Ohio State partners with central Ohio schools to advance AI literacy

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Ohio State partners with central Ohio schools to advance AI literacy

Educators convene on campus to discuss ethical, effective AI use in the classroom

Kindergarten through 12th-grade teachers and administrators from central Ohio districts met with The Ohio State University faculty and staff at the Columbus campus last Friday. The meeting focused on strategies to help students use artificial intelligence effectively and ethically.

The meeting was organized by Ohio State's Office of Undergraduate Education and the Educational Service Center of Central Ohio, which provides instructional resources and support services to districts.

Ohio State faculty and staff provided an overview of the university's AI Fluency initiative. Starting this year, the initiative embeds artificial intelligence education into the undergraduate curriculum, preparing students to use AI tools, as well as understand, question and innovate with them.

"We want students to be able to use AI tools to accomplish specific goals in their field of study and assess for their accuracy," said Norman Jones, vice provost and dean for undergraduate education. "As our academic areas are trying to incorporate these tools, they have to go beyond that basic introduction to AI and start to say, 'Okay, give me specific examples in our field.'"

Jones, a professor in the Department of English, posed a hypothetical situation in which students could use AI to receive feedback to improve a rough draft of an essay.

"AI isn't just about pulling information and writing my first draft. It could be a writing coach," he said. "Then they can start to design ways of using AI. That's where they're really getting to that fluency within the discipline."

Adapting to constantly evolving technology is a major aspect of incorporating AI into the classroom, said Michael Flierl, Ohio State's first AI Fellow and an associate professor of student learning librarian with University Libraries.

"We may need to require students to reflect on what is helpful, what is not," when using AI, he said. "To put it bluntly, if AI can do your job, then you're not going to get hired because they'll just hire an AI [tool]. Our students need to know how to add value."

Ohio State's General Education Launch and Reflection seminar courses for students include an introductory course on the basics of AI, as well as resources for professors on how to establish guidelines for student use, said Melissa Beers, the program's senior director.

"We encourage it and we want them to have a conversation with students," she said. "This was a way for us to build that basic competence, build that familiarity and put our arms around this big topic in a way that we can handle."

The Michael V. Drake Institute for Teaching and Learning offers a range of resources and learning opportunities for educators to increase their AI knowledge, said Anika Anthony, associate vice provost and the institute's director.

"What are the teaching and learning needs that we're seeking to address? We still need to ask those questions," she said. "We want to be really clear about the learning outcomes we're working towards, and how we're designing those learning experiences."

The Center for Digital Learning and Innovation in the College of Education and Human Ecology offers AI webinars and workshops for professors and teachers-in-training. The center will soon introduce a program called AI Sandbox that will enable users to experiment with creating their own tools, said Detra Price, the center's executive director.

The AI Sandbox will have features for beginners as well as for early adopters who began using AI tools such as ChatGPT when they were first introduced.

"What we're trying to do is have an upskilling for people who are like, 'What is this thing called AI?'" she said. "We also wanted space for the people who've been with us since 2023, growing their learning."

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