff’s Notes. https://www.cliffsnotes.com/study-guides.

Ferlazzo, L. (2023, January 18). 19 Ways to Use ChatGPT in Your Classroom. Education Week. Retrieved https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-19-ways-to-use-chatgpt-in-your-classroom/2023/01

Lamott, A. (1994). Bird by bird: Some instructions on writing and life. Anchor Books.

Thorp, H. H. (2023, January 26), ChatGPT is fun, but not an author. Science, 379(6630), 313. DOI: 10.1126/science.adg7879

Vogelsinger, B. (2023, January 3). ChatGPT: Teachers Weigh In on How to Manage the New AI Chatbot. Education Week. Retrieved https://www.edweek.org/teaching-learning/opinion-chatgpt-teachers-weigh-in-on-how-to-manage-the-new-ai-chatbot/2023/01

Friday, April 7, 2023

Experimenting with ChatGPT

 

ChatGPT has become a common talk among educators lately. It has raised concerns, but also shown it has value. On this episode, Dr. Lilian Hill explains what ChatGPT is and what can be done with it by sharing her own experiences with ChatGPT. She also assesses ChatGPT capabilities and drawbacks. Listen to the episode and join in the online forum.

You may be interested in reading this article on Critical Information Literacy for Collective Action, published by the American Association of University Professors.

Listen to the Podcast

 

References

Hanlon, R. (2023, March 15). What does "ChatGPT" Stand For? Everything To know about the AI that’s growing at a faster pace than TikTok and Instagram. Parade. Retrieved https://parade.com/living/what-is-chatgpt#:~:text=Assisted%20Editorial%20Tools-,What%20Does%20the%20Name%20'ChatGPT'%20Mean%3F,or%20phrases%20in%20each%20input

Wingard, J. (2023, January 10). ChatGPT: A threat to higher education? Forbes. Retrieved https://www.forbes.com/sites/jasonwingard/2023/01/10/chatgpt-a-threat-to-higher-education/?sh=78f3e0151e76

Friday, March 24, 2023

All You Need to Know about Banned or Challenged Books

By Lilian H. Hill

 

Some of my favorite books when I was growing up were Call of the Wild (Jack London, 1903), Are you there God? It me, Margaret (Judy Blume, 1970), and A Wrinkle in Time (Madeleine L’Engle, 1963). They have all been banned or challenged. Other banned books include classics we read in high school including Of Mice and Men (John Steinbeck, 1937), The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (Mark Twain, 1876), To Kill a Mockingbird (Harper Lee, 1960), and Lord of the Flies (William Golding, 1954). Many have read In the Night Kitchen (Maurice Sendak, 1970), Where’s Waldo? (Martin Handford, 1987), or the Junie B. Jones series (Barbara Park, 1992-2011) to their children, and their children may have read the Goosebumps (R.L. Stine, 1992-1997) or the Captain Underpants (Dav Pilkey, 1997-2015) series. However, you may never have realized the books were so “dangerous” that they would be banned.  


All of these books are on the Top 100 Banned Books list. There are several lists of the Top 100 banned books. The American Library Association has been keeping track through their Office of Intellectual Freedom (American Library Association, 2019), but they have only been doing so since 1990. Other lists such as the one found on Wikipedia contain some of the older books I mention here. 

 

Why are these books being banned?

As of 2020, reasons for banning books include: 

  • Sexual content (92.5%) 

  • Offensive language (51.5%) 

  • Unsuitable for age group (49%) 

  • Religious viewpoint (26%) 

  • LGBTQIA+ (23.5%) 

  • Violence (19%) 

  • Racism (16.5%) 

  • Use of illegal substances 

  • “Anti-family” content (7%) 

  • One of the silliest reasons for banning a children’s book was for encouraging poor spelling because it used silly spellings. (American Library Association, 2019)  

     

The reason these percentages don’t appear to make sense is that books are often challenged for multiple reasons. The American Library Association (2019) estimated that more than 82% of challenges remain unreported. They compared results from several independent studies of third-party Freedom of Information Act requests documenting school and library book censorship with the information in its database.

 

What is the difference between a challenge and a book ban?

A book challenge occurs when a book is questioned. In response, portions of a book’s content may be redacted, its circulation restricted, or relocated to an adult section of a library. When a book that was available is removed from the collection completely, it would be considered banned (Haupt, 2022). It means a book is removed from school curricula and possibly public libraries because someone has objected to its content (VanDenburgh, 2022). 

 

Where do these challenges come from? 

Many of these challenges come not from concerned parents, but instead from advocacy organizations with a political intent. These advocacy organizations have made censorship of certain books and ideas in schools a large part of their mission. Unfortunately, many of the book challenges are by authors that have had to fight hard to be published including books by and about people of color, people who are LGBTQIA, and people who have suffered violence or abuse. Even books that provide clear and medically appropriate sex education are under attack. In other words, these are books that can help normalize human experience, represent the full range of human experience, and answer people’s questions. Friedman and Johnson (2022) comment that these actions are deeply undemocratic and that it is: 

 

having multifaceted, harmful impacts: on students who have a right to access a diverse range of stories and perspectives, and especially on those from historically marginalized backgrounds who are watching their library shelves emptied of books that reflect and speak to them; on educators and librarians who are operating in some states in an increasingly punitive and surveillance-oriented environment with a chilling effect on teaching and learning; on the authors whose works are being targeted; and on parents who want to raise students in schools that remain open to curiosity, discovery, and the freedom to read. (para. 8) 

How many of these organizations exist?

Estimates indicate that there are more than 700 of these organizations, and that more are being created.  The proliferation of advocacy organizations responsible for book bans and challenges is a very recent phenomenon (Friedman & Johnson, 2022). The organizations operate at the regional, state, and national levels and are loosely coordinated in sharing lists of books to question and attack. Some organizations' members use tactics like appearing in large numbers at school board meetings, creating arbitrary rating systems for libraries, accusing school officials of providing books that are “pornographic” or that “groom” students, filing criminal complaints, or in extreme cases harassing librarians online, in public, and in their homes. There have been instances of people filing the complaints who did not have children enrolled in school.  

 

Are these organizations acting alone? 

Approximately 40% of these actions are connected to legislative initiatives or enacted legislation (American Library Association, 2019). Legislation is being enacted in multiple states including Utah, Missouri, Mississippi, Michigan, Texas, Pennsylvania, and Florida. Politicians are actively condemning critical race theory and the idea of wokeness, although there is doubt that they fully understand these concepts. The politicians are against books that center racism or discuss sexuality and gender identity.  


Recent Mississippi legislation would affect a ban on digital books that are “sexually oriented.” It references another bill that provides an extremely broad definition of what sexually oriented means. The new bill is intended to protect minors from “sexually illicit material”; however, because it will control school and public libraries, it will also deprive adults of content. Apparently, the inclusion of adults will be fixed but now Senate Bill No. 2346 was approved 82-32 (Pittman, 2023). Legislators argued that adults can still purchase the books they desire, but this statement ignores people without the means do that. And Mississippi has a lot of rural, low-income, and poor people.  

 

So far, the bill only references digital material, but it is easy to imagine that it won’t take long before print books are on the radar. The legislation has gone so far that one Mississippi legislator wondered if they had effectively banned the Bible (Pittman, 2023). Protestors, including the Executive Director of the Human Rights Campaign, registered concerns about any initiative that would limit information for young people (Pittman, 2023). 

How do these initiatives relate to politics?

These actions do not stand alone. Instead, they are part of a larger social phenomenon of polarizing politics known as culture wars. The American Library Association reported that the challenges were targeted at “the voices of the  marginalised… books and resources that mirror the lives of those who are gay, queer or transgender, or that tell the stories of persons who are Black, Indigenous or persons of colour.” The challenges are becoming much more frequent and Suzanne Nossel, the CEO of the free-speech organization PEN America,   comments that it is “part of a concerted effort to try to hold back the consequences of demographic and social change by controlling the narratives available to young people.”  

 

Art Spiegelman, author of Maus, the only graphic novel to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1992, believes that anyone should be able to read anything. He would prefer that children read a book in a classroom or library with informed adults who can provide guidance than read the book by themselves if they found them on their parents' bookshelves. His graphic novel was threatened with being removed from a school  library in Tennessee. A local comics shop learned of the ban and sought donations to purchase remaining copies of the book to students in the U.S., shipped with a study guide written by a local teacher. 

 

Actions of this nature should spur us all into action.  

 

References  

 

American Library Association (2019). Top 100 Most Banned and Challenged Books: 2010-2019. Retrieved https://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/decade2019

Armistead, C. (2022, March 22). ‘It’s a culture war that’s totally out of control’: the authors whose books are being banned in US schools. The Guardian. Retrieved https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/mar/22/its-a-culture-war-thats-totally-out-of-control-the-authors-whose-books-are-being-banned-in-us-schools 

Friedman & Johnson (2022, September 19). Banned in the USA: The growing movement to censor books in schools. Retrieved https://pen.org/report/banned-usa-growing-movement-to-censor-books-in-schools/ 

Haupt, A. (2022, June 19). The rise in book bans, explained. Washington Post. Retrieved https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/2022/06/09/rise-book-bans-explained/  

Pittman, A. (2023, March 9). Ban On Library Books Depicting ‘Homosexuality,’ ‘Lesbianism’ Passes Mississippi House. Mississippi Free Press. Retrieved https://www.mississippifreepress.org/31797/ban-on-library-books-depicting-homosexuality-lesbianism-passes-mississippi-house#:~:text=Mississippi%20could%20ban%20digital%20books,Bill%20No.%202346%20on%20Wednesday 

"Top 10 Most Challenged Books Lists", American Library Association, March 26, 2013. http://www.ala.org/advocacy/bbooks/frequentlychallengedbooks/top10 (Accessed March 16, 2023) Document ID: 8417fa9e-ceff-4512-aca9-9fbc81b8bd81 

VanDenburgh, B. (2022, June 29). Book bans are on the rise. What are the most banned books and why? USA Today. Retrieved https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/books/2022/06/29/banned-books-explained/7772046001/  

Wikipedia (n.d.). List of most commonly challenged books in the United States. Retrieved https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_commonly_challenged_books_in_the_United_States

When Misinformation Causes Harm

  Image Credit: Pexels By Lilian H. Hill   We’re learning again what we always known: Words have consequences.” President Biden, March 19,...