Presentation Schedule
Do Algorithms Dream of Electric Muses?: Teaching Creative Writing in the Age of Generative AI (98343)
Session Chair: Sherif Abdelhamid
This presentation will be live-streamed via Zoom (Online Access)
Wednesday, 7 January 2026 16:35
Session: Session 2 (Parallel)
Room: Live-Stream Room 2
Presentation Type: Live-Stream Presentation
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In Phillip K. Dick’s story “Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?,” androids are given a psychological test to confirm they are not human before killing them, but one android can fool the tester. The story’s end suggests that humans will treat a seemingly harmless android as authentically as what it’s replicated even when they know it’s not the real thing. Our students use tools like ChatGPT that functions as autocomplete on steroids to compose text using statistically likely relationships, and we instructors can’t always tell the difference between average student writing and GenAI text. But to focus on policing for authenticity—or author-icity—confuses product with learning. Instead, we might re-articulate “thinking for oneself” (Angelo & Cross, Classroom Assessment Techniques, 1993) as a central learning priority of creative writing and also re-focus on the intertwined roles of the self and skills in the arts. Applying Carol Dweck’s research, creative writing can be an environment where students understand their abilities are not fixed and failure is part of developing their unique combination of abilities. Angela Duckworth’s concept of situational modification and designing environments in which students can follow through is useful too. My presentation examines factors that shape pedagogical approaches and course structures and appraises individual assignments, including exquisite corpse, experiential learning, and final portfolio. Rather than champion a particular course policy on GenAI, I look at how different approaches and activities serve our learning priorities and discourage students from using GenAI that interferes with their decision-making, thinking, and autonomy.
Authors:
Anna Leahy, Chapman University, United States
About the Presenter(s)
Dr. Anna Leahy is a poet, nonfiction writer, pedagogy scholar, and Professor of English at Chapman University in California. See more at https://amleahy.com.
Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/anna-leahy-author
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