Academic Technology at Dickinson

Notes from the Bosler basement.

A blog about educational technology at Dickinson College.

  • Brightspace Project Updates

    Brightspace Project Updates

    We will use the Dickinson Today announcement feature to share information and updates. We’ll keep an archive of those communications here. Copy of email that was sent on 3/10/25 to faculty that will be using Brightspace in Fall 2025: Thank you again for signing up to transition from Moodle to Brightspace for this coming Fall.…

  • Instructions for Language Professors to Make Your Own Chatbots

    Getting Started – Your First Prompt 1. First, go to https://chatbot.dickinson.edu/profprompt. 2. Enter the password, then click submit. If you don’t know the password, contact Todd at bryantt@dickinson.edu. 3. Select the language that you want the chatbot to be in with the language dropdown near the top of the page. 4. A dropdown for selecting…

  • Instructions for Language Professors to View Students and Navigate the Website

    Navigating the Website 1. Navigate to https://chatbot.dickinson.edu/?prof=true. 2. Click on the hamburger icon on the top right corner. To edit or create new chatbots, click on Prompt, or go to https://chatbot.dickinson.edu/profprompt. To view students, click on View Students, or go to https://chatbot.dickinson.edu/profview. To return to the Voice Chatbot conversation page, click on Professor Dashboard on…

  • Instructions for Students to Use Language Chatbots

    Getting Started 1. First, go to https://chatbot.dickinson.edu. 2. Select the language that you are learning, and pick the chatbot that your professor assigned. 3. Either type a message or speak to the chatbot verbally to communicate with the chatbot. 4. In order to listen to a message from the chatbot, click the speaker icon on…

  • Updates to the Foreign Language Chatbot

    Thank you to our computer science intern Hillary Zhong, we have several updates to the chatbot.  (Only available on campus) Professors creating prompts can now choose from any of the provided voices available via OpenAI. Instructions can be included for the students as well.  Finally, for grading professors can quickly see the number of times…

  • AI Scout Agent Post 12/3/25

    This post was written by the ChatGPT agent that we set up to look for AI related ed-tech news and trends. Continuing Our Partnership With ChatGPT: AI & Higher‑Ed Blog Series Hello community! Earlier this semester we partnered with ChatGPT to build a specialized Higher‑Education AI Intelligence Scout. This agent runs every week, scanning the open web for…

  • Partnering with an AI Scout: Launching Our Weekly Higher‑Ed AI Blog Series

    This post was written 100% by ChatGPT agent that I (James D’Annibale) designed to scan the internet for Teaching/Learning AI news and trends. The agent finds stories, puts them into themed categories for me, and then I tell it which stories are truly noteworthy for the context of Dickinson College. It then writes a blog…

  • AI Chatbots for Foreign Languages

    In a previous post, I described updates we have made to our Dickinson Chatbot. There are other free chatbots that can be used for practicing foreign languages as well, that you may prefer. The best one I’ve seen is from AI School. For most faculty here, we won’t run into caps on their free version…

  • Update to Foreign Language Chatbot

    We have made several important upgrades to the foreign language chatbot, adding audio for verbal conversations and the ability for professors to view transcripts of their students’ conversations. I’ve created at least one demo chatbot for each foreign language taught at Dickinson to give an idea of what’s possible. Keep in mind these bots can…

  • Syllabus Statement Guidance (Updated for 25-26 School Year)

    James D’Annibale, Director of Academic Technology *Academic Technology would like to thank the following Dickinsonians for their contributions to this page whether through direct edits or constructive conversations: Dr. Renee Cramer, Dr. Amy Steinbugler, Dr. Michel Kozimor, Dr. Kirk Anderson, Dr. Howard Rosen, and many more colleagues* This document offers guidance on how to clearly…

  • Transparent Assignment Design in the Age of AI

    James D’Annibale, Director of Academic Technology Written with help from ChatGPT to organize examples and bring consistency to the structure and tone. *Academic Technology would like to thank the following Dickinsonians for their contributions to this page whether through direct edits or constructive conversations: Dr. Renee Cramer, Dr. Amy Steinbugler, Dr. Michel Kozimor, Dr. Kirk…

  • Sample AI Related Syllabus Statements

    James D’Annibale, Director of Academic Technology Written with help from ChatGPT to organize examples and bring consistency to the structure and tone. *Academic Technology would like to thank the following Dickinsonians for their contributions to this page whether through direct edits or constructive conversations: Dr. Renee Cramer, Dr. Amy Steinbugler, Dr. Michel Kozimor, Dr. Kirk…

  • AI-Use Belief Statement: James D’Annibale

    One Educator’s Perspective: Approaching AI in Teaching and Learning with Intention By James D’Annibale, Director of Academic Technology at Dickinson College The views expressed here are personal and do not represent the official position of Dickinson College or the Academic Technology Department. Updated 8/28/25 Introduction As educators continue to grapple with the implications of generative…