Goldey-Beacom College is honored by the American Library Association for its work incorporating AI literacy into the curriculum.
As the use of AI explodes in just about every corner of society, Goldey-Beacom is educating students how to use these tools ethically and responsibly. But, Rusty Michalak, Goldey-Beacom’s director of library and archives, says the school has been teaching AI skills for years.
“I think we got our first AI tool before the pandemic and we launched it with a few classes and it really took off," he says.”
One thing the college brought in was an AI tool that visualizes how different research papers on a topic are connected through citation. Joel Worden is Goldey-Beacom’s Vice President for Academic Affairs and provost.
“Litmaps is a really useful way of helping students see what we mean by scholarship being a conversation of different scholars interacting with each other's works and talking about, and to, each other's arguments," Worden says.
Central to the college’s efforts - which were awarded the American Library Association’s Innovation in Instruction Award - is using AI to reinforce critical thinking skills.
“It's not, go into the tool and take whatever the output that comes out is. It’s ‘here's this tool. It gives you information and go verify it,'" says Michalak.
The library will officially receive the award, which comes with a $1,000 cash prize, from the ALA at its conference in June.
