Penn State's College of Education has appointed Priya Sharma as its first faculty director for AI Literacy and Innovation, a two-year role that began August 1. Sharma, an associate professor of learning, design and technology, will help faculty across the college build the skills to evaluate and apply artificial intelligence tools in their teaching and research - and decide when not to use them.
The position reports through Susan Land, interim associate dean for faculty affairs, and is designed to create a faculty-driven program that moves beyond basic AI awareness. Dean Gwendolyn Lloyd said Sharma's deep expertise in emerging technologies and her collaborative approach made her the right person to help faculty "navigate both the opportunities and challenges presented by AI while ensuring that ethics, human connection and educational purpose remain at the center of our work."
A practical, discipline-specific approach
Sharma is gathering input from faculty about what resources they need most. Early responses point to a demand for hands-on sessions where instructors work directly with AI tools and think through real applications for their courses and research. She is developing recurring workshops built around teaching and research case studies, with participants documenting their reasoning so other faculty can consult those examples later.
Because appropriate AI use varies by field, Sharma envisions discipline-specific sessions that let faculty evaluate tools through the lens of their own expertise. She is also building a College of Education website to house vetted resources, and she may invite AI software vendors to demonstrate products - followed by structured opportunities for faculty to critique the tools and potentially influence their design.
For educators looking to build these skills systematically, AI for Teachers Courses offer structured pathways that complement the kind of peer learning Sharma is cultivating. The broader AI for Education resources also address many of the ethical and practical questions faculty are raising.
Ethics, trust, and the choice to opt out
Sharma said preserving the relationships among students, instructors and peers is a central priority. "Community and relationality are really important and foundational for education," she said. She warned that AI can disrupt those connections or contribute to distrust when academic integrity becomes an adversarial checkpoint rather than a collaborative commitment.
Other concerns include systemic bias in training data, privacy, and the technology's environmental footprint. Sharma emphasized that strong AI literacy means checking AI output, recognizing its fallibility, and deciding whether using it is appropriate for a given task at all.
The initiative does not require faculty to adopt AI. Sharma wants colleagues who oppose its use to lead conversations about AI-free pedagogy. "Everybody has to pick where they land," she said. "Nobody can pick it for you. I think that choice and agency are really important because sometimes people end up using AI and not realizing what they're giving up."
What success looks like
In the first year, Sharma will measure progress by increased faculty engagement with AI-related questions - regardless of whether individuals ultimately adopt the technology. Longer-term, she expects the college to produce case studies and ethical frameworks that can inform teaching and research across Penn State.
By the end of her term, Sharma said she hopes the college will have practical frameworks for ethical AI integration and a foundation for continued dialogue. She noted that the college's expertise in how people learn across the lifespan and in different contexts positions its faculty to contribute a stronger voice to the university-wide conversation about artificial intelligence.
Why this matters for educators
Sharma's appointment signals that AI literacy in education is shifting from a top-down technology mandate to a faculty-led conversation about judgment, context, and professional agency. For K-12 and higher education professionals, the takeaway is practical: the most valuable skill is not knowing every AI tool, but developing the fluency to evaluate when a tool serves your teaching goals and when it undermines the human connections that make learning work. Faculty who invest now in understanding both the capabilities and the trade-offs will be better positioned to shape institutional policies rather than simply react to them.
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