Teaching Meta-Cognition with an Open-Access Large Language Model – Feb. 5, 2025

Session Description

In this webinar, Alexa Alice Joubin will present her research on meta-cognition in higher education. She will demonstrate how her open-source, open-access AI application enhances trust which leads to ethical human-AI collaboration. Having access to the proverbial engine room of open source and open access AI enables all stakeholders to adjust the parameters for outputs for specific use cases. Participatory justice is key to social connections and trust. One prevailing standard of trust centers on the transparency and explainability of Large Language Models. Joubin’s research conceptualizes trust as a relational, human-centered notion that is tied to an ethics of care and culture of care. Trust is not merely the acceptance of explicit answers. Trust emerges through full participation in critical processes. To know what or whom to trust, one needs to have the critical ability to observe one’s thought processes and state of understanding. This is known as meta-cognition which is a prerequisite for trust. AI makes us strangers to ourselves in a good way. AI can produce a lot of uncertainties, but AI also compels us to think deeper about our assumptions and actions. We can practice civic science, which is a partnership between public stakeholders and scientists-as-citizens to co-create technologies for public good. The open culture supports ethical human-AI collaboration in higher education.

This webinar is open to anyone. No materials or software is needed. Register to attend virtually or access the recording asynchronously.

Instructor: Alexa Alice Joubin
Alexa Alice Joubin is a leading voice on AI, social justice, and higher education. She is Professor of English, Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Theatre, International Affairs, and East Asian Languages and Literatures at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., where she directs the Digital Humanities Institute. She is a faculty of the Trustworthy AI Initiative and an affiliate at the NSF’s Institute for Trustworthy AI in Law & Society. In 2024, she was named the inaugural Public Interest Technology Scholar.

• link to website: https://ajoubin.org
• contact: ajoubin@gwu.edu

About the paper

Title: Enhancing the Trustworthiness of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Responsive Pedagogy in the Context of Humanities Higher Education

Abstract:
How do we enhance the trustworthiness of generative artificial intelligence (AI) as a tool to foster students’ curiosity to learn about humanities subjects in higher education? This study analyzes what conversational AI tools can realistically accomplish in the humanities higher education context and what the substantive, rather than hyped, challenges are. As a proof of concept, this study also discusses a proprietary AI Teaching Assistant designed by Professor Joubin. Through case studies of teaching Shakespearean performance, this study offers intersectional strategies to teach with, rather than against, AI, and to produce knowledge collaboratively with students.
There are two challenges. The first challenge is false singularity. AI is able to simulate fluent prose which can be mistaken as the ultimate answer to a query. One solution is to promote meta-cognition, a self-reflexive understanding of one’s own learning and thought processes.
The second challenge is the tendency to mistake AI synthesis for critical thinking, the solution to which is the flipped classroom. Instead of writing essays that respond to instructors’ parameters, students construct open-ended but focused research questions that are refined through reiterative and interactive activities. Since the AI is coded to produce syntheses of anonymized public voices in its datasets, it is a ghost and synthetic version of the publics. AI throttles and controls the general public’s access to information.

• link to paper: Enhancing the Trustworthiness of Generative Artificial Intelligence in Responsive Pedagogy in the Context of Humanities Higher Education
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-65691-0_11
• link to Joubin’s open-access AI: https://criticaltheory.info/
• media coverage: YouTube