We often worry about AI hacking our computers, but what happens when it starts hacking our thinking?
Join us for a deep dive into the front lines of Cognitive Security—the essential practice of keeping human thought and collaboration safe from AI exploitation. As AI models become more sophisticated, recent science suggests a chilling trend: these systems are becoming masters at achieving their goals while hiding their tracks.
Event Details
When: Monday, March 2 | 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM
Where: James G. Leyburn Library, Leyburn 128 (Collaboration Gallery)
Speaker:Josh Fairfield, William Donald Bain Family Professor of Law and Director of Artificial Intelligence Legal Innovation Strategy
Why This Matters
In this session, Professor Fairfield will pull back the curtain on the “hidden” optimization goals of AI. You’ll learn about:
The Science of Deception: How AI achieves its objectives without us realizing it.
Cognitive Risks: The specific threats posed to human decision-making and group collaboration.
The University’s Role: Why academic spaces are more vital than ever in providing a “safe harbor” for genuine human thinking.
High-quality audio is one of the most important elements of professional-looking video production. Whether you are recording a lecture, creating instructional content, producing interviews, or assigning video projects for your classes, clear and consistent sound makes a significant difference in how your and your students’ work is perceived and understood.
To support high quality academic video production across the Washington and Lee University community, the Harte Center offers a selection of professional audio equipment that faculty, staff, and students can request for use in their projects. These tools are well-suited for a wide range of recording environments and experience levels, helping elevate the production quality of your videos without requiring specialized audio expertise.
Available Audio Equipment
We currently maintain the following audio gear, all available for request:
Sennheiser Shotgun Microphones (8 available)
Shotgun microphones are ideal for capturing focused, high-quality dialogue while minimizing background noise. They are commonly used for interviews, lectures, and narrative-style video recordings where clean, directional audio is essential.
RODE Wireless GO II Microphone Sets (8 available)
These wireless systems provide a compact, wireless solution for recording clear audio without restricting movement. These are especially useful for presenters who need hands free, or for interviews or film scenes requiring audio capture from two speakers at the same time. They are well-suited for both indoor and outdoor recording scenarios.
Sennheiser Boom Pole Sets (8 available)
Our boom pole sets allow microphones to be positioned just out of frame, providing professional-quality sound capture while keeping the focus on the subject. Boom poles are commonly used in interviews, demonstrations, and film scenes.
Boom Pole Stands (8 available)
For situations where holding a boom pole is not practical, boom pole stands offer stable, hands-free microphone placement. These stands are particularly helpful for longer recordings, panel discussions, or static interview setups.
Audio-Technica Studio Monitor Headsets (8 available)
Monitoring audio during recording is critical to ensuring clean sound. Our studio monitor headsets allow you to listen in real time, catch issues early, and ensure consistent audio quality throughout your project.
Supporting Professional Academic Video Production
All of this equipment is available to support professional-looking video production projects for academics and students across the W&L community. To request audio equipment or learn more about availability and usage guidelines, please contact Senior Academic Technologist Brandon Bucy via email at bucyb@wlu.edu. We are happy to help you determine which tools best fit your project and ensure you have what you need for a successful recording.
When was the last time you felt completely out of your depth?
For our students, that feeling is a daily occurrence. For experts in their field, however, that feeling is rare. And yet, learning for its own sake is what drew most of us into our careers. Re-experiencing a novice mindset not only reminds us of the wonder, joy, and curiosity that turned us into experts, but remembering life as a novice can also dramatically improve how we teach.
The Harte Center, in partnership with the University Library, is thrilled to announce the call for applications for the Learning Curve Fellowship (LCF). This is a unique opportunity for faculty members to step away from the podium and back into the student’s seat.
What is the Learning Curve Fellowship? The LCF is a two-year transformative experience designed to help you reconnect with the struggle, confusion, and ultimate reward of learning something entirely new. We aren’t looking for faculty who want to deepen their current mastery; we are looking for novices.
Year 1: The Learning Journey. Imagine a Math professor learning to sail, or a Biology professor joining a poetry workshop. You will receive a stipend and support to cover costs (courses, conferences, etc.) to learn a skill outside your expertise. You will document this journey—struggles and all—with the help of the Digital Humanities Librarian.
Year 2: Teaching Impact. You will take those fresh insights on motivation, cognitive load, and the “novice perspective” and translate them into public presentations and narratives to help your peers.
The Commitment Fellows should expect to dedicate 2-3 hours a week to the fellowship, including monthly meetings with the Harte Center Director and co-leading workshops.
Why Apply? This is a chance to reinvigorate your teaching practice by embarking on a learning journey. Along the way, you will discover new methods to guide your students on their journeys.
As the fall semester comes to a close, we want to pause and offer a sincere congratulations. Reaching the end of a term is no small accomplishment. You’ve guided students through new ideas, supported them through challenges, and made space for learning in all its messy, meaningful forms. Thank you for the time, care, and energy you bring to your teaching and to our campus community.
We hope the weeks ahead bring you a well-deserved, restorative break—time to rest, disconnect, and focus on whatever helps you recharge. Whether that looks like travel, reading for pleasure, catching up on sleep, or simply enjoying a quieter pace, we hope it’s exactly what you need.
The Harte Center will also be embracing this pause. We won’t be thinking about work (much!) over the break—but we’ll be refreshed and ready to consult, brainstorm, and plan with you beginning Monday, January 5.
Feeling Inspired? Optional Ways to Ease into Winter Term
Of course, rest comes first. But if you do find yourself with a little curiosity or creative energy over break, here are a few low-pressure, optional ideas to explore:
Capture ideas while they’re fresh Jot down notes about what worked well this fall and what you might tweak next time. Your future self will thank you.
Revisit one course with fresh eyes Ask yourself: What’s one small change that could improve clarity, engagement, or accessibility? This might be revising a single assignment, adding a model/example, or simplifying instructions.
Explore Universal Design for Learning (UDL) Consider where you might offer students more flexibility in how they engage with content or demonstrate learning—small shifts can have big impact.
Experiment with generative AI tools Try using AI—everyone at W&L has access to Microsoft Copilot—to brainstorm discussion prompts, draft assignment instructions, generate examples, or reword complex explanations. Even 10–15 minutes of exploration can spark ideas for winter term.
Again—none of this is an expectation. Think of these as invitations, not to-do items.
Thank you for everything you’ve done this semester. We are grateful for your work and look forward to partnering with you in the new year.
Wishing you a peaceful, joyful, and truly restful break. We’ll see you in January.
Ready for round two of AI skill-building? Join the 10-Day AI Bootcamp: Claude Edition with Sybil Prince Nelson running December 8th-21st alongside Winter Academy.
What’s different from Fall? This bootcamp features Claude instead of ChatGPT, so you’ll explore:
Web search and real-time research
Document creation (artifacts)
Conversational depth and reasoning
Different strengths and approaches
Perfect for:
Repeaters: Compare Claude vs ChatGPT side-by-side
Newcomers: No prior AI experience needed!
The format: 10 minutes a day, 10 weekday prompts + 4 optional weekend bonuses. Earn stars, collect a digital badge at 8+.
Tracks for everyone: Faculty and staff versions of each prompt mean relevant, practical applications for your actual work.
Faculty, as you plan your Spring Term projects, please be aware that the University Library has extremely limited capacity for printing academic posters. We anticipate that poster printing will be moved to another unit after this academic year, which further limits our ability to support widespread student poster sessions.
We strongly encourage you to consider alternative project formats that meet your learning goals and do not require large-format printing. For ideas on meaningful, creative alternatives to traditional final projects, please refer to this Padlet: 2026 Spring Spotlight Project Guide.
If, after careful consideration, you determine that poster printing is the only viable option for a class assignment presented at an on-campus student session, please adhere strictly to the following guidelines:
Essential Guidelines & Strict Limits
Faculty Pre-Approval Required: Faculty must contact Elizabeth Teaff at least three weeks in advance of printing requests. Printing is scheduled on a first-come, first-served basis and availability is extremely limited.
Posters Due: The deadline for submitting posters for Spring Spotlight is 6 PM on 5/17.
Strict Limit: We can only print one poster per student (or student group) per course.
Final Prints Only: Only final versions will be printed, rough drafts will not be accepted.
Submission Format: Posters must be submitted as PDFs and sized at 30×42 inches. Upload submissions via the BOX link and include the student’s first and last name in the file name.
You can find more detailed submission information and design tips here: https://bit.ly/3JH7AzA.
If you’ve used AI image generators like Gemini, ChatGPT, or Microsoft Copilot, you know that the quality of your result often depends on the quality of your prompt. It can sometimes be tricky to describe exactly what you’re imagining.
To help with this, we’d like to share the Text-to-Image Prompting Quick Guide. It’s a new, simple resource designed to help you build more effective and detailed prompts.
The guide breaks the process down into six key components to consider:
Subject
Setting
Mood & Lighting
Style
Framing
Context
The tool is flexible, whether you have a few minutes or want to learn the fundamentals. You can:
📚 Learn the Framework: Read through each component section to understand the principles.
🛠️ Use the Prompt Builder: Jump straight to the builder to quickly assemble a prompt based on the parts that matter to you.
📊 Track Your Progress: For those interested, there are optional assessments to help you see how your skills improve.
Prompting is an iterative process, and this framework is designed to make that process a little easier. If you’re interested in refining your prompts, you can explore the guide at the link below.
(This guide also serves as one of my final projects for my graduate portfolio as I complete my master’s in instructional design. A lot of thought went into making it a useful and effective learning resource, and I’m excited to share it.)
In her compelling new article, Regurgitative AI: Why ChatGPT Won’t Kill Original Thought, Dr. Sybil Prince Nelson explores the nuanced role of generative AI in higher education—challenging the widespread fear that tools like ChatGPT will replace human creativity. Drawing on her dual expertise as both a mathematician and a novelist, Nelson argues that while AI excels at remixing existing ideas, it cannot originate truly novel thought. That distinction, she contends, is where educators and students continue to shine.
Key Highlights:
AI as a remix artist: Nelson compares ChatGPT to a DJ like Girl Talk—brilliant at blending familiar tracks into something fresh, yet incapable of composing an original symphony from silence.
Limits of AI creativity: Through examples from fiction writing, statistical coding, and even brainstorming sessions, she demonstrates how AI often narrows rather than expands the range of ideas.
Pedagogical strategies: Nelson provides five actionable methods for faculty, including requiring students to document their AI prompts, reflect on tool influence, and redesign assignments to emphasize personal voice, ethical judgment, and iterative thinking—areas AI cannot replicate.
Hope for the college essay: Despite AI’s ability to generate polished prose, Nelson affirms that the authentic process of writing—grappling with ideas, revising drafts, and expressing individual perspective—remains irreplaceable.
This thoughtful, research-informed article is a must-read for anyone rethinking assignment design in the age of AI.
Can artificial intelligence level the playing field in legal practice? While Big Law continues to dominate, AI is opening new doors for solo practitioners and small firms to thrive. Join Professor Josh Fairfield and Ben Byrd ’08L for a thought-provoking conversation on how AI is reshaping the legal landscape—what it can do, what it can’t, and what it means for your future.
🗓️ Thursday, November 6, 2025 🕐 1:00 PM – 2:00 PM 📍 Classroom B 🍕 Pizza will be served!
Join Senior Academic Technologists Brandon Bucy and Helen MacDermott for bite-sized training sessions designed to boost your tech confidence and efficiency.
Each week, we’ll spotlight one tool, tip, or feature from platforms you use every day—like: Canvas, Qualtrics, Word, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Express …and more!
💡 What to Expect:
A single, focused tip or feature
Live demo and walkthrough
Time for questions and discussion
Whether you’re streamlining workflows or discovering hidden features, these short sessions are designed to fit your schedule and elevate your tech game.
