Much of my teaching background is in writing-intensive social science courses, EMI (English as medium of instruction) social science coursework for students in EAL (English as an additional language) programs, and EAL programming. As such, it's naturally the case that the recent popularity of generative AI (GenAI) for coursework is now a persistent temptation for my students and a persistent headache for yours truly.
While virtually all technological innovations have at least niche uses, I am chiefly concerned with how the aggressive (yes) marketing of GenAI applications puts students at risk of de-skilling, creative languishing, and counterproductive forms of cognitive offloading. I am actively exploring ways that we as instructors can address these issues, especially given the added complication that academic pressures and alienation from our work (for instructors and students alike) only increase the temptation to have the machines do our writing for us.
Toward these ends, I have participated or am participating in the following initiatives at UBC and elsewhere:
While virtually all technological innovations have at least niche uses, I am chiefly concerned with how the aggressive (yes) marketing of GenAI applications puts students at risk of de-skilling, creative languishing, and counterproductive forms of cognitive offloading. I am actively exploring ways that we as instructors can address these issues, especially given the added complication that academic pressures and alienation from our work (for instructors and students alike) only increase the temptation to have the machines do our writing for us.
Toward these ends, I have participated or am participating in the following initiatives at UBC and elsewhere:
- I am a student member of the Student Artificial Intelligence Advisory Council, a multidisciplinary group of students at UBC's Vancouver and Okanagan campuses developing recommendations for UBC's Gen AI Steering Committee.
- I have also led two workshops at UBC for instructors and graduate students on teaching writing in the face of/in the age of AI. (See the list below.)