SELS Dialogues Journal Volume 3 Issue 1

Educational Technology
three, building assessments in four, five and six,
supporting students in chapter seven, with chapters
eight through ten looking at other uses. Each chapter
provides examples of ChatGPT, which are split into two
main parts: the author provides a prompt to ChatGPT in
bold and then presents the response from ChatGPT in
italics. If the prompt fails, subsequent refining prompts
and responses are listed. Often at the end of a long
chain of prompts and responses, Skrabut also includes
some meta-analysis of the process and how it could be
economized better in the future.
Indeed, a key, defining element in this book is not just
ChatGPT, as a subject, but also as a co-author. Each
chapter features a brief introduction from Skrabut
along with related prompts, but the bulk of the chapters
are made up of ChatGPT’s responses to the prompts.
In some cases, Skrabut marvels at the ingenuity of
the prompts and in others he points out serious flaws
including hallucinations, misunderstandings and most
frequently the need for more narrowed prompting.
However, for educators planning on using this book to
replicate the responses, it will not likely produce the
same results. As ChatGPT continues to compile data
and improve, this text built on the prompts and
responses as a publication locked in time will quickly
become less relevant.
Another drawback to the text, is that there is very little
else in terms of analysis outside of the relative success
or failure of the prompts to generate an accurate
response. Similarly, the book would have benefited
from a detailed scholarly analysis and the inclusion of
more educational theory. The references included in
the book are often drawn from blogs and newspaper
articles, illustrating how new ChatGPT was in March
of this year, 2023. As a pioneer in AI publication, the
book’s inclusion in some shape or form in teacher
education courses would be highly beneficial going
forward. Skrabut notes that we are living in a disrupted
world where “computers are a force multiplier that can
help us do work quickly so we can focus our attention on
more pressing issues” (p. 119) highlighting his opinion
that ChatGPT can help educators in their role to prepare
students for the future.
Overall, this book can be used across higher
educational contexts, particularly between educators,
instructional technologists and developers, by starting
a discussion that questions the need for traditional
teaching structures while reimagining new possibilities
for education.
References
Skrabut, S. (2023). page 119. In 80 ways to use CHATGPT in the
classroom: Using AI to enhance teaching and learning. Stan Skrabut.
Author’s Bio
James Papple is an experienced educator
who has worked in higher education
for more than two decades. He has
co-authored an ESL textbook, Academic
Inquiry 2 (2018) from Oxford University
Press, Canada.
SELS DIALOGUES | 11