Shenandoah University | Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning

Join TTL and the AI task force to view some webinars relating to AI in higher education. These webinars are recorded by the AAC&U and have been made available thanks to a team of SU faculty and staff participating in their Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum. The first hour of our meeting will involve watching a selected webinar recording together, and the last 30 minutes will be for group discussion. We look forward to learning together with you!

The description for this webinar is:

Higher education stands at a critical juncture in the AI era, caught between uncritical techno-optimism and paralyzing skepticism. While the dangers of AI—from surveillance capitalism to authoritarian control and profit-driven educational technology—are undeniably real, simply teaching "AI literacy", or ignoring these technologies entirely, fails to prepare students for meaningful engagement with our complex world. Educators in higher ed have a unique responsibility to move beyond the binary of AI skepticism versus optimism toward a more nuanced approach that acknowledges both perils and possibilities.

The current educational paradigm often reduces AI engagement to job readiness and individual skill acquisition, perpetuating existing systems rather than transforming them. However, higher education has the potential to reframe AI as a tool for addressing the interconnected crises—climate, inequality, democratic erosion—that define our historical moment. Rather than simply preparing students to succeed within existing economic structures, educators can cultivate critical, creative social change agents who understand how to leverage technology for community transformation. This may require us to consider unique ways to work in “partnership” with AI. And to understand that these “partners”, similar to those that we have with our human colleagues, may at times make mistakes and/or have inherent biases for which we need to be vigilant.