{"id":99329,"date":"2025-09-18T11:45:31","date_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:45:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=99329"},"modified":"2025-09-18T11:45:31","modified_gmt":"2025-09-18T15:45:31","slug":"real-intelligence-teaching-in-the-era-of-generative-ai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2025\/09\/real-intelligence-teaching-in-the-era-of-generative-ai.html","title":{"rendered":"Real Intelligence: Teaching in the Era of Generative AI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Real Intelligence: Teaching in the Era of Generative AI<\/em> is my latest book, co-authored with my friend and Butler University colleague Ankur Gupta, who is a computer scientist. The book is published open access<\/a> by PALNI Open Press. We hope it will be useful to educators. I\u2019ve seen so many educators expressing panic and despair online. The book aims to tackle the widespread misunderstanding of the technology that is at the heart of this reaction. It then leverages an accurate understanding of the technology and its limitations to offer concrete suggestions about assignment types that will work in the era of generative AI, without the need to police AI usage as such.<\/p>\n

Here is a press release for the book:<\/p>\n

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\"RealFor teachers already facing the challenges of educating, the rise of artificial intelligence, especially in large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT, can seem overwhelming. As high school and college students become more proficient in using AI, their teachers can feel left behind\u2014and at least some of them are panicking about it. Some are even quitting their jobs.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s why Butler professors James F. McGrath and Ankur Gupta have teamed up to write\u00a0Real Intelligence: Teaching in the Era of Generative AI<\/a>. <\/em>McGrath is a humanities professor who has taught across his university\u2019s core curriculum; he had to learn quickly what LLMs can and cannot do, and has given talks on creative and effective pedagogy in the age of AI. Gupta is a computer science professor who understands the ins and outs of LLMs. Here they have teamed up to produce a book for nonspecialists on how to counteract\u2014and even incorporate\u2014this groundbreaking new technology.<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Real Intelligence<\/em>, the authors walk readers through the basics of what AI is and isn\u2019t, and strategies educators can use not only to make sense of the technology, but even to acquaint students with it\u2014on teachers\u2019 own terms<\/em>. The authors show readers ways of working with AI that make cheating with it far less practical or feasible for students, and even offers on ideas for how to help students engage with LLMs as conversation partners in their research. Indeed, this book will help teachers prepare students to live in a world with AI, and thus fulfill their calling to equip students for life in a changing world.<\/p>\n

Why respond to this ever-evolving technology by writing a book? After all, skeptics may wonder whether a book might be outdated by the time it goes to print. But we already know now the basics of what we\u2019re facing, the authors argue. And there\u2019s a timelessness in how we should respond. This challenge, like the others before it, requires us to think carefully about how we teach, how we test, and how we evaluate students. Even if AI were to disappear tomorrow, what the authors are arguing for would improve student learning.<\/p>\n

For educators, for parents, for administrators, this is no time for panic\u2014but it\u2019s no time for business as usual, either. Instead, it\u2019s time for a fresh look at the kind of learning that can navigate both the limits and the possibilities of AI, and thus prepare us all to understand the technology that is quickly becoming an unavoidable\u2014and necessary\u2014part of our lives.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n

I will be giving this year\u2019s Carr Lecture<\/a> at Mount Union University in Ohio, and will draw on my collaborative work with a computer scientist to explore the subject of that lecture: \u201cAI Isn\u2019t God (or Even Human).\u201d\u00a0Real Intelligence<\/em> keeps things broad so that it is useful for as a wide an array of educators as possible, but the fact that my is Religious Studies comes across in places, especially in examples that I offer.<\/p>\n

Download the book or read it online<\/a>, and please do two things. First, share this book far and wide, because so many educators have been expressing the need for what this book offers. Second, let me know if you find the book helpful, if you have questions, if you have ideas for assignments inspired by reading it, and how those work for you in the classes you teach. Even if you aren\u2019t an educator, the explanation of the technology will definitely still be of interest.<\/p>\n