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Artificial Intelligence Literacy

This guide is intended to provide important information about the challenges and opportunities associated with using artificial intelligence both within and outside the university.

Pros and Cons of AI in Education

Lesson Plans and Course Design

  • Utilize graphic generators and/or gamification software to make course materials more engaging.
  • Generate outlines and wrong answers for practice quizzes.
  • Adjust wording and clarify instructions on assignments.

Immediate and Personalized Assistance

  • Ask chat bots to explain or simplify concepts outside school hours.
  • Relate course content to personal life. 
  • Generate study materials (practice quizzes, flash cards, word problems, etc.).

Bias and Errors

  • Artificial intelligence is subject to gender and cultural bias depending on its training data, meaning content generated may reinforce stereotypes or reflect a very narrow range of perspectives and knowledge.
  • Many AI tools are only able to process limited information, leading to outdated and/or hallucinated responses.
  • Attempts to summarize, paraphrase, or reword complex ideas may result in misinterpretation or loss of original intended meaning. 

Cheating and Plagiarism

  • Students may use text-generative artificial intelligence to write essays or discussion posts for class.
  • Students may use AI-generated content without proper citation, not realizing it has been taken from someone else's work that was inadvertently included in the tool's training data. 

Job Replacement and Critical Skill Loss

  • Corporations may offload jobs to artificial intelligence.
  • AI tools that provide shortcuts for critical thinking skills such as information literacy, argument, logical reasoning, reading comprehension, etc. may mean students stop practicing these things.

Myth-Busting AI's Impact on Teaching and Learning

As a Disruptor

  • "It's just another calculator." - Advanced calculators require certain mathematical skillsets to be useful, and basic calculators typically aren't allowed in school until fundamental knowledge has been established. 
  • "We already have spellcheck." - Overreliance on automated proofreaders can lead to grammatical errors, misinterpretation of tone, and lowered ability to communicate effectively when these tools are not accessible.
  • "Think of it like training wheels." - Many experts agree that training wheels are no longer best practice for learning how to ride a bike, because they inhibit your ability to learn balance on your own (acting more as a crutch).

As an Equalizer

  • "Marginalized students can write more professionally and benefit from more resources." - True! However, AI detectors have also demonstrated bias against students with learning disabilities and language barriers, unfairly flagging their work as artificially generated.
  • "Advantaged students can already pay for tutors, grammar services, etc." - Encouraging generative AI in classrooms allows this gap to widen as companies like OpenAI release better GPT models for paid subscribers.
  • "Students shouldn't fail a class just because they can't write a good paper." - It has long been proven that discussion posts, essays, and exams are not the most effective measures for grading. It is our job to develop grading practices that transcend technological evolutions.

As a Streamliner

  • "Writing administrative documents and sorting emails takes up way too much of my work time." - Uploading documents, information, ideas, personal data, etc. into artificial intelligence programs may put you at greater risk for privacy and security breaches. Pay attention to how different companies protect or utilize your data.
  • "I could focus more on curriculum if I could do reports, articles, assignments, recommendations, etc. more efficiently." - Banning artificial intelligence for students while using it to develop some of your class materials may be seen as a double-standard that results in a less fruitful student-instructor relationship. Always be transparent during AI discussions.

Generative AI and Bloom's Taxonomy

Despite insistence that artificial intelligence programs such as ChatGPT will never be able to fully replicate or replace the learning process, it would appear that text generators can be called upon to address most (if not all) levels of Bloom's Taxonomy of Learning.