That, said Morrison, was a huge turning point for her. A psychology professor at Glendale Community College in Arizona, Morrison has come to believe AI literacy is crucial for all college students. “It is the future,” she said. “Regardless of how some may wish it wasn’t.”
I spoke with Morrison as part of reporting I’m doing on AI literacy. She was one of dozens of faculty members who have written in to share their thoughts about and experiences with AI.
Judging from the responses I’ve received so far — 61 in all — faculty members recognize that AI has become embedded in our daily lives. But whether that means colleges must teach students to be effective AI users remains a fraught topic.
“AI use (I mean generative AI) is not an ‘academic’ skill, in my opinion. Just like watching TV is not a skill. Just like using the internet is not a skill. In my view, the idea that we need college professors ‘teaching’ students how to use generative AI is preposterous and a waste of time and already pinched resources,” wrote Erik McCarthy, an English professor at Gordon State College, in Georgia.
“If students develop critical literacy, self-expression, and humanist values, they will not need to be ‘taught’ how to use generative AI ‘properly.’”
The last point McCarthy raises is an interesting one. If you teach other core skills, such as critical thinking and information literacy, does teaching about AI become unnecessary? Are these just the latest in a line of tools that we’ve all had to master, often on our own time or in course-specific cases, like a calculator in math class or an Excel spreadsheet in a business course?
Or is AI so revolutionary that ignoring it would leave your students underprepared as they enter a world in which understanding how AI works, and engaging with it effectively, may be essential to their future as workers and citizens?
“I am of two minds,” wrote Mary Parr, an associate professor of agriculture and natural resources at Berea College, in Kentucky. “I understand that this technology will only grow — that AI and especially computer imaging and machine learning combined with robotics will be transformational in my field — but I really care about the experience of thinking deeply about things, and want my students to have the experience of wrestling with ideas, and I don’t know a way of using AI that doesn’t detract from that experience.”
Morrison concluded that she needs to teach her students about AI. She also uses AI to help design some aspects of her course. To shape her thinking, she has found it helpful to hear what business leaders have to say about AI. She referenced an episode of Beyond the Prompt, a podcast about using AI in work, in which Stephen Kosslyn, a founding dean of Minerva University who has written about AI in teaching, talked about how he considers AI to be a “cognitive amplifier.”
In her teaching, Morrison has shown her students how to use AI to help them with brainstorming and proofreading their assignments. They are required to tell her exactly what percentages were AI-generated and student-generated and how they used the tool. She tells them that if they turn in something that is exclusively AI generated, they’re hurting their future selves. Why would anyone want to hire them, she asks, if a tool can do the same work? She also teaches her students about the biases, misinformation, and environmental harms that AI produces. And students are allowed to opt out of AI use if they prefer.
Morrison would like for her college and other institutions to talk more about AI literacy and how they can help students achieve it. She noted that her son, a finance major at Arizona State University, had not received much exposure to AI tools in his classes and had to figure them out largely on his own.
“What I’d like to see is not that everyone is requiring the use of AI,” she said, “but that it’s not hit or miss. That we can be confident that by the time a student graduates, they have had some sort of core experience that allows them to have built these skills.”
Thank you to everyone who wrote in to express your opinions about AI literacy. I read every entry. If you’d like to weigh in, please fill out this Google form or write to me at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com.
Teaching in the age of Trump
The weeks since President Trump took office have been overwhelming, with new policies, executive orders, rhetoric, hirings, and firings daily. We have been wondering: How does this affect your teaching?
This administration’s actions have touched so many subjects: basic science, Constitutional law, immigration policy, the arts, international affairs, climate change, media, public health, and international trade just to name a few. So how do you talk about it with your students? And how do you adjust your curriculum?
If you have had to change your content or how you teach to meet this moment, we want to hear from you. Share your examples using this form. We may use your story, but won’t quote you by name without your permission.
— Beth
Thanks for reading Teaching. If you have suggestions or ideas, please feel free to email us at beth.mcmurtrie@chronicle.com or beckie.supiano@chronicle.com.
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