Next week sees the AI Pioneers project conference in Bremen, Germany. Along with my colleagues Ana Dias and Angela Karadog, I am hosting a workshop on AI and the Future of Education: The Story of the AI Pioneers Network. I originally intended to write a long blog post reflecting back on development on AI and Vocational Education and Training over the last three years since the launch of ChatGPT. But I simply ran out of time. Anyway my contribution to the workshop, which we are planning using a shared Google Doc, is a short presentation on AI and the Future of Education: Agency, Capability and Capacities. And here is a summary of what I am going to talk about.

As regular readers will know I am not a Generative AI fanboy. But one of the good things to have happened with the rapid spread of Gen AI is to start a more fundamental debate over the purpose of education. Over the last twenty years or so I have seen vocational education become ever more tied to the needs of companies and to skills based preparation for employment. As a counter I put up John Dewey saying “the purpose of education should not revolve around the acquisition of a pre-determined set of skills, but rather the realization of one’s full potential and the ability to use those skills for the greater good.”

My presentation continues by suggesting there is a shift of thinking about the desired outcomes for students and trainees in VET from Competence  defined as a combination of knowledge, skill and attitude to human agency, understood as a socially and technically embedded capability to participate in the world and change it. The role of VET is shifting from transmitting knowledge to developing human agency—our capacity to act with purpose. We must harness AI to enhance this ability, while critically examining its impact on society and the future of work.

Any reflection on the future of education must consider the future of teachers. Will the machines take over” I don’t think so. And I very much like the UNESCO publication, Teachers Cannot be Coded. UNESCO say “The future of education begins with teachers. They help learners to cultivate skills that no machine can teach such as critical thinking, ethical reasoning, emotional intelligence, and a sense of social belonging. Teachers bring education to life. They build human connections that no device can replicate. They help learners to cultivate skills that no machine can teach such as critical thinking, ethical reasoning, emotional intelligence, and a sense of social belonging.” It is also pretty hard to avoid the ongoing debates and angst over assessment. I quote Leon Furzes five principles for assessment and GENAI: Validity first, Design for Reality, Transparency for Trust, Assessment is a Process, and Respect Professional development.

There is a growing realisation that the interests of the large GENAI companies are not in developing AI for the good of the world for that matter to improve education but they are driven by profit. Of course, this could be a presentation in itself especially considering the issue of ethics. But I just make the point with three quick slides, one showing the increasing power of big tech, the second how OpenAI have exploited workers in Kenya and the third how Microsoft have terminated the jobs of engineers who protested against the use of AI products by Israel’s military.

The final section is on current developments which may influence the future of AI in education. First is Critical AI literacy – the ability to critically examine and question AI systems and their societal impacts. The second is on Muzzacato’s Common Good Framework offers five principles for securing public agency in relation to infrastructure. The third is around Regulation by the EU and in particular by the Council of Europe. The fourth I called AI unplugged including the development of Open Source and Small Language models. The last but one is on the importance of Democracy in VET to the future use of AI and the final slide is on the potential of Schools as the nerve centre for the knowledge economy, for innovation, and for social change.

Fifteen slide and 697 words in ten minutes is going to be a challenge. But I will try. Next week I will share my slides on the AI Pioneers website and write a report on how the workshop went.

About the Image

In this image, I wanted to explore how employers are beginning to adopt AI for specific, often low-level and repetitive tasks. I represented this through the figure of a businessman literally carrying AI into the workplace through a back door. This door sits at ground level which is a reference to the traditional pathway where young people entered the workforce at the bottom and worked their way up. In contrast, a group of young people are shown gazing up at a front entrance high above their heads, symbolising how the entry point into the workforce is becoming less accessible. By outsourcing foundational tasks to AI, employers may close off opportunities for young people to build digital skills and gain early career experience. The goalposts being moved, as it were, as a result of AI adoption. This image was created using collage tools on Canva.com. This image was selected as a winner in the Digital Dialogues Art Competition, which was run in partnership with the ESRC Centre for Digital Futures at Work Research Centre (Digit) and supported by the UKRI ESRC