Rapp shares perspective on AI in the classroom
CHADRON – In the opening Graves Lecture Series of the fall semester, Chadron State College Associate Professor of Education Dr. Eric Rapp spoke about how he teaches Artificial Intelligence literacy in higher education.
Rapp said he wants to help future teachers become more efficient in the classroom. He urges the importance of disclosure in both directions when managing AI usage. Rapp said if the teacher is straightforward in communicating how AI was used in their own work, grading included, students are more comfortable disclosing their own usage.
“What gets graded is the student’s reflection on how they used AI, not the AI product itself, and the personal note at the end of the feedback stays human,” he said. “A teacher who models disclosure builds the trust that makes an honest reflection possible.”
Throughout the lecture, Rapp shared assignments from his class, EDUC 224: Technology Resources for Learning, to demonstrate how he uses AI to develop his curriculum and how students learn to use AI during the course.
Over time working with an AI assistant, Rapp said he has trained the program to work more efficiently, recording rules to follow for each pass of a conversation. To keep a human in the loop, Rapp follows three guidelines: Never let AI make final decisions, verify that provided information can be linked to a credible source, and save time in the process.
“The pedagogy, the wording that goes to students or colleagues, and any claim that would carry my name are mine to accept, change, or throw out,” he said. “When I rewrite a sentence or delete a section, AI records that as the rule and builds the next draft to it, so each pass through the loop is shorter than the one before.”
He discussed one strategy used in his classroom is to have students list why they used AI, and how effective it was, on each assignment.
“We're not going to plagiarize. You just have to be up front of where you're using AI and why. The very first question is, did you use AI or not? The next four questions say things like: what were you trying to get AI to do for you? Which AI model did you use? Take screenshots or attach video clips,” Rapp said. “Some students just gave me one quick sentence. This semester, I'm getting students that have filled up a page of their prompts, screenshot after screenshot after screenshot, they are immersed in it.”
According to Rapp, much of his experience and education with AI comes from podcasts, conferences, research, practice and strong motivation for the topic.
He hopes that students continue to do their own brainstorming, using AI like a friend giving feedback on a plan.
“Coming up with that first idea is probably a human skill worth protecting,” he said.
The Graves Lecture Series will continue this fall with two more presentations, beginning with Jake Murphy’s on Thursday, Oct. 22. The final presentation for the semester will be given by Dr. Allison Fritz on Nov. 5. Both presentations begin at 6 p.m. in the Chicoine Atrium of the Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center.
Category: Graves Lecture Series