Podcast transcript: Critical analysis in a digital world

This podcast is part of the UCIL Digital Society course from the University of Manchester. The story it relates to is hosted on Medium and can be found here.

In this podcast Dave Hirst introduces the topic — Critical analysis in a digital world.

TRANSCRIPT

DH: Hi. My name’s Dave and I am the convenor of the Digital Society course and a Teaching and Learning Librarian at the University of Manchester Library.

How we think, read and write critically is a key skill at University and relates directly to each of the 3 assessments on this course.

One of the areas that I am personally interested in is whether we take the same approach to critically analysing information in the digital world that we do in the academic world? Is it the same approach or is it different and if it is different why?

You only have to look at the news on a daily basis to see that misinformation and disinformation is a global issue, impacting on society on multiple levels from fake news to changing the outcomes of elections or referendums like Brexit to how we can deal with climate change to the coronavirus and vaccinations. The list is a long one and i am sure we have all been affected in some way but how do we navigate these complex and changing scenarios critically?

Questions around misinformation and disinformation have become increasingly relevant with the recent release of a whole host of Generative AI tools and the consequent impact on not just education but a wide range of global sectors.

From conversations with students and academics GenAI tools like ChatGPT are used extensively to write coursework without reflecting on the outputs it produces. Its easy to use so why not use it? It can do everything can’t it...

In the terms of your own learning you have might have used GenAI tools a bit or a lot, you might think that they are a game changer or a life saver when it comes to academic work or you might not have used it at all

In this topic week we are going to look at thinking, reading and writing critically in the digital and academic worlds. Following on from this the main activity will look at how ChatGPT can write or not write academic coursework. What it gets right and what it gets wrong. Should we be using it? Is it reliable?. You might change you mind about GenAI by the end of this weeks topic!

This session is positioned early on in your course because it ties into the coursework that is set as we ask you to think, reading and write critically in each assessment.

Throughout this session, you’ll be contributing your own reflections on what it means to be critical, contributing through polls and comment streams, and working through the ChatGPT activity.

I look forward to reading your thoughts and reflections on critical analysis and ChatGPT.

Thank you.