Ávila-Shah Receives $5,000 CATT AI Seed Grant

Sample AI-generated image by SPA 152 student for their project on cultural identities (shared with student permission).

AI-generated image by a SPA 152 student for their project on cultural identities (shared with student permission)

¡ENHORABUENA!

The Department of Romance Languages and Literatures extends heartfelt congratulations to our Language Coordinator and Adjunct Assistant Professor in Spanish, Dr. Bárbara Ávila-Shah, on receiving a $5,000.00 AI Seed Grant from the UB Office of Curriculum, Assessment and Teaching Transformation.

One of ten recipients for the 2023-2024 academic year, the project was titled AI as a Romance Ally and supported five teaching assistants from the French and Spanish sections in their efforts to create pedagogical materials for teaching presentational writing skills in French and Spanish language courses. In addition, it set out to demonstrate to TAs, adjuncts and RLL students how artificial intelligence can be helpful as well as detrimental when it comes to writing in the world language classroom.

The team tested several AI chatbots to create and evaluate products such as lesson plans, lessons, assessments, and images. The projects and results were presented to the granting board and in our department's last First Friday of Pedagogy meeting on May 3, 2024.

Some key takeaways from the project include:

Artificial intelligence serves as an additional tool for educational purposes.
Crafting well-structured prompts is crucial; the quality of the output depends on what you ask.
AI-generated content may contain errors or hallucinations, so thorough review is essential for accuracy.
While powerful, AI should not be used as a substitute for a traditional search engine.
With thoughtful planning, AI can enhance World Languages classrooms.
Certain indicators currently exist to differentiate AI-created texts.
AI cannot replace the role of language educators.