AI and Me: A First-Year Unit
on Thinking, Choosing, and Being Human
An eight-module unit that helps first-year students decide how AI will fit into their education, and what they will refuse to hand over.
The problemWhat does it mean to be prepared for college when a machine can produce the essay?
Most campuses have answered with policy: syllabus statements, detection tools, honor code updates. Policy tells students what they may not do. It does not teach them to decide, and first-year students are making those decisions every week, mostly alone.
Why the first yearThe first year is where habits of mind get set. Students are forming their sense of what college work is for, whose voice belongs in it, and what kind of learner they intend to be. That is precisely the work AI now complicates.
AI and Me belongs there. It is not a technical literacy course, and it is not a compliance module. It is a guided inquiry into attention, truth, identity, ethics, and meaning, built to sit inside a first-year seminar, learning community, or bridge program.
Identify and explain how AI influences their personal decision-making
Analyze what AI means for identity and authenticity in their own work
Evaluate information and AI-generated outputs before relying on them
Reflect on the relationship between technology and their personal values
Articulate a personal framework for living responsibly with AI
Outcomes
The capstone asks each student to state what they will use AI for, what they will not outsource, how they will stay responsible, and which values will guide those choices.
Every module follows the same structure, so instructors and students know what to expect: an opening hook, why it matters, learning outcomes, a video and a reading, a micro-reflection, an AI prompt lab, discussion or journal work, a demonstration task, a self-assessment, and a closing reflection.
Outcomes are written to be assessed, and each demonstration task produces student evidence your program can review.
How it fits your program
Eight modules.
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01
Who Is Shaping My Thinking?
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02
Who Benefits from My Decisions?
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03
What Is AI Actually Doing?
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04
What Can I Trust?
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05
What Makes Something Human?
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06
Who Am I Becoming?
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07
What Is Fair? Who Is Responsible?
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08
What Kind of Life Do I Choose?
Ways to bring it to your campus
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Licensed
The full unit loaded into your learning management system, with facilitator training for your instructors or peer leaders.
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Co-facilitated
Your instructors run the unit, and I join selected sessions live, on campus or online.
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Campus engagement
A keynote for first-year students or a workshop for faculty and staff on teaching judgment, not just policy, in the age of AI.
Start with a pilot
The best way to know whether AI and Me fits your students is to try it with a section or a cohort.
I work with each campus to shape a pilot around your calendar, your seminar structure, and what you need to report.