Atla Annual 2024

“What do we do about AI?” Although we all wrestle with this question at some level, the need to address the issue of AI in the classroom is particularly acute. AI use for class assignments presents challenges far beyond the typical concerns about plagiarism detection, including issues with pedological, and moral and ethical implications. The faculty at Sacred Heart Seminary and School of Theology reached out to library staff with a multitude of questions: What do I need to know? Is there an AI detector? Do we need a policy addressing AI separate from our plagiarism policy? Should seminarians be permitted to use it? Do I need to change my assignments? These urgent questions and more demanded action. This session will outline the steps taken by the library and seminary faculty to begin to address these questions, starting with a faculty development session and creating a LibGuide of “teaching with AI” resources.

Authority is constructed and contextual. Thus spake the ACRL Framework for Information Literacy (2016), an assertion that rightly guides information and media literacy instructors as we form and inform students, empowering them to navigate an ecosystem rife with mis- and disinformation. Yet as danah boyd famously argues in her 2018 SXSW EDU keynote, how we teach media literacy can become an “assertion of authority over epistemology” that undermines skills we intend to sharpen by not recognizing and valuing fundamental differences among how individuals within communities make sense of the world(s) we inhabit. Just as authority is constructed and contextual, so also are evaluation and interpretation, sense-making constructs that determine how, why, and where we consume and create information. boyd asks, “How do we teach across epistemologies?” At ATLA 2024, Heath Rosser and Chris Rosser engage boyd and her critics to describe the mess of epistemology and ethics in media literacy instruction; we then suggest how instructors might leave the mess, offering seven pedagogical pivots that promote community and trust as exemplified by two gamified courses, a media literacy course called Eat, Play, Love and a course entitled Worldbuilding. Participants will: 1) identify current challenges for media literacy instruction; 2) encounter gameful design as a pedagogical strategy for navigating challenges; and 3) be challenged to attend to how we think about and encounter other minds, whether mediated digitally or face to face. We believe our use of media and of devices that mediate a tethering of self to a world of others can initiate among us generative orientations necessary for human (well) being, even across epistemologies.

The last decade has seen major shifts in culture, the information landscape, and library instruction. For most of that time, librarians have focused on helping students question information sources, in part a reaction to the rise in misinformation and disinformation, and in part in response to specific requests from our communities who look to the library as a source of “good” information. Yet, students are still not critical enough of external information that aligns with previous beliefs, and hypercritical of external information that does not, reinforcing polarized thinking. This session will contend that there has been a paradigm shift in the information environment and among our students, specifically that our students’ struggle with evaluating authority may stem from over-critical approaches to research and increasing lack of trust in expertise. If this is true, continuing to teach heavily deconstructive approaches is not only unhelpful, it may contribute to the issue.
This session will invite attendees to consider specific trends in cultural discourse and in higher education and how they might be creating such a paradigm reversal. It will explore the philosophical ramifications of hypercritical approaches and demonstrate how they result in behaviors similar to but not quite the same as a lack of critical thinking. Finally, it will offer a generative approach to information literacy instruction that:
-Offers understanding to students who are seeking neatly packageable answers to complex questions while navigating information overload and resulting cognitive fatigue in a polarized information environment.
-Considers whether we can position the library as a place to pursue understanding rather than an arbiter of ultimate authority, and how this might help students ask more generous (and information literate) questions.
-Activates wonder and curiosity to curate a more stable and sustainable approach to learning for comprehension rather than correctness.

As technological advancements continue to shape the landscape of information management and access, theological librarianship faces the imperative to integrate Artificial Intelligence (AI) responsibly. This study explores the intersection of theology and AI, making a compelling case for the responsible use of AI in theological librarianship. It examines the potential benefits, ethical considerations, and challenges associated with implementing AI technologies in the context of theological libraries.

Today, there is a high demand for engaging and interactive teaching materials in academic library instruction to engage students and give them an opportunity to practice their learning in a self-paced learning environment. Instructional librarians strive to leverage innovative tools to captivate and educate our library users effectively, however, these often require specialized tech skills or high cost.
H5Ps (short for "HTML5 Package") can provide a free and low-tech solution to any librarian who would like to create engaging learning objects, such as interactive videos, timelines, presentations, quizzes, drag-and-drop activities, simple games, and more, without any programming skills. H5P activities can be used for active information literacy sessions, self-paced tutorials, online textbooks, and research guides.
The primary objective of this presentation is to demonstrate the process of creating an OER using H5Ps to empower the participants with the skills and knowledge needed to develop captivating teaching materials that enhance user engagement and foster a deeper understanding of information literacy concepts.
Note: If you want to work hands-on with the H5P tool in a guided environment, you will be invited to register for a follow-up ATLA workshop in early Fall 2024.