CFM--AI and Education
Dear Colleagues, Greetings! Below please find the CFM: *AI and Education*, for Vol. 57 of *Iowa Journal of Communication*. Thank you very much for your consideration. Sincerely, Shing-Ling Sarina Chen Dept. of Communication Studies Univ. of Northern Iowa Cedar Falls, IA 50614 USA ******************** *AI and Education* *How to use AI in teaching and learning* Artificial Intelligence (AI) includes any device utilized computer technologies to emulate or exceed human capacities. While AI was historically used by mathematicians to find patterns in huge data sets, recent developments of AI have utilized the pattern-matching capacity to generate words, images, videos, and sounds, called Generative AI (GenAI). Teaching and learning utilize language, GenAI's specialty is language. Hence, GenAI positions itself as a best teaching assistant for the teachers, and a best study aid for students. However, how to effectively utilize AI in teaching and in studying, in order to maximize the benefits that GenAI provides, and avoid the shortcomings of GenAI, have become crucial questions to be addressed among teachers and students. *Virtual Teaching Assistant* GenAI has many features that make GenAI a greeting teaching assistant. GenAI can come up with a strategy for crisis communication, or provide contingency scenario planning for organizations. GenAI could be a useful conversation partner for learning foreign languages. GenAI could generate lessons for students to critique. Given these features of GenAI, how can communication teachers restructure their courses to adapt to the use of AI in their teaching? What are best practices to weave GenAI into lessons to utilize the benefits of the technology? *Virtual Study Aid* GenAI also possesses many features to assist students in learning. GenAI could annotate long documents, make highlights in long research papers, answer questions about materials, make flashcards, and produce practice quizzes. In addition, GenAI can check grammar and help clarify sentences in writing. GenAI could also help with research assignments. *Pitfalls and Precautions* Based on how GenAI is constructed, utilizing GenAI in teaching and studying are not without pitfalls. GenAI is based on large language models which predict the next most likely word in a sequence; hence it does not adhere to presenting factual or truthful information. Hence, GenAI is likely to generate false information, called hallucination. What skills do educators and students need to have to avoid or detect hallucinations? AI generated content has been found in new sites, content farms, and product reviews. Fabricated events, medical advice, and celebrity death hoaxes are examples. What media literacy skills do students need to have to help them detect false information? Given GenAI can generate essays upon receiving textual prompts, how to transform essay writing in courses to prevent students from cheating--using GenAl to write essays for them? *Call for Manuscripts* To provide answers to these important questions regarding utilizing AI in teaching and learning,* Iowa Journal of Communication* is publishing a special issue, *AI and Education* in 2025. If interested please submit an abstract of no more than 750 words to Jeffrey Brand (Jeffrey.brand@uni.edu) by *May 15, 2024*. If the abstract is selected for inclusion, the final manuscript is due *November 15, 2024*. For any question about this call for manuscripts, please send your queries to Jeffrey Brand, at jeffrey.brand@uni.edu. Sincerely, Jeffrey Brand Guest Editor of* Iowa Journal of Communication*, Vol. 57, No. 1, 2025 Dept. of Communication and Media Univ. of Northern Iowa USA *********************
participants (1)
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Sarina Chen