In this episode, Rob and Jared chat with Dr. Vladimir Bratic who has a PhD in Mass Communication from Ohio University and is an assistant professor of Media and Communications at Hollins University. They discuss how ChatGPT has gone from being a flashy innovation to an everyday tool. Contact us at ctlpodcast@cedarville.edu with any questions. You can also visit our blog at cedarville.edu/focusblog for additional resources.

Dr. Bratic has noticed that over the past year, ChatGPT has gone from a flashy innovation to a normalized, embedded tool that influences the average person’s daily life. It is “coming to us and begging us to use it.” However, he notices that there are still obstacles to ChatGPT’s usage in education since instructors are still uncomfortable with ChatGPT. The solution to overcoming this is to practice and interact with generative AI; but at the same time, it’s hard to keep up because of the rapid innovation. He predicts that in the future, generative AI is going to be further integrated into our everyday lives so it can be accessed anytime, anywhere. For example, ChatGPT is already integrated into Microsoft products and is being used in image generation (like with DALL-E).

From his teaching, Dr. Bratic sees ChatGPT as a way of helping us use knowledge differently because of how much information is available to us. He encourages educators to ask, “What do I expect of students? What is the world they’re going to live in? How can I anticipate that world, and how can I prepare students for it?” The answers to these questions will impact how educators approach their teaching and could cause a change in their role.