Month of AI - Professionalization of teachers

June was the Month of AI in education. On Wednesday 14 June, the education day of the NL Tech Week took place at HAN. The focus was on the professionalization of teachers and teacher trainers on the subject of AI. Teachers from all levels of education were present.

What happens when you bring AI into the classroom? What does that mean for the student and teacher? What tasks can AI perform and which do we want it to perform? Inge Molenaar, director of NOLAI, quickly mapped out the opportunities and risks during this meeting.

In the Netherlands, we think of a teacher's power with great importance. That also means a considerable responsibility for these professionals and their trainers to get started with AI. We know that teachers like to learn through collaboration and conversation. At various tables, themes were explored such as professionalization, self-regulation, collaboration, chatbots, well-being and motivation. How can AI support this? Ideas came up quickly. From studdybuddies for students and/or teachers, to a menu with handy implementation plans for schools, to an adaptive learning tool that takes into account how a child feels.

Professionalisation

Pierre Gorissen, associate professor of Learning with ICT at the iXperium and affiliated with the scientific program of NOLAI, closed the day with a clear focus on professionalization. "AI is already in our education, not just through ChatGPT, and is not always visible. Think, for example, of the handwriting recognition in Microsoft OneNote, or the images in PowerPoint that automatically receive a text description. That too is a form of AI.

The teachers of the future make conscious choices about when and for what they (do not) use AI. They help students become digitally literate in a world where AI is self-evident. This requires very specific, sometimes new, competencies. The necessary professionalization is ideally integrated into the daily practice of the teacher, with room for experimentation".

Continue to learn

Inge Molenaar, director of NOLAI, already emphasized: "It is good to always be aware of what generative AI such as ChatGPT actually is: not human, not accurate and it does not understand people. Although in every way it may seem so. AI or smart technology is determined by what we put in it, the garbage in = garbage out principle.