Teaching with Heart in the Age of AI: How Spelman's Education Chair is Preparing Future Teachers for the Digital Classroom

How Spelman's Education Chair is Preparing Future Teachers for the Digital Classroom 

At the only all-women's HBCU offering teacher certification, Dr. Nicole Taylor is ensuring her students don't just use AI — they question it 

Nicole Taylor, Ph.D., associate professor of education, doesn't mince words when asked about artificial intelligence in education. "Will it replace teachers?" She repeats the question that haunts every educator in America. Her answer is immediate: "Teaching is a heart connection. It's a human connection. That can never be computerized." 

But the chair of Spelman College's education department isn't backing away from AI. She's running toward it — with a strategy that could redefine how America's most diverse teaching force prepares for the classroom. 

The Digital Divide Meets the Achievement Gap 

Taylor's vision is deceptively simple: Get Google Certified Educator credentials into the hands of all 25 students in Spelman's teacher certification program. But the implications are profound. 

"We are literally the only all-women's HBCU that offers teacher certification programs, period," Taylor emphasizes. That unique position carries weight. In a nation where teachers of color make up just 20% of the workforce while teaching a majority-minority student population, Spelman's graduates don't just fill jobs—they fill a critical gap. 

The $10,000 pilot project, funded through Spelman's new Vision Casting Initiative, equipped future teachers with Google Workspace proficiency and exposure to AI tools in K-12 settings. But Taylor's real innovation lies in what she calls "critical consumption." 

"We have always tried to be critical consumers of research, literally in paper journals," she explains. "Why not the same for this?" 

 More Than Just Certification 

On a typical week, Taylor's students spend two days in Spelman classrooms and three days in Atlanta public schools. That rhythm creates something powerful: immediate application. 

"What they're learning even from a Google certification, they can readily see it, and they can readily apply it with these students," Taylor said. The feedback loop is instant. A lesson on AI-assisted grading on Tuesday becomes practice on Thursday morning. 

But it's not about efficiency alone. Taylor keeps returning to experience — the kind that AI can approximate but never fully replicate. 

"If you have a student in your classroom who has never been to a beach, who has never heard the waves, seen the waves, anything like that, what can we use AI for to create an experience like that?" she asks. It's technology as a bridge-builder, not replacement. 

The 1,500 Decision Day 

Teachers, Taylor noted, make over 1,500 decisions daily. Should I call on this student? How do I redirect that behavior? When do I pivot the lesson plan? 

AI becomes one more tool in that decision-making arsenal—but only when wielded by someone who understands its limitations and biases. 

"We want to have that combination where we want the heart to match the AI as well," Taylor explained. Her students are learning to ask: Who created this algorithm? Whose experiences are centered? Whose are erased? 

These aren't abstract questions. When a student uses an AI tool to generate culturally responsive lesson plans, who decides what counts as "culturally responsive"? When AI assists with grading, whose standards of excellence are embedded in the code? 

Building Competitive Advantage 

Taylor is pragmatic about the market forces at play. "What's standing in between you and a classroom is your Spelman degree. That is it." 

The Google certification isn't just about pedagogy — it's about positioning. With teacher shortages reaching crisis levels in many states, Spelman graduates need to walk into interviews as the most prepared candidates in the room. 

"AI is in the P-12 space. It's in the elementary, middle school, high school classrooms already," Taylor stated plainly. "We want our students to walk into those spaces prepared to engage." 

The certification makes them not just competitive, but transformative. They're trained to see technology through multiple lenses: pedagogical effectiveness, equity implications, and student impact. 

The Bigger Picture 

Taylor's project aligns with two of Spelman's Centers of Excellence: Growing Career Pathways and Advancing AI Proficiency. But its impact extends beyond campus. 

If successful, the model could be replicated across HBCUs, creating a pipeline of tech-savvy teachers of color who bring both digital literacy and cultural competency to schools desperate for both. 

"We consider how we can advocate for diverse learners," Taylor reflected. "We consider the equitable learning experiences that can come about when we do integrate technology." 

In a nation grappling with both a teacher shortage and an AI revolution, Taylor is betting that Spelman can solve two problems at once: preparing excellent educators while ensuring that the next generation of AI-enhanced teaching doesn't replicate the biases of the past. 

"We're really trying to shape our future educators to be critical consumers of it and not just accepting it," she said. 

In Taylor's classroom, the future of teaching isn't choosing between heart and technology. It's insisting on both. 

Dr. Nicole Taylor's project is one of ten pilot initiatives funded through Spelman College's Vision Casting Program, a new model from the Office of the Provost designed to turn faculty vision into scalable innovation.