Michelle Ocasio Embraces AI in the Classroom as Governor’s Teaching Fellow

Dr. Michelle Ann Ocasio, an associate professor in Valdosta State University's Department of Modern and Classical Languages, recently attended a one-week seminar designed to help her embrace artificial intellience in the student learning environment. She joined the VSU faculty in August 2011. She has a passion for integrating novel technology into her instructional design process. Dr. Michelle Ann Ocasio was one of 16 higher education faculty members from across Georgia selected to participate in the May 2024 Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program Symposium titled “Artificial Intelligence in the Holistic Classroom.” The selection process was highly competitive and focused on identifying faculty from a diverse range of academic disciplines with a commitment to instructional innovation.

VALDOSTA — Valdosta State University’s Dr. Michelle Ann Ocasio recently participated in an intense one-week seminar designed to give her the tools, strategies, and ethical practices for integrating artificial intelligence into the instructional design process.

“I found it to be one of the most rewarding experiences of my career,” said the Department of Modern and Classical Languages associate professor. She joined the VSU faculty in August 2011.  

Ocasio was one of 16 higher education faculty members from across Georgia selected to participate in the May 2024 Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program symposium titled “Artificial Intelligence in the Holistic Classroom.” The selection process was highly competitive and focused on identifying faculty from a diverse range of academic disciplines with a commitment to instructional innovation.

Throughout the experience, Ocasio collaborated with her peers and participated in structured faculty development and instructional design sessions as well as independent study reflective of her unique needs and interests. Every activity inspired her to re-evaluate her course instruction and the learning environment to better develop each student’s capacity for understanding AI and using the technology effectively and responsibly.    

“I’m very excited and energized to incorporate many of the tools I learned into my classes,” she said. “One of the projects I’m working on is an Escape Room to help students learn the International Phonetic Alphabet.”

The Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program was established in 1995 by former Georgia Governor Zell Miller. It is designed to provide higher education faculty from accredited public and private colleges and universities across the Peach State with expanded opportunities for developing important teaching skills and innovative pedagogies.

The Governor’s Teaching Fellows Program is an outreach initiative of the Louise McBee Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia and offers both an academic year symposium focused on course design or redesign and an intensive summer symposium that addresses a different topic each year.

As a valued member of the VSU faculty, Ocasio enjoys teaching SPAN 1001: Beginning Spanish Language/Introduction to Hispanic Cultures I and ESOL 4010: Applied Linguistics for English to Speakers of Other Languages Teachers at VSU.

“One of the most rewarding feelings is when a student writes back, long after the semester has ended, to tell me about how the material I taught is really helping them in their current career,” she said. “It makes me feel like I’ve left a mark.”

Ocasio has always been interested in novel technology with a passion for integrating artificial intelligence into the realm of teaching, and she has dedicated her career to revolutionizing how languages are taught and learned. From having office hours in the Metaverse to creating a chatbot to assist students and faculty in navigating VSU’s accelerated undergraduate to Master of Arts in Teaching initiative, with majors in English to Speakers of Other Languages or Foreign Language Education, her forward-thinking approach aims to make learning more accessible, personalized, and effective for students of all backgrounds. She earned her doctorate in 2011 at the University of Missouri, where her concentration was in historical linguistics, particularly of Afro-descendant cultures. In 2009 she was selected for the Fulbright Scholar Program and spent a year in Livingston, Guatemala, where she wrote the history of the Garifuna language.