October 29, 2026

Vol. 1, Issue 8

AI has already changed higher education. The more important question is what we choose to build next. At UTA, I believe faculty learning from faculty peers must be central to that work. Dr. Patryk Babiracki models the professor as content creator, inviting students to build with his own Practical History podcast, while Dr. Dianna Jones keeps ethics, judgment, and human experience at the center of AI literacy. This is what CRTLE should amplify: faculty sharing expertise, opening their practice to peers, and together shaping what teaching and learning become next. --Dr. Peggy Semingson, Interim Director of CRTLE 

What if, instead of focusing primarily on preventing inappropriate AI use, we asked students to use AI to build something meaningful?

Dr. Patryk Babiracki, Professor and History MA Program Director in UTA’s Department of History and Geography, is exploring that question in his graduate Historical Theory and Methodology seminar. His approach brings together historical thinking, technology, career exploration, and real-world problem-solving.

Students are working to transform transcripts from Dr. Babiracki’s Practical History podcast into an AI-driven database. The podcast features conversations with professionals who apply historical methods in areas such as business, technology, and public policy. The goal is to organize that knowledge in a new way so that users may eventually be able to interact with the database to explore career journeys and opportunities.

Working in teams, students are tackling different parts of the project, from structuring the database and identifying an appropriate platform to interviewing potential users and testing whether the system meets their needs. Their work connects technical experimentation with discussions of history, philosophy, anthropology, research methodology, and user experience. 

The project offers an interesting example of what can happen when AI becomes more than a tool for completing coursework. Instead, it becomes something students must question, shape, evaluate, and learn through. 

Curious about the project and what it could mean for your own teaching?

Continue Reading: Creating an AI-Driven Database Highlighting the Value of History in Business and Tech

Dr. Patryk Babiracki

What AI May Teach Us About Human Intelligence

AI may be helping us understand more than machines. It may also reveal how people learn, think, and develop expertise.

In What AI May Teach Us About Human Intelligence?, Vish Chawla offers a thought-provoking perspective: one of AI’s most important contributions may be helping us better understand human intelligence itself.

👉Read the full blog: What AI May Teach Us About Human Intelligence? by Vish Chawla

Developing AI requires us to make processes such as learning, memory, pattern recognition, judgment, and expertise more explicit, even though humans often perform them intuitively.

For educators, the article raises especially interesting questions. What if expertise is shaped by repeated patterns and feedback? Can tacit knowledge be made easier to teach? Can judgment and intuition be intentionally developed rather than simply accumulated over time? Chawla argues that these questions could shift education away from primarily delivering content and toward cultivating judgment, adaptability, and human potential. 

At the same time, he emphasizes what AI has not replicated, including human emotion, meaning, consciousness, identity, and lived experience. The result is an intriguing paradox: as we build increasingly sophisticated artificial intelligence, we may gain a clearer understanding of what makes human intelligence distinctive. 

Free Resource!

Could a custom GPT become a learning partner for your students? Online Learning Consortium’s Using Custom GPTs to Facilitate Interactive Learning explores ways faculty can use AI to bring greater dialogue, feedback, reflection, and support into asynchronous and hybrid courses.

Faculty are introduced to examples including a syllabus explorer, personalized learning helper, quiz tool, peer-review partner, simulated breakout discussion, and study planner. Rather than positioning GPTs simply as answer generators, the module considers how they can be intentionally designed to prompt reflection, ask follow-up questions, address misconceptions, and encourage students to revise their thinking.

If you're looking for practical ideas for moving AI from tool to learning partner, this is a professional learning opportunity worth exploring.

Explore OLC Microlearning at UTA

Article submitted by:

Dr. Dianna Jones, MSW, EdD

APT Assistant Professor of Practice

School of Social Work

CRTLE Faculty Facilitator-Lead

Artificial intelligence is no longer an abstract concept. Students encounter AI in classrooms, workplaces, research, communication, and human-service systems. The question is no longer simply whether students should use AI, but how we prepare them to use it thoughtfully, critically, ethically, and responsibly.

The 2026 Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Annual Conference reinforced that AI literacy involves more than writing effective prompts. Students need foundational knowledge, ethical judgment, experiential learning, and opportunities to reflect on AI’s role in professional practice. An ethics framework presented by Trahan, Patton, and Lee highlighted six guiding principles: equity, transparency, human-centeredness, integrity, collaboration, and safety. 

Faculty can help students develop these skills by teaching them to assess AI-generated information for accuracy and bias. In one macro social work course, students use AI to identify community assets and needs, then compare its responses with census data, organizational reports, stakeholder perspectives, observations, and scholarly research. . 

This process helps students recognize that community voices, historical contexts, and lived experiences cannot be replaced by AI-generated information.

Ultimately, AI literacy should strengthen critical consciousness, professional judgment, ethical accountability, and human relationships. AI can support learning, but responsible practice requires educators and students to remain thoughtful, discerning, and grounded in human experience.

How are you using AI in your teaching? From innovative assignments to program-wide initiatives, we want to showcase faculty-led AI integration across UTA. Share your example with crtle@uta.edu and help inspire new ideas across campus

We’re highlighting Building AI Companions that Prioritise Learning over Performance by Hassan Khosravi, Dragan Gašević, Shazia Sadiq, Lixiang Yan, Jason Lodge, Jason Tangen, Paul Denny, Kristen DiCerbo, Simon Buckingham Shum, and Ryan S. Baker.

In Building AI Companions that Prioritise Learning over Performance, researchers explore an important question for higher education: Does AI-assisted performance lead to genuine learning?

They propose shifting from AI as an answer or productivity tool toward AI learning companions intentionally designed to develop deeper understanding, metacognition, and learner agency. 

Read the article: Building AI companions that prioritise learning over performance

Wondering how other college faculty are approaching AI in their courses?

🔗 Explore Teaching AI for Free

Teaching AI: Syllabi, Pedagogy, and Best Practices in Higher Education is a practical, open-access collection designed to help educators understand, use, and critically evaluate artificial intelligence in higher education. Rather than discussing AI only in theory, the book provides course-level examples, teaching approaches, and adaptable ideas that faculty can draw from when developing AI-related curricula and learning experiences. 

Explore examples across AI literacy, writing, teaching and learning, and disciplinary practice and research, with topics ranging from ethics and creativity to responsible technology use, human-centered design, critical inquiry, and discipline-specific applications. The collection includes examples from areas such as writing, education, art, journalism, marketing, psychology, nursing, engineering, and research. 

🎧 Even better: The resource is free and open access, and faculty can read, download, or listen to the audiobook for free, making it easy to explore in whatever format works best for you. 

💡 Faculty Inspiration: Find a course or chapter related to your discipline and consider: What is one idea you could adapt for your own students.

Friday, October 30

9:00 am - 2:00 pm

Microsoft Teams Only

Designing for AI Literacy, Career Readiness, and Confident Practice. This institute is designed for instructors who want time to explore, try, redesign, and leave with something tangible and not just a “sit and get” experience. 

Get the Agenda for the institute HERE.