Active Teaching Lab

AI used to be a tool on your desk. Now it is the desk. And the desk just hired itself as your assistant. 

In February’s Active Teaching Lab, David Delgado shared how AI has become both the infrastructure for our work, and the experienced assistant able to anticipate our needs and execute complex jobs without being asked. 
Check out our Podcast!

Check out the Podcast!

Following the February Active Teaching Lab session, I uploaded an edited transcript of the recording into Notebook LM and selected “Audio Overview.” The result was a fifteen-minute conversation between two imaginary hosts who accurately broke down David’s main points and provided concrete examples to explain each one. There were a few inconsequential mistakes, but all-in-all the tool was more magic than math.

Check out the complete podcast at RSS.com, or simply search for “Active Teaching Lab” in Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

In November’s Active Teaching Lab, Stuart Moulthrop shared his experience using a custom GPT “agent” to support reading-based discussion and scholarly experimentation in a graduate-level theory course. What began for Stuart as a practical test – “What could AI do with a semester’s worth of dense theoretical readings?” – quickly evolved into a broader reflection on what it means to be a scholar, teacher, and creator alongside AI. His experiment showed that building a course-specific chatbot is surprisingly feasible and opens genuinely interesting pedagogical possibilities, from supporting discussion to modeling scholarly dialogue.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) will impact the careers of UWM graduates, whether they are directly involved in technology implementation or experiencing AI as it complements and reshapes roles in the workforce. UWM instructors are the front line – adapting their course to best prepare our students in a rapidly changing environment with skills in technology and critical thinking. Brian Thompson, UWM Chief Innovation & Partnership Officer, offers perspectives from partner and community organizations – including Northwestern Mutual, Rockwell Automation, Microsoft, Direct Supply, Harley Davidison and Milwaukee Bucks – on how they’re implementing AI and how it impacts their hiring and opportunities for continuing education of their workforce.

Explore the future of teaching with AI! In this session David Delgado guides us through the latest AI innovations and their impact on education, helping you understand what’s new, what’s next, and what matters for instructors. We then bring the conversation into the classroom, exploring actionable strategies to utilize the newest tools to help integrate AI into your classroom.

How can researchers harness AI to enhance their scholarly work without compromising academic integrity – and help students do the same? In our April Active Teaching Lab, Benjamin Gautsch guided us through the strategic integration of AI tools across the research lifecycle. From synthesizing complex academic literature to refining research questions and improving scholarly writing, we learned how AI can serve as a powerful assistant in academic endeavors.

In our December Active Teaching Lab workshop we explored practical applications of AI tools for course development. Through collaborative discussion and hands-on experimentation, we shared experiences with various AI platforms including Claude, ChatGPT, Perplexity, Google Gemini, and Adobe Firefly. The session revealed how AI can expedite course preparation while maintaining educational quality through careful integration with instructor expertise.

In this session Cynthia Brinich-Langlois and Joseph Mougel shared how they harnessed AI in their classes to enhance student creativity and efficiency. By asking students to utilize AI tools in course work, Cynthia and Joseph allowed students to focus more on core learning objectives, spend less time on extraneous work, all the while producing higher-quality material faster.

In this session from October 2nd, Mark Sullivan shared how utilized AI to help him quickly build reading comprehension questions. Mark found that by partnering with AI, the quality of his questions improved, the time he took to build these questions decreased, and he was able to do more low stakes assessments in his course, which together improved his student learning outcomes.

In our Lab discussion we explored how to use AI to create meaningful questions, and how to create files that will automatically import quizzes into Canvas. See Lab Notes for additional information.

In this session from September 11th, David Delgado guides us through the latest AI innovations and their impact on education, helping you understand what’s new, what’s next, and what matters for instructors. We then bring the conversation into the classroom, examining actionable strategies to help students ethically utilize AI, and explore how you might integrate AI into your course.

In this session from May 1st Kate Ganski and Heidi Anoszko of the UWM libraries lead a facilitated discussion to empower instructors to move beyond pro/con thinking about AI and student research. They’ll lead you through guided reflections to arrive at a disciplinary and student-centered approach that you can apply to improve your next research paper assignments.

Join us on March 6th, as we utilize generative AI to automate work, expand our educational toolbox, and save time. Led by Lane Sunwall, this session will demonstrate how AI can transform your teaching by serving in four crucial capacities: as a personal assistant to handle administrative tasks, as a coach for acquiring new skills, as a tool to boost student engagement through personalized and differentiated materials, and finally, as a digital editor to refine educational content and communication.

This session will equip you with practical skills to leverage AI for each of these roles, enabling you to focus more on your students, effective teaching, and your research. Bring your laptop to engage directly with AI and discover its potential with other instructors.

On February 7th, David and Lane lead an exploration into recent AI advancements and how they’ll shape your classroom throughout the upcoming year.

David Delgado began the session showcasing impactful new tools and AI capabilities that are continuing to reshape the educational landscape: including Microsoft Copilot, AI data manipulation, image generation, and mobile AI integration. Afterwards, Lane dove into a hands-on showcase of these tools and a collaborative discussion to exchange ideas and strategies. Finally, Lane wrapped up the session with real-world examples of how educators outside the UW system are utilizing AI and navigating its challenges into 2024.

In December’s Active Teaching Lab, one undergraduate and three graduate students shared how they and their peers weave artificial intelligence (AI) into their academic work and daily lives. The lab’s conversation navigated through the complexities and ethical considerations of AI use. Students expressed concerns about the accuracy of AI-generated content, potential biases in the information AI provided, and the implications for privacy and intellectual property rights.

Despite AI’s issues, the students noted that the practical applications of AI were expansive. They highlighted its role as a project collaborator: a resource to check citations, revise drafts, and brainstorm ideas. Additionally, they shared how AI served as a research assistant to summarize articles, pinpoint key themes, and recommend related texts.  Finally, as AI continues to improve, and is integrated it into more and more of our digital lives, the students argued there is a need to teach them how to use AI effectively, yet with a critical eye to its faults. In essence, they suggested instructors needed to train them in a new set of digital skills that are fast becoming essential to success in the classroom and the marketplace.

On November 1st, Deanna Wesolowski shared how she increased student engagement and learning through the use of AI.

Concerned students would use AI to cheat in her classics course, Dr. Wesolowski adapted: instead of asking students to write a traditional three-page paper, she tasked them with editing, revising, and critiquing an essay written entirely by Chat-GPT. Dr. Wesolowski found the activity improved student knowledge of course content, boosted student interest and engagement, and highlighted to students the danger of relying solely on AI to write their papers.

Generative AI is a powerful tool that can enhance student learning and our own teaching. Yet, we know AI likewise opens the possibility of undetectable academic misconduct.

In this session Lois Scheidt shares her strategies to help her students use AI responsibly, ethically, and in a manner that fosters better reasoning skills in her online course. We explore AI classroom ethics, how to establish clear guidelines for using AI in your course, and how to use generative AI as a powerful teaching tool.

Are you intrigued by the possibilities of AI but concerned about its role in your teaching environment? Join us for an illuminating exploration by Lane Sunwall and David Delgado into the present and future of AI technology.

In this workshop, we’ll delve into the current AI landscape and unveil future AI features and applications. Next, we’ll explore into AI’s impact on education, offering insights into crafting effective AI classroom policies and integrating time-saving AI tools into your teaching routine. Finally, we’ll examine innovative assignment techniques that reinforce course objectives while utilizing AI. Bring your laptop or mobile device to engage in a hands-on activity that will provide you tailored resources you can use this upcoming semester.