Navigating the Future of Education: Insights from the inaugural conference of AI in Education Oxford University (AIEOU)
The AIEOU Inaugural conference at Oxford University on the 16 and 17 September provided a vibrant platform for exploring the profound impact of Artificial Intelligence on education.
AIEOU is a pioneering initiative dedicated to exploring and researching the intersection of artificial intelligence and education. Its mission is to foster dialogue, research and innovation that empower educators and learners to harness AI responsibly and effectively in educational contexts.
Habs’ Director of Innovation, Clare Jarmy, and Digital Innovator, Henry Gauntlett, were invited to speak at this conference. Their presentations delved into two crucial, yet distinct, facets of this evolving landscape – the philosophical underpinnings of teaching in an AI-driven world and the practical development of AI-enhanced tools for educators.
Clare Jarmy’s presentation, ‘Why have a human teacher? Epistemic co-responsibility and the classroom’, tackled a fundamental question in our technologically advancing era – the role of human educators as AI tutoring becomes more sophisticated. Her argument centred on epistemic responsibility – the idea of being responsible for your beliefs. Educators must teach what is true and value truth, cultivating good epistemic hygiene in students, especially in a world rife with misinformation. This led to a critical inquiry – can AI tutors truly possess epistemic responsibility and foster it in others? While systems like ChatGPT can generate sophisticated text, their operation is fundamentally probabilistic. As Stephen Wolfram explains, ChatGPT ‘is always… trying to produce a ‘reasonable continuation’ of whatever text it’s got so far,’ choosing each word based on probabilities. This raises profound questions about whether such systems can genuinely fulfil the criteria for epistemic responsibility in the way a human teacher can.
Complementing this philosophical exploration, Henry Gauntlett’s presentation, ‘The Vibe Coding Teacher‘, offered a practical perspective on how AI is shaping educational tools and methods, specifically in programming education. The session covered the exciting process of learning to code from scratch using AI (vibe-coding), building teacher tools, and a forward-looking view into the future of these innovations. This presentation highlighted the tangible ways AI can augment and support the teaching process, addressing real-world needs in the classroom.
The insights shared at AIEOU Oxford demonstrated that when placing the student at the centre of the conversation, values-led regulation and careful conceptual frameworks can channel the revolutionary and exciting opportunities AI brings to the world of education. The Habs Innovation Centre looks forward to continued work with AIEOU including opportunities for students, research projects and thought leadership.
