So here’s a fascinating thing – a podcast discussion of my doctoral thesis created by AI in Google Notebook LM. The application is designed to produce audio summaries from documents. It is free to use and feature a male and a female American voice. The voices are very engaging, super-positive and culturally quite American.
First of all I put in my entire thesis as one document and was disappointed with the results. Then I submitted it one chapter at a time (excluding the Bibliography and Appendices.) The results improved 1000%. The product is like having an audio review of my work done by two very enthusiatic Year 12 students who don’t know a lot about the topic, don’t understand the theory in any depth, and create examples at times not from my work but from their very American context. eg. youth helping at soup kitchens. So it skips any of my theological work and instead gives shallow or incorrect summaries regarding mission, Christian education, ecclesiology and theology. The podcasts also reflect a different view of Christianity and its place in the world.
Those are the negatives. The positives are that the summaries and conversation are often excellent, even if at a more surface level that what I’m addressing. The hosts’ enthusiasm in infectious. When they are given a table or diagram to summarise, they are much more precise in their description.
I can imagine using some parts of this as a discussion starter, and at other times giving students a chapter and its podcast to compare and contrast. Could I produce a better summary? Without a doubt! Could I make it more relevant and engaging? Yes and perhaps?
I’m posting out of interest in the developing nature of AI and its use in teaching and learning, and also in exploring how churches use communication technologies. I’m interested in your comments!
The title of my thesis is (Re)forming Christian Education as the Praxis of Forming Disciples for a Mission Church (Flinders University, 2018). It is available here.
This is NOT an accurate representation of my thesis or my thinking.
Here’s a link to my doctoral thesis at Flinders University.
Chapter One: Introduction (27 mins)
Chapter Two: Research Methodology (31 mins)
Chapter Three: Reframing Christian Education (20 mins)
Chapter Four: Research Interviews (15 mins)
Chapter Five: Communities of Lifelong Learning (21 mins)
Chapter Six: Communities of Practice (16 mins)
Chapter Seven: Leading Communities of Disciples (24 mins)
Chapter Eight: Learning for Mission, Learning From Mission (12 mins)
Chapter Nine: The Praxis of Shaping Disciples for Mission (22 mins)