Main content

Home

Menu

Loading wiki pages...

View
Wiki Version:
In most history courses, students are expected to engage with primary sources, defined by the RBMS-SAA Guidelines for Primary Source Literacy as "materials in a variety of formats that serve as original evidence documenting a time period, an event, a work, people, or ideas." Over the course of a history degree, students develop skills to critically evaluate a wide range of primary sources, by, e.g., considering the purpose and audience of a given source, as well as the perspective of the creator(s) and their possible biases. Emerging technologies such as generative AI have the potential to disrupt the development of primary source literacy by creating fake primary sources that mimic the tone and language of historical actors. However, "fake" sources have always been part of the documentary record, ranging from historical fiction to tall tales or spurious stories - just think of the story of George Washington and the cherry tree and other historical myths. To incorporate AI literacy into primary source literacy, a librarian developed an innovative one-shot workshop for an upper-level history course that combined analysis of "true" primary sources, "fake" (i.e., AI generated) sources, and spurious stories drawn from 18th- and 19th-century British North America. Students were encouraged to consider the authority, tone, purpose, and audience of materials, as well as their knowledge of the time period, to identify which were real, fake, or spurious. Integrating generative AI technology into traditional classroom instruction of evaluating sources allowed students to develop AI literacy alongside primary source literacy, without requiring an entire class session devoted to these new technologies. This activity can also be adopted into other contexts, such as by focusing on academic or secondary sources rather than primary sources, or could be used as the basis for collaboration between librarians and interested professors to promote AI literacy.
OSF does not support the use of Internet Explorer. For optimal performance, please switch to another browser.
Accept
This website relies on cookies to help provide a better user experience. By clicking Accept or continuing to use the site, you agree. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and information on cookie use.
Accept
×

Start managing your projects on the OSF today.

Free and easy to use, the Open Science Framework supports the entire research lifecycle: planning, execution, reporting, archiving, and discovery.