What Teachers should Do about AI

1. Learn about generative AI dangers related to biases, privacy concerns, and the impact of AI on vulnerable students. Consider how chatting with AI systems affect vulnerable students, including those with depression, anxiety, and other mental health challenges. (handout: Dangers of AI)

2. Experiment with AI to see if it can enhance your teaching methods and plans. Consider how AI could be ethically used in education and where you draw the line in how you use it to do your work.

3. Talk with students about your expectations regarding the use of generative AI in class. College faculty should include a syllabus statement offering clear guidance regarding expectations for the use of generative AI in the classroom and have open and frank discussions with students about the expectations regarding its use. (handout: AI use cases)

4. Explain to students what counts as AI-enabled plagiarism and when its use is appropriate, especially considering that it is being integrated into many commonly used tools (meaning a blanket ban on its use is nearly impossible). Consider that the answer to this question will change depending on the assignment, the subject, and the learning outcomes.

5. Avoid depending on AI detectors due to their limitations (false positives and legal issues). Rather than focusing on catching cheaters, faculty should focus on developing new pedagogy to address the evolving technology (similar to the rise of the internet).

6. Get students to wrestle with it along with you. 

7. Help students learn to fact check AI-generated writing outputs. They need a healthy skepticism.

8. Talk about AI transparency, providing examples.  

9. Develop pedagogical options for controlling the use of AI: Pen & paper, Blue Books, oral exams, in-class presentations, the use of Google Docs or other writing tools that track writing history, personalization, concept-mapping, scaffolding assignments, etc. Decide what are the cognitive tasks that students need to perform without AI assistance. 

10. Develop new rubrics and assignment descriptions taking generative AI into account. Some assignments should be AI-free by design. Others should actively engage AI, teaching students to evaluate, direct and improve its outputs.

11. Learn AI & double down on what makes you human. It’s never all one-sided. Avoid extreme positions of all-in or all-out Go down both roads. Learn how to use it skeptically—what it can do and its limits, knowing this an ongoing chore. Double down on what makes you human. Focus resources on the other side of the equation—that is, helping students set themselves apart from simply being good at using AI to developing the skills that will become rare and valuable because of AI limitations (including communication, creativity, and flexibility). Help students develop a healthy and ethical use of generative AI as you do this yourself.

12. Prepare students for their careers. They will enter a world where AI usage is expected. Keep in mind that this expectation is that AI will allow employees to do more work faster.