AI in College Classrooms: Ally or Adversary?

I worked in the field of early childhood education for 25 years. The last 10 were spent promoting bilingual early literacy. In 2017, my daughter and I converted one of our bilingual children’s books to a VR (virtual reality) app to teach English and Spanish to preschoolers. The kids loved it. Got rather addicted, in fact. Then we did research and found that exposing little kids to virtual reality can mess with their developing brains. So we reeled it in, uneasy about the impact we might be having on young children.Recently, I got to wondering about how teachers are using AI at the university level. When COVID hit and students were unable to hang with human friends, social media and AI stepped in. Educators and parents are seeing the adverse affects of too much social media and AI. Will these technologies be reeled in? Unlikely. We must face the fact that AI, VR, AR, MR, XR are here to stay. We ignore their potential - and pitfalls - at our peril.In this episode of CK Unmuted, University of Pittsburgh English Professor Annette Vee talks with me about AI integration in higher ed. Many educators feel overwhelmed as students turn to AI for shortcuts, raising questions about academic integrity. Yet, there’s a growing wave of faculty embracing AI’s potential to enhance research and teaching.Striking the right balance is crucial. We discuss the moral dilemmas students face when using AI and how to equip them with the necessary skills to navigate this evolving landscape.Thank you, Annette Vee, for sharing your insight as a university professor in this brave, new world.~ CKResources:Annette Vee’s “Computation and Writing” Substack newsletter: annettevee.substack.comHow AI Could Save (Not Destroy) Education, Sal Khan, TED: https://youtu.be/hJP5GqnTrNo?si=Xnkk9SAabHBLdnJ_AI Enablement at Pitt Digital: https://www.digital.pitt.edu/news/pantherbytes-blog/spotlight-joe-yun-leading-ai-enablement-pitt-digitalBooks:Lower Ed: The Troubling Rise of For-Profit Colleges in the New Economy, by Tressie McMillan CottomThe Anxious Generation: How the Great Rewiring of Childhood Is Causing an Epidemic of Mental Illness, by Jonathan Haidt.