Embracing AI in Education: A Call to Action for Educators

The iSAT National AI Institute with Thomas Breideband, William R. Penuel, and Mai T. Vu
 

“What should the classroom of the future look like? And what is the role of AI in these classrooms of the future?” These are central questions studied by researchers at the NSF National AI Institute for Student-AI Teaming (iSAT). Research on how people learn has converged toward a perspective of learning as fundamentally interactive, collaborative, and supported by tasks that are authentic to students’ identities and interests. Yet, dominant approaches to learning—and by extension the incorporation of artificial intelligence in education (i.e., AIED)—still primarily operate with a vision where students individually interact with technology that “optimizes” learning. iSAT aims to reframe the role of AI in education, expanding from a current emphasis on intelligent tools supporting personalized learning through unimodal, individualized, unidimensional, instruction toward a future where AI is viewed as a social, collaborative AI Partner.

In iSAT’s envisioned future, classrooms have been transformed into knowledge-building communities, where student-AI teams engage in inquiry, critical thinking, and collaborative problem-solving as they investigate a scientific phenomenon, solve real-world problems, or develop solutions to a design challenge. Distinguishing characteristics of these communities are the ways in which teachers, students, and AI Partners systematically construct conversations that probe deep and sustained reasoning, enable all students to share and build on each other’s ideas, and collaboratively solve challenging problems. Yet, the field of AI currently lacks methods and processes to ensure that AI technologies reflect the needs, interests, and values of diverse community stakeholders. Accordingly, in this episode we chat with two members of the iSAT research team as well as a teacher practitioner about their experiences developing and navigating the emerging research field of Student-AI teaming.

Readings and Resources: [anything interested folks can reference ahead of the Episode]

From Learning Optimization to Learner Flourishing: Reimagining AI in Education at the Institute for Student-AI Teaming (iSAT)

Episode Guests

William R. Penuel is a professor of learning sciences and human development in the School of Education at the University of Colorado Boulder. His current research examines conditions needed to implement rigorous, responsive, and equitable teaching practices in STEM education. With colleagues from across the country, he is developing and testing new models for supporting implementation through long-term partnerships between educators and researchers. Currently, Penuel has partnerships with large school districts and a national association of state science coordinators focused on implementing the vision of science education outlined in a Framework for K-12 Science Education. As a co-Principal Investigator of the Research+Practice Collaboratory, he is developing resources to help people build and sustain research-practice partnerships. Penuel is currently Principal Investigator for the National Center for Research in Policy and Practice, which is focused on how school and district leaders use research. He is one of the developers of an approach to improvement research called Design-Based Implementation Research.

Thomas Breideband is an Associate Director at the NSF Institute for student AI-Teaming (iSAT). He is also a research associate who leverages his interdisciplinary background to support research conducted in each Strand and to conduct internal research studies that facilitate better cross-strand collaborations. In addition to investigating how the integration of Artificial Intelligence in the classroom affects the user experience, Breideband studies how iSAT’s in-house AI Partner may also meaningfully support collaborations beyond the classroom. He holds PhDs in English and Cultural Studies with a focus on Rhetoric and Digital Media from Georgia State University and Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz (Germany).

Mai T. Vu, J.D., is the AI Program Manager at the Innovation Center of St. Vrain Valley School District in the greater Denver area. With a decade of teaching experience in both the US and Singapore, she leads initiatives to integrate artificial intelligence into educational programs, fostering innovation and preparing students to solve real world problems with AI.