Image Canva Link: Link.

Hey everyone! Welcome back to one of my blog posts. Today’s blog post is bittersweet. It is the final blog post I’ll be posting 🙁 Nonetheless, I’m happy to share with you my experience in the course, and I hope you like it!

Before getting started, I want to say that I had a lot of fun, and I would like to recommend this course to everyone I know!

I will be answering a few questions regarding the course from my point of view.

Without further ado, let’s start!

What Were the Most Impactful Learning Experiences in This Course?

I would say that this course started on a strong note with the Mays Imad video assignment. I really liked the video, and especially her conclusion that all people are traumatized in some way or form. I agree with that, and I think more people should come to peace with this, because acknowledging this helps us become better individuals. Also, I feel that her idea of negotiating with the brain to return to a relaxed state when stressed is important, and I think that this is a technique that I will be using in my life when stressed.  Moreover, I liked that she puts herself in her students’ shoes, and I think that this explains why its easier for her ideas to come across easily. So, thank you Dr. Maha for sharing this video with us – very useful advice from Dr. Mays! Here’s the link to Dr. Mays’ video:Link.

Another significant learning experience for me was playing the games that were designed by students. Personally, I enjoyed the game where the player had to be an orphan who grew up in a shelter. I think that this game taught me a lot about orphans and their experiences. For example, I did not know that orphans hated when people showed more sympathy towards them. I agree, orphans, just like any other person, need their private space, and I respect that. Therefore, I think that I learned a lot from this game, and moving forward, I’ll keep this in mind whenever I meet an orphan. Here’s a link to the game: Link.

One lecture I enjoyed very much was Dr. Bassem’s lecture. His attitude and demeanor were wonderful, and he was friendly. Also, I like the fact that he is excited about what he has to say, which I think is important to keep his audience engaged. Overall, it was a great lecture. Furthermore, I think that I learned a lot from his lecture, especially his talk about privilege and luck, which I think are something that a lot of us take for granted and do not think much of. This also brings me back to the assignment where we had to go outside near the SU shop and we had to move to the front or to the back, depending on the set of attributes that we got randomly assigned. Therefore, I think that this assignment and Dr. Bassem’s lecture made me appreciate how blessed I am for the life and opportunities that I have. Being appreciative of what we have is important because it also keeps us humble!

The Soliya experience. I already have another blog post about my experience in the Soliya program, and you check it out for a full description of my experience. Nonetheless, I’ll be briefly speaking about my experience here. Overall, my Soliya experience was great. The instructors and my colleagues were amazing individuals. I liked that the experience helped me enhance my communication skills. Also, speaking with people from different backgrounds helps keep my mind and perspective objective, and it helps reduce the prejudice I have about others. Therefore, this experience was important for my social life and communication skills. Moreover, the experience made me appreciative of growing up in Egypt, because, unfortunately, I noticed that a lot of my colleagues, who were of Western origin, did not know anything about Gaza. Still, it was a great experience, and I loved the discussions that we had during our Zoom meetings. Here’s the link to my Soliya reflection blog post: Link.

Speaking of prejudice, I want to say that I enjoyed Dr. Kandola’s talk about prejudice. I learned a lot from his talk. For instance, I learned that all individuals have prejudice and that denying this fact leads to even more prejudice. This is important because this means that we must come to terms with the fact that we are always going to be prejudiced, and that once we know that we should try to be as objective as possible. I think that this is something new to me, because I did not know that we are that subjective. I’ll keep this in mind, moving forward in life. Here’s the link to Dr. Kandola’s talk: Link.

When it comes to digital literacy and AI, I would say that the AI tools assignment was pivotal for me this semester. This is because the assignment not helped me learn about new AI tools, but also it helped me learn about the strengths and weaknesses of each tool. This is important because now, I know which AI to use and for what purpose. For me, this is especially important because I never used AI. I only knew about ChatGPT, and I did not like using it. However, now, thanks to the information I learned in this course, I now use Google NotebookLM and Perplexity AI for research purposes in other courses, both of which are great tools. Still, I believe that AI are tools that should be used to enhance our creativity and are not tools that should replace our work. This is essential because I believe that human agency and ownership are the key to better work in general. Therefore, this assignment helped me learn about different AI tools and their uses, many of which I am still using in other courses. Note that I have already mentioned this in a previous blog post where I reflected on the pros/cons of several AI tools – here’s the link: Link.

Speaking of AI tools, I think that the assignment about AI use in my profession was important because it exposed me to uses of AI in my field of study, the medical and biological fields, that I did not know existed before, which keeps me up to date with what is happening in my fields of interest. For the full blog spot of the use of AI tools in biology and medicine, check out my blog post: Link.

When it comes to digital literacy and digital skills, I did not know the difference between both. I learned about the difference between digital skills and digital literacy after doing the presentation assignment. For example, I learned that digital skills are the skills that we possess, such as posting a tweet. On the other hand, digital literacy is being able to utilize the tools that we have, which are our digital skills, in the apt context. This is important because now I know how to use my digital skills in the correct manner.

Overall, I would say that this course’s learning experience is great, but these are just snippets of the most memorable things I learned 😊.

My Learning in this Course:

We worked on a lot of assignments in this course, but if I were to choose a few to show off my learning experience in this course, I would choose those 3: Digital AI tools assignment, AI in my profession assignment, and the game assignment.

The digital AI tools assignment is pivotal because it shows how this course can help us enhance our knowledge and use of AI. For example, thanks to this assignment, I was able to learn about different AI tools other than ChatGPT. This is important for people who want to not only enrich their current understanding of AI tools but also learn about new AI tools and their uses. Therefore, this assignment’s learning experience was important for the overall learning experience of the course. Link to my blog post: Link.

Adding onto the previous point, the AI in my profession assignment was important for developing my knowledge of the usage of AI in the my fields of interest, biology and medicine. This is important because staying updated with the use of AI in our fields of interest will help us stay relevant and useful in a time where technological advances are moving at a very fast pace. Link to my blog post: Link.

Both previous points about AI are especially important for this course outcome, present in the syllabus: “Critically evaluate the latest updates in Artificial Intelligence in terms of their impact on equity and the future of work”.

I think that game assignment was important for not only my learning experience, but also for knowing more about my identity. For example, when creating the game, I had to re-explore my journey with anxiety. This is important because it made me feel appreciative of who and where I am today, which helped me feel confident about my identity. Therefore, I think that the game assignment is important for the learning experience of this course because it fulfills the following criteria of the course’s learning outcome: “Analyze their own identities, cultures and biases and develop self-awareness of how this influences their own behavior online and in their lives“. Link to my blog post containing both my reflection on the game and the game link: Link.

Improvements:

All in all, as I said previously, the course’s learning experience was great. With that being said, I think that some improvements can be made.

I think that if I were to change something, it would be the presentation assignment. Although it was beneficial because I was able to learn the difference between digital skills and digital literacy, I felt that the experience became repetitive. For instance, all students had to reflect on Dr. Maha’s article about digital literacy, which is pivotal for the presentation, but I felt that all students were saying the same thing, which made the presentations feel repetitive at the end. Therefore, I think to fix this, maybe students can be given several articles about digital literacy, so that each student presents a different perspective on digital literacy. Despite this, I still enjoyed the presentation assignment, and I liked the other presentations!

I really liked Dr. Bassem’s lecture, and I think that this course could use more guest speakers. The only downside of Dr. Bassem’s lecture is that we did not have more time! For instance, he was able to speak about different things, such as privilege and luck, but we did not manage to get closure on the point he was arguing. I think that we needed at least one more lecture from Dr. Bassem, and, thus, I think that having more guest speakers will not only be helpful for the course outcomes, but also it would generate more engagement with the students.

One more thing I would like to add is learning about digital tools other than AI. For instance, in the beginning of the semester, we were introduced to an annotation tool called Hypothes.is, which I think is a great tool for annotation. However, we did not spend much time on it and we only ended up using it once, despite it being a very useful tool. Therefore, I think that including more digital tools, such as Hypothes.is, would be important and beneficial for students taking this course because it would enhance their knowledge of digital tools and technology.

Who Should Take This Course?

Anyone who wants to learn more about themselves, digital literacy, and AI tools.

Tools in This Course:

During the semester, we learned about several tools in this course. Hence, in this section, I will be reflecting on some of the tools used in this course.

Perplexity AI

As mentioned before, I was always against using AI for anything, but when I learned about Perplexity AI in this course, I decided to try it out for the AI tools assignment, and I learned that it was more useful than I had originally thought. For instance, I learned that it was reliable to use for research, especially when using the academic option, because the sources it provided were reliable, on point, and well-cited. In fact, I have used it this semester in other research-based courses, and even when writing my undergraduate thesis. Therefore, I would say that I will continue using Perplexity AI in the future for academic and professional purposes.

Google NotebookLM

I learned about Google NotebookLM through the AI tools assignment. It is a powerful tool that can summarize sources, and one can use it for study or research purposes. I have used this tool multiple times to summarize readings that were assigned to me in other courses, and I have had a great experience with it. The summaries it provides are accurate and concise. Moreover, I used it once to help me create an outline based on uploaded sources for a paper I was writing, and the outline it generated was helpful for my brainstorming process. With that being said, it has a specific purpose and is not for general use. Therefore, Google NotebookLM is good for research and study purposes, and not for general use – I will be using it professionally and academically.

Hypothes.is

We used this tool once in the beginning of the semester to annotate an article. I like this tool because I think that being able to annotate any article online, and the fact that others can see the annotations, is useful. In addition, I think that this tool is something that we could have used more, and I think I will be using it in the future for academic and professional purposes. For instance, I can use it in a work environment to leave annotations for my colleagues.

Poe

I tried using Poe for the game assignment, but I think that it was not very helpful. For example, I tried creating different scenarios with it, but I felt that the scenarios were generic and lacked any sense of creativity. On the other hand, I found that ChatGPT was more creative, and the scenarios were more realistic. Therefore, I did not like using Poe and I do not think I will be using it again.

Google Slides

I already used Google Slides a couple of times before. However, during this semester, we had to use Google Slides more than usual, especially when creating our game. This is important because I learned things about Google Slides that I did not know before. For example, I learned that we could create buttons that when clicked lead to other parts of the presentation. This was useful when creating choices for the game, which split the game into different pathways. These digital skills may be common knowledge to others, but for me, they were new. Moving forward, I think that I will be using Google Slides more often. For instance, I will be using it more often to design presentations – whether for academic or professional purposes.

Classroom Technology

I like the interactive classrooms at AUC, and I think they improve the engagement, and, thus, the learning experience. For example, the chairs allowed us to always sit in a circle, which is important for keeping the students engaged with the material. Moreover, the classroom had multiple interactive boards, which I think were nice for the group assignments that we had, and, thus, it also helped with the engagement. Therefore, overall, I liked the classroom technology, and I will be using it in the future for presentations, for academic purposes, because they greatly help with the engagement.

That’s it for today’s blog post. I hope you had fun following my blog posts, I know I did ^_^. It was a pleasure having you as my audience! Let me know in the comments what you think about the course.

Till we meet again!

Header Image Credits: Link.