Like so many other transformative technologies, the impact of AI depends on what we choose to do with it. This realization has brought us to a crucial moment. The period of discovery is behind us, and we are now entering a phase where decisions must be made—security, ethics, access—just about everything is on the table.
Writing in The Baltimore Sun, Dr. Jessica Stansbury, director of teaching and learning excellence at The University of Baltimore's Center for Excellence of Learning, Teaching and Technology (CELTT), says that now is the time for education to come to grips with the potential for generative Artificial Intelligence to enhance the learning experience. To ban a tool like ChatGPT, she says, would be to deny reality.
"Generative AI isn't one thing or another; it's both," Stansbury writes. "It has the power to erode autonomy, but it can also enhance it. It can simplify tasks, but it can deepen thinking. Like so many other transformative technologies, the impact of AI depends on what we choose to do with it. This realization has brought us to a crucial moment. The period of discovery is behind us, and we are now entering a phase where decisions must be made—security, ethics, access—just about everything is on the table."
The arrival of machine-based learning has been highly impactful, she says. Expectations, both positive and negative, are high.
"The disruption is as unsettling as it is exciting. Faculty and institutions alike are grappling with how to balance ethics and practicality. Some are quick to call for restrictions, while others race to embrace the possibilities," Dr. Stansbury writes. "This debate isn't new; it echoes the early days of the internet. Could we have banned the internet when it first emerged? Imagine what we would have lost. Generative AI, like the internet, is not optional. It's foundational to the world our students will inherit."
With her expertise in new teaching models and education technology, Stansbury says AI suggests "that we see education not as a fixed institution but as the starting point for meeting the challenges of tomorrow."
Read the op-ed in The Baltimore Sun.
Learn more about Dr. Stansbury's ongoing work to understand and appropriately integrate AI into college-level teaching and learning, all through CELTT.