Meeting the Challenge of AI in the Classroom

• In Event: Artificial Intelligence: Concerns for Politics and for the Profession

Abstract

College students enter our classrooms today comfortable with a multitude of AI tools and services that promise to aid their learning, writing, and research. Meanwhile, many faculty and librarians view such generative AI and other aids with trepidation, concerned about the ways in which they will change political science education and teaching. As with all new technologies, there are significant challenges that we will confront as we consider their affordances. Educators must rethink how to foster students’ critical thinking, information literacy, communication, and research skills—typically long-term objectives—in light of rapidly developing apps and programs that aim to reduce effort and provide quick results. This presentation from a political science librarian considers the possibilities for incorporating AI into the research and writing process as well as limitations and risks posed by these emergent tools. This moment also offers us the opportunity to improve our pedagogical practices using active and experiential learning techniques that obviate the influence of AI. In this spirit, participants will be encouraged to reflect on their own teaching experiences and discuss together what openings AI presents for innovation in their political science courses.

Author

• Kimberly MacVaugh, Georgetown University