Teaching for tomorrow: How hands-on AI experience is empowering new educators
KALAMAZOO, Mich.—As artificial intelligence spreads across every industry,, Western Michigan University’s College of Education and Human Development is positioning itself as a leader in technology-driven instruction. Designed for educators and professionals, WMU’s educational and instructional technology programs are embedding AI into the curriculum and culture, ensuring students are prepared for the future of education.
“There is no question that artificial intelligence has impacted every organization and industry in the world, teaching included,” says Dr. Jessica Heybach, interim chair of the Department of Educational Leadership, Research and Technology and associate dean of graduate studies in the College of Education and Human Development. “Our college’s faculty are engaging with AI thoughtfully and intentionally. In our educational and instructional technology program, students learn to critically evaluate and employ AI across diverse learning environments and industry contexts.
“As educators, we’re committed to thoughtful innovation while maintaining critical engagement and meaningful learning experiences central to our mission.”
One student who has learned a lot from the program is Linda Zelaya, a master’s student in the program and an instructional technology specialist for WMU Instructional Technology. Unfamiliar with AI, she quickly learned about its many multidisciplinary applications while taking two newly offered courses.
“I started out in the first course not knowing much about AI and feeling extremely wary of its ethical and environmental impacts. However, both courses gave me hands-on experience using AI tools,” says Zelaya. “During the courses, I was able and willing to have more conversations with friends and family about AI, and I truly felt like I could hold my own in these conversations as well as educate others about how AI tools work and the potential ethical implications of using them.”
AI integrated and project-based courses
One of those courses was “Empowering Education with AI,” which Zelaya describes as a strong foundation for learning the history, types, benefits and challenges of artificial intelligence in educational contexts. The curriculum also emphasizes AI literacy and ethics and quickly introduces students to generative AI tools and prompt engineering.
“There was a two-part project that really helped me understand the power of good prompt engineering when working with generative AI tools,” she says. “The first part was a guided prompt refinement challenge where we were given an initial prompt that was considered poor quality, and we had to input it into our AI chatbot of choice and record the response. We then analyzed the original prompt, created a revised prompt following guidelines for better prompt engineering, documented the new response and reflected on what was improved.
“The second part of the project required us to work with AI to develop a solution to a real-world problem related to our professional fields or personal lives. After identifying a use case, we were responsible for developing and testing prompts, then iterating and refining those prompts until we were happy with the final AI response. This project was a great way to test the skills we had learned from part one and apply them in action to see the real-world benefits of good prompt engineering.”
Building on the groundwork laid out, Zelaya broadened her abilities in the project-based course, “Integrating AI in Learning Experience Design.”
“The focus was on using AI tools to support each stage of the design thinking process while developing a solution to a real-world problem in our respective fields. The goal of the semester-long project was to leverage AI tools to improve learner experiences,” says Zelaya.
“At the start of the course, we created an online portfolio website to document our process and showcase deliverables for each stage of the design thinking framework. The final project brought together all mini-projects and included a video showcase and a reflective synthesis covering our evolving perspectives on AI, our learning experience design [LXD] journey, approaches to integrating AI into LXD and a review of the course’s overall learning design.”
According to Zelaya, these courses encouraged conversations with peers and provided a space for them to hold and explore their own opinions and beliefs. The reflections and discussions were crucial aspects that helped challenge her views while also giving her the opportunity to reflect on evolving beliefs regarding AI’s increasing presence in society.
“These aspects of the courses really helped me consider a range of stances that I otherwise might not have encountered, and I was able to explore using AI tools in ways I never would have thought to try.”
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