Conference

Results of the 2nd AI&ED Conference

Christian M. Stracke

I was very pleased to co-organize the Second Conference “Regulating the Use of AI Systems in Education” on 24th and 25th of October 2024 in Strasbourg. During this interactive event, the Council of Europe invited all stakeholders to discuss the needs for international regulation of AI in education.

Overall, this 2nd AI&ED Conference was a huge success. It brought together all relevant stakeholder groups (researchers, teachers, students, enterprises, public authorities, policy makers and NGOs) which was considered as a strong asset and advantages. And a need for a 3rd Working Conference in 2025 was expressed to discuss in detail the upcoming proposals for the international AIED convention as binding legal instrument and the AI Literacy Toolbox that will be developed in the meantime.

The 2nd Conference facilitated a deep exchange of experiences and engaged discussions in the interactive sessions. While this combination was highly appreciated, many participants demanded for more general debates and group work dedicated to specific topics in parallel sessions. During a 3rd Conference in 2025, the sharing of experiences could be facilitated through pre-recorded videos and publication distributed in advance to allow more time for the general debates and group work collaboration.

In summary, the following recommendations were made:

  • Responsibility: In all AIED processes and aspects, there is always a human-to-human responsibility as the AI systems are developed, designed, implemented, offered and used by human beings with their specific responsibilities for the impacts of their activities.
  • Evidence: There is a strong need for evidence-based research to collect and analyse large-scale data and information about the impacts of AIED and AI Literacy implementations.
  • Holistic approach: The regulation of the AI use in Education (AIED) always requires the Education about AI (AI Literacy).
  • Policy makers: Representatives from CoE member states and their public authorities should present their ideas, proposals and action plans related to future AIED and AI Literacy.

Finally, the urgency of AI regulation in education as a special sector was confirmed: Current legal frameworks, such as GDPR and the EU AI Act, are insufficient to address education-specific challenges, particularly concerning children’s rights. It is important that the legal instrument for the AI regulation in education planned by the Council of Europe is aligned and complementary to the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence, as well as to serve the core values of the Council of Europe, namely: human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.

More information about the Programme of the 2nd AI&ED Conference by the Council of Europe: https://opening-up.education/second-conference-on-ai-regulation-in-education-by-the-council-of-europe

More information about the mandate of the Council of Europe for the AI regulation in education can be found here: https://opening-up.education/mandate-for-aied-regulation-by-european-ministers

2nd Conference on AI&ED by the Council of Europe

Christian M. Stracke

Registration still open until 1st of September 2024

The Council of Europe invites you to the Second Conference “Regulating the Use of AI Systems in Education” on 24th and 25th of October 2024 in Strasbourg. Registration is still possible online until 1st of September 2024. With this interactive event, the Council of Europe wants to discuss the necessary international regulation of AI in education.

The conference is being organized by members of the AI&ED Expert Group, including myself currently developing research on artificial intelligence and open education at the Scientific University IT and Data Centre. The AI&ED Expert Group was appointed by the Council of Europe to support it in the development of a specific European law on the ethical use of AI in education. This planned EU regulation on AI in education was mandated by the Ministers of Education in 2023 and will be presented and discussed at the conference.

The EU Commission, EU Parliament and governments have now agreed on the adoption of the AI Act as the first international cross-sectoral AI regulatory law and published it. However, the education sector is left out and the Council of Europe wants to close this gap, for which it received a mandate from all European education ministries in September 2023. To this end, the Council of Europe has appointed the AI&ED Expert Group, which is now preparing the draft AI law and recommendations for AI curricula. The first interim results were presented in a workshop at the AIED Conference 2024 in Recife (http://aied2024.learning-innovations.eu) and discussed with participants from all universities worldwide. The aim is to adopt and publish the draft as an EU law as soon as possible in order to enable the ethical and safe use of AI in universities worldwide.

Conference website by the Council of Europe: https://www.coe.int/en/web/education/-/working-conference-on-regulating-the-use-of-ai-systems-in-education

Conference agenda on 24th and 25th of October 2024 in Strasbourg: https://rm.coe.int/2nd-working-conference-on-regulating-the-use-of-ai-systems-in-educatio/1680b0dfcd

More about the initiative by the Council of Europe for the international AI regulation in education: https://opening-up.education/mandate-for-aied-regulation-by-european-ministers

My invited speech at EUNIS 2024

Christian M. Stracke

I was pleased to be invited speaker at the Congress EUNIS 2024 in Athens:

On 4th of June 2024, I was explaining the current situation in relattion to the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI).

My title was “Artificial Intelligence Regulation” and I was mainly focusing the AI Act and the upcoming law for using AI in education.

The AI Act as a general approach is applicable for all sectors. It is based on an impact assessment and the distinction between four levels of potential AI risks. During the development, generative AI (genAI) became popular and it was introduced as an addition category maybe causing future conflict with the four risk levels.

Education is a special sector that requires special attention:
Therefore, the Council of Europe and its appointed AI&ED Expert Group are working on a complementary law especially for the use of AI in education. It will set the framework and boundaries for ethical AI use in teaching and learning processes.

More about EUNIS 2024 and the AI workshop: https://eunis.org/blog/events/security-challenges-and-the-benefits-of-ai/

My slides are available here: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.11568575

Full-day Workshop at AIED 2023 in Tokyo

Christian M. Stracke

An interactive full-day workshop on ethical and trustworthy Artificial Intelligence (AI) and education at the 30th international AIED 2023 Conference: I’m not surprised and very encouraged that our proposal was selected in strong competition.  The full workshop title is: “AI and Education. A view through the lens of human rights, democracy and the rule of law. Legal and organizational requirements”. The workshop follows the World Café method and will be conducted in a highly interactive manner. It will take place on Monday, 3rd of July 2023 as a hybrid event at the AIED 2023 Conference in Tokyo, Japan, as well as online. The workshop is closely aligned with the AIED 2023 Conference theme – “AI in Education for Sustainable Society”. It will provide an arena for the AIED community to familiarise themselves with the CoE initiative and to engage in follow on activities.

It is obvious and demanded from latest publications, studies and events that AI in education and beyond requires legal and organizational regulations. Therefore, the Council of Europe (CoE) took action as it is the international organisation founded in 1949 to uphold human rights, democracy and the rule of law in Europe. Currently, it has 46 member states (19 more than the European Union), with a population of approximately 675 million. In 2021, the CoE established a first AI&ED Expert Group to investigate, and propose a legal instrument for, the application (AIED) and teaching (AL Literacy) of AI in education. The project, entitled, “Artificial Intelligence and Education”, is working towards developing an actionable set of recommendations for Member States, helping ensure that the application and teaching of AI in education is for the common good.

To that end, the CoE AI&ED Expert Group has researched and written an initial report (“AI and Education. A critical view through the lens of human rights, democracy and the rule of law.”) and undertaken a survey of Member States, both of which have been designed to inform the project and to stimulate further critical debate. Currently, the CoE AI&ED Expert Group is working on the analysis of the survey and developing the legal instrument. All workshop organizers are members of the CoE AI&ED Expert Group and/or were invited by the CoE and contributing to the CoE Expert Conference “Artificial Intelligence and Education” held by the CoE on 18th and 19th of October 2022 in Strasbourg.

The workshop intends to achieve these learning objectives:

  • To explore potential guidelines for trustworthy and ethical AI usage and to critically assess their structure and usage scenarios
  • To develop ideas around personal future ramifications (including trustworthiness and ethical implications) and AI usage in education, and to collate, present and discuss these
  • To explore in group work and in the plenary how legal guidelines for trustworthy and ethical AI usage can be developed and designed, in particular related to legal and organizational requirements
  • To identify methods for dealing with the quick changing developments in AI, providing a legal framework that is flexible but also appropriately effective

Therefore, these guiding aspects will be addressed:

  • How can we develop and implement legal and organizational requirements for ethical AI introduction and usage?
  • How can we keep and maybe even strengthen human rights, democracy, digital equity and rules of law through AI-supported education and learning opportunities?
  • And how can we involve all educational levels (micro, meso, macro) and stakeholders to guarantee a trustworthy and ethical AI usage?

Main focus will be on the legal and organizational requirements to achieve a regulation in the fields of AI and Education (AI&ED). Basis will be the work and activities of the Council of Europe (CoE) and its appointed AI&ED Expert Group and in particular its initial report. All these open and urgent issues will be discussed and next steps in relation to these requirements and goals will be defined.

More information on the website of the workshop:

http://aied2023.learning-innovations.eu/

 

PS: The workshop concept and key results are published in the AIED Conference proceedings now.

MOOQ and MOOCs at EDEN Conference

MOOQ and MOOCs at EDEN Conference

Christian M. Stracke
eden conference 2016

MOOCs are dead!

Long live MOOCs!

One provocative paper presentation at the European EDEN Conference 2016 among many other activities on MOOCs.

This year, EDEN 2016 has a strong focus on MOOCs and I’m very pleased to heavily contribute and support the debate together with my colleagues:

The presentation of my paper “MOOCs are dead!” will take place in the session D3 on Thursday, 16th of June (from 11:30 to 13:00), you are most welcome to join the discussion!

In addition I will introduce MOOQ, our ambitious European initiative for comparing and improving the quality of MOOCs: The MOOQ presentation will take place on in the synergy session B5 on Wednesday, 15th of June (from 14:20 to 15:50).

Another speech will demonstrate the interim results of EBE-EUSMOSI, the initiative for evidence-based school education, and in particular the new assessment instrument on inclusion: It will take place in the synergy session F4 on Friday, 17th of June (from 09:00 to 10:30).

And I will also introduce the new European research consortium PBL 3.0 for combining learning analytics and semantics in problem-based learning in the same session F4 on Friday, 17th of June (from 09:00 to 10:30).

Finally my colleagues Francis and Olga are organizing the EMMA workshop as a bootcamp on MOOC Assessment for Learning in Practice: You are most welcome to join the session B6 on Wednesday, 15th of June (from 14:20 to 15:50).

MOOQ and MOOCs at EDEN Conference 2016 in Budapest: We are looking forward to meeting all colleagues, experts and practitioners and continuing our cooperation!