When
Where
Join us in Harvill 460 for the College of Information Science Colloquium Series, featuring Kevin Crowston, Professor of Information Science in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University.
This presentation investigates how the use of AI programming tools affects skill development and retention in beginning programming students and advanced scientific software developers. Studies of the former group largely focus on traditional programming skills rather than skills of AI use, while studies of the latter largely focus on productivity rather than skill development and retention. Crowston will address three research questions:
- How does the use of AI tools to automate certain tasks affect beginners’ acquisition of and competent programmers’ retention of the skills to do those tasks, across tasks and tools?
- What new skills are needed to work effectively with AI tools and how are those skills acquired?
- Can one be competent at a job without developing skills long viewed as foundational, i.e., can new skills of using an AI tool compensate for lack of skills in the domain?
The project includes two complementary studies. The first is a quasi-experimental study examining the impact of AI tool use in an introductory Python programming course. Data is being collected from an instrumented programming environment along with measures of programming and AI use skill and motivation and other attitudinal measures. The second study draws on critical incident interviews with developers of software to support scientific research.
About Kevin Crowston
Kevin Crowston is a Distinguished Professor of Information Science in the School of Information Studies at Syracuse University. He received his Ph.D. (1991) in Information Technologies from the Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). His research examines new ways of organizing made possible by the extensive use of information and communications technology. Specific research topics include the development practices of Free/Libre Open Source Software teams and work practices and technology support for citizen science research projects, both with NSF support. His most recent project is a study of the effects of the use of generative artificial intelligence tools for programming on programmer skill development and retention. He is currently co-Editor-in-Chief for the journal Information, Technology & People.
Header image courtesy Adobe Stock.