Key points:
- AI use isn’t scary–and it can facilitate anytime, anywhere learning
- Recentering discovery as the core of learning through AI
- Future proof your career: Human-centered majors in the AI era
- For more news on AI’s potential, visit eCN’s AI in Education hub
AI is analogous to an iceberg. What most of us see–what most faculty and students seem to understand about it–is only the small portion visible above the surface. The tip of the iceberg often represents misconceptions and a pervasive sense of fear, while the vast, valuable potential lies unseen beneath the waterline.
Instructors need to mentor students using AI as a productive tool while also including concerns about the potential downsides. Analogously, we can talk about icebergs as a threat to maritime operations, but also as an essential part of an ecosystem. Too much of the conversation surrounding AI in academia has been focused on the negative. It has been driven by understandable but limiting fears of cheating, plagiarism, and the factual errors we now call hallucinations. This climate of fear is not just a theoretical problem; it is playing out in real-time, right in my own classroom.
I wanted to know what students were thinking about AI; therefore, I decided to ask my students directly: What did they know about AI, and are they using it? Their responses, to my surprise, were nearly unanimous and overwhelmingly negative. They told me:
- It hallucinates and can be wrong
- It’s cheating
- It’s plagiarism
- It should be used sparingly, if at all
When I probed further, I was surprised to learn that these opinions weren’t formed from personal experience or research. I found that most students were not using AI at all because of classical conditioning from professors. To paraphrase the Pogo cartoon: The enemy is us. Their other instructors’ rhetoric was mostly about strict prohibition and threats of academic integrity violations. Most of my students were staying away from it like a barbed wire fence.
This was a profound disconnect, I thought. I had expected these “digital natives” would be lapping up this new technology like bears love honey. Instead, their minds were mostly shut, their curiosity blunted. This was not something I anticipated; therefore, I decided to create a learning opportunity–not to ignore the risks, but to educate and mentor students from a balanced perspective and reveal AI’s incredible benefits for their own learning success.
I designed a 90-minute live lecture and workshop to introduce them to this use of AI as an instructional technology. My core message was simple and direct:
1. It is NOT a homework machine, a cheat code, or a tool for nefarious use.
2. It IS a tool to promote learning efficiency and increase learning productivity.
For students to grasp the concept of productivity, I used an analogy they could all understand: typing speed and writing quality. As I explained, the correlation between speed and writing quality is not cause and effect. Typing faster does not cause good writing. But for the time spent, writing improves because there is more time to revise and create iterations. The students latched onto that and quickly saw how AI tools could help them become more productive learners, not cheaters. With the conceptual framework in place, the students were ready for the demonstration, but their initial skepticism was still evident.
Initially, the students just stared at me with blank faces as I moved through the AI tool. I could practically see the thought bubbles over their heads: “Why is this professor different than all my others?” and “Is he real, or trying to get us to cheat?” They appeared stunned, as if this was almost too good to be true. As we began to explore the tool together, the atmosphere in the room shifted dramatically. It was like when the Wizard of Oz movie morphs from black and white to color. I could sense them realizing, “we’re not in Kansas anymore.”
The magic happened when I showed them how AI could be used as a study aid to promote learning productivity. I used different AI tools, but Google NotebookLM was a standout because of its pedagogical focus. If you feed it various types of source material, it can transform it into powerful learning aids. Input sources can be from a wide range of media, i.e. documents, copied text, video, audio, PowerPoint, PDF, transcripts, web pages, and URLs. Transformation happens with different forms of output based on the sources of input. The kinds of output are not only tailored to the needs of the student but address different types of learning preferences. Some examples are a summary document, video summary with graphics, audio podcast, mind map, quiz, and flashcards.
Two outputs absolutely captivated them. The first was the creation of an audio podcast, which creates an incredibly real and authentic discussion between two hosts based on the source material. The second was a mind map, which helps to organize complex information into topic groupings to explore in more detail using a drill-down method of mouse clicks. This hands-on discovery did more than just impress them; it fundamentally changed how they thought about the act of studying and the role of AI as a learning productivity tool. AI is an instructional technology as much as any other when used appropriately. It is the definition of appropriateness that requires instruction and mentoring.
The most powerful concept discussed was AI as a “24/7 tutor.” Students do much of their work during evenings and weekends, when professors aren’t available to answer questions. Instead of getting stuck and having to pause their progress, they were able to solve learning problems in real time. This was indeed a study buddy and tutor.
One amusing thought I presented was: What if your professor was with you all day, every day, to answer your questions? Of course, that was too creepy to even consider. But how about an AI tutor? That was different and intriguing. One student shared that she had already used the podcast feature to study for a quiz in another course, listening to it while cleaning her room. This sparked a wave of inspiration in the class, with others imagining new ways to integrate learning into their lives:
- While driving
- Listening at night while in bed
- While working out at the gym
The core insight became clear to everyone: AI can facilitate engagement with learning material “anyplace, anytime.” This transformation from AI fear to learning empowerment carries a broader message for all of us in academia. It is often said that fear is an acronym that stands for “false expectations appearing real.” We need to get past the boogie man syndrome and start looking at AI as a learning partner, not an enemy.
Let’s return to the iceberg. Icebergs have tremendous value as an essential part of our ecosystem, but many just associate them with the Titanic tragedy. We don’t want a one-sided view about AI to do what the Titanic did for icebergs. Even today, asking someone what they know about icebergs would likely result in a Titanic association, rather than icebergs being part of an essential ecosystem. We need to embrace the massive, powerful new presence of AI in our environment, and act as mentors. There are pitfalls that must be avoided, but the potential benefits far outweigh the negatives. We just need to learn how to navigate these new waters responsibly.
Dr. Mark Taormino is a professor in the Computing & Information Technology Department at the College of Southern Nevada. His research interests are focused on Instructional Technology and using technology as an instructional and learning catalyst. In addition to teaching computer and technology courses, he works closely with faculty to integrate pedagogy and technology into teaching practice.
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