Creative uses of ChatGPT for Education: A conversation with Ethan Mollick

by | Monday, June 12, 2023

Ethan Mollick is a professor at the Wharton School of Business and studies and teaches innovation and entrepreneurship. He also leads Wharton Interactive, an effort to democratize education through games and simulations. He is also one of the most innovative users of AI based technology in teaching and learning. His substack, One useful thing has quickly become one of the go-to places on the web to learn about the possibilities of these AI based tools, and their role in education. It was no surprise, thus, that we were super excited to have a chance to speak with him, about his ideas and explorations. Our conversation with Dr. Mollick was engaging, fun, and enriching, given the breadth of his knowledge and genuine passion for ideas. The conversation was a window into a creative mind, someone who had glimpsed the potential of these new technologies for education and was committed to tinkering and exploring these possibilities.

This conversation led to two different “products.” The first, was an article in our ongoing column series on Rethinking Technology & Creativity in Education for the journal TechTrends, with a special focus on AI. This follows our first article in this mini-series, a conversation with Chris Dede from Harvard University. In addition, we took the conversation with Ethan Mollick and made it an episode of the Learning Futures podcast (a show I co-host with Sean Leahy).

You can listen to the podcast episode right here (or on any of our favorite podcasting platforms).

Citation and link to the final article given below

Henriksen, D., Woo, L. & Mishra, P. (2023). Creative Uses of ChatGPT for Education: a Conversation with Ethan Mollick. TechTrends. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-023-00862-w

A few randomly selected blog posts…

The value of school: Part 1

The value of school: Part 1

Note 1: This is the first of two posts on the value of school by Punya Mishra & Kevin Close. Read the second post: Revisiting Accountability. Note 2: These two blog posts became the basis of an article. Full citation and link below: Mishra, P., & Close, K....

The story of Hari & freedom of speech

Last week, Johann Hari wrote an article defending free speech for everyone. You can read the article here: Why should I respect these oppressive religions?. This article was reprinted in the Indian newspaper, The Statesman. This led to riots, death threats, and the...

21st Century Skills? What do they mean?

A decade into the 21st century, how are we doing with the movement to "position 21st century skills at the center of US K-12 education." The National Journal Online has been conducting an discussion on this topic... some very interesting views represented there, from...

Explore: To see … or not to see

I have been working with my kids on a series of short videos around the themes of Explore, Create, Share. These three words were used in my video mashup of a commercial (see the commercial AND my mashup here). Original music for this series was created by my cousin,...

Why math ed sucks (not just in India)

My friend Hartosh Bal (author of A Certain Ambiguity, a mathematical novel) has a piece in Caravan Magazine titled "Why Fields medalists are unlikely to emerge from the Indian educational system." He mentions the fact that of the three winners of the Field's medal...

Principled Innovation meets Design: The video

Principled Innovation meets Design: The video

Quick summary: In which I disparage the buzzword "design thinking" even while praising the idea of design; point to the value-neutral nature of design and the need for a more principled approach, and end with a video that seeks to capture a vision of principled...

On Being (in)Disciplined: New journal article on creativity & learning

I just found out that our next article in the series on Technology and Creativity is now published. You can find a link and the complete reference below. Written this time with Dr. Danah Henriksen, with help from the Deep-Play Research group, in this paper we extend...

New edited series on Research to Practice

A few months ago I was invited (by the Educational Technology & Management Academy, an Indian educational organization) to write a series of short practitioner-oriented articles for a new educational e-magazine they were starting. The idea was to introduce to a...

Why I like naps

... because scientific research shows that sleep enhances creativity 🙂

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *