Co-Creative Futures:

Gen AI in New Materialist Pedagogical Theory and Practice

Rodrigo Ferreira

Computer Science

Philosophy / Public Policy

Rice University

GenAI and education (2022-23)

https://www.chronicle.com/article/im-a-student-you-have-no-idea-how-much-were-using-chatgpt?sra=true

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https://www.cnn.com/2023/01/26/tech/chatgpt-passes-exams/index.html

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https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2022/12/chatgpt-ai-writing-college-student-essays/672371/

Responsible GenAI application (2023-24)

• Media literacy: teaching students about bias and misinformation (Ciampa et al. 2023);
• Personalized instruction and communication (Comstock 2024), including on-demand personalized support (Fuchs 2023)
• Writing and Composition (Niloy 2023, de Vicente-Yague-Jara, 2023, Habib 2024, Imran 2024)
• Creativity: art-based education (Hutson and Cotroneo 2023, Pavlik and Pavlik 2024, Zhou 2024), including visual storytelling (Han and Cai 2023), craft education (Variainen and Tedre, 2023), and developing an artistic “persona” (Li and Kim 2023).

Experimental co-creativity

Academic approaches:

• “co-creating digital art” in K-9 education (Vartianen et al. 2023);
• “co-coding” in “creative programming education” (Jonsson and Tholander 2022)
• “co-writing” with GenAI in professional writing (Bedington et al. 2024)

Outside of academia:

• ChatGPT as a “dungeon master” in Dungeons and Dragons (Zhu et al. 2023, Triyason et al. 2023)
• As “co-creative game designer” (Anjum et al. 2024)
• Art: Laurie Simmons / Casey Reas / Refik Anadol (right)

Co-creativity and the environment

• New Materialism: a “re-enchantment” of matter for environmental activism
• New notions of “creative contingency” that challenge “corollary presumption that humans have the right or ability to master nature” (Coole and Frost, 2010)
• Working with: physical objects (water, dirt, fire, etc.) and animals (dogs, bees, horses, etc.)
• Applied to environmental education: “playfully re-[work] pedagogical possibilities…[for] co-creat[ing] distributed agencies in environmental education.” (Clarke and McPhie, 2024)

Can GenAI also be a part of this “re-enchantment” process and help with new materialism’s environmentalist mission?

A Class Experiment/Activity: “Our Cities in 2078”

• Background:
• IPCC 2023 Report
• Greta Thunberg at COP 26 on the power of narrative
• Role playing: climate communication experts working for the White House of Office of Climate Change Education
• Instructions:
• To create a 2-3 minute video (optionally using GenAI) to help communicate the impacts of climate change
• To consider working with GenAI as a “narrative collaborator” and not just as a “tool”
• Reflections:
• Three questions asking them about their experience working with GenAI, as a tool, as a collaborator, and about its impact on their relation to the environment

Results

#4: Fish’s POV, included poetry:

“[Kai] met wise Nani, a turtle of old / who shared tales of the ocean, its stories untold. / ‘Coral bleaching,’ she said, ‘is what ails our home, / from climate change’s heat we can’t bear to roam…”

#7: Often-ignored town (Unalaska), featuring a David Attenborough sound-alike voiceover

#3: Green technology / urban infrastructure / citizen participation

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“I think that non-human entities can be both creative on their own right and essential collaborators in the human/non-human creative process… We constantly look at our environment and AI for inspiration, and I think we should acknowledge how much they influence the overall creative process. We aren't independent thinkers, we depend on that which exists around us for inspiration and movement through creation. This experience did make me think outside of the human, and it made me realize how much the environment is a collaborator in our lives.” (Anonymous student quote)

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In the works:

• Conceptual questions
• The impact of GenAI on the environment
• Re-enchantment vs fetichization
• New Materialist vs. Eco-Marxist perspectives
• Practical Questions
• Method: How to analyze and report “data”?
• Audience: General education, higher education, or environmental education?
• Finding the right journal: pedagogical and/or theoretical intervention?

Thank you