OpenAI? Open Pedagogy: How to Keep Humanity in Higher Ed
with Mariah A. Knowles, Curriculum Lead at Tiny Earth
Sunday, October 5, 1:00-4:30 PM CST
UW-Madison Pyle Center | $125
What impacts will emerging AI tools have on student critical thinking? How should teachers and libraries respond? And how do we include students—meaningfully—in this process? Today’s students’ experience of going through college and entering the workforce will look so much different from our own. So, we will need to trust them in new ways to make sure the future of Education is both effective and in their best interest.
In this workshop we will unpack, discuss, and explore the state of the research on AI and learning. Then we will leverage this research to create, revise, practice, recommend, and critique ways to center students in our teaching and service.
Participants will be able to:
- describe the state of the research on AI and learning, and be familiar with the major actors conducting this research.
- understand what’s at stake when education, critical thinking, and information systems go through change.
- create, revise, practice, recommend, and/or critique student-centered resources and activities.
- involve students meaningfully in shaping their own education.
To register for the workshop select it as an add-on to your full conference registration. The workshop requires at least 10 registered attendees by September 22 to run.
Mariah A. Knowles is the Curriculum Lead for Tiny Earth at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. A self-proclaimed “academic Swiss army knife,” she uses open pedagogy and mixed methods to understand expressivism and human flourishing—and vice versa. Her curiosity extends beyond her degree areas, Computer Science, English Rhetoric, Education Policy Studies, and Information Science. And in 2025 she received her Ph.D. from UW-Madison, where she called for a “radical unnarrowing” for belonging and inclusion in the Tech industry, in her dissertation “Doing Evil for Money”. Like her background, her teaching is versatile and highly-regarded by learners, with a dedication to open, equitable, and human-centered pedagogy. She has presented talks and workshops on evidenced-based teaching practices, interpreting high-dimensional data, defining fairness in AI, and telling transgender stories.