Why I’m Teaching AI with Digital Storytelling (and writing about it online)

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For the next 30 days, I’ll be writing online about my experiences teaching AI literacy via digital storytelling. I am excited to develop this course for UNCW students.

Here are a few reasons:

1. Writing and technology have always been intertwined for me.

One of the first times a teacher complimented me in English class wasn’t really about my writing … but how I could publish my writing with a dot matrix printer. Actually putting together sentences is only one part of the writing process … always influenced by the surrounding technologies.

I’m always introducing new technologies into my classroom to prepare students for 21st century workplace. AI is perhaps one of the most important.

2️. The complicated relationship between technology and writing shouldn’t be invisible to our students.

Writing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Every invention has changed not only how we write but how we think about writing. The printing press made us approach text as stable and unchanging … Web 2.0 encourages us to see writing as participatory.

AI will bring its own changes, and students should learn to reflect and adapt as these technologies develop.

3. Putting words together to tell stories is fun.

My love for language stems from poetry … playing with words to discover new ways of seeing the world. I approach academic articles the same way. The fun is in the discovery of ideas and new ways of seeing … not in the regimented reporting of information.

AI can enhance this discovery process… and that is what I want students to take away with them.

Over the next 30 days, I will be writing about practical approaches to incorporating AI into the classroom, tools and frameworks for developing creative stories with AI, and what I learn about students’ attitudes toward AI and storytelling.

Join me on this adventure — and let me know if you have any questions along the way!

➡️ I’ll also be writing a weekly reflection newsletter on my Hey, World page.