{"id":1322,"date":"2026-10-21T19:47:29","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T19:47:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?p=1322"},"modified":"2026-10-21T19:47:29","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T19:47:29","slug":"tools-of-ones-own-portable-prompting-and-the-iterative-craft-of-professional-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?p=1322","title":{"rendered":"Tools of One\u2019s Own: Portable Prompting and the Iterative Craft of Professional Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

What a great experience at the\u00a0second annual AI and the Liberal Arts Symposium at Connecticut College!<\/a> So good to meet new colleagues and reconnect with friends, and so much to take away from the excellent sessions, conversations, and exchange of ideas with people working at the intersection of generative tools and the liberal arts.<\/p>\n

I gave a short presentation which I subsequently recorded:
\nTools of One\u2019s Own: Portable Prompting and the Iterative Craft of Professional Identity<\/p>\nhttps:\/\/harwoodben.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Portable-Prompting-and-Tools-of-Ones-Own.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

There was only one slide since the presentation was the Crafting Digital Identity course site<\/a> itself. I shared reflections from teaching the class for the first time, a skills-based studio course at Skidmore College exploring how students can take ownership of their digital presence, develop their emerging professional identities, and use generative tools to support creativity, reflection, and self-discovery.<\/p>\n

A central idea is\u00a0portable prompting: developing the ability to guide, question, evaluate, and refine interactions with generative tools across platforms and contexts. Rather than learning one particular system, students develop transferable skills and judgment they can carry into other areas of their lives.<\/p>\n

Through digital portfolios, multimedia storytelling, and designing their own AI assistants, students move beyond consuming technology toward creating tools that serve their own purposes.<\/p>\n

At its heart, the course is about\u00a0craft, authorship, and agency, helping students discover who they are, communicate who they\u2019re becoming, and shape their own digital futures.<\/p>\n

The output belongs to a moment. The craft travels with the student.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What a great experience at the\u00a0second annual AI and the Liberal Arts Symposium at Connecticut College! So good to meet new colleagues and reconnect with friends, and so much to take away from the excellent sessions, conversations, and exchange of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[82,83,84,25,131,89,119,70,129],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-accessibility","category-adaptive-learning","category-assessment","category-diy","category-ethics","category-faculty-development","category-generative-ai","category-instructional-design","category-liberal-arts-education"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1294,"url":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?p=1294","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":0},"title":"A Digital Makerspace for the Self: Reflections on Teaching ‘Crafting Digital Identity’","author":"Ben Harwood","date":"June 18, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I hadn't taught my own college course in a very long time. I've taught at nearly every other level. Sunday school. K-12 classrooms. French 1 and French 2 as a graduate student. But for more than twenty-five years my work was helping other people teach: instructional design, educational technology, faculty\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Assessment"","block_context":{"text":"Assessment","link":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?cat=84"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1203,"url":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?p=1203","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":1},"title":"Co-Creating with the Machine: What AI Reflects Back","author":"Ben Harwood","date":"October 20, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A reflection on the 2025 Connecticut College AI & Liberal Arts Symposium, exploring how AI is reshaping liberal arts education through cross-disciplinary learning, human connection, and a shared sense of awakening. Introduction Across three autumn days at the AI and the Liberal Arts Symposium at Connecticut College, the conversations felt\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AI"","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?cat=124"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harwoodben.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/ben-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1228,"url":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?p=1228","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":2},"title":"Beyond AI-Proofing: Designing for Integrity, Fluency, and the Future of Liberal Arts Learning","author":"Ben Harwood","date":"October 29, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A colleague and friend who teaches at a liberal arts college in California recently shared with me that she spent in the ballpark of 40 hours last summer redesigning a research paper assignment to be \"AI-proof\" in her fall seminar. At the end of spring semester, her students will graduate\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Assessment"","block_context":{"text":"Assessment","link":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?cat=84"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harwoodben.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1920-x-1000-px-791x1024.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harwoodben.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1920-x-1000-px-791x1024.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harwoodben.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Untitled-1920-x-1000-px-791x1024.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1205,"url":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?p=1205","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":3},"title":"Polygnosis and the New Frontier: Finding Our Bearings","author":"Ben Harwood","date":"October 27, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Continuing reflections from the Connecticut College AI & Liberal Arts Symposium If the first post was about waking up, this one is about finding your bearings. At the symposium, the mood shifted. The panic over AI\u2014the moral fog, the productivity hype\u2014gave way to something quieter and braver: curiosity. Once we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AI"","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?cat=124"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1285,"url":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?p=1285","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":4},"title":"The GenAI Archive Effect: Kent State","author":"Ben Harwood","date":"April 19, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"What happens to our memory of May 4, 1970 when generative AI starts filling in the archive? This experimental video essay explores that question by combining original Kent State footage with AI-generated protest imagery and Black Power visual motifs, layered against Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young\u2019s \u201cFour Dead in Ohio\u201d\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "AI"","block_context":{"text":"AI","link":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?cat=124"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harwoodben.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/runway1-1024x590.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harwoodben.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/runway1-1024x590.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/harwoodben.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/runway1-1024x590.png?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1006,"url":"https:\/\/harwoodben.com\/?p=1006","url_meta":{"origin":1322,"position":5},"title":"My first interview","author":"Ben Harwood","date":"October 19, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"A few weeks ago, I got to speak with my colleague and friend Joe Antonelli at Middleburry College about his work in Educational Technology. 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