Business might need AI, or law might need it. So let us take a step back and reach out and figure out what it is for them, so we can build something that makes sense for us.
As part of The Chronicle of Higher Education's in-depth analysis of the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on effective education strategies throughout higher education, Dr. Jessica Stansbury, director of teaching and learning excellence for The University of Baltimore's Bank of America Center of Excellence in Learning, Teaching and Technology (CELTT), says that colleges and universities are considering how the working world is using generative AI. Grasping that state of affairs, she finds, may be the best approach to determining how the technology could be useful in the classroom.
"During a three-day AI summit last June, the university invited representatives from local community organizations and businesses to join students and faculty members in a conversation about what it means to be AI literate," the Chronicle says. "As a group, they decided that literacy combines practical knowledge with ethical awareness, and that colleges should play a role in preparing students and faculty to use AI tools to contribute meaningfully and responsibly to society."
Dr. Stansbury, who is leading UBalt's comprehensive investigation of how AI can benefit students' learning outcomes, says that the institution's largely graduate-level student body is likely entering a job market where many everyday tasks are routinely completed with the help of AI. Widespread buy-in of the technology, however, can lead to pushback.
"I think what happens is we hear AI literacy and everyone's like, 'Yes! We have to put this in the curriculum right away!'" Stansbury tells the Chronicle. "That's where the faculty resistance and that fear come in, because it's like, 'Well, for what? I don't need to have this in my profession.' But business might need to have it, or law might need to have it. So let us take a step back and reach out and figure out what it is for them, so we can build something that makes sense for us."
Several experts, including Dr. Stansbury, tell the Chronicle that the national discussion on the topic is now about properly managing AI, so that incorrect results, plagiarism, and other problems are kept in check. Resolving these issues, they say, is leading to the ideal of a new kind of literacy, where AI is mastered by both student and professor, and new levels of intellectual capacity are prompted by the technology.
Read the article in The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Learn more about UBalt's upcoming AI Summit, taking place in person at the University on June 3.
Learn more about Dr. Stansbury's ongoing work to understand and appropriately integrate AI into college-level teaching and learning, all through CELTT.