AI Literacy & Prompt Engineering Workshop by Dr. José Antonio Bowen √ §
Learn to improve your prompts and find the right AI tools!
Location
Performing Arts & Humanities Building : 337 (The Dance Cube)
Date & Time
January 23, 2025, 12:00 pm – 1:45 pm
Description
Following our three-part fall book discussion on Teaching with AI by José Antonio Bowen and C. Edward Watson, we are excited to welcome Dr. José Antonio Bowen, who will facilitate a workshop on “AI Literacy & Prompt Engineering.”
Both faculty and students learned new digital literacies to apply the increased critical thinking needed in the internet age. AI literacy is a critical new skill every teacher and graduate needs. The two largest complaints about AI responses are that they are either wrong or boring, but both are often the result of poor or bland prompting. AI prompts need to provide more human context and be more literal than the ones we tend to use with a search engine. Since AI uses natural human language, it also needs human-level communication precision: asking your AI to slow down and think more carefully can greatly improve results! The features of better prompts--task, format, voice and context--are direct extensions of the critical writing and thinking skills we already teach and value. In this interactive workshop, you will learn how to find the right AI tool for your task and get to compare and practice with different AIs.
Both faculty and students learned new digital literacies to apply the increased critical thinking needed in the internet age. AI literacy is a critical new skill every teacher and graduate needs. The two largest complaints about AI responses are that they are either wrong or boring, but both are often the result of poor or bland prompting. AI prompts need to provide more human context and be more literal than the ones we tend to use with a search engine. Since AI uses natural human language, it also needs human-level communication precision: asking your AI to slow down and think more carefully can greatly improve results! The features of better prompts--task, format, voice and context--are direct extensions of the critical writing and thinking skills we already teach and value. In this interactive workshop, you will learn how to find the right AI tool for your task and get to compare and practice with different AIs.
Please bring a device to the workshop.
José Antonio Bowen has been leading innovation and change for over 40
years at Stanford, Georgetown and the University of Southampton (UK), as
a dean at Miami University and SMU and as President of Goucher College.
Bowen has worked as a musician
with Stan Getz, Dave Brubeck, and many others and his symphony was
nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in Music (1985). Bowen holds four
degrees from Stanford and has written over 100 scholarly articles and
books, including the Cambridge Companion to Conducting (2003), Teaching Naked (2012 and the winner of the Ness Award for Best Book on Higher Education), Teaching Naked Techniques with C. Edward Watson (2017) and Teaching Change: How to Develop Independent Thinkers using Relationships, Resilience and Reflection (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2021). His latest book with C. Edward Watson is Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning (2024, Johns Hopkins University Press). Bowen has appeared in The New York Times, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and has three TED talks. Stanford honored him as a Distinguished Alumni Scholar (2010) and he has presented keynotes and workshops
at more than 300 campuses and conferences 46 states and 17 countries
around the world. In 2018, he was awarded the Ernest L. Boyer Award (for
significant contributions to American higher education). He is a senior
fellow for the American Association of Colleges and Universities.
This workshop is co-sponsored by the Faculty Development Center and Instructional Technology and New Media. Lunch will be provided from 12:00-12:30, and the workshop will begin at 12:30.
Lunch will be provided to all registered participants, please click “Going In Person” below to reserve your seat for this session. Please email fdc@umbc.edu to note any dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, food allergies, etc.) by Thursday, January 16. The deadline to register for this event is the earlier of Thursday, January 16 or when the event reaches capacity. Email fdc@umbc.edu to be added to a wait list if the event is full.
Lunch will be provided to all registered participants, please click “Going In Person” below to reserve your seat for this session. Please email fdc@umbc.edu to note any dietary restrictions (vegetarian, vegan, gluten-free, food allergies, etc.) by Thursday, January 16. The deadline to register for this event is the earlier of Thursday, January 16 or when the event reaches capacity. Email fdc@umbc.edu to be added to a wait list if the event is full.
√ Counts toward the ALIT Certificate
§ Counts toward the INNOVATE Certificate
§ Counts toward the INNOVATE Certificate
Photo provided by José Antonio Bowen.
Note that funding for in person programs with lunch is limited, so we ask that you please commit to coming upon registration and kindly release your spot by January 16 if you can no longer attend.
This workshop is open to faculty and staff.
Please note that José Antonio Bowen is facilitating two different workshops on January 23:
- Register below for “AI Literacy & Prompt Engineering” from 12:30-1:45
- Register here for “AI Assignments and Assessments” from 2:00-3:15
