SCC AI in Education Newsletter 25.11
November 2025
This month, we’re centering some voices and opinions from the skeptics—“AI-Resisters”, critics, educators, and journalists who are taking a vocal stance against the rise of generative AI and agentic AI, or reporting on the negative social and environmental impacts of this technology.
Happy November, SCC faculty and staff!
Welcome to the AI in Education newsletter, a monthly email detailing a variety of resources and webinars available for everyone to learn more about using and managing AI in your classrooms and offices. Please feel free to email me to share your thoughts, questions, and any resources I might share with the campus community. Let me know if you’d like to meet 1-on-1 to discuss your AI questions and needs.
Don Button (he/him)
AI Coordinator
Professor, Design & Digital Media
Sacramento City College
AI Resisters and Skeptics
In the AI in Education Resource Hub I’ve added a new “AI Critiques — Arguments Against Using Gen AI” module featuring a variety of articles questioning and challenging the adoption of AI in education and society at large. If you join the Hub (see info below,) you’ll have access to eight new articles and a podcast episode from this perspective. Here I’m sharing four of those resources for you to get a taste.
- The New Artificial Intelligentsia: how AI evangelists wrap their self-interest in a cloak of humanistic concern (LARB, Ruha Benjamin, Oct. 18, 2024)
- Resisting GenAI in Education: It’s Time For Mass Refusal, Folks (First Fish Chronicles, Emily Cherkin, Oct. 27, 2025)
- From Mexico to Ireland, Fury Mounts Over a Global A.I. Frenzy (NYTimes, Oct. 20, 2025)
- Algorithms Aren’t Neutral: Safiya Noble on AI, Bias, and Building Public Interest Technology (My Robot Teacher podcast, Oct. 23, 2025)
Agentic AI —the biggest new threat (and possible future teaching tool)
If you haven’t heard about Agentic AI, you’ll want to take a look at this (sit down first!) Agentic AI tools can now be used to not only help a student write a paper but enable them to instruct AI to access an LMS and complete assignments nearly unassisted. Your discussions, quizzes, and many assignments could be rendered completely useless for authentic assessment.
Here are three articles (and calls to action) on the topic, just added to the AI Resource Hub:
- Colleges And Schools Must Block And Ban Agentic AI Browsers Now. Here’s Why. (Forbes, Sept. 25, 2025)
- Agentic AI in Higher Education (OSU, Oct. 14, 2025)
- Agentic AI Has Arrived – Small ways I’m exploring a major AI capability (Substack, Oct. 30, 2025)
One more important thing for faculty skeptics —please see the information below about the book The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI. Even if you never want to use AI in your classroom, this book will be a great asset for how you might effectively persuade students to respect and understand your policy.
AI in Education Resource Hub
This Canvas shell is open to all LRCCD faculty and staff (and select students) with an interest in AI in education. It serves as a curated repository of useful AI news, tools, webinars, training opportunities, thought leaders, books, podcasts, and more.
Self-enroll in the Canvas shell
Once you’re enrolled, check out the home page to get an idea of what the site contains. Everything else is on the Modules page. You should read the most recent Announcement at the top of the home page to see what I send out every few weeks. Previous announcements are also a good way to get a more complete idea of what’s in the modules and find items that may be useful to you.
Books about AI in Education are now available on campus!
The Opposite of Cheating: Teaching for Integrity in the Age of AI
Bertram Gallant, Tricia and Rettinger, David A.
University of Oklahoma Press, 2025
I highly recommend this book for all Faculty —AI adopters and resisters alike. This is one of the best books out there about the impact of AI on teaching, and techniques to incorporated GenAI into your courses while maintaining academic integrity, critical thinking, and meta-cognition, as well as ways to support a no-AI use policy successfully.
The college has purchased several dozen copies to distribute across campus. Each Division office now has a copy to loan out, and there are more to borrow from SCC Library, which currently several printed copies and one eBook license, (but may upgrade to an unlimited license if the interest is there). If you want a copy and can’t find one, contact me or Brian Pogue.
Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning
Bowen, José Antonio and Watson, Edward C.
Johns Hopkins University Press, 2024
In this practical guide, teachers will discover how to harness and manage AI as a powerful teaching tool. Bowen and Watson present emerging and powerful research on the seismic changes AI is already creating in schools and the workplace, providing invaluable insights into what AI can accomplish in the classroom and beyond.
The SCC Library has an eBook license for unlimited users at one time, and one physical copy (located at ARC; folks can request to have it delivered here if available).
Upcoming AI-Related Webinars
For Faculty and Staff
Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot Training (for Faculty)
November 5 and 6
Designed for Community College faculty. This is a free 2-session webinar series. The first training, Introduction to Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot for Faculty, provides an essential overview of Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot. The follow-up training is focused on practical strategies for incorporating AI-driven tools into daily responsibilities for faculty.
Event Details
- Sponsors NAAIC and Microsoft
- Facilitator: Black Dog Black Cat education consultants
- When: Wednesday, Nov. 5 and Thursday, Nov. 6, 1:00 pm PST
- Location: Virtual, Free
Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot Training (for Staff)
November 5 and 6
- Designed for Community College staff. This is a free 2-session webinar series. The first training, Introduction to Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot for Staff, provides an essential overview of Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot. The follow-up training is focused on practical strategies for incorporating AI-driven tools into daily responsibilities for staff.
Event Details
- Sponsors NAAIC and Microsoft
- Facilitator: Black Dog Black Cat education consultants
- When: Wednesday, Nov. 5 and Thursday, Nov. 6, 3:00 pm PST
- Location: Virtual, Free
Human-First Teaching with AI
November 6
Modern teaching demands more from faculty than ever before. From formatting and accessibility compliance to upholding rigorous academic standards within the new frontier of online courses, instructors are increasingly consumed by digital busy-work. While these responsibilities are essential, these tasks pull us away from what matters most: meaningful human-to-human connection with our students.
In this session, we will explore how AI tools can automate repetitive teaching tasks without compromising quality, equity, or integrity:
- Create and edit accessible Canvas content.
- Streamline the creation of randomized assessments within Canvas to protect integrity in asynchronous classes.
- Model responsible AI use and literacy for our students for academic and professional success.
Participants will receive a digital resources toolkit to help get them reduce and manage their own digital busy work more effectively.
Event Details
- Presenter: E. Nidia González, Norco College
- Sponsor: CVC@ONE, CCC
- When: Thursday, November 6, 10:00 am PST
- Location: Virtual, Free
Can’t make the time? A recording will be available at the link above.
Intro to Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot (for Faculty)
November 14 and 18
With the disruptive innovation of Generative AI, educational leaders and faculty alike face uncertainty with the disruptive innovation of this mutable technology. A key component to dealing with radical change is ‘leaning into’ and living according to our personal and professional values. This webinar will encourage participants to examine the roles our values play as we examine how GenAI impacts authorship, connection, critical analysis and meaning-making in our academic learning and workplace environments.
Event Details
- Sponsors NAAIC and Microsoft
- Facilitator: Black Dog Black Cat education consultants
- When: Friday, Nov. 14 and Tuesday, Nov. 18, 10:00 am PST
- Location: Virtual, Free
Register for November 14 and 18
Intro to Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot (for Staff)
November 14 and 18
Designed for Community College staff. This is a free 2-session webinar series. The first training, Introduction to Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot for Staff, provides an essential overview of Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot. The follow-up training is focused on practical strategies for incorporating AI-driven tools into daily responsibilities for staff.
Event Details
- Sponsors NAAIC and Microsoft
- Facilitator: Black Dog Black Cat education consultants
- When: Friday, Nov. 14 and Tuesday, Nov. 18, 10:00 am PST
- Location: Virtual, Free
Self-Paced
Generative AI for Educators with Gemini
With Generative AI for Educators with Gemini, you’ll learn how to use generative AI tools (like Gemini and NotebookLM) to help you save time on everyday tasks, personalize instruction, enhance lessons and activities in creative ways, and more. Developed by AI experts at Google, this course will help you bring AI into your practice. You’ll also gain a foundational understanding of AI — you’ll learn what it is, the opportunities and limitations of this technology, and how to use it responsibly.
You’ll learn how to use generative AI tools like Gemini and NotebookLM to:
- Save time on everyday tasks like drafting emails and other correspondence
- Personalize instruction for different learning styles and abilities
- Enhance lessons and activities in creative ways
Location: Virtual, Free
National Applied AI Consortium (NAAIC) Training
NAAIC is transforming how AI is taught at community colleges nationwide. Through strategic partnerships with leading technology companies and educational institutions, we provide the resources, training, and connections faculty need to teach AI effectively, helping colleges develop programs that create accessible pathways to high-demand careers.
Their Upcoming Events page provides an impressive list of courses, including:
- Intro to Generative AI and Microsoft Copilot
- Autonomous Solutions for Automation Everywhere
- AWS AI Practitioner Faculty Training
- AI in Manufacturing: A Practical Guide for Community Colleges
- Microsoft Azure AI-900 Training
Pre-recorded from CVC@ONE
Building Your Own Multi-Pronged Approach to Reducing AI Misuse in Writing Assignments
Most educators now acknowledge that no single strategy can prevent students from outsourcing their writing to AI—especially in online, asynchronous courses. And yet we must not and need not abandon writing in our pedagogy; its value for learning remains. This webinar will make the case that a well-designed combination of strategies can make AI misuse much less likely.
We will explore three complementary approaches: designing assignments that motivate authentic engagement, implementing accountability measures that respect the student-teacher relationship, and guiding students toward pedagogical applications of AI that stimulate rather than replace writing processes. To support these approaches, we will share resources like AI policies, prompt templates, and examples of tools. Along the way, we’ll reflect on pros and cons and workload considerations for each strategy.
Come ready to think creatively, question assumptions, and begin crafting your own academic integrity plan that aligns with your context and teaching philosophy.
Event Details
- Presenter: Anna Mills, AAC&U Institute on AI, Pedagogy, and the Curriculum
- Sponsor: CVC@ONE, CCC
AI Breakout Room Challenges
In this hands-on workshop, participants will engage in a series of increasingly challenging collaborative AI tasks, structured as breakout room challenges. Each task will explore the use of AI tools to enhance teaching practices and student learning. Topics will include effective prompt writing, designing assignments that reduce the likelihood of AI misuse, and facilitating comprehension of complex texts. By working through these challenges in teams, participants will deepen their understanding of AI’s role in education and develop concrete strategies to apply in their courses.
Event Details
- Presenter: Christopher Stillwell, Saddleback College
- Sponsor: CVC@ONE, CCC
Related Links
AI in Education Resource Hub
This Canvas shell is open to all LRCCD faculty and staff (and select students) with an interest in AI in education. It serves as a curated repository of useful AI news, tools, webinars, training opportunities, thought leaders, books, podcasts, and more.