Experts and pundits all agree that genAI is here to stay. We are in a period of rapid growth and development driven by tech companies eager to lead the way while governments consider what kinds of regulation are needed. Given the proliferation of tools, public consumption of this technology has been widespread and all sectors of the economy are adopting genAI. Some of these uses of genAI will fizzle while others gain traction. Without a doubt, the world we are preparing students to thoughtfully and productively contribute to will have genAI integrated, which means that faculty in higher education, even if reluctantly, need to become familiar with this technology and its implications for their disciplines.
Students will be forevermore living, learning, and working in a world where this kind of sophisticated technology exists (in fact, we can likely assume this is a baseline from which improvements will come). What do they need to know about the limits and possibilities of it? How is genAI showing up or likely to be used in the professions into which your students enter? While none of us has completely clear answers, a college classroom is a great place to begin the dialogue and raise questions about ethics, bias in AI, developing skills vs using a tool, reliance on technology, quality of output, etc.
Perhaps this is obvious but, nonetheless, worth stating: Your strength, which genAI will never have, is your humanity – your ability to connect with students, to mentor students, to facilitate interaction between students, to provide accountability and contextualized feedback, and to bring expert insight and analysis to a learning environment. These strengths are all foundational to help students learn responsible, ethical, and productive use of genAI (along with knowing when to not use it).
There are several steps you can take to build your fluency with genAI and set yourself up for teaching success.