Community Engagement as a Tool to Promote Learning in the Age of AI
In-Person
Abstract
In an age of AI, Community-Engaged Learning provides an opportunity for students to engage in critical thinking, collaboration, curiosity, and personal investment. This presentation describes how the USU Center for Community Engagement assists faculty members in accessing meaningful, high impact projects submitted by community organizations. We will explore how working with the CCE can assist faculty in tapping into a network of organizations that have established relationships with USU and walk them through the CEL designation process.
The presentation will also provide examples of how AI can be useful in the classroom for both instructors and students when brainstorming assignment ideas, creating assessments, coming up with ideas for student reflections, and constructing rubrics. In contrast, we will also examine the challenges we face as educators in the era of AI and highlights how community-engaged learning can enhance students’ learning experience, serving to provide an AI-proof approach that promotes students taking back ownership of their learning experience.
Presenters
Nelda Ault-Dyslin
Assistant Director of Community-Engaged Learning
Prior to overseeing the Community-Engaged Learning program in the USU Center for Community Engagement, Nelda was the advisor to the Val R. Christensen Service Center for eight years. Her not-so-secret-agenda is to help students realize that Logan exists beyond their need to go to school and that there is a vibrant community with which they can engage. She’s been privileged to work alongside many local nonprofits, schools, and AmeriCorps programs to connect USU students with hands-on experiences. Nelda has an M.A. in Folk Studies from Western Kentucky University, focusing on community-building and education. She is also a founding board member of the Cache Refugee and Immigrant Connection.
Alyssa Reidhead
Prof Practice Asst Professor
Alyssa Reidhead is an Assistant Professor of Professional Practice in the Department of Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences at Utah State University. Alyssa has a strong passion for management, leadership, and helping students develop the skills they need to thrive in professional practice. She teaches foodservice management, dietetics management, and a graduate level food service skills course. She values the importance of faculty mentorship in student career success. Outside of work, Alyssa enjoys spending time with her family, cooking, and traveling.
Sidi Becar Meyara
Assistant Professor
Dr. Sidi Becar Meyara (Ph.D., Ohio University) is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies at Utah State University. As a teacher-scholar, Meyara is interested in the question of the Other, broadly construed. His research interests and creative pursuits focus on communication at the intersection of postcolonial theory, rhetoric, and critical pedagogy. As a postcolonial scholar, he is interested in how immigrant communities navigate their identities in their transnational spaces of migration. From a rhetorical and postcolonial perspective, he explores how xenophobia and Othering manifest in Western public discourses with a specific focus on understanding how these discourses perpetuate an orientalist tradition that portrays the Other negatively. His research on communication pedagogy examines issues of social justice, community engagement, and effective approaches to teaching communication. Meyara has published in Departures in Qualitative Research, Carolina Communication Annual, Communication Reports, Journal of Communication Pedagogy, and Communication Teacher.
Shalyn Drake
Lecturer
Shalyn Drake is a Lecturer in the Aviation Technology department and the UAS Program Lead, representing AVTE, USU Eastern, and Statewide. With over twenty years of experience in drone operations, three graduate degrees in teaching, English, and aviation, and more than a decade of classroom leadership, she brings a rare blend of technical expertise and pedagogical depth to her work. Shalyn’s recent efforts focus on integrating community partnerships in drones and hands-on, experiential learning for students in Aviation, building scalable aviation education models as the Aviation Concurrent Enrollment liaison, and on advancing Utah’s technical education ecosystems and supports through collaborative outreach and faculty development. Shalyn is a glider pilot and beginning her doctoral work in aviation education in the spring.