Online teacher communities in the post-pandemic era: How ChatGPT-focused online teacher communities are assisting language teachers

Abstract

To keep up with the changes brought by technological advances and surrounding social situations, many language teachers around the world have been turning to online teacher communities formed on various social media platforms, including Twitter and Facebook, as a source of professional and emotional support. In particular, the popularity of online teacher communities heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic when many language teachers around the world were forced to temporarily shift to remote teaching. While the pandemic has waned and in-person classes have largely resumed, many teachers are now grappling with a new challenge: Understanding the role of ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies in the language learning classroom. As such, teachers in the post-pandemic era appear to be joining newly established ChatGPT-focused online teacher communities to explore how generative AI technologies can be utilised for educational purposes. The main objective of this ongoing research is therefore to understand how language teachers can capitalise upon self-generated ChatGPT-focused online teacher communities which was incepted on Facebook in late 2022 as a means of learning about how to use ChatGPT in educational settings. Data were collected via online observations of a self-generated Facebook group consisting of teachers who were interested in learning about ChatGPT and self-reported instruments, including a questionnaire and in-depth interviews with language teachers who were actual community members. The findings are discussed in terms of the potential benefits and drawbacks of leveraging a ChatGPT-focused online teacher community on Facebook as a way of learning about ChatGPT and other generative AI technologies for language teaching and learning purposes.