{"id":25417,"date":"2024-05-17T17:56:41","date_gmt":"2024-05-17T17:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-news\/?p=25417"},"modified":"2026-01-28T14:19:30","modified_gmt":"2026-01-28T14:19:30","slug":"college-in-the-age-of-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/2024\/05\/college-in-the-age-of-ai\/","title":{"rendered":"College in the Age of AI"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Erin Peterson \/ Illustrations by Marcos Chin<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generative artificial intelligence has come on strong. What does that mean for teaching and learning?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Spanish and Portuguese instructor Claudia Giannini remembers the moment when a new artificial intelligence tool upended her teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It instantly translated short texts, giving students in language classes a potential shortcut. \u201cAlthough still imperfect, it was such a huge jump from previous machine translation systems. It was impressive,\u201d she recalls. \u201cBut it was also a problem in the classroom.\u201d She knew she\u2019d have to change some of the teaching techniques she\u2019d relied on for years, and fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giannini\u2019s experience may sound like many professors\u2019 reaction to the November 2022 launch of ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence chatbot that communicates by text in uncannily human ways. Instead, it was 2016, the year that Google released its neural machine translation service with the support of deep learning, the model on which today\u2019s generative AI technology is based.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While it was true that Google Translate couldn\u2019t artfully translate a poem or literary work (or even a newspaper article), it could quickly translate some of the written assignments students typically tackle as they learn the basic building blocks of a foreign language. And for some of these students, it could seem like an easy way out of assignments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Giannini quickly adjusted her approach. She started weighting class participation more heavily in student grades. She swapped out many written assessments with oral ones. She had students write the first draft of their essays in class. And she strategized with her colleagues, who were facing similar challenges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some ways, Giannini has had a head start on understanding the transformative impact of AI in the classroom. She sees both the technology\u2019s challenges and its potential. And as a new crop of generative AI tools\u2014from ChatGPT to GitHub Copilot\u2014affect education in nearly every discipline, it\u2019s a topic that almost no one in the classroom can avoid today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Macalester, professors and students are not digging in their heels against the changes these tools will bring, but are instead stepping mindfully into this new world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The future starts now<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Generative AI\u2014artificial intelligence that creates new material based on patterns it identifies in data\u2014was barely on the radar for most faculty and students as late as October 2022. But it wasn\u2019t long before higher education as a whole was on high alert. \u201cI read the Chronicle of Higher Education<\/em> and Inside Higher Ed<\/em> every morning,\u201d says professor of international relations and political theory Andrew Latham. \u201cAnd the level of anxiety around AI, on a scale of one to ten, is an eleven.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although robust data is still relatively rare and change is happening quickly, early surveys suggest that AI is already influencing higher education. Two surveys conducted in August 2023, for example, found that anywhere between 20 and 38 percent of American college students were using AI tools at least monthly. Meanwhile, a survey of hundreds of Harvard University faculty members in the spring of 2023 found that just 21 percent believed AI would have a positive impact on education; 47 percent believed the impact would be negative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Macalester, attitudes continue to evolve. Professor of environmental studies Chris Wells, for example, admits he was dismissive of ChatGPT when he first tested it. \u201cI had it write a bad poem\u2014it was like a parlor trick,\u201d he recalls. When he gave ChatGPT one of his own assignments, it returned nothing more than \u201cslick sounding BS\u201d that wouldn\u2019t pass muster in his classes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he kept tabs on the technology, and he began to see examples of more meaningful uses of the tool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He finally was convinced to take ChatGPT more seriously when he heard a podcaster frame resistance to the new technology as a liability, not a moral high ground. \u201cThey said that in academia, they call the use of generative AI cheating, but in business, they call it creativity and innovation,\u201d he says. \u201cI just don\u2019t see a future in which AI doesn\u2019t become a standard part of how people think, write, and communicate. We have to figure out what it means to live in this new world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This past spring, in his upper-level research and writing course, \u201cUS Urban Environmental History,\u201d he and his students have had in-depth conversations about the ethics and opportunities of using these generative AI tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In one class, for example, he asked students to share what made them most uneasy about using ChatGPT and similar technology. They identified a range of issues: its significant energy use, large language model training practices that benefit from copyrighted work in unethical ways, and its facilitation of plagiarism, for starters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they also discussed reasons to be excited about these opportunities, as well as the ethics of avoiding a technology so powerful that it could fundamentally disrupt society. \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of hype to generative AI, but there\u2019s also a \u2018there\u2019 there,\u201d Wells says. \u201cAnd we\u2019re all just trying to figure that out.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI attempts to replicate a human artist<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We hired illustrator Marcos Chin of Brooklyn, N.Y. to illustrate artwork for this story. Then we fed AI image generators a prompt to see what they came up with, and compared the two approaches on this page. Chin wrote about the experience: \u201cI saw this as an opportunity to dig into what my strengths are as a human being\u2014an artist. I knew that I wouldn\u2019t be able to compete with AI in regard to speed and the amount of sketches I could make in a short period of time. But what I did have was just that\u2014time. I had time to feel, to remember, to think, to ruminate. I spent some days thinking about concepts while pacing around my apartment, walking my dog, and having conversations with my partner. Moreover, I also knew that I had lived experiences, and opinions about this topic which informed my approach.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sketches by Marcos Chin \/ Images generated by Adobe Firefly<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"Sketch<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sketch<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"Sketch<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"AI-<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"AI-generated<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"AI-generated<\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Finding the right balance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

After ChatGPT\u2019s public rollout in late 2022, Macalester faculty were immediately interested in grappling with the challenges of generative AI. By January 2023, the Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching had organized a panel and faculty discussion about AI and teaching. Britt Abel, director of writing and a co-organizer of the event, describes the turnout for the event as \u201cmassive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The interest encouraged Abel and associate library director Mozhdeh Khodarahmi to form a working group and faculty and staff learning committee on AI. That led to a report on AI literacy and critical thinking. The report includes robust guidance for faculty and students, and has been praised by the Macalester community\u2014as well as national and even international audiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The working group has hosted ongoing presentations with energetic discussions about the ways that instructors and students can harness the power of these tools effectively to improve their teaching and learning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For students, AI tools can make beginning an assignment less intimidating. Ada Bruno \u201924 (Cranston, R.I.), who teamed up with two students to write a paper about the use of AI at Macalester for a news reporting and writing course, says she has used AI to help her do early thinking on some projects. \u201cIf I need an idea for a project, it can be helpful for brainstorming,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, she admits that its limitations are abundantly clear, even with relatively simple, clearly delineated tasks. \u201cIt\u2019ll come up with ten ideas, but it doesn\u2019t have the same kind of energy or collaborative spirit as a face-to-face interaction,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faculty, too, have found ways to use the tools to support their teaching. For example, Giannini has been using ChatGPT in her advanced classes. First, she asks students to analyze an issue or a text related to a class topic the way she did before the advent of generative AI. Then, she has them ask ChatGPT the same questions she posed to the class and critique its output. \u201cThey can see how much better they do in their own analyses\u2014and they can also see how much ChatGPT \u2018hallucinates\u2019,\u201d she says, referring to the false information that can be created by these large language models.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Abel, who also is a professor of German, says the tools can be very valuable to faculty who are early in their teaching careers. For example, a professor could ask an AI tool to provide them a detailed list of potential classroom activities, such as a movie analysis or a cooking class, to support student learning at a specific language level. They could also ask ChatGPT to create a rubric to help assess student learning for this activity. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty powerful at putting together a rubric if you\u2019re using nationally accepted standards and coming up with specific activities related to those standards,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Wells says he finds ChatGPT most useful when he imagines it as another person. \u201cIf you use the analogy of an intern, you can think of ChatGPT as someone who works very hard and very quickly, and who is so eager to please that they will make stuff up in order to try to satisfy you,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With that mindset, he says, faculty and students can reorient their approach to the technology. For Wells, that means that he spends a significant amount of time defining the task or question in clear and often excruciatingly granular detail. He\u2019s even developed a seven-point template that he uses for prompts that includes identifying the audience, specifying style and tone, and using examples for clarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is work that requires its own unique type of thinking and analysis, and students benefit from learning these skills, says Wells. \u201cThere are so many details we don\u2019t think to stipulate, but the AI still has to decide for you,\u201d he explains. \u201cIt\u2019s when those default decisions don\u2019t line up with what you want that you often get a bad output.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, there\u2019s a fine line between getting help from an AI tool and plagiarism. It\u2019s why the Macalester working group developed an updated academic integrity statement that bars the unauthorized use of generative AI tools in coursework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, while AI-facilitated plagiarism has been one of the most significant concerns for many educators and institutions, Abel says that Macalester\u2019s structure, philosophy, and processes give the institution distinct advantages in an AI world. \u201cOur faculty design really good writing assignments. We have small class sizes. We have students free write and brainstorm before they write an essay, and we have them write what writer Anne Lamott calls \u2018sh***y first drafts.\u2019 We spend a lot of time on writing, which is an iterative process, and as a result, we know our students\u2019 voices.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while professors are quick to acknowledge that they would be hard pressed to detect AI cheating, they also know that the students who come to Macalester are typically hungry to do the kind of rigorous academic work that the college requires.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Latham says he often uses an athletic analogy when he talks to students about their use of AI. \u201cIf you decided that you were going to do a triathlon, and you had access to the best gym and the best coaches in the world, and you paid a bunch of money to do it, why on earth would you have someone else do the workouts for you?\u201d he asks. \u201cI tell them: Your education is a big investment, so make the most of it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Illustration
\u201cThis is a riff off of Salvador Dal\u00ed\u2019s Eccentric Genus, inspired by one of the AI platforms \u2018DALL-E.\u2019 The students are trying to harness the power of the hovering robot, or perhaps tame it. Either way, I\u2019m showing the push and pull of this topic.\u201d \u2014Marcos Chin<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am not a robot<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If AI tools have shaken up teaching and learning, they have also opened up opportunities. In some cases, they\u2019re leading professors to rethink how they teach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before ChatGPT, for example, Latham had focused on having students complete traditional writing assignments. He has since replaced many of these projects with reflection papers and invitations for his students to come to his office to discuss their growth as scholars and as people. \u201cI tell them that this is not a moment for me to judge you and to grade you. This is a moment for you to reflect on what you have actually learned,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd these papers and conversations are fantastic. I get the strong sense, in a way that I never have before, that they\u2019re experiencing real growth as human beings. They\u2019re not just ticking boxes and pretending that they know what I talked to them about three weeks ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

If AI tools have shaken up teaching and learning, they have also opened up opportunities. In some cases, they\u2019re leading professors to rethink how they teach.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

He pauses. \u201cAre these reflection papers AI-proof? Probably not. But it\u2019s pretty hard to ask an AI to write about what you\u2019ve learned,\u201d he says. \u201cThese are wonderful pedagogical moments, and I wish I would have done this twenty-five years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s this part of the AI transformation\u2014the thoughtful analysis about what teaching and learning can look like, the re-engineering of classes to encourage critical thinking in new ways, and the increasing focus on human connection that is central to a Macalester education\u2014that gives Latham hope about what lies ahead. \u201cIt\u2019s not all rosy,\u201d he says. \u201cWe\u2019ll have to change things. We\u2019ll have to adapt. But we can be true to our liberal arts heritage and tradition. Even in an AI world.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Glossary<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Artificial intelligence (AI).<\/strong> Technology that simulates human intelligence, often by mimicking communication and decision-making.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI).<\/strong> Technology that searches for patterns in large amounts of data to generate new material, such as text, code, and images.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hallucination.<\/strong> Incorrect or nonsensical information generated by an AI system because of limitations in its training data or algorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Large language model (LLM).<\/strong> A type of generative artificial intelligence that is focused on text-based data and algorithms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Prompt.<\/strong> A specific instruction or question humans give an artificial intelligence system to guide an AI tool to generate a response, create content, or perform a task.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erin Peterson is a Minneapolis-based writer.<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Generative artificial intelligence has come on strong. What does that mean for teaching and learning?<\/p>","protected":false},"author":881,"featured_media":25425,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-25417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-alumni","mediatype-articles"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"fields":{"article_type":[8],"flickr_photoset_id":"","youtube_id":"","square_thumbnail":false,"press_photos":false,"story_title":"","story_caption":"","rotations":false,"maps":false,"marker_title":"","marker_text":"","geographic_location":false,"feature_embed":"","custom_link_url":"","news_icon_name":"","image_options":false,"main_feature_story":"","custom_image":false,"custom_feature_title":"","custom_feature_caption":"","custom_markup":"","custom_markup_link":"","custom_markup_title":"","custom_markup_caption":"","byline":"","post_thumbnail_style":"default","press_downloads":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/881"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25417"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31445,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25417\/revisions\/31445"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}