This probably is not the post you would expect on Halloween. My defense for this, however, is that AI is a bit of a scary topic to broach in this day and age.
I mostly mean this as a joke, but in all seriousness using AI makes me…uneasy despite the fact that I am part of the generation who should be embracing it.
As part of our work at the History, Philosophy, and Newspaper Library, staff and graduate assistants often lead classes on conducting historical research. In my first year of instruction, I generally stayed away from the topic of AI. Now that it has become obvious to me that more and more students are using AI in a variety of ways for research, it is more and more important that we address it as part of the research process.
It is hard to believe but it has been five years since the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign campus essentially closed after spring break. During the spring 2020 semester, spring break was officially from March 14th-22nd but campus did not fully re-open for the rest of the spring semester. Reviewing the Daily Illini, the concerns about Covid-19 before break were primarily about traveling abroad. In March 2020, the Daily Illini was still a physical newspaper and with the closing of campus, its publication was halted from March 15th through June 2020.
