Lucas Dickerson
About
Lucas Dickerson is a lecturer at Kwansei Gakuin University, where he teaches cross-cultural communication and writing to Japanese undergraduates. His research combines language pedagogy, cultural psychology, and AI prompt engineering to foster more reflective, pragmatic English use in EFL settings. With a background in art and design, he’s especially interested in how educational tools can feel intuitive, human, and emotionally real. His current work focuses on peer-style chatbots and the limits of outcome-driven curriculum design in the AI-Era.Sessions
Workshop AI in the Writing Classroom: More Than Just a Chatbot more
Sat, Jul 19, 17:00-18:00 Asia/Tokyo
As AI tools become increasingly prevalent in education, the challenge for instructors is moving beyond AI as a mere novelty and leveraging it as a meaningful tool for writing fluency and discussion. This hands-on workshop will introduce educators to an AI chatbot-based approach designed to support EFL students in brainstorming, developing ideas, and refining their writing through structured peer-like AI interactions. Drawing from a classroom-tested framework, this session will demonstrate how chatbots can help reduce student hesitation, enhance fluency, and provide low-stakes opportunities for idea generation. Attendees will engage in a live demonstration, explore effective prompting strategies, and gain access to a customizable AI chatbot template they can use in their own classrooms. The workshop will also address potential pitfalls, including over-reliance on AI-generated content and strategies for maintaining student agency. Participants will leave with practical, research-informed strategies to integrate AI in ways that align with communicative language teaching and enhance student engagement in writing courses.