Faculty must create communities of practice as artificial intelligence transforms education. They can share their knowledge on using AI for teaching and research.
- The Generator is an AI lab at Babson College that examines technology’s impact in higher education, industry and society.
- The Generator groups study the impact of AI on areas like entrepreneurship, ethics and experiential learning. They also look at the future of work as well as the arts, research innovation, and the future.
- The Generator AI Teaching Training Program helps faculty experiment with AI tools while building community. The program has led to new MBA and undergraduate classes that are based on interdisciplinary expertise.
AI is not IT. In an age of rapid technological advances, educators and institutions must make a distinction. Information technology has undoubtedly reshaped the academic environment by improving organization connectivity and streamlining process, but artificial intelligence can completely transform how students and faculty engage in teaching, research and innovation.
Understanding AI is more than just an IT question. It’s a lifelong imperative that combines technology, ethics and futurism with the human spirit in order to explore new ways to innovate, create and advance.
Faculty must lead the transformation of education because AI will have a far-reaching impact. Faculty must urgently build their own AI community of practice, and engage with educators to better understand the risks and opportunities presented by AI. Faculty members must work together to explore how AI can be used to accelerate student learning as well as research innovation. They must also discuss and fully understand the risks associated with AI models, which can range from bias to hallucinations.
To engage in the AI age, institutions will need to take two steps that are interdependent. They must first support deep inter-disciplinary collaboration within the institution. Faculty will gain a better understanding of AI’s impact on society, higher education and industry when traditional academic silos are broken down.
Second, higher education institutions need to place student learning in the forefront of the AI revolution. In doing so, universities can ensure that their educational initiatives are in line with the changing demands of modern society.
Inhaltsübersicht
Start the Generator
The Generator was launched by Babson College, Wellesley Massachusetts to achieve both objectives, and take advantage of the potential AI has. The interdisciplinary AI laboratory was created and is being led by nine faculty from the entire college, including us two. We want to examine the impact of AI on higher education in general, as well as our respective areas of expertise.
Faculty leaders at The Generator come from entrepreneurship, philosophy and AI/machine-learning, as well as writing, strategy, theatre, and innovation leadership. Some of us were experts in AI while others had a keen interest or concern in what the technology might mean for education, business, and society. We have created eight groups under The Generator umbrella to create an AI community at Babson and enhance AI capabilities. These groups are focused on the following areas.
- AI Entrepreneurship & Business Innovation
- Work Futures
- AI Ethics & Society
- AI & Experiential Learning
- AI & Machine-Learning Empowerment
- AI Prototyping
- AI for Research & Writing
- AI Arts & Performance
Each group organizes its own events to engage and activate faculty, staff and students throughout the college. In partnership with 150 students, the AI Entrepreneurship & Business Innovation Group organized a Buildathon in order to identify ways to use AI for improving human well-being. This event addressed the urgent need for entrepreneurial AI in order to combat the risks of AI such as bias, false information, and misinformation.
Understanding AI is a necessity in a world where technology, ethics and futurism are blended with the human spirit and required to explore new ways of creating, advancing and innovating.
Faculty members have participated in Build-Your Own-Bot sessions led by the AI & Experiential Learning Group. The AI Ethics & Society Group is engaging faculty, staff and students in discussions on how AI-enabled worlds may irreversibly change the meaning of culture, politics and the economy.
The Prototyping With AI Group has also piloted a Prototype-It! The Bot helps students prototype entrepreneurial ideas. The bot will direct students to campus resources for digital prototyping or coding, depending on their venture idea. The tool is being used as part of Babson’s flagship Foundations of Management & Entrepreneurship Program, a year-long course that challenges all first-year Babson students to start and run a small business.
The AI Arts and Performance Group hosted a Babson interactive exhibit featuring new artworks created by AI. The co-curricular event invited faculty and students not only to explore the art displayed, but to also think about their own creative process and how AI can be a part of this pursuit. The AI for Research & Writing Group organized a large conference for universities in the Massachusetts area on the topic generative AI.
Each discipline adds value to the larger discussion and offers faculty, staff, and students a unique entry point.
Collaborating Across Disciplines
The AI Teaching Training Program, one of The Generator’s keystone initiatives embodies faculty leadership. The AITTP, designed by faculty for faculty, prepares Babson educators to effectively integrate AI into their teaching.
The program, which will be launched in spring 2024 gives participants the opportunity to use AI tools and facilitates cross-disciplinary discussion. It also promotes the creation of new teaching methods that take advantage of AI’s unique abilities. Babson faculty members have come together in multiple AITTP cohorts now to explore AI’s potential to enhance learning through experience and to support innovation.
Stephen Spinelli Jr. explains that the way business schools deal with artificial intelligence is a model for how students should handle this historical change. If we ban AI or ignore it, students may think that they can bury themselves in the sand and avoid disruption. If we teach them that AI is a chance, and we embrace change and encourage experiments, we will be teaching the most valuable lesson we can on how to navigate our future.
The Generator faculty team now has trained 50 percent of Babson faculty on AI concepts and AI software. Faculty members can also experiment with AI tools within a collaborative environment where they are able to discuss the challenges and opportunities AI presents.
Professors of the arts, for example, have shown how they use AI as a tool to express themselves creatively, while professors of business have shown the value AI has in market analysis and in venture development. This exchange of ideas enriches not only the faculty but also the students in the college. The hard-fought AI-community-building efforts at the university cannot be replaced by a single IT platform.
Co-learning is a great way to learn with faculty and students.
The AITTP has also resulted in tangible curriculum outcomes. A course titled AI Pioneers, for example, draws on insights gathered from groups dedicated to AI Entrepreneurship & Business Innovations, Work Futures and AI & Machine-Learning Empowerment.
The AI Ethics & Society group and the AI & Experiential Learning group have inspired a new undergraduate course called Writing With Robots. The course encourages the students to critically examine the relationship between machine-generated content and human creativity, as well the ethics of technology used for these purposes and others. The idea of cross-disciplinary collaboration defines the course.
Co-learning with Students
Co-learning is a great opportunity for both students and faculty. In our classrooms, the lines between novice and expert are blurred because both students and faculty are learning AI simultaneously.
This is a positive, as it provides opportunities for experiential learning that go beyond the walls of the classroom. AI-related education can take the form of traditional classroom activities and assignments or can be very different. Students in The Generator lab identify AI tools that faculty can evaluate and test for AI courses. They also suggest and organize AI-focused events. The goal of the co-creation is to create a community that is increasingly capable, where faculty and students can engage in an open dialogue, develop strong relationships and drive pedagogical innovations together.
We believe that the purpose of higher education should be to provide students with learning opportunities that will impact them far beyond their time at Babson. Students who are part of the discovery process can take essential lessons with them to use in their learning journeys throughout their lifetime.
Taking On Challenges
We plan to expand the initiatives we have in place to ensure that The Generator will continue to support faculty and student learning as well as AI-enabled businesses. We plan to expand existing partnerships with industry leaders to give students mentorship and exposure to real AI challenges. We will also extend programs like AITTP so that faculty from other institutions can be involved. We want to create a community of educators who are committed to reimagining education in the AI age.
Growing pains are part of the process when building and implementing new tools and ideas. It took some time to create the Prototype-It! The bot needed to be user-friendly for both technical and non-technical users. IT specialists and faculty worked together to refine the bot. They carried out extensive testing and collected student feedback.
The university faculty cannot rely solely on IT specialists for answers. They need to be the ones to drive the AI revolution in order to serve their students best in a world that is being transformed by AI.
The Generator’s time-intensive nature has meant that leaders have to do two jobs simultaneously. A faculty-led initiative that engages students and looks at how AI is changing the higher education industry and its faculty goes beyond committee work and takes on a leadership role. The team members are working together to transform the capabilities of the institution by bridging the gap between students, faculty and entrepreneurs who are deeply involved in AI.
Babson’s administration responded by identifying creative ways to recognize and support everyone’s contributions, not just the direct AI leaders but also all faculty, students, and staff navigating the new terrain.
- In institutional communications, the Generator’s success has been widely highlighted.
- The team has been invited to attend high-profile events, where they presented to donors and trustees.
- The College’s Advancement Team has helped in the research to secure more funding.
- The Dean of the Faculty helped to secure funding for faculty-facing programs.
AI is a new phenomenon that has a significant impact on society. Its potential and its complex ethical, professional, and societal dimensions are all being questioned. The university faculty cannot rely solely on IT experts to provide answers. They need to be the ones to drive the AI revolution in order to serve their students best in a world that is being transformed by AI.
