A UNESCO IITE webinar dedicated to the use of AI tools in school teaching attracted a diverse group of educators, administrators, and policymakers from more than 70 countries. This event, held virtually on May 29, 2024 in partnership with Europass Teacher Academy (Italy), highlighted the transformative potential of AI in education and served as a vibrant platform for exploring innovative AI applications, sharing some of best practices, and addressing ethical concerns.
The webinar titled “AI for Teaching School Subjects: Practical Tools and Their Functionalities” opened with a short welcome speech of Mr. Tao Zhan, UNESCO IITE’s Director, where he emphasized the importance of teachers’ awareness about AI tools and applications of AI for modern teaching.
The welcome speech was followed by a practical session by Ms Marianna Ganiushkina, teacher of English and Theory of Knowledge in an IB school from Russia, where she demonstrated how some AI tools (Twee; MagicSchool; Eduaide; Diffit) can ease up a lot of teachers’ daily duties: streamline lesson planning and create exercises tailored to specific topics and students’ needs, freeing up teachers’ time for more interactive and creative teaching methods. The live demonstration of some AI tools and their capabilities provided hands-on experience, showing educators how to integrate these tools into their daily routines effectively. Ms Ganiushkina mentioned her gratitude to Europass Teacher Academy whose course ‘AI for CLIL’ greatly enriched her knowledge of the AI tools for teaching.
The webinar continued with a panel discussion where three invited experts from Europass Teacher Academy (Ms Alenka Miljević, Europass Teacher Academy Course director in Split (Croatia); Ms Yanella Ojeda, teacher trainer at Europass Teacher Academy in Barcelona (Spain); Mr Patrick O’Hare, Head Teacher Trainer in Dublin (Ireland)) discussed, among other things, the measures that schools and teachers should implement to ensure data privacy and security when using AI tools; how to teach students to make informed use of GenAI; and how schools in general and teachers specifically can identify and address biases in AI algorithms to ensure fair representation / reproduction of facts.
Additionally to Ms Ganiushkina’s presentation, Mr O’Hara, Ms Miljevic, and Ms Ojeda showcased several AI-driven platforms (including offline ones!) that help create teaching materials and adapt to individual student needs, thereby improving engagement and learning outcomes – and the hosts and panelists even discovered that GenAI can provide responses in the Dzongkha language! In the course of the webinar, the experts also shared links to free online courses on AI for teachers open to everyone. Overall, the message of the entire session was to start viewing AI positively rather than negatively or with suspicion.
Audience engagement was high throughout the event, with over 1,000 live participants expressing both enthusiasm and thoughtful concerns about the use of AI in education. During an interactive Q&A session, there were questions raised the role of the teacher: should a teacher should use AI tools to help learning or should a teacher teach students how to use AI tools? as well as issues of plagiarism using GenAI, AI in rare languages and using AI for more inclusivity. Some participants used the webinar as a hand-ons training: Chhimi Wangmo from Bhutan wrote, “I tried exploring magic school and twee for now. It looks amazing and actually believe the teacher can encompass them in the teaching / learning process.”
The feedback from attendees was overwhelmingly positive. Ngawang Choden remarked, “Thank you for this opportunity to attend this resourceful session. It just opened my eyes and mind to world of AI in teaching. Hoping to really make use of it…” Dorji Gyeltshen noted that “…the speakers’ expertise and clarity in explaining complex concepts made the webinar engaging and enriching. It’s clear that they are passionate about their work, and their enthusiasm was contagious. Thank you for sharing knowledge on AI.” Similarly, several participants highlighted how informative and practical the webinar has been and the importance of and need in ongoing and comprehensive training for teachers to effectively use AI technologies for teaching and professional development.
Overall, the success of this webinar underscores the global interest in and commitment to enhancing education through technology. The diverse participation and high level of engagement demonstrated a collective desire to harness the benefits of AI while addressing its challenges responsibly, ensuring that the future of education is both innovative and inclusive.
Link to the webinar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e6ht1m1Vlok&t=6333s