On Episode 597, Bonni Stachowiak shares with listeners about the creation and use of "Go Somewhere," a card game she has facilitated at over ten universities and conferences to help educators and students explore metaphors and conversations about Artificial Intelligence in higher education. Drawing from critical AI literacy frameworks, metaphor analysis, and playful approaches, Bonni explains how the game builds a supportive, reflective, and often humorous space for participants to engage with the complexities, anxieties, and transformative potentials of AI in teaching and learning.

Throughout the episode, Bonni discusses influential work by scholars like Maha Bali, Emily Bender, and Ted Chiang, introducing listeners to key metaphors ("stochastic parrot," "blurry jpeg," "AI assistant") and the importance of not only functional AI fluency but also ethical, critical, and care literacies.

Resources from the episode:

• Assistant, Parrot, or Colonizing Loudspeaker? ChatGPT Metaphors for Developing Critical AI Literacies, by Anuj Gupta, Yasser Atef, Anna Mills, & Maha Bali
• Teaching in Higher Ed AI Resources and Episodes
• All Aboard - Digital Skills Map (Ireland)
• Where are the crescents in AI? by Maha Bali
• Different Critiques of AI in Education, by Maha Bali
• Critical AI Literacy is Not Enough: Introducing Care Literacy, Equity Literacy & Teaching Philosophies, by Maha Bali
• Teaching AI Ethics, by Leon Furze
• Scooby-Doo
• AI Metaphors We Live By: The Language of Artificial Intelligence, by Leon Furze
• Her (2013)
• On the Dangers of Stochastic Parrots, by Bender, Gebru, et al.
• Episode 576: The AI Con with Emily M Bender and Alex Hanna
• The Princess Bride (1987)
• Are We Tripping? The Mirage of AI Hallucinations, by Anna Mills & Nate Angell
• ChatGPT is a Blurry JPEG, by Ted Chiang
• Permission Slip, by Bryan Mathers from Visual Thinkery
• How Will AI Impact Gen Z?

Episode topics:

• Go Somewhere: Game-Based Exploration of AI Metaphors
• Navigating Identity and AI in Higher Education
• Mapping AI's Impact on Digital Skills
• Critical AI Literacy: Beyond Technical Competence
• Examining Bias, Ethics, and Social Justice in AI
• The Power and Danger of Metaphors in AI Discourse
• From Stochastic Parrots to Clueless Interns: Popular AI Metaphors
• Building Community and Vulnerability Through Play
• Reflecting on Values and Purpose in AI Adoption

Discussion questions:

1. The episode discusses a digital skills map from All Aboard Ireland. How might you use a skills or competencies map to better understand and integrate AI into your teaching or learning practices?
2. Bonni Stachowiak references Maha Bali’s model of “critical AI literacy.” Out of the five elements (understanding how GenAI works, recognizing bias, examining ethics, crafting prompts, assessing use), which do you feel most confident in, and which is most challenging?
3. The idea that “critical AI literacy is not enough”—and the proposal to add care literacy, equity literacy, and teaching philosophy—is raised in the episode. What do these additional literacies add to the conversation about AI in education?
4. The episode explores how metaphors shape our understanding of and attitude toward AI (e.g., AI as an “assistant,” “stochastic parrot,” “blurry JPEG,” or “dumpster fire”). Which metaphor resonates most with your own experiences or emotions about AI, and why?
5. The episode notes that AI’s influence can bump up against our sense of identity, causing feelings of failure or frustration. In what ways has AI impacted your identity as an educator?

Quotable Words

In his Personal Knowledge Mastery workshop, Harold Jarche quotes George Box.

Remember that all models are wrong; the practical question is how wrong do they have to be to not be useful.

Next Week’s Episode

On the upcoming episode of Teaching in Higher Ed, Voices on AI: Jeff Young Shares Soundbites of Change.

Support

The money gathered via the TiHE virtual 'tip jar' helps to defray some of the costs of producing the podcast.

Read

My book: The Productive Online and Offline Professor: A Practical Guide, provides approaches to help you turn your intentions into action. I also write an advice column for EdSurge: Toward Better Teaching: Office Hours With Bonni Stachowiak

Listen

Subscribe to the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast and listen on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Overcast, Stitcher, TuneIn, or Spotify.

Share

Update: If you enjoy reading these weekly updates and would like to share them with a friend, they can sign up on the Teaching in Higher Ed updates subscribe page.

Disclosures

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.”

Notice: Portions of these weekly updates are produced using CastMagic.io, which uses AI to produce a draft of the transcript, identify key quotes, highlight themes, etc.