Time/Date: Thursday, April 16, 2026 (3:30-5:00 pm) 

Speaker: Jane Freeman, University of Toronto

Title: Puppeteer or Puppet?: Using Generative AI or Being Used by It

Abstract

As use of Generative AI in academic writing becomes more widespread, it is clear that some students use it to increase engagement with their own ideas while others’ use leaves them with a sense of psychological dissociation from their written output.  In this talk, I posit a spectrum of student agency in the use of GenAI, with “puppets” at one end and “puppeteers” at the other and suggest pedagogical means to help students move intentionally from one end of the spectrum to the other. We will consider how assignment design can help students cultivate an early sense of agency, means of helping students notice choices that move them from puppet to puppeteer, and ways in which an increased sense of personal agency can support deeper connection with self and others. Shifting focus from the micro level of student writing to the meso and macro levels of university and social contexts, we will also consider ways in which we as teachers and citizens work to increase our own sense of agency from puppet to puppeteer in an age of GenAI.

Bio

Jane Freeman is the founding Director of the School of Graduate Studies’ Graduate Centre for Academic Communication (GCAC) at the University of Toronto. A Professor in the Teaching Stream, she is a Senior Fellow of Massey College and a member of the Stratford Festival’s Senate.  In 2023, she was awarded the University of Toronto’s highest honour for teaching, the President’s Teaching Award.