Teaching Students When (Not) to Use AI

When satellite maps became available on our phones, some wondered what we would lose by becoming less oriented to the places we live or visit. But most of us have used these maps for many years now and find them to be incredibly useful. Which begs the question: Does it matter if we’ve lost our sense of direction a bit? 

Educators now find themselves asking similar questions about AI and teaching. What happens when we stop using a skill and allow technology to do it for us? Do we become de-skilled? When does that de-skilling matter? And in those cases where it does matter, how do we help students understand the importance of committing themselves to the hard work of learning?

Educator, author, and higher ed consultant Derek Bruff joins host Jim Lang for a thoughtful conversation exploring how we might answer.

Key Topics Discussed:

• The rubber duck effect as a way to think about AI’s potential role in brainstorming processes
• Concerns over people accepting the responses of AI as authoritative
• The sycophantic tendencies of chatbots and the importance of teaching students to read AI outputs with a degree of skepticism
• How consulting AI compares to collective class discussion as a starting point for student papers
• Developing students’ metacognitive awareness and self-regulation so that they can determine when it’s helpful to use AI and when it’s not
• The value to students of encountering course material in both digital and analog ways
• The need to be intentional about AI use because the skills and experiences at play feel more core to who we are as humans
• A low-stakes experiment for instructors who don’t currently use AI much

Guest Bio: Derek Bruff directed the Vanderbilt University Center for Teaching for more than a decade and is currently an associate director at the Center for Teaching Excellence at the University of Virginia, where much of his work focuses on helping faculty respond to the challenges and opportunities posed by generative AI. Derek has written two books, most recently Intentional Tech: Principles to Guide the Use of Educational Technology in College Teaching. He writes a weekly newsletter called Intentional Teaching and hosts and produces the Intentional Teaching podcast.

Resources Mentioned:

• Derek’s Podcast: Intentional Teaching
• Derek’s Newsletter: Intentional Teaching
• Alternative Use Test Article: “How does generative artificial intelligence impact student creativity?” (Journal of Creativity)
• Example Assignment: Do Something Impossible with AI
• Notre Dame Learning’s Lab for AI in Teaching and Learning
• Episode Transcript

Designed for Learning is hosted by Jim Lang, a professor of the practice in Notre Dame Learning’s Kaneb Center for Teaching Excellence and the author of several influential books on teaching. The podcast is produced by Notre Dame Learning’s Office of Digital Learning. For more, visit learning.nd.edu/podcast. You can also follow Notre Dame Learning on LinkedIn and subscribe to our newsletter.