Human Presence in an Automated World

What gets lost when we automate? Dr. Kevin Mason, Assistant Professor of History at the University of Northern Iowa, uses an unexpected analogy: you can get an efficient cheeseburger at McDonald's, or a better one from someone who cares about the human presence in the process. Applied to education, this raises questions about what automation gains in efficiency versus what it sacrifices in human connection and judgment. In this episode of the CETL Podcast, the conversation traces this tension back through industrial history while keeping the focus practical. For faculty considering AI integration, Dr. Mason offers a framework: identify where human presence matters most in your teaching and protect it.