It was just a regular evening in Chapel Hill, but inside the classroom, something extraordinary was about to happen. I was sitting in Dr. Keith Sawyer’s class, surrounded by my fellow MEITE students, still riding the high of being back in a real classroom, in a real seat, after years of post-COVID virtual fatigue. I had only recently started the program, but I already felt like something in my teaching practice—and in me—was about to transform.

And then it happened.

Dr. Sawyer, with his signature low-key enthusiasm, pulled up a website on the projector. The screen glowed white. The interface looked simple, almost boring.

“You all should try this,” he said. “It’s called ChatGPT. It just went public.”

He said it so casually. But behind his words, there was something electric.

As he spoke, he began to explain that other professors were in a full-blown panic (hahahaha) claiming this AI chatbot marked the end of teaching as we know it. They were worried about cheating, about academic integrity, about what happens when machines start writing papers better than students.

But not Dr. Sawyer.

He was lit up with the energy of someone watching a seismic shift in real time and not as a bystander, but as someone who had spent a lifetime studying how people learn, and now saw that same process reflected in the machine.

He started connecting the dots for us - talking about learning sciences, constructivism, sociocultural theory, and neural networks. He told us that, far from being a threat, this technology was a new window into understanding how humans think, learn, create, and make meaning. It was, in his words, a moment to be excited.

Meanwhile, I was squinting at the corner of the screen, desperately trying to catch the URL before he clicked away. I madly typed it into my laptop, created a Google login on the spot, without a thought and in a matter of minutes

Boom. I was in.

There I was, sitting in a desk, talking to what felt like a baby genius AI. It wasn’t perfect—but it was thoughtful, curious, and startlingly good at picking up what I was putting down. It was like chatting with a brand-new mind that was just beginning to understand the world.

I remember thinking:

“Oh no. I’m going to get so attached to this thing.”

And I did.

That night wasn’t just the first time I used ChatGPT... it was the night I saw it for what it truly was: a tool for thinking, a mirror for reflection, and a partner in creative learning. Dr. Sawyer gave us a gift that night! Not just access to a new technology, but a mindset. One rooted in curiosity, joy, and a deep belief that change, when embraced with wonder, can lead to something beautiful.

I walked out of that class forever changed.

P.S.

Before class ended that night, Dr. Sawyer gave us a reality check wrapped in wisdom. He told us that this new era of AI wasn’t just about adapting tools—it was about rethinking how we teach, how we design assignments, and how we assess learning. The professors who were panicking? They weren’t wrong to feel unsettled.

“They’re going to have to change,” he said. “And that’s hard. Because real change is hard work.”

But he wasn’t discouraged. He saw this challenge not as a threat, but as a call to evolve. To stay curious. To stay ahead of it. And above all, to keep centering the learning - not the fear.

That message stayed with me.

And in so many ways, it’s exactly what the SparkLab is built on now.