Created at the end of 2022, the ChatGPT tool has become a constant topic of debate, both inside and outside universities, all over the world. A quick search for the term on the internet will bring up a series of results with different and divergent opinions on the use of this resource in the teaching and learning process. Among the most recurring questions are: can the use of ChagGPT be useful for researchers? Is it possible to use this tool consciously? These and other questions will be answered in a virtual event promoted by the Distance Education Department (SEDIS/UFRN) this Tuesday (19), starting at 7pm.
With the theme “ChatGPT and plagiarism in the academic environment”, the lecture aims to raise relevant discussions for distance and face-to-face undergraduate students at UFRN and other people interested in the subject. The speaker will be Elias Jacob de Menezes Neto, a professor at the Metrópole Digital Institute (IMD/UFRN), who has extensive experience in areas such as data science, natural language processing and the development of machine learning applications for the legal sector.
According to the mediator of the lecture and organizer of the event, Professor Apuena Vieira Gomes, who collaborates with various sectors of UFRN in the area of information technology, “this event aims to bring discussion to a very relevant topic, which is plagiarism and the use of artificial intelligence systems for the production of academic content”. She stresses that participation is open to the University’s external public, but points out that only those who register via Sigaa and those who sign the attendance list, which will be made available in the chat on the SEDIS/UFRN YouTube channel during the event’s broadcast, will receive a certificate.
Registrations must be made at this link and, to watch the lecture, you can subscribe to the SEDIS/UFRN Channel and activate the notification bell to receive notice of the start of the broadcast.
About ChatGPT
ChatGPT is an artificial intelligence tool created at the end of 2022 by the company OpenAI. Six months after its launch, in April 2023, more than 170 million users had registered with the tool. In free translation, the acronym comes from “Generative Pre-Trained Transformer”. This technology works like a chatbot or conversational robot, based on Artificial Intelligence, and creates complete sentences and texts in real time in around 90 different languages. Technically, the system can be defined as a language model that is based on artificial intelligence and employs neural networks and machine learning in virtual dialogues.
To an audience made up of coordinators from almost 30 hubs that offer distance higher education courses in Rio Grande do Norte, through the Open University of Brazil Program (UAB), the general coordinator of Hubs and Educational Technologies, from the Distance Education Directorate (DED/CAPES), Alexandre Povoa, presented the proposals for strengthening this type of education at the municipal, state and federal levels. “We need to ensure that more people from the countryside, who live far from the big cities, have access to higher education, fulfilling the commitment to internalization, and that the hubs are places that move the municipalities with cultural events and other types of initiatives,” he said.
The participation of the head of DED/CAPES, which was done remotely, marked the end of the program for the 1st Meeting of UAB Hubs in RN. The event was held in the auditorium of the Distance Education Department (SEDIS/UFRN), on August 30 and 31, 2023, and was organized by the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (UFRN), the Federal Institute of Rio Grande do Norte (IFRN), the Federal Rural University of the Semi-Arid (UFERSA) and the State University of Rio Grande do Norte (UERN). On the agenda, they discussed successful experiences in the administrative and pedagogical areas, shared common demands and presented claims for the preparation of the next call for national vacancies, governed by CAPES.
“The four institutions planned, through working groups, to survey the training demands of the region, so that, when we put together the call for proposals, we can meet the training demands where the hub is,” said Edneide Bezerra, UAB coordinator at IFRN and recently appointed president of the National Forum of UAB Coordinators (ForUAB). With regard to the experiences shared during the two-day meeting, she pointed out that the RN hub coordinators “were able to listen to colleagues who already have a more systematic approach to their work and, in this way, be able to take these experiences back to their hubs”.
For Francimeire Cesário Queiroz, coordinator of the Marcelino Vieira/RN On-Campus Support Center, this moment was very important for outlining new strategies for maintaining and advancing academic activities: “ideas are renewed, they flow through our team and strengthen the center’s actions,” she said. The municipality where the professor works is 400 kilometers from Natal/RN, in the western region of Rio Grande do Norte, and serves the population of at least 15 cities, having a social impact on those who would not be able to travel to other urban centers.
The social impact of democratizing access to quality public education motivated the participants. The EaD/UFRN Secretary, Carmem Rêgo, celebrated the results obtained from the debates: “the event exceeded our expectations, of the four HEIs that had carefully planned this event. In this event, we are inaugurating this joint cooperation between the HEIs and we believe we are on the right track,” she said. According to the director of UERN’s Distance Education Directorate (DEaD/UERN), Giann Ribeiro, “this meeting brought a system, an organization, so that we can adjust the problems of higher education training in the state”.
The president of the Forum of UAB Pole Coordinators in RN, João Di Castro, also celebrated the adherence and participation throughout the discussions established: “all the poles in the state came together, defining an important step for the 2024-2026 biennium, which are the course offerings for the UAB demand”.
About the UAB System
The Open University System of Brazil (UAB) was created by Decree 5.800, of June 8, 2006, to develop the distance education modality, with the aim of expanding and internalizing the offer of higher education courses and programs in the country. The program promotes distance education in public higher education institutions, as well as supporting research into innovative higher education methodologies based on information and communication technologies.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor at SEDIS/UFRN.
Carmem Rêgo and Ione Morais were, once again, presented to the academic community and the Potiguar society as responsible for managing the Distance Education at the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte (EaD/UFRN). The new administrative period starts in 2023 and goes until 2027. During the ceremony, which marked the beginning of the new Management of the University’s Central Administration, held last Friday (02), at the Rectory Auditorium of UFRN, the professors talked about the next challenges and recalled those faced in recent years.
According to the Secretary of EaD/UFRN, Carmem Rêgo, technology-mediated education played a relevant role during the covid-19 pandemic. “We had many challenges to enable training for UFRN teachers and servers, as well as educators from the public education network,” she said as she recalled the implementation of Emergency Remote Learning, as an alternative to face-to-face classes, and the extension courses offered through Virtual Learning Environments. “We have a great motivation to continue militating for this teaching modality that makes the democratization of higher education possible, especially for the people who live in the corners of Rio Grande do Norte,” he concluded.
According to the EaD/UFRN Assistant Secretary, Ione Morais, these and other initiatives make the Distance Education Department (SEDIS/UFRN) a reference for other educational institutions in Brazil: “they always come to us, considering not only our pioneering spirit, but the quality of the work we have accomplished at UFRN”, she emphasized. Ione Morais reinforces that the use of technology-mediated education “is not a fad, but an element of contemporary culture, based on digital culture, and we want to continue with the same motivation we had in the first administration”, she emphasizes.
Currently, with the support of the Open University of Brazil Program (UAB), UFRN has five Presential Support Centers in the cities of Nova Cruz, Macau, Caicó, Currais Novos, and Macaíba. In partnership with the municipal governments and the UAB Program, other cities in Rio Grande do Norte are also benefited with EaD graduation courses. The centers are located in the regions of West Potiguar (Luís Gomes, Marcelino Vieira, Martins, and Caraúbas); Costa Branca (Guamaré); Central (Lajes), and Metropolitan Natal (São Gonçalo do Amarante and Parnamirim).
“Distance Education is a very important part of fulfilling the institutional mission, because through distance education the University can reach more people. People who, without the distance learning format, would not be able, for various reasons, to follow the purely face-to-face format,” said the rector José Daniel Diniz Melo, who assumes his second mandate with the expectation of maintaining support for the expansion of this teaching modality.
Professor Luís Radford was born in Guatemala, a Central American country, but it was on the academic benches of Laurentian University in Ontario, Canada, where he gained international projection from his research that culminated with the formulation of the Theory of Objectification (TO). During a visit to the Distance Education Department (SEDIS/UFRN), on Tuesday (28), where he was welcomed by the EaD/UFRN Secretary, Carmen Rêgo, the researcher talked about the main aspects of TO.
According to Radford, “the Objectivation Theory is born as an alternative to current trends, insofar as it starts from the fact that education is not simply the acquisition of knowledge, but also the production of subjectivities, the production of critical, ethical, and responsible subjects. Still according to the mathematics education researcher, it is not possible to look only at the instrumental aspect of teaching and learning and leave aside the human dimension.
In the book “Objectivation Theory: Foundations and Applications to the Teaching and Learning of Science and Mathematics”, produced by Radford in partnership with Shirley Takeco Gobara, a professor and researcher at the Federal University of Mato Grosso do Sul (UFMS), who also visited SEDIS/UFRN, excerpts from investigative studies are presented, which exemplify the applications of this theory to the teaching and learning of science and mathematics. However, other areas of knowledge are starting to appropriate these concepts and apply them in the daily life of the school environment and in teacher training.
Professor Claudianny Noronha, from the Graduate Program in Science and Mathematics Teaching (PPGECM), from the Center for Exact and Earth Sciences (CCET/UFRN), explained that Professor Luis Radford’s visit to Brazil is part of a series of activities that marks the strengthening of the actions of the International Network for Academic Collaboration on Objectivation Theory (Ricto), which brings together representatives from Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Chile and Canada and provides for the production of joint studies on the school reality at different levels and schooling systems in different countries.
Carmem Rêgo thanked the visit and made the SEDIS/UFRN studios available for the recording of a videocast that will be published on YouTube as part of the “Teacher Talk” project, an initiative of the Contar Research Group, of which SEDIS/UFRN is a partner in several initiatives. Soon, the audiovisual content will be available on the Contar and SEDIS/UFRN channels.
Bruno Cássio – Communication Advisor of SEDIS/UFRN.
