A Vermont university is rolling out a plan for how to responsibly bring artificial intelligence into the classroom.
Bennington College launched its Center for Artificial Intelligence in March to help create a curriculum for about 650 undergraduate students to engage with AI. Founder Darcy Otto said the center is a hub for technology experimentation.
“It’s not just about who it helps and who it serves, but also how much it costs and ultimately how it works,” he says.
Bennington College is one of many institutions in the state that is balancing the imperative of preparing students for a changing workforce while maintaining pre-AI teaching and learning standards.
A group of faculty at Champlain College is already incorporating AI into some of their courses thanks to a grant from the Argosy Foundation. Marie Segales, an associate professor at the Robert P. Stiller School of Business, said the fellows will recommend situations in which AI is appropriate and in which it is not.
“One of the important things is to make sure that students have the skills they need to enter the workforce, and one of those skills is to recognize AI as a colleague,” Segares said.
According to the Pew Research Center, 28% of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher will use AI for at least some part of their job by 2025, up from 20% the year before.
Champlain College is also one of the first three institutions to collaborate with Anthropic to provide school-wide access to Claude Pro, an AI chatbot.
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But for many Bennington College students, the arrival of AI on campus is alarming. Andy Farrell, a senior student representative on the center’s advisory board, said some people resist the AI center because they fear the technology will threaten fields such as the arts.
“Students are experiencing AI and the AI boom right before they go into the workforce, and AI is having a really big impact. So I think it comes from both a fear of, ‘How is this going to impact my life?’ And anger at the fact that it’s going to inevitably happen,” Farrell said.
The uncertain impact of AI on the job market weighs heavily on students in Vermont and across the country.
An April Gallup poll found that 42% of students have at least significantly considered changing their field of study because of AI. About 7 in 10 students studying technology or trades are considering switching, while a third of students studying fields such as health care are considering switching.
“The question is how do we teach students when and where to use AI and when to fire?”
Darcy Otto, Founder of Bennington College Artificial Intelligence Center
While AI-based cheating remains a concern for instructors and students, campus experts are optimistic that as literacy improves, governments will be less likely to police students.
“Students don’t know when and where to use AI, what its weaknesses are, and what its strengths are,” said Bennington’s Otto. “The question is how do we teach students when and where to use AI and when to fire?”
At Middlebury College, answers are being created in the digital learning department. Amy Collier, Middlebury College’s vice president for digital learning, said the eight fellows coach instructors on incorporating new technology in their classes.
“I think surveillance and guardrails create a sense of mistrust between faculty and students, where the assumption is, ‘Unless you put these guardrails in place and unless you monitor students, they’re going to misbehave,'” she said.
Teachers need to be clear about their expectations when introducing AI into the classroom, Segales said. Otherwise, students will be left guessing whether a rule has been violated or not.
The University of Vermont’s AI Task Force is trying to teach all new students the basics of AI, said Kelly Campbell, the task force’s leader. Its first $200,000 AI Innovation Fund will launch 20 projects using the technology this spring.
At Bennington College, where Farrell encourages his colleagues to research AI, time is of the essence.
“Education about AI is really, really important right now, regardless of what moral stance you take on it,” Farrell said. “We want our students to really engage with this problem that they will have to deal with for the rest of their lives.”
