Research Spotlights
Research Spotlight pieces are written by various contributing authors and reviewed by two academics in the EdTech field: Dr. Helen Crompton, Associate Professor of Instructional Technology Director of the Virtual Reality Lab and Director of the Technology Enhanced Learning Lab (TELL) at Old Dominion University and John Traxler, FRSA, Professor of Digital Learning in the Institute of Education at the University of Wolverhampton. Both Dr. Crompton and Professor Traxler are members of the mEducation Alliance. If you are interested in submitting a research activity to highlight in a future mEducation Alliance publication, please fill out this form.
The Artificial Intelligence for K-12 Portal
Written by: Sofia Mikton, McGill University
Ericsson partnered with UNESCO recently to develop an Artificial Intelligence (AI) K-12 portal. Working closely with UNESCO, Dr. Helen Crompton and Dr. Wayne Holmes developed content to provide educators, curriculum developers and students with quality information about the benefits and shortcomings of artificial intelligence. Crompton and Holmes also collated resources for the portal and worked with Ericsson to develop and design the portal as a free online resource that has an extensive repository of AI-related sources. The portal is particularly well-suited as a resource for remote-delivery, and is available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish.
The portal is organized into three main sections: 1) learning about AI, 2) teaching about AI, and 3) developing AI. Learning about AI covers the fundamentals, including an introduction to AI, the ethical and social implications of AI, myths about AI, and applications of AI. The second section, teaching about AI, allows educators to find resources that would fit well into their own curricula. These resources can be filtered by topic, age range, and resource type. Resource types include written work, videos, lesson plans, online courses and more. Curated carefully by researchers at UNESCO and Ericsson, this portal will serve as a quality one-stop destination for educators interested in learning about AI and teaching AI-related lessons to their students. This work continues as sections of the website are being extended and further resources included.
The AI K-12 portal will help address a current lack of knowledge about AI in the EdTech sector. Nowadays, with services like Siri and Alexa available at the touch of our fingertips, children are exposed to AI more than ever. The AI K-12 portal will equip educators with the necessary tools to teach children how to navigate AI safely, understand where their data goes, and learn how biases are amplified with AI. Like any technology, AI has its benefits and challenges. As AI continues to evolve, it is important for educators to stay informed about the implications of AI, and pass on this knowledge to their students.
For more details contact the researchers:
Website: http://teachingaifork12.org/
Researcher names: Helen Crompton & Wayne Holmes
Researcher email: Crompton@odu.edu
