Presenter(s): Mara Boccaccio & Katia de la Cruz 

Considering the current discussions surrounding the integration of AI in education and the challenges faced by humanities educators, there is an urgent need to explore active and intentional ways to use AI rather than risk the replacement and atrophy of particularly human capacities. These include critical thinking and creativity. Users, as opposed to followers, of technology exercise imagination and judgment – activities developed by the humanities – as antidotes to mental shortcuts that reduce our capacities to robotic accumulation of data.  

An effective approach to develop creative and responsible users of technology is a simple teaching methodology that combines vanguard pedagogies – the Pre-Texts protocol (Sommer, 2013), a practically intuitive, interactive approach to teaching reading and writing. This methodology has been shown to improve mental health, while promoting creativity, collaboration, civic engagement and, most importantly, critical thinking.

This two-hour workshop is designed to facilitate a Pre-Texts experience and is based on work with Doris Sommer (Sommer, 2013). Both of us have successfully employed this protocol in teaching Italian and Spanish literature at the senior undergraduate level (second and third year). We firmly believe in the value of the Pre-Texts protocol as a form of contemplative pedagogy with significant educational potential.

The workshop will be both practical and theoretical. You can access the full protocol here.    

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