College of Technology Instructor Receives Innovation Award on Using Ethical AI in English

Innovation in education is key to the continued success of future generations. It prevents stagnation and allows for new ideas to thrive. With that in mind, the College of Technology is happy to state that Matt Wilson, clinical associate professor in technical general education, is the recent recipient of the Gem State Innovative Educator Award in Written Communication thanks to his remodeling of the first-year composition courses around modern technology. This year's award was focused on recognizing educators who helped non-major students understand and apply the concepts within their courses as well as using high impact practices — which are described as educational opportunities that have been widely-tested and have been shown to improve student success, especially among underserved communities.

“Receiving the award, I feel some validation in my approach to teaching general education courses, but it’s honestly as much a validation of the contextualized general education model we have in the College of Technology wherein practical transfer of general education knowledge and skills to students’ professional and personal lives is our principal focus,” said Wilson. “So I’m really just a product of my environment and it’s the environment that promotes the kinds of teaching that the Innovative Educator Award recognizes.”

Wilson was the recipient of this award for several reasons, chief among them being his careful integration of AI into the curriculum, negotiating the practical impacts of its use — both positive and negative — as well as the ethical considerations of its use. This was done by amplifying the framing of writing as a way of thinking rather than an output-oriented task and by teaching rhetorical ways of thinking around generative AI use through interactive exercises involving AI text generation followed by critical reflection.

“Matt has seen that generative AI holds both promise and peril and has taken on the task of working on assignments that can help students to better understand how to make informed decisions on when and how to utilize this kind of technology,” said Clayn Lambert, the department chair for business and support services. “Matt has tried to steer away from prescriptive ‘You must…’ or ‘You must not…’ types of approaches, relying instead on helping students understand their role as intelligent and informed users to make better decisions that can apply in a wide variety of situations.”

According to Wilson the biggest reason this approach succeeds is because the students are curious and engaged which makes the lesson a team effort. It is this communal drive that pushes the College of Technology to improve in the ways it does, allowing for a non-traditional college experience for those students who need it. Wilson will accept the award along with the other recipients in Boise this October.