At last year’s convention, many members of the society expressed great interest in participating in a pre-conference workshop reflecting on the impact of AI on the academy, in general, and the work of theologians, in particular. The quick advances happening in the field of AI urge us to educate ourselves about this technology to understand its impact on our work as scholars and educators and ask some existential questions about the future of college education. To address them, the “Art and Practice of Teaching Theology” session conveners want to organize a pre-conference workshop on “Teaching Theology in the Age of AI.” The workshop will help participants reflect on three themes:
● What is AI?
● The Vision of Catholic Education and AI
● Teaching Practices in the Age of AI
CTS members Heather Foucault-Camm and Taylor Nutter have agreed to lead the workshop and help all of us understand the current situation better so that we may act more consciously and effectively within it. Heather is the Program Director for the Science and Religion Initiative at the McGrath Institute for Church Life. Taylor is a Theology Teaching Fellow at Mount St. Mary’s University.
Heather and Taylor have considerable experience on these topics and are actively engaged in scholarly research on AI-related questions. Among other things, they are part of the “AI Study Group” collaborating with the Dicastery for Culture and Education. Their study group, which comprises an outstanding group of leading experts in the field, is publishing a volume on “AI and the Catholic Vision of Education,” making them the perfect fit for the workshop we envision.