Transcription
Good morning, everyone. I'm Johnny Chang, a recent graduate of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and an incoming computer science graduate student at Stanford University. Today, I'm presenting here as the organizer of the AIX Education Conference, a student-led effort to explore and maximize the positive impact of AI in education.
So first off, let me welcome each and every one of you to this unique gathering. We're here today not just because we believe in the transformative power of AI, but because we understand the pivotal role education plays in shaping our future. So as we intersect these two domains—AI and education—we're looking at an enormous potential to change the learning landscape for millions of students and educators worldwide.
So our conference, spanning over the next two days, is a testament to this vision that binds us together. We'll be exploring, deliberating, and learning about the possibilities when AI enters our classroom. Now, let's dive into what we have for you. I'd like to give you a brief overview of what to expect.
Our conference is designed specifically for educators and administrators from both K-12 and higher ed. We've crafted this platform to address the current challenges and explore the potential that AI holds for education. We've taken special care to ensure that the unique experiences and insights of students form a core part of our discussion, since, after all, these are the individuals who are the direct beneficiaries of these technological advancements, and their perspectives are very valuable.
This conference is also a space for sharing experiences, insights, and practical implementations of AI in the classroom. We've built an incredible lineup of speakers—over 60 of them—who will be sharing their experiences with all of you. And what's truly remarkable is that we have close to 5,000 registrants eager to be part of this conversation on AI and education. But let's not forget this conference is as much about learning from each other as it is about hearing from our esteemed panelists and speakers. So please engage, ask questions, share thoughts, and join our networking sessions in the afternoon.
I would like to take a moment to highlight the difficulty behind this conference. We are a group of 11 student volunteers who chose to trade our summer breaks for something we believe in deeply: the urgent need to address the challenges and potentials of AI in education. We poured countless hours into turning this idea into a reality, starting from scratch, cold-emailing every contact that we could find who could provide the conferencing software that we needed, right? And we also reached out to over 200 educators who have thought about AI and education in the past few months, requesting their participation or their help in spreading the word about our conference. And to ensure a smooth and professional event, we ran multiple rehearsals with our student speakers and communicated very quickly and friendly with our faculty speakers. And in this process, we also naturally learned to have the entire GPA and any other animals, right? We asked them hundreds of questions to guide us in designing this conference and shaping our PR strategy, and to even compile our conference handbooks for both speakers and the attendees, right? So this effort behind the event has really been colossal, and I want to express my heartfelt appreciation to my team. Their commitment, their passion, dedication, and hard work have finally turned our vision into this incredible reality.
Let me share with you the goal of this conference. It's about bridging the gap between students and educators through inclusive and engaging discussions on the impact of AI in education. So we have observed countless conversations among educators about AI's role in education, but in most of these discussions, one key voice that often goes unheard is the students', who are the immediate beneficiaries and those who are actually impacted by these advancements directly, right? So we, as a team, believe that if we are to ensure the adoption of AI safely and equitably, it's very crucial to include the student voice in these dialogues. Our vision is a scenario where educators and students collaborate closely in defining the role of AI in the classroom. And in this collaboration, we believe is the key to bringing about faster and more relevant changes in the educational policies and curricula. Through this conference, we take a concrete step towards initiating that much-needed conversation, fostering this collaboration, and paving the way for a future where AI effectively enhances education.
Moving on, our mission as the AIX Education team is to accelerate a safe and equitable adoption of AI in education through a student-centered approach. And this mission is a direct reflection of the format of our conference. Here, most panels are moderated by students, filled with student panels, or they focus on students' insights. We hope these discussions will inspire educators and administrators, prompting them to continue the dialogue at their institutions. All we aim to do here is to start the conversation, to get the ball rolling. And this conference is also just the starting point, since the discussion on how AI should reshape education is an ongoing process. We envision many more events and discussions in the future, and we do hope that each one brings us a step closer to finding a better role of AI in education.
So why now? Why is it critical for us to convene this discussion today? The data we've gathered tells a compelling story here. So, uh, this is a recent study by the Walton Family Foundation and study.com. It paints a pretty clear picture of the growing awareness and intent to implement AI among educators. From their survey, 80% of the teachers have heard of ChatGPT, while 67% of these teachers plan to implement AI more frequently, actually, in their workflows. This includes various aspects like lesson planning to including AI as part of the curriculum. And the issue is, despite this rising interest, 72% of the teachers have not received any faculty guidance on using AI in classrooms. This number shows that there is a clear awareness and acceptance of AI and technologies, I'm more generally curious, but there's also a significant gap in the guidance provided to these educators about AI usage in classrooms. We need to address this gap now to ensure that we are not leaving any educator or student behind. But it's also not just the educators who are engaged with AI in education. The students, those who feel the immediate impact, are also significantly involved. Let's delve into how students are using AI tools like ChatGPT for their academic tasks. Here are some eye-opening findings from a survey conducted by intelligent.com involving around 5,000 students aged 18 and above. So 89% of these students admitted that they are using ChatGPT for their homework. This is a huge figure in providing us like a glimpse into how fast and broad AI is impacting education. However, the use of AI doesn't just stop at homework. 48% of students confessed using this technology to actually complete at-home tests and quizzes, and 50% have used AI for essays. And these numbers really show that how fast and rapid the impact of AI on education is. However, these numbers also might not show the creativity that students are employing in using AI in the classroom. So we are about to dive deeper into some of these creative examples of students' AI usage, and for this, I hope now to pass on the stage to Kazaya, a member of our conference team. Right over to you, because I am… yeah.
Thank you so much, Johnny. My name is Kazaya Kapala, and I'm a rising senior at Burlingame High School in the Bay Area. As we all know, there are several ways that AI can be used in education that I will talk about briefly now, and we will discuss more deeply during the conference. The first way is for brainstorming. Often times when discussing how AI can be used to help students, many say that it can help them brainstorm, making the initial steps for writing an essay or working on a project easier. For example, in this video, I asked ChatGPT for the causes of World War I. It gave me a basic breakdown that was historically accurate, so I could take this information and write an essay or work on a project. The next way AI can be used is for getting feedback. In this video, we asked AI to review Johnny's resume, and it gave him some very helpful feedback. Some key things to know is that we gave it a specific prompt so we could receive a more detailed answer. This feedback is also useful for students when they have to submit an essay or any other assignment. AI is also great for summarizing. We asked Claude AI to summarize the U.S. Department of Education's recent 71-page report on AI. It is often difficult for students and educators to find time in their busy day to read a 71-page report, which is why asking Claude AI to summarize made it more efficient and digestible. The next use of AI is that it can be used to research. When researching for school, students may have trouble finding sources, which is where AI can help. In our video, I asked Perplexity AI to research AI and education, where it gave me a summary of its research as well as links to sources that it used. These links are beneficial so students can read the articles and take additional information and implement it into any of their work. Another benefit of AI is its ability to analyze data. Many students are visual learners or may find data more digestible in the form of graphs as opposed to statistics. When we asked AI to make a pie chart for conference attendee statistics, it gave a step-by-step description of how it made the pie chart as well as gave a short description of the pie chart itself. Well, I've mainly discussed how students use AI, teachers can also use AI for different tasks, such as creating lesson plans. I asked ChatGPT to create a six-week lesson plan to teach the book *Beloved*, and it gave me a week-by-week breakdown of important topics and important themes to cover. Now I've discussed a lot of benefits; however, there are a few limitations to using AI, as listed on the screen. The first limitation is bias. We asked Midjourney, an AI platform that creates images, to create a picture of a professor. Upon doing so, AI created these images on the screen. As you can see, all of these professors are white males, which shows AI's bias and how it plays into stereotypes, which is something that many of us as students and many educators try to avoid. Another limitation is hallucination, or how AI can provide false answers. I asked ChatGPT to solve this factoring problem, and it solved it incorrectly. However, more interestingly, it gave an explanation which led to a false answer. This may confuse students or teach them inaccurate methods or information which they may use to solve their own problems on homework or tests. The next limitation is the over-reliance on AI. I asked ChatGPT to write a 1,000-word essay on the prompt "Emotional connections and their impact on learning," and it did so within seconds. Although not a perfect essay, it could have easily been submitted, which may encourage laziness and hinder critical thinking, as some students may not go through the extra steps of editing this essay and may submit it as is. Many companies associate the word "multiplier" with AI, more specifically a "force multiplier." However, AI can also be an "inequity multiplier," as only specific races and those of higher socioeconomic status are more likely to have heard of AI. On the left of the screen, you can see that 59% of white U.S. adults heard about ChatGPT as opposed to 49% of Black U.S. adults and 52% of Hispanic U.S. adults. On the right of my screen, you can see that 76% of high-income U.S. adults have heard about ChatGPT as opposed to 59% of middle-income U.S. adults and 44% of low-income U.S. adults. After weighing both the pros and cons of AI, one thing remains true: AI is a very powerful tool. I'm going to pass it on to Sharona to discuss how students and teachers can utilize this tool to make significant advancements in the education field. Thank you.
Thank you for the introduction, and thank you everyone for being a part of this pivotal discussion on AI and education. My name is Sharanya, and I am a rising junior studying at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And today, we'll explore the progress made in the AI education sphere and dive into enriching discussions that will shape our conference. Let us take a glimpse of the exciting highlights that our conference has to offer. Through keynote speeches, plenary talks, and fireside chats, we hope to gain some wonderful insights that our renowned speakers and experts have to share. We are thrilled to announce that Dr. Kristen DiCerbo, Chief Learning Officer of Khan Academy; Dr. Chris Dede, Senior Research Fellow at Harvard Graduate School of Education; Dr. Stephen Wolfram, founder and CEO of Wolfram Research; amongst many others, have joined hands with us to share their experiences and advice on adopting AI in education. Our beautifully highlighted… it's essential to consider both the perspectives of educators and students when integrating AI into education. Our conference has been thoughtfully designed to provide a platform for these discussions, recognizing the significance of students' experiences and educators' expertise in shaping the future of AI and education. Our conference commences with an inspiring keynote address by Dr. DiCerbo from 10:30 AM to 11:15 AM, highlighting AI applications at scale and setting the stage for enlightening fireside chats with AI experts on the capabilities and limitations of AI, scheduled from 11:20 AM to 12:00 PM. The fireside chat will be followed by an engaging student panel from 12:00 PM to 12:50 PM, with students presenting their perspectives and experiences with using AI in education, followed by an interactive Q&A session where our participants can put their questions in the chat through the question and answer chat box. The next session, scheduled from 1:00 PM to 1:50 PM, consists of four concurrent faculty and student panel sessions for STEM, humanities and social sciences, languages and literature, educational research and experimentation, with the focus being on redefining education in the AI era. Participants can choose and attend any one of these sessions that aligns most with their interests. For our brainstorming and networking session, scheduled from 2:00 PM to 2:50 PM, professors and administrators will engage in small group discussions with students, fostering valuable discussions to gain new perspectives. This event has also been divided into four concurrent sessions focusing on STEM, humanities and social sciences, language and literature, and art, music, and drama. Lastly, we'll have an open discussion panel on navigating educational policies for AI adoption from 3:00 PM to 3:50 PM, exemplifying how educators can discuss practical policies with students. As I progress through Day One, let me give you a glimpse of the exciting sessions planned for Day Two. The next day continues with our commitment to presenting diverse perspectives and engaging discussions. Day Two will commence with a riveting plenary talk by Dr. Chris Dede, offering valuable insight and insights and inspiring ideas. Following that, we have an enthralling fireside chat with Dr. Stephen Wolfram, focusing on ensuring AI literacy amongst educators. The rest of the sessions on Day Two will follow a similar pattern to Day One, but with greater emphasis on K-12 education. Student panels, faculty panels, and brainstorming sessions will provide an excellent platform for students and educators to exchange ideas and perspectives on AI in K-12 education. As we embark on this journey, we encourage you to sign up for our newsletter by scanning the QR code or visiting our website, aixeducation.com, to receive the conference report and stay updated on the opportunities and resources that come your way. Beyond this conference, we envision a range of exciting potential future events. Our newsletter will continue to distill key reports, disseminate practical implementations, and provide access to free resources. Additionally, we plan to create a Wiki page serving as a centralized hub for AI literacy, innovative usages, and practical policies. We are also thrilled to plan a series of free events, including webinars, summits, and AI policy challenges. These events will foster an environment of open dialogue and collaboration where ideas can flourish and create a lasting impact on the educational landscape. Our endeavor as the AI Education team is to be a part of a growing community of educators and students passionate about AI and its astounding capabilities. This community has promising resources and platforms to offer, and these include, but are not limited to, curated sources for documents focusing on AI policies and discussions from Lance Eaton and Anna Mills; student-led discussions such as the Art Conference AI consensus from Mineral University and a student panel from Johns Hopkins; online communities such as the AI in Education group by Daniel Stanford, the AI writing group by Laura Duman and Chad; the Jeopardy for Teachers Facebook group; and lastly, faculty-led discussions exemplified by Stanford HAI's AI Plus Education Summit and Montclair State University's Practical Responses to ChatGPT and other generative AI. We highly encourage you to explore these resources further after the conference. I would like to take a special moment and mention Zoom Events for generously sponsoring our conference software, ensuring a seamless and enriching experience for all participants. We truly appreciate their dedication to empowering educational events through their sponsorship and innovative ideas. Additionally, we are immensely grateful for the unwavering support of Zero to One, a non-profit student organization from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And before we proceed, I extend our heartfelt gratitude to all the individuals, educators and administrators, and speakers whose unwavering support has helped expand the presence of this conference and helped us tap into the dynamic network of educators all across the country. We will now pass it on to a representative from our sponsor, Zoom, to talk about their work with education.
This is a classroom, and so is this. It's where learning takes place, where teachers bring the world a little closer, and sometimes even where magic happens. Today's classrooms might look a little different than before, whether they're physical, virtual, or hybrid. Students have more places to discover and grow together. Zoom makes teaching and learning flexible for the future of education, connecting schools and campuses for a safe return to in-person and hybrid classes, staff meetings, professional development, office hours, and student services, and enabling your faculty and staff to stay in touch with everyone in your educational community, because learning should happen everywhere. Hi, I'm Candice. One of our core values at Zoom is care. We recognize that everyone has an effect on the world, and we care about making our impact as positive as possible. So much of Zoom's cast is driven by our passionate employees whose voices have shaped our giving strategy and help us determine what causes to support. One of those causes is education. We believe access to high-quality education is a fundamental right and the foundation to a bright and thriving future, and this is why we are honored to partner with and support this outstanding group of students who have organized this tremendous event. Over the last few weeks, I've witnessed the commitment and dedication of the organizers of AIX Education, and I truly believe this will be a momentous event with great outcomes. The AI landscape is changing rapidly, and at Zoom, we are excited by the opportunities AI brings to innovative features in the Zoom platform. As a company, we've long invested in AI, which enables noise suppression and virtual backgrounds, like right behind me, in our daily Zoom experience. And with generative AI, you can summarize your Zoom meetings now. Because of the fundamental shift in AI and generative AI, we have established three core principles for Zoom to leverage AI to unlock human potential. Our first principle is built on a federated approach. It helps us use the best-of-breed of large language models fit for purpose. Second is all about empowering. We want to ensure that the way we use AI helps both students and educators like yourself to reach your full potential. And third, it's all about responsibility. We have and will continue to have ongoing focus on privacy, security, inclusion, trust, and safety. This includes ensuring, as we do today, that our users are always in control of their own data. Your data is your data. With that, we are really excited and look forward to being part of your journey as you help shape the future of education with AI. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. We express our gratitude to Zoom Events for the insightful sponsorship presentation, which has truly added value to our conference. Thank you so much. As we move forward to our next session for the day, which is a remarkable keynote on building AI applications at scale, I would ask you to warmly welcome Dr. DiCerbo, the Chief Learning Officer at Khan Academy. Thank you all once again for joining us today. I wish you an insightful and rewarding experience throughout the conference. Please make your way to the next session, and let the discussions commence.