My ongoing work with various forms of artificial intelligence (AI) has me thinking a lot about the learning process. In my personal experience, I believe sports greatly enhanced my ability and grit to learn, while my time as a student at Mott Community College gave me the confidence and curiosity to keep learning.
I leaned into my capacity to learn while interviewing for my first professional role as a graduate intern at Oakland Community College. When the Director of Institutional Research asked about my qualifications for a research assistant position, I knew I had to sell it. I was a 23-year-old with a Communications degree, and my experience consisted mostly of high school jobs at a golf course and various non-research positions on campus as an undergrad (including the mail room and intramural coordinator). When he asked if I knew spreadsheets, I confidently said, “SURE!” His follow-up question, “What software?” was met with an equally confident “LOTUS 1-2-3” (yes, I’m so old that I was using computers before Microsoft Excel was invented.) While my responses had a confident tone, there was little substance behind them — the only spreadsheet I had ever created was to track my scores as a varsity golfer. He quickly responded, “If you know LOTUS, you’ll know Quattro Pro.”
I spent the next several months poring over the Quattro Pro manual like a page-turning mystery novel to learn what I needed for the job. Three years later, I had completed my master’s degree and landed a job as Director of Institutional Research and Planning at Red Rocks Community College. By that point, spreadsheets had become second nature for me.
I recognize that diving headfirst into the deep end of learning comes naturally to me. It fills my bucket — “Learner” is one of my top five Gallup Strengths. Whether it’s learning a new sport — from baseball to golf, racquetball to pickleball, bowling to cornhole, cross-country and downhill skiing to water skiing — learning stretches my brain to think differently and grow in new ways. These experiences have also helped me confront my inherent paranoia and skepticism with AI and become, as I said in my last post, “productively paranoid.” The more I use AI, the more I find myself using it on my terms.
For example:
- Rather than asking ChatGPT to write an entire speech, welcome remarks, or a PowerPoint presentation — tasks that still feel a bit uncomfortable for me — I ask it to provide five choices to help focus my remarks. I often iterate on one or two of its suggestions and ask for an outline, which I then adapt and refine before writing my own final version.
- I find myself using the ChatGPT app more than Google to search and answer both complex and trivial questions. I sometimes use Perplexity AI to explore more sources, but I can also ask ChatGPT follow-up questions to name its sources when needed.
- I once assigned ChatGPT the role of a Termite and Wood Structure Specialist and asked it to analyze a picture I took of some wood on a fallen tree, and it taught me about powderpost beetles.
- Perhaps my favorite experience thus far has been reproducing special memories. Using the MidJourney AI image generator, I created an image for which no photo exists but is forever etched in my mind. Recently, I delivered a keynote at Mid-Plains Community College in North Platte, Nebraska. I opened my presentation by sharing a story about how, 30 years ago, my wife and I drove past Exit 179 on I-80 during our honeymoon trip to Denver, Colorado, in her 1992 red Saturn coupe. After about 15 to 20 prompts and iterations, it produced the image I envisioned.
While the potential negative impact on humanity — and the sci-fi apocalyptic scenarios coming to life — has secured more real estate in my mind than I’d like, setting those fears aside to create space for learning has allowed me to imagine how to use AI in creative ways that have made me more efficient, effective, and productive. The more I experiment with it, the more useful I find it to be.
I fully acknowledge that my “Learner” strength looks different than it does for others with the same strength, and that there are many combinations and themes within strengths that will manifest differently in each of us. However, given the rapid pace at which AI technology is evolving and the myriad ways it can impact us, I hope that everyone — both professionally and personally — takes the time to reflect on the roles AI is playing in their life and considers how to take agency and ownership of its impact.
Right now, I feel like I’m in my second week on the job, devouring that Quattro Pro manual. My brain is on fire, my heart is racing, and the possibilities and challenges all simultaneously seem endless. I’m running as fast as I can — skinning my knees and picking myself back up again — as I race toward some level of competency with this technology before it outpaces me. If you haven’t already, I encourage you to venture on your own learning journey and develop your AI skills at your own pace. AI is here, and it's moving quickly.
If you have any questions or comments on this post, please contact me directly at presblog@mvcc.edu
