Torrey Trust
Professor of Learning Technology, College of Education | University of Massachusetts Amherst
Amherst, MA, UNITED STATES
Torrey Trust is one of the world's leading scholars addressing the use of generative AI, including ChatGPT in teaching and learning.
Expertise (7)
Educational Technology
Student Learning
Learning Tools
Chat GPT
Edtech
Professional Learning Networks (PLNs)
Open Educational Resources (OERs)
Biography
Torrey Trust is one of the leading scholars addressing the use of generative AI, including ChatGPT in teaching and learning.
Trust, a global leader in educational technology, stepped up to educate teachers on this new tool. “Because teachers don’t have the time to critically interrogate new technological tools as they emerge, I dove into understanding the terms of use and privacy policy of ChatGPT and put together a slide deck on its implications for education,” she said.
Trust has authored or co-authored over 100 publications, including peer-reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings, books, editor-reviewed book chapters, practitioner articles, and blog posts.
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Education (3)
University of California Santa Barbara: Ph.D., Education
San Diego State University: M.A., Educational Technology
University of California San Diego: B.A., Visual Arts: Media with Film Emphasis
Links (4)
Select Media Coverage (6)
The Research-Practice Divide is Real. Here's How To Overcome It.
Tech & Learning online
2024-01-30
Torrey Trust is interviewed for an article on strategies to foster collaboration between researchers and classroom teachers. “I really think there is a need for teacher-education programs to incorporate opportunities for current and future teachers to learn how to critically read and examine research,” Trust says.
Area schools begin to grapple with fast-growing AI app ChatGPT
Daily Hampshire Gazette online
2023-03-29
Torrey Trust, an associate professor of learning and technology in the College of Education at UMass Amherst, said ChatGPT has potential as a learning, writing and research assistant. “I think students can definitely turn to this tool to really help with summarizing information, understanding really complex topics, or furthering their thinking about a topic in any field,” she said.
How AI could influence learning across subjects, while becoming a crucial one itself
The Hill online
2023-02-25
Torrey Trust, an associate professor for teacher education and curriculum studies at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, laid out how she believes AI and ChatGPT could be integrated in different areas of study. For English, students could analyze the writing quality of the technology. For social studies, they might read a press release from a politician and then ask ChatGPT to write one and compare and contrast the two. For math and science questions, which ChatGPT can get wrong, critically analyzing what the program messed up could be a useful lesson, according to Trust.
ChatGPT Is Coming for Classrooms. Don't Panic
WIRED online
2023-01-26
Completely barring ChatGPT from classrooms, tempting as that may be, could introduce a host of new problems. Torrey Trust at the University of Massachusetts Amherst studies how teachers use technology to reshape learning. She points out that reverting to analog forms of assessment, like oral exams, can put students with disabilities at a disadvantage. And outright bans on AI tools could cement a culture of distrust. “It’s going to be harder for students to learn in an environment where a teacher is trying to catch them cheating,” says Trust. “It shifts the focus from learning to just trying to get a good grade.”
ChatGPT in Classrooms: What to Know
U.S. News & World Report online
2023-01-18
“It’s been quite fascinating to see the education field react faster than I think I’ve ever seen them react to a new technology,” says Torrey Trust, associate professor of learning technology at the University of Massachusetts—Amherst.
Should schools ban ChatGPT or embrace the technology instead?
New Scientist online
2023-01-12
“Educators are starting to question what it means to… assess student learning if an AI can write an essay … or paper similar to, or even better than, a student would – and the teacher can’t tell the difference”, says Torrey Trust at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Select Publications (5)
Cameras Optional? Examining Student Camera Use from a Learner-Centered Perspective
TechTrends2023 In this paper, we offer a holistic look at undergraduate and graduate students’ experiences with using cameras for synchronous online learning via Zoom. Analysis of the data using the American Psychological Association’s learner-centered psychological principles revealed that social, cognitive, metacognitive, motivational, affective, and individual difference factors influenced student camera use and the level of influence of each of these factors varied from student to student, time to time, and space to space within a class. Findings suggest that there is a multifaceted, dynamic relationship between the student, video conferencing technology, and instructor’s pedagogical actions that shapes camera use. Based on the findings, we offer suggestions for online synchronous course design, teaching, and research.
ChatGPT: Challenges, Opportunities, and Implications for Teacher Education
Contemporary Issues in Technology and Teacher Education2023 Over the past several years, technological advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have led to several significant developments in its widespread adoption and use. These breakthroughs in AI have introduced the world to powerful content-generation models that allow users to create everything from digital media products to writing samples instantly through simple text-based queries. As a result, interest in new AI tools has increased dramatically over the past several months. ChatGPT, a chatbot launched in November 2022 by the company OpenAI, recently set the record for the fastest-growing consumer application in history, with an estimated 100 million active users monthly a mere 4 months after it debuted.
Understanding Teacher Learning About HyperDocs Through the Lens of Professional Learning Networks
Issues and Trends in Learning Technologies2023 Despite indications of significant HyperDoc use, little is known regarding how educators discover and learn about HyperDocs as instructional tools. HyperDocs are interactive digital lesson plans that facilitate students’ exploration of curated sets of digital content and can support social constructivist knowledge building. To address this gap in the literature, we collected survey data from 261 HyperDoc-using educators. Analysis of the data suggested multiple entry points for both discovering and learning about HyperDocs. Formal, informal, self-directed, and even serendipitous interactions with people, spaces, and tools played a role in the participants becoming knowledgeable about and refining their use of HyperDocs. We discuss our findings in relation to research on professional learning and technology integration in education.
College student engagement in OER design projects: Impacts on attitudes, motivation, and learning
Active Learning in Higher Education2022 Open educational resources (OER), which are teaching, learning, and research materials that are openly licensed, are growing in popularity in higher education. Previous studies have focused on faculty and student perceptions and use of OER. In this study, we examined how actively engaging students as curators and designers of OERs through project-based learning as part of an open educational practice shaped students’ attitudes, motivation, and learning. This paper presents post-course survey data collected from 69 undergraduate and graduate students from six different courses that featured OER design projects, including: (1) A digital media online course; (2) Online tools for teaching and learning website; (3) History/social studies wiki pages; (4) Campus resources film project; (5) Professional learning networks for educators online course; and (6) Teaching with technology eBook.
Sharing and self-promoting: An analysis of educator tweeting at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic
Computers and Education Open2021 Researchers have documented an array of ways Twitter hashtags offer digital spaces where educators can connect around interests and needs. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators tweeted using various pandemic-related Twitter hashtags. In this study, we analyze data from two such hashtags: #remoteteaching and #remotelearning. We first data mined more than 36,000 tweets and then analyzed a random sample of 1,148 tweets and the accounts which sent those tweets. Our results suggest that the hashtags functioned as spaces in which a variety of education stakeholders engaged in activities that included knowledge sharing, social sharing, and information broadcasting. Alongside and sometimes entangled with such sharing, there was also a great deal of self-promotion.
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