Introduction to the Topic
A general overview including a brief video and short slideshow to introduce you to the ideas of this topic and provoke your thinking.
Resources
A selection of online readings/resources to explore and review for further understanding.
Questions
A few discussion prompts to get you thinking and talking with others.
Activities
Opportunities to dig deeper into the topic and apply it to your own teaching.
Introduction
For this topic, we are considering a critical perspective about the use of generative AI for teaching and learning — one that questions the pervasive integration of these tools across our lives (and our classrooms). Our resistance may be based on ethical concerns about how these tools are built, their potential to spread and amplify bias, their storage of data, their impact on the environment, or their use of others’ intellectual property. We may also be concerned about the potential for AI to further disseminate misinformation and undermine our efforts to teach the importance of truth and accuracy.
Many instructors are troubled by issues of cheating and plagiarism in the classroom and how reliance on AI tools may lead to more of this behavior. This concern is particularly difficult to address; tools for detecting if something is AI-generated are notoriously inaccurate and their use raises a new set of ethical concerns.
Regardless, we invite reflection on the potential ethical implications and intellectual consequences associated with reliance on AI. We encourage everyone to explore these critical concerns as a means of weighing and balancing their own comfort with AI in teaching and learning.
Resources
"Required" Resources
Nothing is really “required,” but we highly recommend these to ground yourself in this topic.
AI machines aren’t ‘hallucinating’. But their makers are
Naomi Klein
There is No Ethical Use of AI Matthew Cheney
Annotation
If you like, you may use of Hypothes.is for group annotation of these resources. You’ll need to follow these steps to participate in DF annotation activity:
- If you don’t have a Hypothes.is account signup for one now. If you do, make sure you know your username and password.
- Join the Design Forward Hypothes.is annotation group.
- Visit each resource using the links on this page and login to the Hypothes.is panel.
- Begin annotating! Your contributions will be visible to members of the Design Forward Hypothes.is annotation group.
Additional Resources
If you’d like to dive a little further. . .
Generative AI and the Automating of Academia*
Richard Watermeyer, Lawrie Phipps, Donna Lanclos & Cathryn Knight
Prior to (or instead of) using ChatGPT with your students
Autumm Caines
Resisting the AI Hype Cycle in Education
John Warner
The Socio-Ethical Challenges of Generative AI
Atoosa Kasirzadeh
These Women Tried to Warn us about AI
Lorena O’Neil NOTE: This article may require a subscription to view.
We tested a new ChatGPT-detector for teachers. It flagged an innocent student
Geoffrey A Fowler
Why We Should Care About The Environmental Impact Of AI*
Thomas Griffin
*Unfortunately, the automatic Hypothes.is link for this URL is not currently working. You should still be able annotate if you have the Chrome browser extension and have followed the “Annotation” instructions in this section, making sure you’re working in the DF Hypothes.is group.
Questions
Join in on conversations with other module participants.
- Question submitted on
- by Martha
- 7 Comments
- Question submitted on
- by Martha
- 4 Comments
Activities
Consider completing one or both of the topic activities. If you like, share your work on the linked Padlets.
The Anti-AI Policy
Write a policy for your class in which you explicitly ask students to avoid and resist the use of generative AI tools when completing work.
Describe how you would introduce this policy and how you would expect a conversation about it to go with your students.
If you like, share your policy on the Padlet we’ve created.
Imagining the Future
Explore the tensions between using or not using AI in the classroom by imaging two scenarios:
- What would your university look like in 5 years if there was widespread adoption of AI as a tool for teaching and learning?
- What would your university look like in five years if there was widespread resistance of AI as a tool for teaching and learning?
In both scenarios, consider what the implications and outcomes would be for the institution at large, the faculty/staff, and the students.
If you like, share your scenarios in the Google Doc we’ve created.
