Summary
Promoting critical thinking among students is often at the top of our teaching goals. We want students to develop a careful, questioning approach to their work so they are critical of the sources they use to find answers and be cautious about the answers they reach. Innovations in artificial intelligence — particularly the latest generative systems based on large-language models — hold potential for advancing teaching and learning in geography. At the same time these systems hold danger for undermining our work through cheating and the spread of misinformation. This session offers a variety of examples of how AI systems can be used to promote critical thinking in the geography classroom. Participants will be able to experiment with these activities on their own computers during the session, as well as share their own strategies with other participants. By the close of the session, participants will have a menu of activities they can use directly or customize for their teaching, as well as ideas for developing their own AI-based critical thinking activities.
Session Focus
Higher Education | Geospatial Technology, Physical & Environmental Geography, Human and Cultural Geography | Technology
Conference Room
Cullen
Meet the Presenter
Dr. Ken Foote is a professor in the Department of Geography, Sustainability, Community and Urban Studies at the University of Connecticut. Much of his work focuses on improving professional development for early-career academics and department leaders. His research focuses on historic preservation, heritage tourism, and the commemorative landscapes of the U.S. and Europe, especially the way events of violence and tragedy are interpreted and memorialized. Ken is a past president of the NCGE (2006) and a past president and fellow of the AAG (2010-11). He has received awards from the NCGE, AAG, University Consortium for Geographic Information Science (UCGIS), and the Royal Geographical Society. He has taught at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Colorado Boulder and holds degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and University of Chicago. Among his authored or co-authored and co-edited books are Shadowed Ground: America’s Landscapes of Violence and Tragedy, Teaching GIScience and Technology in Higher Education, Thriving in an Academic Career: An International and Interdisciplinary Guide for Early Career Faculty, and Contested Places, Contested Pasts: Sites of Public Memory and Commemoration in the Hungarian Landscape.
