2026 CSI Summer Conference: Teach Together

This presentation attempts to present multiple search tools, including AI-enhanced search, in historical and societal context. The session addresses both the democratizing potential and inherent limitations of each technological shift, focusing on aspects such as information accessibility, critical evaluation, and responsible use. Attendees will examine how biases have evolved rather than disappeared with each new technology, from editorial choices in print materials to algorithmic biases in search engines and AI tools. The workshop tackles known pitfalls of modern research tools, including SEO manipulation, commercial interests influencing search results, and AI "hallucinations" that present false information with unwarranted confidence. Participants will engage with strategies for developing critical information literacy skills tailored to each technological era, emphasizing the SIFT framework for evaluating accuracy, bias, and relevance in both traditional and AI-generated information. Through practical exercises, attendees will learn to balance the convenience of "insta-research" with thorough evaluation methods. The session aims to empower faculty and administration to guide students through the evolving information landscape while maintaining critical perspectives on both traditional and emerging research tools. The workshop begins with a half-hour description of the history of research tools, methodologies, and processes, beginning in the pre-digital age, continuing through the digital age, expanding in the Internet and Search Engine Era and culminating in the "AI Era," Benefits and drawback to each time period and its technologies are discussed. A brief review of critical thinking and information literacy is given. The next half hour involves discussing the nature, development, benefits, ethical issues, and information issues regarding AI tools and web-enhanced AI search. Generative AI tools, or "genAI," are built to approximate communicative language through statistical analysis and data reconfiguration. This method introduces a host of problems, including confabulations, hallucinations, artificial agency, and the tendency of users to rely on the first outputs of AI tools. An individual/group exercise follows in which participants use two handouts, one comparing the efficacy of AI tools and one with a suggested "search tool workflow" process, to decide which tools to use when researching certain topics, how those tools should be implemented in the search process, and how the user should be accountable/transparent regarding their research tool use. Finally, all participants come together for a discussion. The last segment is a search experience, in which participants utilize the various tools discussed in the presentation on their own, with feedback from the facilitator. This can be an individual or group experience, and the end result is that participants will be able to help their students and others use AI search tools, and other search tools, in an informed and responsible manner. Discussion questions will be encouraged throughout the session in order to facilitate presenter-facilitated, participant-directed, dialog. All attendees will receive handouts that discuss the benefits and drawbacks of various research technologies, common research principles when using AI, a comparison of the efficiency of various research tools, and suggestions for holistic research.