Practicum Log #9: Generative AI Instructional Design

In developing an instructional module on generative AI, I have been researching other instructional modules for inspiration and for sources. This subject is rather daunting for me as I try to wrap my head around it and around what advice and instruction would most benefit the library staff and students. I’m researching high school and middle school curriculum on the subject to help me with the foundations.

Thursday, June 13, 2024 from 1:00-5:00 PM

Today, I communicated with both Emily Thorpe and Katherine Hoover via email and text as they were both off campus for work or taking personal days. I used my internship time to do more research regarding generative AI and generative AI instruction. I read research articles about the coming trends with AI, and I looked at other news articles that exposed some shady practices of AI companies. By looking at AI as a tool, I hope to show students how to use it effectively instead of trying to use it to replace their own work and ideas. Generative AI is still very new and unreliable, so using it to completely replace academic or creative work will not be an effective use of time or effort as a student. However, there are some ways to use AI that allow a student to be more productive, especially in the realm of synthesizing information, generating examples, brainstorming, and project management.

The AI instructional models I’ve found for teaching students how to use AI are rather long project-based units, which would be fantastic for a middle school or high school writing classroom (I have a day job as a middle school writing teacher, so I am killing two birds with one stone here); however, instructional librarians have 30-45 precious instructional minutes to teach an entire concept, so it’s taking me lengthy research time to distill the most important information regarding AI instruction in an information literacy perspective. I’m narrowing my focus to 1) the myths of generative AI, 2) a working vocabulary, 3) using AI as an assistant, and 4) effective prompt generation.

Full Schedule: l will be working 10:00-2:00 from May 28th to June 7th, M-F online. (The campus is undergoing some construction and all of the librarians are working from home.)

Then, from June 10 - July 19th, I will be working 1:00-5:00 on campus at Southwestern University. I will more than likely finish by July 12th, but I'm adding a week for wiggle room. This should lead to 128 hours.