Navigating the Intersection of Technology and Education

The NSF AI Institute for Engaged Learning with James Lester, Guatam Biswas, and Kip Glazer

This episode will feature the NSF-funded National AI Institute for Engaged Learning (EngageAI). The EngageAI Institute is one of the five education-focused AI Institutes supported by the National Science Foundation’s National Artificial Intelligence Research Institutes Program. The EngageAI Institute is guided by a vision of learning that supports and extends the capabilities of students and teachers with AI. The Institute conducts research on narrative-centered learning technologies, collaborative narrative-centered learning, and multimodal analysis of engaged learning to create deeply compelling story-based learning experiences. Driven by a learner-centered vision of AI-augmented learning, the Institute develops learning environments that create narrative-centered learning experiences designed to promote student engagement. The Institute’s AI-enabled narrative-centered learning environments build on rapid advances in AI spanning natural language processing, computer vision, and machine learning. Woven throughout the Institute’s activities is a strong focus on ethics, with an emphasis on creating AI-augmented learning that is deeply informed by considerations of fairness, accountability, transparency, trust, and privacy.

This episode will feature a discussion of AI-enabled narrative centered learning, collaborative narrative-centered learning, and multimodal learning analytics. The discussion will explore how narrative-centered learning capabilities draw on emerging advances in large language models to create interactive narrative planning and generation technologies as well as emerging narrative-centered learning authoring technologies that leverage generative AI to support both authoring and customization that will enable designers and educators to meet the specific needs of their students, classrooms, curricula, and research programs. It will also include a discussion of the Institute’s advances in core AI technologies that support its design and development of narrative-centered learning environments, as well as a discussion of the Institute’s connections with diverse stakeholders that ensure that the learning environments it creates promote diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Readings and Resources

James Lester, Mohit Bansal, Gautam Biswas, Cindy Hmelo-Silver, Jeremy Roschelle, and Jonathan Rowe. The AI Institute for Engaged Learning. AI Magazine, 45(1), 69-76, 2024.

Episode Guests

James Lester

James Lester is the Goodnight Distinguished University Professor in Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning at North Carolina State University. He is the Director of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Engaged Learning. His research centers on transforming education with artificial intelligence. His current work ranges from AI-driven narrative-centered learning environments and virtual agents for learning to multimodal learning analytics and sketch-based learning environments. He is the recipient of a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, four Best Paper Awards, and the International Federation for Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems Influential Paper Award. At North Carolina State University, he has been recognized with the Alumni Association Outstanding Research Award, the Outstanding Teacher Award, and the Alexander Quarles Holladay Medal for Excellence. He has served as Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. He is a Fellow of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI).

Gautam Biswas

Gautam Biswas is a Cornelius Vanderbilt Professor of Engineering and Professor of Computer Science and Computer Engineering in the Department of Computer Science at Vanderbilt University, where he is also a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Software Integrated Systems. He is Co-PI of the National Science Foundation AI Institute for Engaged Learning. His research focuses on AI-enabled learning technologies, including open-ended learning environments for learning and instruction in STEM domains. He has developed innovative learning analytics frameworks for studying students’ learning behaviors and linking them to their metacognitive and self-regulated learning strategies. His current work focuses on multimodal learning analytics. He is on the editorial board of International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education. He is a Fellow of the IEEE Computer Society, the Prognostics and Health Management Society, and the Asia Pacific Society for Computers in Education.

Kip Glazer

Dr. Kip Glazer is Principal of Mountain View High School in Mountain View, California. She is a native of Seoul, South Korea, and immigrated to the United States in 1993 as a college student.  In 2002, she graduated Cum Laude from California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She earned her Master’s Degree in Curriculum and Instruction from Chapman University in 2004, while receiving her California Single Subject Teaching Credential in both Social Studies and English. Since then, she has earned additional teaching credentials in Health, Foundational Mathematics, and School Administration. She earned a Doctorate in Learning Technologies from Pepperdine University in 2015. ​She has won numerous teaching and service awards. Most notably, she was named the Kern County Teacher of the Year in May of 2014. She received the 23rd Congressional District of California Inspirational High School Educator Award in May of 2015. In June of 2016, she won The Best of NMC Judges' Award from the New Media Consortium Idea Lab. She has appeared numerous on podcasts such as Principals of Success and Politico.