No Looking Back: Embracing AI as a Co-Teacher and Thought Partner

This reflection explores how my approach to teaching educational leadership has evolved through the full embrace of AI as a co-teacher, collaborator, and thought partner. Rather than resisting or policing AI use, I designed it, reframing my role from gatekeeper to facilitator of discernment. By embedding AI tools into coursework, creating ethical use policies, and modeling transparent practices, I’ve found that AI doesn’t diminish academic rigor—it deepens it. Students engage more critically, reflect more intentionally, and wrestle with real-world leadership dilemmas in meaningful ways. My classroom has become more adaptive and relevant from branching simulations built on the teach–model–apply framework to rubric-driven editing consults using AI. This narrative shares what worked, where students resisted, and how we co-constructed an AI-friendly learning space. AI is no longer an experiment in my classroom—it’s a catalyst for transformation, helping future leaders learn to lead alongside innovation

The Human and Machine: Google, Google Docs, Grammarly, Quillbot, OpenAI, and OpenAIChatGPT Duration: 22:76:00 / 4552 words1

This paper is a methodological exploration of human-AI collaboration in academic writing and publishing. Using critical autoethnography, the author engages in a process of becoming with the technologies and, because of this, shows us ways of embodying change. The narrative weaves together the mutually influential relationship between personal experience, the happenings of culture, and emerging AI technology. It is a tracing of practice, a way of thinking with and through—asking questions about and acting on—these experiences and happenings. In the context of communication futures, theory is not a static body of knowledge or an autonomous set of ideas, objects, or practices. Instead, theorizing is an ongoing, fluid process that links the concrete and the abstract, thinking and acting, aesthetics and criticism. (Holman Jones 2016, 229)  Credited solely to the author, this piece provides a case study of academic writing developed with the unwavering assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). What remains hidden from the reader is the back-and-forth interaction between the author and the AI assistant—these interactions typically involve the author asking the machine to comment on fluency, so that the author can then make micro-adjustments to things such as spelling, grammar, and sentence structure. On occasion, it involves learning about paraphrasing by observing how the AI paraphrases. In the final manuscript, this level of interaction is not visible because it would disrupt the reader\u27s flow and comprehension, as well as obscure the author\u27s intent. There are instances, however, where the dialogue is less entangled, which allows the author to italicize their prompts to the machine and the machine\u27s responses to be highlighted. In addition to AI technologies, uncertainty is engaged with as ‘generative technology’ for imagination, experience, and action. (Akama, Pink, and Sumartojo 2018, 46) By embracing both uncertainty and AI in practice, the author seeks to better understand how emerging technologies might serve to support, limit, and enhance the author’s ability to write about their practice.  This article hypothesizes that communication futures will involve collaboration between humans and human-AI technologies and that the significance of critical thinking and creativity will remain pertinent. It also proposes that to produce thoughtful, contextually appropriate, and non-biased outcomes, we must embrace collaborative mindsets and adopt respectful, participatory, inclusive, and diverse processes that build capability.     &nbsp

Redesigning an Online Introductory Biology Course in the Age of Artificial Intelligence: Adapting exams and free-response questions to support or limit AI use

In response to the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI) tools by students, I implemented a series of instructional and policy changes in my online asynchronous course to uphold academic integrity and promote student learning. These changes included clarifying academic integrity expectations, developing strategies to identify inappropriate AI use, and redesigning question prompts and assignment formats. I reflect on the implementation of these changes, highlighting both successes and ongoing challenges, including the difficulty of balancing the integration of emerging technologies with the need to ensure that students meet the course’s learning outcomes

Journal of the American Leather Chemists Association - August 2025: Full Issue

Full Issu

Integration Of Utilitarian Scientific Literacy Modules Improve First-Year HBCU STEM Student Experiences

Attrition in STEM remains a concern for universities across the US, as the nation struggles to keep up with global demand for a well-trained STEM workforce. Attrition amongst underrepresented student populations is of particular concern as retention rates are statistically lowest among these groups. As such, the US struggles to fully tap into its greatest potential advantage, a diverse STEM workforce. Of recent, agencies have zeroed in on efforts to increase diversity in STEM. However, HBCU’s have been at the forefront of these efforts throughout time. Through this report, we assess the utility of utilitarian scientific literacy modules for their ability to improve first-year HBCU STEM student outcomes in aims of further increasing retention of diverse student populations in STEM

The Gaskins Foundation: Building Community-Driven STEM Education

The Gaskins Foundation is a federally recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit organization committed to providing extraordinary opportunities for under-recognized and under-represented youth. Our mission is to present, engage, and prepare students of all ages to become leaders in Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by integrating algebra, programming, and design concepts into their educational journey. We believe that every student, regardless of background, deserves the chance to explore their potential and be equipped with the skills necessary to thrive in the ever-evolving fields of STEM.&nbsp

Text-as-Image: Fashion Curator Communication from a Design and Museum Studies Perspective

This paper aims to examine engagement for a specific Instagram practice of fashion curators: the use of text-as-image. It builds upon previous research, which indicates that fashion curators frequently post images of text (Sand et al. (2022)). The study examines the multimodal digital communication by fashion curators from a design perspective, with a focus on engagement. Its mixed-methods approach combines qualitative eye-tracking, surveys, semi-structured interviews, participative netnography, thematic content analysis, and data analytics. It draws on communication and museum studies to gain a better understanding of how the visual elements of language are used and received in the Instagram environment. Findings indicate that while engagement with text-as-image is higher with certain typographies and sizes, engagement is also dependent on certain caption characteristics. Furthermore, they indicate that a cross-pollination of digital fashion communication and museum studies research, particularly museum label guidelines and visitor engagement studies, may benefit both domains.&nbsp

Children as Designers of Texts: Punctuating Persuasive Writing

Framed within literacy education and applied linguistics, children’s playful punctuation is considered within a paradigm of ‘writing as design’. Drawing particularly on the work of Sharples (1999), the article examines data from a repeat design study of 9–11 year old children tackling a persuasive description task. The data showed evidence of children making plans, setting goals and satisfying constraints to fulfil communicative effect. As well as being testament to children’s ingenuity in using punctuation in creative ways, the findings have implications for how the writing process is conceptualised and for how writing is taught