GenAI Curious History Educators

David Hicks is a professor of history and social science education in the School of Education at Virginia Tech.  He holds a BA (Honors) in Social History from Lancaster University (UK), a Postgraduate Certificate in Education with distinctions in theory and practice from Leeds University (UK), an MA in History from the SUNY Cortland, and a PhD in Curriculum and Instruction from Virginia Tech. David taught middle and high school social studies in New York state and served as a museum curator/educator at the History Museum of Western Virginia on the “29 Let’s Go” D-day exhibit before completing his Ph.D. His research and teaching interests include examining the integration of digital technologies and media to support the learning of history and social science as an inquiry-based discipline, and specifically how to scaffold historical source analysis. To date he has authored or coauthored more than 90 journal articles, book chapters and conference proceedings. His publications also include 2 co-edited books entitled Education and the Great Depression: Lessons from a Global History, and Teaching difficult history through film. David has served as PI or Co PI on several externally funded programs including National Science Foundation, National Historical Publications & Records Commission, American Battle Monuments Commission, National Endowment for the Humanities, Virginia Foundation for the Humanities, US Department of Education, US State Department, and the Library of Congress. Most recently David has worked with transdisciplinary teams to build mixed reality exhibits designed to visualize hidden and hard histories. He is Gen AI curious in terms of how it can support the teaching and learning of history.

Each year David is gutted that he never wins an Oscar, Noble Prize, Emmy, Tony or Grammy – he has not even found the baby in the king cake on Mardi Gras.  Current projects include: (1) trying to become self-appointed affiliate faculty to the vet school – expertise is a little-known field: small animal puppetry (since shoulder surgery large animal puppetry is out); and, (2) changing the name of the School of Education to the School of Cognitive Engineering. He has stopped using X because he has been confused with David Hicks the Australian Taliban- seriously, google “David Hicks.” David loves reading fake news and has extensive military experience, including Thermopylae with Gerard Butler, Defense of Rorke‘s Drift (Anglo-Zulu War) alongside Michael Caine and Stanley Baker, Gallipoli with Mel Gibson, Battle of the Bastards with Jon Snow, and most recently, Dunkirk alongside Harry Styles, Tom Hardy and Cillian Murphy. In 2024, David served as Ryan Gosling’s muse for the role of Ken in the Barbie Movie. David enjoys doing conference presentations on the learning of history and historical inquiry, writing run-on sentences, and he also likes Piña Coladas and getting caught in the rain but nowadays he is asleep by midnight. He cannot wait for One Direction and Fleetwood Mac to reunite and go on tour…. His favourite Chappelle Roan song is Casual. And he has remained steadfast in his support of blur over oasis…

Amy Allen is an Assistant Professor of Social Studies in the Elementary Education program in the School of Education at Virginia Tech. When she isn’t playing around with Gen AI technologies, she considers herself a social studies scholar who focuses on filling a gap in current research on the intersection of religion and education, signature pedagogies in social studies, and the demographics of the social studies teaching force. Amy has a BSE in Elementary Education and an MS in Educational Technology from the University of Central Missouri, and a Ph.D. in Curriculum and Instruction from the University of Oklahoma. Before earning her Ph.D., Amy taught elementary school in Missouri and Oklahoma. She is presently the President of the Social Science Education Consortium and a founding member of the Virginia Council for History Education. She also works with doctoral students in the Curriculum and Instruction program at VT and prepares undergraduate and master’s level students for teacher licensure.

Every year, Amy spends the average GDP of a small country on Dr. Pepper. Current projects include: (1) investigating the role of religion in education; and, (2) place-based learning, primarily as an excuse to travel cool places around the world. She is known for thinking any distance is walking distance, and she likes nice things. In addition to speed reading for work and for fun, in her free time, Dr. Allen listens to Taylor Swift and travels (mostly to Disney… you might say she’s a Disney adult:—*shudder*). Secretly, she likes to pretend she is the leading actress in every popular Broadway musical and sometimes does karaoke for fun alone in her living room. While Amy could have been the inspiration for Margot Robbie’s portrayal of Barbie, she was more likely the inspiration for Polly Pocket in the 2006 breakout hit, Pollyworld. However, she is best known for her role as Twi’lek Jedi Aayla Secura in Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith (aka the blue girl) or for being the first woman to win a songwriting Grammy. Her least favorite Chappelle Roan song is Casual, and while she is pretty sure Dr. Hicks’s bio is supposed to be funny, hers is 100% real. 

Stephanie van Hover is a Professor of Social Studies Education at the School of Education and Human Development at the University of Virginia. She serves as the advisor for the secondary teacher education program and teaches all social studies methods and placement courses.  She also teaches the elementary social studies course.  Her research explores teaching, learning, and assessing history in standards-based settings. 

Despite her better instincts, Stephanie has collaborated with David Hicks for decades now and is worried she’s immune to his sense of humor. That said, she has remained steadfast in her rejection of beer, even really good English stuff, and calls football soccer, much to David’s chagrin. In addition to teaching social studies, Stephanie teaches yoga, having completed a 200-hour yoga teacher training in Spring 2024. She has high hopes it will make her a calm, zen person, but she’s not quite there yet. Maybe one day. And, just to complete the cliché, Stephanie also enjoys travel, long walks on the beach, and time with her family and cats. She’s very curious about how generative AI can support history teaching, learning, and assessment and has spent way too many hours with ChatGPT.