In May 2024, Delta College English professors, Ray Lacina and Trisha O’Connor received the Karen MacArthur Endowed Teaching Chair Award.
They used the $5,000 grant to explore the ways in which teaching college writing is changing with students’ access to generative AI tools. They suggest, from a faculty perspective, a reframing is in order. To shift from observing classroom AI use as a threat to student learning, to one of opportunity for their future success.
Students’ improper use of AI comes through in the quality of their work, especially when assignment prompts require integrating information that AI does not have access to, such as classroom discussions and copyright protected textbooks, which can result in AI inventing or “hallucinating” information. Even using AI for brainstorming or editing can hurt students’ creativity and critical thinking skills.
“One of the most important things we can help students grapple with is not just what is appropriate ethically, but what is going to be most useful and meaningful for their education in terms of learning to use AI as a tool, and being aware of what it cannot do,” says Lacina.
Throughout their college experience, students develop a range of skills that they will bring to the workplace, including critical thinking, writing, communication and more. Lacina and O’Connor explain to their students that there is a human element that AI will never be able to replace.
Both Lacina and O’Connor stress that faculty, as experts in their disciplines, have a responsibility to gain a firm understanding of how AI is being used in their fields of study and to prepare their students for what’s to come. At the same time, faculty should continue reminding students how important strong interpersonal skills and authentic connections are in the workplace. “The guideline we use is, AI is not going to take your job, but a person who knows how to use AI could,” shares O’Connor. “That is going to be a marketable skill for our students, and we want them to have that advantage.”
