The College of Education and Human Sciences occupies a distinctive position in the AI moment because our disciplinary scope spans multiple professional domains in which AI is actively transforming practice.
Preparing professionals to use AI tools ethically, critically and effectively is at the core of professional preparation. Teachers, speech-language pathologists, dietitians and nutritional scientists, hospitality and tourism professionals, audiologists, counselors, child development specialists, and education researchers all train within CEHS, and each of these fields is already navigating AI-driven changes in clinical documentation, client communication, dietary analysis, service personalization, and data interpretation. We are here to help pre-professionals and professionals already working in the field to prepare for this transformation.
The college’s breadth is also an asset for research, because questions about AI in human services, health communication, recreation management, and food systems require exactly the kind of interdisciplinary, equity-conscious perspective that CEHS is built to provide. That combination of professional range, research expertise, and a longstanding commitment to rural and underserved populations makes CEHS uniquely positioned not only to respond to AI but to shape how it is adopted across the human sciences and education professions.
CEHS AI Circle
1-2:30 p.m. Fridays in CPEH 130
The CEHS AI Circle is an opportunity for faculty, staff and graduate students in the College of Education and Human Sciences to come together to learn about and explore the uses of AI in their work. All levels of AI knowledge, experience and skepticism are welcome. Each session includes:
- Short AI news update
- AI research spotlight
- AI tool demo
- Time to explore AI tools and applications individually or in small groups.
Initiatives
Faculty, Staff and Student Development
- CEHS AI Circle: co-led by Beth Niehaus, Guy Trainin and Mel Sedlacek, creating sustained peer engagement with AI tools and pedagogies across departments
Teacher Preparation and K-12 Outreach
- Student teacher workshops
- High school AI workshops in collaboration with Gretna Public Schools and Nebraska Extension
- Generative AI summer learning programs: course-level experiments integrating AI tools into pre-service teacher coursework, with college-wide dissemination mechanisms
- GuyonAI Substack and "Azadeh and Guy on AI" podcast, extending CEHS perspectives to practitioner and public audiences
Research Collaboration
- REACT-E (Researching Ethical AI in Computing, Technology, and Engineering): a six-institution consortium studying faculty and student perspectives on generative AI in engineering and computing education, including validated survey instruments and a crossover study design examining group cognition
The Great Prairie AI Show
The Great Prairie AI Show is a live, gameshow-style competition in which interdisciplinary teams of students design AI-supported solutions to a real educational challenge.