Technophobia is a very real phenomenon in academia. The fear of new technological innovations has permeated almost all academic institutions at one time or another. Concerns about the negative impacts of early word processing and email programs prompted studies when it was first heavily incorporated into academic environments and workplaces in the 1990’s. Similarly, the introduction of iPads into classrooms beginning almost a decade ago was met with strong resistance from educators in elementary and college classrooms alike.

In retrospect, the modern reality of both of the above examples is inevitable. In 2023, any student who cannot use word processing software is at an extreme disadvantage. Similarly, almost all students in grade school know how to use an iPad or similar device. Instructors and students who were early adopters of technology had more time to be able to learn how to use it themselves, and incorporate it into a classroom setting. As for instructors who did not… I can say with confidence that every student has had a professor who cannot or will not utilize university-provided tech tools. Any student who has had such a professor can attest to the negative impact of them not knowing how to use ubiquitous online classroom management tools (MyCourses, Moodle, Blackboard, Outlook, etc…).

With the sudden advent of Artificial Intelligence, modern instructors must not succumb to stubbornness. It is our obligation to stay on the cutting edge of AI technology, or at least to stay ahead of some of our students who are inclined to use it. Like it or not, AI literacy will help us guard against academic dishonesty. Even at UMass Dartmouth, amongst my small cohort of new teaching fellows, isolated issues of AI plagiarism have plagued our grading processes.

In the TextGenEd article “The Term Paper Turing Test,” instructor Paul Fyfe at North Carolina State University describes how he encouraged his students to transparently use AI software such as Chat GPT to write their final papers. Fyfe challenges his students to “fool” him, and use AI to create a term paper that is a convincing facsimile of one written by an actual student. This reflects his reference to the Turing Test, a test dating back to the 1950’s designed by computer pioneer/codebreaker Alan Turing, intended to see if a human subject could distinguish between the behavior of a computer and another human. In allowing his students to use AI and reflect on how easy or difficult it was for them to write a term paper with it, Fyfe encourages both his students and himself to learn more and more about the promising innovations and the negative pitfalls of Artificial Intelligence.

Fyfe’s assignment example in this article should serve as an inspiration for all educators. Like it or not, AI will undoubtedly be a component of future educational environments. As instructors and academics, we can either choose to become AI literate, or choose to be blind to how it may be used by our colleagues and students. AI ignorance should not be an option for any academic in 2023.