Promises and pitfalls at MHCC
AI – Artificial Intelligence – is gradually shaping how it interacts with technology, from enhancing search engines to providing grammar suggestions in real time. Its uses are growing. Education in particular offers new ways to support teaching and learning.
I’m interested in how AI is used in MHCC so I contacted the instructor and advisor to learn more. My aim was to discover how AI is implemented in Mounthood classrooms through lesson planning and student assessments, and to gather insights into its perceived values and potential shortcomings within the academic community.
While certainly positive, the topic of AI raised many concerns from our teachers about copyright issues, environmental impacts and student development impacts.
Double-sided coin
MHCC Art instructor Matteo Neivert said one of the biggest problems is that “AI uses artist images to create what I think is art.”
This concern is highly relevant in today’s media-driven world. Since the release of generator AI services such as ChatGpt and Copilot, over 58 AI copyright infringement cases have been opened in the US.
AI currently has a considerable negative environmental footprint. One of our literature instructors, Holly DeGrow, looked at how researchers treat all AI prompts using 16 ounces of water to estimate almost ten times more power (power) than basic Google searches.
She’s putting up a big point. The current form of AI is environmentally dangerous. The MHCC community takes the environment seriously, taking into consideration the beautiful 62-acre natural park next to the university. I don’t think we’ll need an AI data center next to the campus. It produces freshwater and emits a large amount of carbon. AI needs to be more sustainable to be used ethically.
Conversely, lesson planning can take weeks, or even months, for university courses. Using ChatGpt or MS Copilot or similar tools could speed up this process and helped one of the mathematics teachers, Robert Hauss, come up with a word problem.
Literary instructor David Wright tells us that “from generating ideas to creating outlines there are many legitimate and useful ways to use in the classroom.”
While we look forward to all the positive possibilities of this tool, Wright doubts that “instead of writing, developing your own ideas, or engaging in concepts or content, students will continue to use it.”
Poses for important questions
The view of AI as a tool is still evolving, and instructors hope that students will use it to better understand the class.
As an academic advisor, Layne Morell said, “AI is here. We will use it to support our work in the future.” He said students need to be prepared for the future, not the past.
Edie Overturf, one of the art instructors at MHCC, teaches digital toolbox classes that include tasks students learn about how AI engines work, as well as issues to keep in mind when using this technology. This assignment goes into the pitfalls of AI in the art world and how to use the generation tool. They also encourage students to discuss and decide on their own answers.
“What are the “author” and “right to image” to AI art? or “Is there a way to properly use AI art and these generation tools?”
Whether you’re obsessed with art or not, it’s a great thinking movement for many people.
Generating AI images can help with storyboarding and brainstorming, but often there is a lack of accurate replicating small details of real life.
Veteran instructor and skilled artist himself, Neivert said the images generated by these AI have permeated image searches on Google and Yahoo. One of his students thought he had found a photo reference of a coral underwater fish. “But in a thorough examination, corals were made from repeating the human hand, Yikes!” Neivert said.
He told me why AI makes these images. AI Image Generation spits out images or “garbage” through media on the Internet through existing photos, drawings, and other media. These generation engines previously produced “trash” by AI together.
“So imagine a copy of reality that is already incomplete, then imagine that copy. These images are very reductive,” says Neivert.
That much adoption
MHCC helps to host training sessions with instructors and staff to better understand AI, but some staff have chosen to avoid using AI as they prefer to complete traditional teaching methods and tasks.
English instructor Don Anderson said he was not intentionally using AI even when integrated into email predictions. He rarely makes that proposal.
“I admit that it’s old fashioned and like curmudgeon,” Anderson admitted. (Personally, I was happy to learn this word – thank you, Don!)
Instructors in MHCC’s hands-on technical programs, such as Automotive Tech and Machingool Tech, also said they are not currently using AI in their classrooms or in their daily work. These programs may benefit from this technology in the future, but for now it is not on their radar.
However, the use of some AI already could have stellar results. Funeral Services instructor Doug Ferrin connected with Anjoll Anton, a student who designed T-shirts using Bing AI Image Generator last year. To generate an image, enter a written prompt for AI to create or combine it into any image.
“It took only a handful of attempts to get what we wanted. The more detailed you are, the more accurate images we produce,” said Anton, who used the tool to create a funeral home logo design.
Many Mounthood instructors have a positive outlook for AI and believe they should learn to integrate it into schools. As Morel said, “I’m here. We’ll all use it in the future to help work.” (Microsoft) On the first day of Excel, if advanced statistics can be done without a calculator, some teachers still requested that students learn mathematics on a calculator. The approach, in a way, is to prepare students for the past, not for the future.
Politics instructor Janet Campbell explained how students need to coach their prompts in order to eliminate the problem of “trash collection” and how to pull from academic research that confirmed peer-reviewed facts.
In short, AI technology is receiving a lot of hype, but many of us are interested in ethical and educational use. Overall, teachers worry that when students simply use AI to work, they don’t understand the concepts and fundamental principles taught in their classes. MHCC doesn’t offer a full course on artificial intelligence… yet. But as more and more people learn about the technology, it’s only a matter of time before they find a sustainable way to use it at MHCC.
