{"id":839,"date":"2025-02-14T11:17:00","date_gmt":"2025-02-14T19:17:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/?p=839"},"modified":"2025-02-14T11:17:00","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T19:17:00","slug":"wise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/2025\/02\/14\/wise\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s WISE about Human Support in the Era of ChatGPT?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Chessie Alberti<\/a> & WAW<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dancing Through Chaos<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To deal with the increasing chaos, precarity, and uncertainty of rapid change in a higher education environment that is impacted by continually expanding generative AI tools, lately we have both been drawn to embodied practices which feel untouchable by AI: Somatic Experiencing and social dancing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Woodr\u00f3s explained in prior posts (here<\/a> and here<\/a>), they have been studying Somatic Experiencing (SE), a particular type of supportive, one-on-one conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, Chessie started taking lindy hop classes and learning about the role of \u201clead\u201d and \u201cfollow\u201d in partnered dancing. Dance is also deeply somatic and embodied. Social dancing requires the ability to connect and respond to another human body in a one-on-one context, noticing the cues of a partner and responding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Being Embodied<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

So, we found ourselves reflecting: what can we learn from these partnered embodied practices, like dance and SE, that can help us understand what makes our 1-on-1 work go beyond what an AI large language model can provide to a specific person? After all, AI doesn\u2019t (at this time) have a body. Humans are essentially nervous system mammals, and our need for other people in order to learn is why we have universities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Office of Academic Support, our programs use a conversational framework called the WISE model. According to the WISE model, academic support conversations move through four stages: Welcome, Identifying goals and approach, Supporting the learner, and Ending with purpose. When we think about what human-centered learning support services have to offer in comparison with AI programs, it makes sense to consider our embodied experience within the WISE conversation cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So, how do we consider WISE as an embodied practice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking with Both \u201cI\u201ds<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As we reflected and brainstormed ideas for this article, we kept coming back to the power of identifying an approach for each conversation. We realized that the I in WISE has two features: Identifying goals (the one we\u2019re most familiar with) and Identifying APPROACH. Somehow, we realized, the \u201cIdentifying approach\u201d piece of WISE kept falling out of our training materials or ending up in the S (Support the learner) part of the cycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When we \u201cIdentify goals,\u201d we ask questions like: Why is the student at office hours? Why did your colleague want to meet with you? What is the student hoping to accomplish in their conversation with a peer coach or writing consultant? This way, we draw on the knowledge the person seeking support has about the challenge they are facing and the knowledge of the person offering support, working together to clarify the goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second part, \u201cIdentify Approach,\u201d is essential but we find it is easier to overlook. We typically have trained students on this component as a part of the \u201cSupport\u201d phase, but believe it adds values to clearly root it in the \u201cI\u201d of \u201cWISE,\u201d and conceptualize the different shapes this \u201cIdentify Goal\u201d and \u201cIdentify Approach\u201d phase of the conversation might take.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIm-Bodied\u201d Idea Generation<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It is here, as well, that we make distinctions between what AI can do and what is possible with a body, a \u201csoma\u201d \u2013 what somatic information and moves are available to us as social animals interacting with fellow mammals? The state of each nervous system entering the conversation and the extent to which the two people\u2019s nervous systems can sync up in a productive way also<\/em> impacts the approach that will be taken towards the goal. Maybe a conversation needs to start with a little venting, then move into problem solving or brainstorming, and then narrow the plan based on that. Maybe laughter is needed to dissipate tension so that deeper thinking can be possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These two areas intersect to help determine the most optimal conversation shape: Who knows more about the relevant part? How much deep thinking can be made available in the conversational space?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The combination of deciding the two \u201cIdentifies\u201d is important, and there is also variety in the way the I and S might interact (Identify Goals, Identify Approach, offer Support). Some conversations are linear, following the progression we\u2019ve outlined. In others, there is an ebb and flow between the different components \u2013 it might not be clear when identifying goals shifted into choosing an approach or offering support, as they do<\/em> have interconnected components. Additionally, the model can be recursive, with several small cycles of identifying goals, identifying approach, offering support, and repeating, starting with identifying the next goal. That\u2019s a little theoretical, so let\u2019s put it in an embodied context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conversation as Dance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Actually\u2013the shape of this conversation starts to feel a little bit like partnered dancing. At the beginning of the conversation, one partner takes the \u201clead\u201d role, and one partner unfurls as the \u201cfollow.\u201d In social dancing, being a good \u201clead\u201d is less dictator-like than one might expect; the \u201clead\u2019s\u201d role is more about creating a \u201cpicture frame\u201d for the \u201cfollow\u201d to fill in. The \u201clead\u201d offers cues that are responsive to the \u201cfollow\u201d and within their skill level. A \u201cfollow\u201d responds to the \u201clead,\u201d filling in the space offered by each cue. In gender-inclusive \u201cEverybody Leads, Everybody Follows\u201d dancing culture, partners may switch roles depending on what they\u2019re trying to practice\u2013depending on the goals of their dance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We believe the WISE model of 1-1 support conversations connects to this \u201cEverybody Leads, Everybody Follows\u201d culture, and Woodr\u00f3s also sees connection to wisdom gleaned from the Somatic Experiencing model. Responding to the reality of what\u2019s accessible and important in that moment and prioritizing based on that \u2013 still informed by deep topical or self-knowledge \u2013 allows a more compelling conversational \u201cdance\u201d to unfurl. Each person brings relevant, deep knowledge (whether self-knowledge or subject-specific knowledge) and uses that to create the necessary \u201cpicture frames\u201d that will evoke a solution aligned with the goals. The nervous systems of these two social mammals inform, support, and enable this complex and multi-tiered exchange, mixing explicit and implicit knowledge sources to optimize the conversation for these two embodied individuals in this particular moment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI Not WISE Enough<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This is so different from talking to ChatGPT! There, you have to be the \u201clead\u201d and the \u201cfollow.\u201d You have to define both the approach and the goals you want. You cannot receive coregulation from ChatGPT to support higher level thinking, but instead need to have prepared that ahead. It\u2019s a different kind of conversation than the one that is possible with another person. Of course, it\u2019s also quite complex to facilitate one-on-one support as a whole person with a nervous system of our own: ChatGPT isn\u2019t going to have days where it\u2019s less regulated and less able to effectively empower someone (but how good at empowerment is it to begin with, really?)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps a person under stress is more likely to fall into a \u201csaviorist\u201d mentality or tell someone \u201cjust go here instead, I can\u2019t help you,\u201d but AI is known to be sycophantic<\/a>, offer hallucinations, or do the math wrong. If we human facilitators can remember that we are embodied and attend to the needs of our own nervous systems to support co-regulation, we can access our strength. Embodiment provides us the magic of the dance, and it also calls us to have the level of self-awareness that an experienced lead brings to that medium.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conversation, we can also adjust to best support the other person to be as skilled and confident as they can be that day, supporting their agency. This might mean doing the conversational equivalent of switching roles so they can introduce a favorite dance step, setting them up for a solo spin, or supporting them in learning a new set of dance steps they\u2019re stressed about and unsure of by providing firm direction and then gradually reducing the pressure of that guidance as they increase in confidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI can\u2019t dance like a person can, so it\u2019s worth the effort it takes to have high quality conversations. One-on-one conversations can shift the world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Chessie Alberti & WAW Dancing Through Chaos To deal with the increasing chaos, precarity, and uncertainty of rapid change in a higher education environment that is impacted by continually expanding generative AI tools, lately we have both been drawn to embodied practices which feel untouchable by AI: Somatic Experiencing and social dancing. As Woodr\u00f3s … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “What\u2019s WISE about Human Support in the Era of ChatGPT?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14216,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-winter-2025-issue-1"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14216"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":840,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839\/revisions\/840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.oregonstate.edu\/success\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}