Building Trust in the Age of AI

Establishing and maintaining a culture of trust in the classroom isn't easy and the advent of generative AI has made this task all the more challenging for teachers at every level. In this episode, Angela and guests, Nadine Lerret, Wendy Zajack, and Laura Dumin discuss their strategies for building and maintaining trust in their classrooms in the age of AI. While emphasizing ethical, responsible, and transparent use by both teacher and student, guests reflect on to what degree they use AI in their teaching and allow students to use it in their learning. Concrete steps for building trust, as well as positive and negative experiences and how to overcome them are also discussed. A big thank you to our guests for their insights and for leading the way in this emerging field! Episode ⁠⁠transcript⁠⁠. Nadine Lerret: Dr. Nadine Lerret obtained her PhD in Immunology from RUSH University in 2011.  She is currently an associate professor and the program director for the Medical Laboratory Science program here at RUSH University.  Her position as a passionate educator and director in the underrepresented field of medical laboratory science enables her to spread enthusiasm and knowledge while serving as a mentor for the next generation.   Dr. Lerret has been exploring the use of AI alongside her students in the classroom and also as an administrator in higher education and recently gave a talk at the 2024 Clinical Laboratory Science Educators Conference titled “Elevating Education: Harnessing ChatGPT and Generative AI for MLS Educators and Program Directors”.  She is also giving a RUSHU Tedx talk next month focused on the use of AI in healthcare education.    Wendy Zajack: With more than 20 years of experience in public relations, marketing, media relations and internal communications, Dr. Wendy Zajack thrives on working to make complex topics easy to understand, exciting and relevant to broad audiences. She spent her corporate career working for large, global organizations building messaging for multiple audiences and using a variety of marketing channels. She now spends her time thinking about the intersection of education, communications and technology and how to thoughtfully deliver tailored, personalized and impactful curriculum to adult learners. She is a faculty director and associate professor of the practice for a master’s level Integrated Marketing Communications and a Design Management Communications program in the School of Continuing Studies. She is an active blogger and enjoys speaking at industry conferences and universities about the power of branding and communications, personal branding, salary negotiation, business marketing trends, importance of ethics, online education, education technology as well as educating millennials and GenZs. Laura Dumin: Dr. Laura Dumin obtained her PhD in English from Oklahoma State University in 2010. She is a professor in English and Technical Writing at the University of Central Oklahoma. She has been exploring the impact of generative AI on writing classrooms and runs a Facebook learning community to allow instructors to learn from each other https://www.facebook.com/groups/632930835501841 When she is not teaching, Laura works as a co-managing editor for the Journal of Transformative Learning, directs the Technical Writing BA and advises the Composition and Rhetoric MA program, and was a campus SoTL mentor. She has created four micro-credentials for the Technical Writing program and one for faculty who complete her AI workshop on campus.