Dave Oates has spent three decades telling the truth when institutions least wanted to hear it. As a crisis PR expert across military, corporate, nonprofit, and education sectors, he learned early that transparency and accountability aren't optional luxuries—they're survival strategies. Now, as a educator at San Diego State University, he applies the same principles that guided his crisis communication work to a fundamentally different challenge: how do we teach students to use AI responsibly when the stakes of getting it wrong keep rising? His answer is both simple and profound: we stop fearing the tool and start teaching people to think critically about it.
Anika sat down with Dave Oates to explore a counterintuitive truth: in an era of AI disruption, critical thinking has become your most defensible asset. Dave shares his transformational journey from Navy public affairs officer to crisis PR expert to educator—revealing why asking the right questions is the only intellectual differentiator AI cannot replace. He introduces three non-negotiable conditions for AI in the classroom—citation, source validation, and the why behind every answer—and discusses why institutions that swing from banning AI to embracing it overnight are doing students a disservice. The conversation challenges how universities teach responsible technology use alongside critical thinking, and exposes why most educators remain trapped in memorization-based curricula built on fear instead of passion.
In This Episode
Timestamps
Key Insights & Takeaways
Insight 1: We've Been Here Before—And We Survived
The calculator debate of the 1960s mirrors today's AI panic. People feared calculators would make us dumb. Fifty years later, we know tools don't diminish us when we understand how they work. As Dave explains: "The calculator didn't make us dumb. It is a tool set...people who are operating the calculator have to know the fundamental workings and engine on that to back up the reasoning for the calculations." AI is the same. The question isn't whether to use it—it's whether we know what we're doing when we do.
Insight 2: AI Is a Dumb Machine That Looks Smart
AI synthesizes information eloquently but doesn't rank it, evaluate truth, or catch its own hallucinations. It makes things up when it doesn't know answers. Dave warns: "It's not evaluating whether something is true or not...probably the biggest thing I think it does that we've all been talking about even more so is it just makes shit up. If it doesn't have something, it just hallucinates." An organization that hands an AI-generated crisis statement to executives without human review will create more damage than the original crisis.
Insight 3: Assignments That Ask "Why" Expose AI Misuse Immediately
If your assignment asks students to regurgitate facts, AI wins and you won't know. If your assignment demands reasoning, conviction, and original thought backed by research, cheating becomes obvious. Dave illustrates: "If we have as instructors, assignments that basically want students to just regurgitate facts...AI is going to be fine...But the common theme with all of those is I'm teaching critical thinking, I'm teaching why, and I'm teaching them to take chances." The problem isn't AI—it's how we design learning.
Insight 4: Citation and Rationale Transform AI From Crutch to Tool
Students must cite when they use AI and explain why they chose to use it. Dave's framework: "A, you have to cite that you used it...B, you have to tell me why I think it's okay for you to use AI." This teaches professional accountability: in the real world, you'll need to defend every choice you made, including which tools you used to make it.
Insight 5: Mastery Requires Application Beyond Information
AI can provide information instantly. But retention, understanding, and mastery come through the "learn-do model"—learning something and then applying it to what you're passionate about. Dave requires students to conduct real interviews, do surveys, and engage with actual professionals. This real-world data often contradicts what AI suggests—and that's the learning moment.
Insight 6: Nothing Beats the Art of Relationships
AI can't conduct interviews. It can't do surveys. It can't build the trust that comes from showing up in person and being vulnerable. Dave emphasizes: "Nothing still beats the art of relationships...You got to get out there and actually talk to people." That human data often contradicts what AI suggests—and that's where real learning happens.
Insight 7: Redefining Failure Transforms Student Engagement
Dave's philosophy: "The second thing that we teach above all else is the imperative art of showing up...Failure is only when you decide not to show up and not engage, because now you didn't even try." Students engage because they see an instructor who cares. Trust isn't built through policy—it's built through showing up, being accessible, and demonstrating genuine enthusiasm.
Insight 8: Memorization Is Dead; Critical Thinking Is Essential
The old model of teaching facts is obsolete. Dave declares: "I don't need memorization anymore. When I have at my FingerTips a generative LLM model and even a Boolean search model...I'm teaching critical thinking, and my assignments are architected accordingly." This shift isn't optional—it's survival.
Insight 9: Trust Is Built Through Presence and Passion
Dave's secret to building trust with 116 students: "I am accessible to you outside of class...I promise you I will respond within one business day, no later...If I'm not passionate about what I'm teaching, the kids are going to follow suit...I have name cards for every one of the kids...I'm trying to break that distance, that barrier between the instructor and the students." This transforms large classes into intimate learning communities.
Resources & Links
San Diego State University School of Journalism & Media Studies: https://journalism.sdsu.edu/
Dave's Teaching Focus Areas:
Advertising
Media Studies
Public Relations
About Dave Oates
Dave Oates is a crisis PR expert with 30 years of experience across military, corporate, nonprofit, and education sectors. He served as a U.S. Navy public affairs officer before building a career helping institutions navigate reputational crises through transparency and accountability. For the past three years, he has been a part-time lecturer at San Diego State University, teaching advertising, media studies, and PR to undergraduate and graduate students.
His guiding principle—"Respect tradition, embrace tomorrow"—defines his strategic, thoughtful approach to emerging technologies like AI, viewing them not as threats but as tools that amplify great teaching.
His mission: Help students and professionals understand that AI is a tool to enhance thinking, not replace it—and that showing up with passion and conviction is the only economic differentiator that matters.
Connect with Dave Oates
San Diego State University: https://www.sdsu.edu/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/davidoates/