This post was entirely written on my phone whilst killing some time in a cafe …so might need some editing later.

Today we had a guest facilitator from Imperial College London, Coco Nijhoff who did a workshop entitled ‘Reflecting on the impact of generative AI on our roles’ which she delivered to staff here at UAL . The two hour workshop used the the Lego Serious Play method to address the learning that has been required as the AI technology evolves at speed across HE. Participants used Lego to build models as a means to ‘reflect, consider and share experience, focusing on the challenges of keeping up with generative AI and adapting accordingly in roles in HE contexts’.

Workshops objectives:

1. To understand the impact on generative AI within our roles.

2. To explore our hopes for generative AI in Higher Education.

We started with some simple activities to get us playing with the Lego bricks. Our first task was to build a tower and thus was quickly followed by us building a structure based around a metaphor. We then had a general discussion about the usefulness of using the lego as a learning activity.

We next had two further activities that really got us thinking about our own roles at work and how AI is affecting the work that we do (see the photo above).

Finally whilst working in small groups we built a model of how AI if affecting Higher education. This what our model looked like:

We all feed back to the whole group on our models and some common themes emerged:

1. HE needs to create safe spaces if we are to use AI in our teaching and leaning.

2. AI is affecting HE in contradictory ways. On the other one hand it is allowing creativity to blossom, there are efficiency gains and new ways of doing things. But on the other hand it can stifle creativity, reduce efficiency and just add to our already heavy work load.

3. We need to develop staff and students digital literacy skills so that they can critically evaluate AI in education.

3. We really don’t know what the future holds for us as to the impact of AI in Higher Education. We can guess some of the consequences but like other form of technology it often gets used in unexpected ways.

Later on after the session I had a little chat with Coco about AI literacy. The photo above is here Lego model of AI literacy that incorporates:
1. Competencies
2. Skills
3. Activities

All in relation to a constantly changing environment …to develop skills and make the world more transparent

However the issue of AI literacy is a whole new issue and will have to wait for another blog post!