Kate Cammack, CfT Co-Director
Everything about AI feels daunting. Here are a few “bites of the AI apple” for this week.
Try it out:
Our campus has a paid/subscription to Microsoft CoPilot, which is fairly similar to GPT. Per Emily Puckette’s comments at August’s Faculty Gathering, it’s worth playing around with paid versions to see what they’re capable of. You might try putting in a prompt to a reflection or essay, and see what you get back.
New(ish) to the AI landscape:
OpenAI just released StudyMode, which incorporates Socratic questioning, self-reflection prompts, scaffolded responses, and “personalized support.”
Many AI platforms intentionally market their tools as “helping to support student learning.” This can be confusing to some students, who we actively encourage to seek help and ask questions (Gallant & Rettinger 2024). Remember to clarify explicitly with your students what you do/don’t mean by “help.”
What your colleagues are reading & thinking about*:
* not necessarily endorsing – just pondering
If You Use AI, You’re A Bad Teacher” (shared by Lauryl Tucker)
- “Here’s a common scenario from my school visits: at the end of a session, an educator or two will come up to me and, in a lowered voice, say, “I use generative AI for X, and I love it. Do you think it’s OK to use it in that way?” Here’s another common scenario: at the end of a session, an educator or two will come up to me and, in a lowered voice, say, “I think it’s wrong that my colleagues use generative AI for X, and I think we should prohibit it. What do you think?” Honestly, what I think matters a lot less than what you and your colleagues think and, more importantly, what you can agree on. So, let’s talk about it.”
“One Way I Plan to Use AI to Improve my Writing Instruction This Year” (shared by Elyzabeth Wilder)
- “Reading isn’t just an act of receiving information. It is a moment of connection with the brain of another human—a fellow traveler who comes with a unique perspective and set of lived experiences.”
“I got an AI to impersonate me and teach me my own course. Here’s what I learned about the future of education” (shared by Mark Preslar)
- “AI threatens the learning space, yet can liberate powerful interaction. A prevailing wisdom is that it will make students dumber. But perhaps AI could actually be unlocking for students the next level of personalization, challenge and motivation.”
AI Writing Disclosures Are a Joke. Here’s How to Improve Them. (shared by Kate Cammack)
- “In the age of AI, authorship is less about who performs the labor and more about who orchestrates the work. If we want to preserve both trust and ethical integrity, that orchestration must be transparent and traceable in a way that makes the author’s decisions, judgment, and responsibility visible. Trust isn’t sustained by claiming purity; it’s earned by showing how the work was shaped and by standing behind those choices.”
A scholarly article on AI & learning:
Zhai et al (2024) The effects of over-reliance on AI dialogue systems on students’ cognitive abilities
AI thing of the week: this
Have an AI article or resource to share? Let us know!