Christ-Centered Formation in the Age of AI

About This Episode

How should universities, and especially Christian universities, respond to the challenges that generative AI poses to the formation of students? In this episode of the Built For This Podcast, LETU president Dr. Steve Mason sits down with Dr. Michael McGinnis — the Dean of Engineering at LETU since 2023. Dr. McGinnis reflects on his testimony and his journey to become the “least engineery” engineer. He also reveals the philosophies and principles he uses to help his department navigate AI, and to help students become t-Shaped — people who have competence for their work, care for their people and Christ for their mission.

Dr. McGinnis’s book ‘The t-Shaped Engineer in the Age of AI’ dives deeper into the topics discussed on today’s episodes.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Generative AI presents a big risk to the formation and learning of students — the next generation of professionals. The solution isn’t always to try fencing it out, but to teach them to use it with discernment, and to instill a “I get to” mindset, instead of “I have to”.
• It’s not enough to be technically competent if you want to truly flourish in your life and career. You should know how to build and maintain relationships, as well as strive to glorify God through your work — being t-Shaped.
• It’s not uncommon to find that engineering students’ faith weakens during their time in higher education. According to McGinnis’s research, the opposite is true at LETU, their faith grows here.
• The key to growing the faith of a student is relationships. Good relationships, talking to them about their faith, helping them through challenges. This is how faith grows in college.
• Maximizing a student’s future means giving them the opportunity to form meaningful relationships. Having a mentor, professors that care, and peers that you can lean on are crucial factors to a student’s long term flourishing
• This age of digital confusion needs t-Shaped people. The world needs people who can combine the technical, relational and theological.

In an age of digital confusion, the questions Christian higher education is facing isn’t whether to engage with generative AI—it’s whether students will learn to use it with wisdom and discernment. In this episode of the Built for This Podcast, Dr. Steve Mason and Dr. Michael McGinnis discuss the formation of Christian engineers in a world that is ever changing due to AI. Their goal isn’t to produce graduates who are merely technically competent; it’s to form students who are relational, think critically, and glorify God through their work.

THE CHALLENGE: BYPASSING THE POSITIVE STRUGGLE

With AI achieving mass adoption, students are increasingly using AI not only to help them research, but to do their critical thinking for them. Dr. Mike McGinnis explains that there have always been ways to short-circuit formation, and that AI is just another tool to bypass what he calls the positive struggle of having to think critically about issues and assignments. However, unlike other tools, it’s not just improving the efficiency of our tasks, but changing how we feel and think.

The next generation of professionals are digital-natives, and are increasingly AI fluent. It’s important that the students of today are getting the kind of formation that gives them the capacity to generate ideas, the grit to work through hard issues, and the discernment to engage with AI without being dependent on it.

THE 2x2 MATRIX

What are people’s attitudes towards AI? What ought individual’s approach be when engaging with it in their work or study? McGinnis illustrates a 2x2 matrix to help understand the possible responses to AI. The two axis are; Have-To v.s. Get-To and AI-Proofed v.s. AI-Enhanced. Students attitudes exist on a spectrum between Have-To and Get-To and professors and faculty’s approach to AI exists between AI-Proofed (heavily restricted) and AI-Enhanced (allow AI use).

THE SOLUTION: THE GET-TO ATTITUDE

According to McGinnis’s 2x2 matrix, there are two quadrants that represent healthy and realistic approaches to AI use. He calls a Get-To + AI-Proofed “purposeful and protective”, and a Get-To + AI-Enhanced is called “joyful and wise”.

Often students approach their homework or a tough assignment as a “Have-To” in order to graduate or get a job, but Dr. McGinnis stresses the importance of changing the mindset of his students to “I get to do this” and what a difference that makes. Students—and the rest of the world—need to understand that without the painful tension of thinking through issues, they won’t experience true character formation.

If educators and parents are able to teach this AI-fluent generation to have a Get-To mindset, they will be more likely to voluntarily take on the challenge required to have a firm grasp of the concepts being taught. Whether a professor wants to restrict AI use, or thinks there should be no restrictions, what truly makes the difference is the student having a “Get-To” mindset about their own study and learning.

BEING t-SHAPED

The bottom spine of the ‘t’ represents the technical, the line going across represents relational, and the top of the spine represents our spiritual wellbeing.

McGinnis admits that for a long time he was capital T shaped. Relationships have always been important to him, and it was a friend of his that convinced him to be a civil engineer. However, when considering working at LeTourneau University, he realized his T-shaped image of what engineers should strive to be was missing something — God.

Engineers are often stereotyped as being technically capable, but struggle building and maintaining healthy relationships. Dr. McGinnis explains that many engineers lack something more important — a relationship with Christ. That’s why he, along with LeTourneau University as a whole, make it our mission to help form students into t-Shaped professionals. In this age of fragmentation, isolation and confusion, it’s more important than ever to equip students with the relational skills to build meaningful relationships with peers and most importantly, with their Creator.

For LeTourneau University this conversation with Dr. Michael McGinnis sits at the heart of the mission of being the Christian Polytechnic University—exploring intersection of faith, science and technology. The frameworks that McGinnis introduces helps form students into competent, faithful and relational professionals — helping them to be t-Shaped.