AI in Education: Dreams, Nightmares, Realities: An Interactive, Interdisciplinary, Teach-in

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AI in Education: Dreams, Nightmares, Realities: An Interactive, Interdisciplinary, Teach-in

September 23, 2025

To meet the urgent need for interdisciplinary conversations and critical perspectives about generative artificial intelligence (AI), a collective of faculty and staff from Energy Studies, English, Environmental Studies, Fairhaven College, Geology, History, Information Technology Services (ITS), Mathematics, Psychology, SMATE, and Western Libraries is organizing an interactive teach-in.

"AI in Education: Dreams, Nightmares, Realities" will take place on Monday, Oct. 6, 4-5:30 p.m., in Miller Hall 152. All WWU faculty, staff, and students are welcome.

Participating faculty and staff include:

• Angela Bell, Psychology
• Aspen Clark, ITS
• Robyn Dahl, Geology
• Jenny Forsythe, English
• Claudia Johnson, Fairhaven
• Amites Sarkar, Mathematics
• Emily Spracklin, WWU Libraries
• Xi Wang, Energy Studies & Environmental Studies

The event will provide basic education on key concepts, encourage conversations between professors and students, and build critical frameworks for understanding the present impacts and future possibilities of AI at Western.

After the teach-in, participants will be able to explain the difference between AI, generative AI, an algorithm, and a large language model and give examples of tools that use each technology.

They will also gain a working understanding of key concepts that illuminate the wide-ranging impacts of these technologies from several field-specific frameworks. For example:

• What do climate scientists mean when they say Chat-GPT is disastrous for the environment?
• What do political scientists mean when they affirm the vitality of our shared human agency for building just futures?
• What do psychologists mean when they say that chatbots are exacerbating crises in mental health, loneliness, and misinformation?
• What do legal scholars mean when they call for democratic (rather than technocratic or autocratic) processes to create tools that do more, faster? Or for tools that center the needs of the most vulnerable and the human dignity of all (rather than the interests of billionaire investors)?

The most important goal of the teach-in is for the organizers to learn more about participants. What knowledge and experiences can you share with our campus community to help build a critical foundation for teaching and learning about AI together? What do you want to learn more about?

Childcare will be available during the event in Miller Hall 154 from 3:45-5:45 p.m. Email Jenny Forsythe at [email protected]if you have additional access needs.