On Episode 590, I welcome back to the show, Mike Caulfield. He’s the creator of the SIFT fact-checking framework, digital literacy expert, and co-author of Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online. We discuss Mike’s latest experiments using artificial intelligence as a co-reasoning partner for critical thinking, exploration, and fact-checking. Mike reflects on his early skepticism about large language models' limitations with reliable facts, before explaining how the integration of search capabilities has opened up new possibilities. Mike helps us distinguish between AI’s ability to simulate reasoning and the essential role of human inquiry. Mike shares practical insights into leveraging AI for scaffolding learners' critical thinking skills, using his deep background tool to synthesize opinions and sources while cautioning against over-reliance. We also revisit his SIFT model and discuss how digital tools can help people navigate today's complex information environment.

Resources from the episode:

• Deep Background: A “Superprompt” to change the way you use LLMs
• Reading the Room with SIFT Toolbox
• New SIFT Toolbox Release (Substack)
• SIFT Method (The Four Moves)
• Verified: How to Think Straight, Get Duped Less, and Make Better Decisions about What to Believe Online, by Mike Caulfield and Sam Wineburg
• Interview with Mike Caulfield on Deep Background (AACE Review)
• Is the LLM Response Wrong, or Have You Just Failed to Iterate It, by Mike Caulfield
• Episode 492: Verified with Mike Caulfield on Teaching in Higher Ed
• Starlight Bowl in San Diego
• Sound of Music
• “Everything Could Have Been a Huge Disaster”: Nathan Fielder on Making ‘The Rehearsal’ Season 2
• It Runs Through Me, Tom Misch (feat. De La Soul)
• Tom Misch: Tiny Desk Concert
• Me Myself and I, De La Soul (1989)
• The Magic Number, De La Soul (1989)
• Reasonable People with Tom Stafford
• Pétanque

Episode topics:

• Early Experiments: AI’s Limitations and Search Integration
• Evolving Search: AI as a Tool for Context and Fact-Checking
• The SIFT Model in the Age of AI
• Critical Doing vs. Critical Thinking in Information Literacy
• The Cognitive Apprentice Model: Learning Through AI Demonstrations
• Cognitive Offloading, Scaffolding, and AI in Student Learning
• Navigating Misinformation: Teaching Effective AI Use in Higher Ed

Discussion questions:

1. Mike Caulfield talks about AI as a "co-reasoning partner." What does this concept mean to you, and how might it change the way we approach critical thinking or research in higher education?
2. Mike mentions that students' critical thinking struggles often stem from "critical doing" problems (lacking the practical skills before the thinking can be effective) vs “critical thinking” problems. How do you see this distinction playing out among students?
3. Mike emphasizes the importance of taking students on a “journey” rather than delivering answers “from the mouth of Zeus.” How might we design assignments or activities that cultivate this sense of intellectual journey with or without AI?
4. Co-reasoning, cognitive offloading, and cognitive apprenticeship are all presented as frameworks for thinking about human-AI interaction. Which of these do you find most promising or problematic, and why?
5. Discuss how the concept of “follow-up” questions to AI, rather than treating its first response as the final answer, could impact student learning outcomes and digital literacy.
6. Mike acknowledges the risks of cognitive offloading (letting AI handle so much that we don’t build skills ourselves). How can educators use AI in ways that scaffold student learning rather than replacing essential critical tasks?

Related Episodes

Here are a couple of prior Teaching in Higher Ed episodes that feature Mike Caulfield: 

Episode 492 — Verified with Mike Caulfield. Conversation centered on his book Verified (with Sam Wineburg), SIFT-style strategies for quickly checking claims, and teaching ethical argumentation. 

Episode 138 — Yes, Digital Literacy, But Which One. Mike argues for domain-aware digital literacy (beyond checklist tests like CRAAP), sharing practical, small moves students can use to evaluate information online.

Recommended

Watch this unboxing video of Carter Moulton’s Analog Inspiration card deck (recorded in our newly redesigned T+L Studios at work).

More about the cards are available on his Analog Inspiration website and on an upcoming episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, featuring Carter Moulton.

Quotable Words

More from Mike Caulfield on Episode 590:

Searching for information is a journey. How can we get the benefits of AI but still preserve that feeling of a journey?

Next Week’s Episode

On the upcoming episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, Simon Cullen returns and Danny Oppenheimer joins me for the first time. They share research and reflections to help us rethink student attendance policies for deeper engagement and learning.

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Affiliate income disclosure: Books that are recommended on the podcast link to the Teaching in Higher Ed bookstore on Bookshop.org. All affiliate income gets donated to the LibroMobile Arts Cooperative (LMAC), established in 2016 by Sara Rafael Garcia.”

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