#genAI > [!info]+ Transparency on genAI use > I have used ChatGPT (5.2) and Claude (Sonnet 4.5) as a **copyeditor** across this site to help me revise and reflect on **what I have written**. I am not using AI tools however to produce written content for direct use. **Content I share with AI tools originates with me**. # Integrating generative AI (genAI) Starting January 2023, genAI became something that I focused much effort towards learning about and creating educational programming. I have incorporated it into my work, given presentations about it, and designed and delivered multiple workshops on it. I continue to be an advocate for **using it strategically to improve and transform what we do**. While I was at The George Washington University (GWU) as the Director of Strategic Digital Learning Initiatives, I was tasked to create the strategy and lead the response to genAI for the central library. I was amazed in November 2022 when [ChatGPT was introduced](https://openai.com/index/chatgpt/). I was immediately excited and enthusiastic to the technology seeing right away that it would be the future. What is more, I was thrilled knowing that in my role I would be on the leading edge of change with AI. My work led to some fantastic partnerships across the organization and specifically with my team. While I worked inside and outside of my department, I worked closely with team members to identify tools and incorporate approaches where we could use AI to enhance our capabilities, workflows, and deliverables. As I look into the future, genAI is something that I continue to have great interest in. In terms of learning, I am curious how it might help to improve learning experiences and outcomes, work performance, and overall operational effectiveness. ## Where I stand with genAI **I am a generative Artificial Intelligence (genAI) optimist**. I am optimistic in how it <u>can help</u> accelerate learning and effectiveness. **I see genAI as a partner in work and learning activities**. As I work with genAI tools, I am most often looking for a start or as an editor to what I have already written. But I never see it as an end. ==Whether a genAI tool copyedits my work, or produces a draft, my practice is to reflect on the response and work through genAI produced content to ensure truthfulness, authenticity, and my/human tone. If I'm working with a bit of code, I study why something it gave me worked.== In short, this is how I use genAI tools to help me be productive and learn. > [!tip]+ A note on tool use > I think it is very important to try different tools such as OpenAI ChatGPT, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude. They all have different strengths and match differently with needs. While I was a dedicated user of ChatGPT from 2023-2025, I have since become a strong advocate of Claude for writing assistance and Gemini for code, research, and a general web assistant. ## Practice with genAI There are many general rules and **best practices** for using genAI. My instinct however is to take these different guides with a grain of salt because of how quickly the technology changes. Nonetheless, I have some general rules of thumb and a couple of frameworks I like to reference to when creating prompting strategies. ### Rules of thumb - Reflect on and revise **everything** genAI provides. - Ensure language used is truthful and not exaggerated. - Re-write proposed AI language to fit your tone and self. - If working with code, review it, check it, and understand what you have. - Let others know when you use it. ### Frameworks It can be very helpful to study and practice one or two prompting frameworks to maximize results. This can help you get the most value out of the tools, but this is also a new skill that is needed for the new economy. The following frameworks are those that I learned over the past couple of years and go back to when I'm working with AI to accomplish various tasks. #### CARE Framework There are actually two frameworks — one for [prompting/interaction](https://www.nngroup.com/articles/careful-prompts/) and one for governance. I became aware of the prompting framework while working in an academic context and later became aware of the governance. You can use the prompting one to build a starting prompt to iterate on. 1. **Context** - Describe the situation. Tell the AI your role, its role, project background, and target audience. 2. **Action** - Request specific action. Tell the AI clearly what you want to receive. 3. **Rules** - Provide constraints. Give the AI quantities, quality expectations, and standards to follow. 4. **Examples** - Demonstrate what you want. Provide the AI with reference material and/or tell it what is a good and a bad output. #### CLEAR Framework I too became aware of this framework while working on AI literacy in an academic setting. Unlike quality alone, this framework can be used to maximize efficiency. This is an established framework and a good place to start prompting. 1. **Concise** - Focus on the words that you want the AI to give attention to. Keep it simple, be direct, and remove human niceties such as "please" and "thank you". 2. **Logical** - Have clear relationships between words and ensure that the flow of the prompt is smooth. AI is not emotional and will take you literal. 3. **Explicit** - Provide clarity on what you're seeking. Be direct, explicit, and provide the most relevant details. 4. **Adaptive** - Assess the output received. Then adjust and rephrase your original prompt with output. Change your approach by revising the C-L-E steps. 5. **Reflexive** - Reflect on where you landed with AI. Critically evaluate for accuracy, tone, relevance/quality, truthfulness, etc. Consider trying another tool, reworking what AI provided, or not using AI all together. Note: Research has shown that adding kind words and motivating statements causes AI to perform better. Lo, L. S. (2023). The CLEAR path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4), 102720. URL: [https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720) #### TCREI Framework This is a pattern that I learned from the training [[Google Prompting Essentials]]. It is simple and very useful when applied to cases where you have a clear goal for using AI. You should build prompts in the order of the acronym. 1. **Task** - Describe the task that you want the AI to help you with including the expected persona and output format. 2. **Context** - Provide the necessary details you need from AI. Quantify what is possible. 3. **References** - Things that AI should use when creating output. These can be reference files within projects with tools like Anthropic Claude and OpenAI ChatGPT. 4. **Evaluate** - Ask if the output give you what you need. Consider how you might rephrase part of your prompt, such as how you may ask a question in another way. 5. **Iterate** - Have a conversation with AI. Add more context and/or references that you've provided in your original prompt. ### Example uses genAI Some of the ways that I have and are using genAI are below: 1. Refreshing my memory of concepts within my domain. 2. Discovering new developments within my domain. 3. Exploring and interlinking knowledge outside my expertise. 4. Searching for solutions through online databases. 5. Creating podcasts from digital books and research articles. 6. Outlining draft documents and presentations. 7. Generating images for presentations, websites, and produced video. 8. Designing lesson plans, rubrics, and potential learning activities. 9. Identifying parts of circuit boards and other hardware. 10. Generating discussion questions for design meetings and learning activities. 11. Exploring human behaviors and decision-making. 12. Identifying keywords and themes in qualitative survey analysis. 13. Evaluating project management workflows. 14. Generating and iterating on interview questions. 15. Verbally ideating through ambiguous problems. 16. Doing design thinking as part of course and multimedia design. 17. Solving problems within HTML, CSS, and Python. 18. Tutoring me on technical skills. 19. Helping to identify frameworks and models from a JPEG file. 20. Serving as a copyeditor. 21. Producing a summary and list of skills from training/course notes. 22. Taking on roles of people I am digitally communicating with. ## Coaching for genAI In my experience, attitudes towards genAI greatly differ across higher-education, the public sector, and the private sector, as well as with ages and professions. From where we sit, the the values of our studies, training, and professions very much shape how we apply this new technology. **My opinion is that we should accept the use of genAI.** We should build organizational structures and build knowledge of its use for solutions. ==We should learn to **translate** the old ways of doing things with the new way of doing this with artificial intelligence.== We should build communities interested in it and focus on how we can learn and change with it for ourselves and those we support. We should teach it, integrate it, and actively discuss its ethical use. I know very well that some do not agree with this opinion. But I know others do agree. As I look forward, I want to continue to adapt to the change. And I am terribly curious about leading and supporting evolution in teaching, training, learning, and human development with a human-AI partnership.