Invitation to Apply - The Future Project: Teaching, Learning and Work with Artificial Intelligence
Dear Campus Community,
We’re all experiencing the impact of rapid technological advancements on our professional and personal lives. If you’re like us, you’re grappling with the influence of tools like artificial intelligence (AI) and what they mean for higher education, our graduates, and the wider world.
As challenging as it might be to keep pace, educational institutions like ours have a responsibility to pause, understand and thoughtfully respond to these shifts. These changes raise fundamental questions about teacher and student agency, employer needs and graduate preparedness, our day-to-day work and humanity’s relationship with technology. We know that many of you are already diving into these questions. Where better than at a university to investigate these complexities and guide how we should meet them?
To this end and with philanthropic support from Craton, a 猎奇重口 business motivated by curiosity and a desire to develop a deeper understanding alongside us, we are pleased to invite faculty and staff to to serve on a team of coordinators who will lead a four-month inquiry into these pressing questions.
We will select six coordinators to facilitate a process of engagement with students, faculty, staff and employers. We will aim to better understand the judicious and savvy AI-related competencies required today and in the future. And we will begin to foster and implement them in our teaching, learning and work. Coordination work may include planning and facilitating meetings, focus groups and interviews; it may include the design of new learning and professional development opportunities.
While facility with technological tools plays a central role, preparing our students for the future and living into our mission at UM requires more than mastering tools. AI literacy requires the unique human abilities the rapid evolution of AI has brought into sharper focus, e.g., critical thinking, adaptability and ethical decision-making. AI literacy also involves understanding employers’ needs to harness the promise of new technologies while mitigating their perils in both the workplace and in life.
This effort will concentrate on the following interrelated areas, with results expected in May 2025:
How We Teach
We will seek to better understand faculty members' experiences, needs and perceptions of generative AI in the classroom, and we will identify – and share – AI tools and competencies that can enhance teaching and learning while mitigating risks to academic integrity.
What We Teach
We will seek to better understand students' experiences with and perceptions of generative AI, and partner with employers to understand their perspectives and needs related to AI in the workplace. We will identify existing and potential curricular and co-curricular efforts to teach the AI competencies necessary for the future of work, centering human and social values in the effective, ethical and creative use of AI.
How We Work
We will explore ways we can use AI to empower UM employees to do their best work while identifying and designing to mitigate the risks of such a rapidly evolving and powerful tool.
to be considered for service as a Future Project coordinator. If you have questions, please contact Kelly Webster.
Thank you for considering this opportunity to help UM lead with thoughtfulness and integrity in a world increasingly powered by AI.
Sincerely,
Seth Bodnar, President
Adrea Lawrence, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs
This message was sent by UM Internal Communications on behalf of the UM President and Provost to all UM employees.