Critical AI Perspectives for Educators (Certificate)

About the Course

In this course, we will look at recent developments with AI in education from a critical perspective. “Critical” in this context does not mean “negative” but, rather, we will consider how AI tools are being introduced into educational contexts and question the assumptions underlying those decisions. Attempts to automate parts of teaching and learning often carry assumptions about the purpose of education, the interests of students and teachers, and the capacities of land, climate, water, and family. Without being prescriptive, we will open these issues for consideration to help educators decide when and how to use, reject, or discuss AI in education and facilitate meaningful, even transformative learning experiences. Along the way, we’ll work with a number of technologies that are increasingly being used in education, including ChatGPT and MagicSchool, and we’ll watch two lesson sequences involving AI — one where students use a few AI tools and one where students discuss the ethical implications of AI tools.

Learning Goals

After completing this course, you should be able to:

• Engage in informed discussions with middle-school and high-school students about artificial intelligence (AI), especially how students would like AI to be a part of their learning and future.
• Answer questions from students about AI, either by drawing on their own knowledge or by consulting resources.
• Define terms like dataset, training algorithm, and AI model, and map the relationship between them.
• Evaluate new education AI technologies by considering a number of tensions along with how they compare with preexisting education technologies.