Key takeaways and resources from AI Roundtable are provided below. Reach out to CfT and DLS if you want to explore more!
AI Roundtable 2 (October 1, 2024)
Focus Question: Should faculty and administrators be required to disclose the us of AI tools?
Roundtable Resource: “Why We Should Normalize Open Disclosure of AI Use” by Marc Watkins
Key Takeaways:
- Modeling ethical usage of generative AI tools could certainly be helpful for our students. Many students are worried to engage in usage of the tools for fear of cheating.
- Even before the explosion of AI, Google had become ubiquitous as a “sidebar” to our daily work (or an “overlay,” as Mike Caulfield contends). Effective web search allows easy access to surface-level understanding of subjects, and helps us draw connections that are not immediately obvious. AI can fill this role as well, offering quick context and framing for topics and ideas.
- Citing every instance of AI used in this way is an onerous task, but communicating the broad strokes about the ways we incorporate AI in our own work could go a long way in helping students understand what is appropriate usage of these tools.
- We should be careful about lumping tools that use AI “under the hood” in with popular generative AI tools like ChatGPT. Products like Research Rabbit are game-changers for research process, but they risk being caught up in a blanket AI ban.
Additional Resources:
- “Google Search is an overlay” by Mike Caulfield
- Simpson Library’s Guide to Artificial Intelligence for Library Research
AI Roundtable 1 (September 12, 2024)
Focus Question: How can faculty use AI outside of the classroom?
Roundtable Resource: Teaching with AI, Chapter 5 (“AI-Assisted Faculty)
Key Takeaways:
- AI offers efficiencies for completing less-desired but time-consuming tasks that do not require deep personalization (the “power tool” model of AI). Faculty have used AI to generate email templates, write case studies for lessons, generate class activity ideas for a new-to-them courses, refine assignment directions to be more clear.
- Many gray areas in using AI for research purposes–disciplines have different takes on its use for the research process and writing. Faculty also have different comfort levels for AI use in research–what part of the thinking process is lost with widespread AI usage?
- A lingering question–how is AI shifting standards for what we expect from students? How will the ‘efficiency’ of AI impact faculty workloads and expectations?
Additional Resources:
- AI Hacks for Educators (55 tips and strategies to use AI in teaching, research, and professional work)
- This Isn’t a Calculator: AI as a Cultural Technology by Marc Watkins (a Substack post that touches on the Roundtable’s lingering questions and raises concerns about AI outside of the classroom)