Guest Speaker: Mutlu Çukurova, Professor of Learning and Artificial Intelligence, University College London

Title: “AI in Education: Finding the Right Balance of Dependency, Scaffolding, and Competency”

Date: April 26

Time: 1-2:30 pm

Place: Zoom

Registration Link: https://kocun.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJIsd-mprjsqHtGNrY0s_YBFknOTWpVl8CCF

Abstract: AI in Education is more than tools like ChatGPT. This talk presents a multi-dimensional view of AI’s role in learning and education, emphasizing the intricate interplay between AI and the cognitive processes of learning. Prof. Cukurova challenges the prevalent narrow conceptualization of AI as stochastic tools, highlighting the cognitive diversity inherent in AI algorithms, and posits that AI can serve as an instrument for understanding human learning. Early learning sciences and AI in Education research, which saw AI as an analogy for human intelligence, have diverged from this perspective, prompting a need to rekindle this connection. The presentation delves into three conceptualizations of AI in education: the externalization of cognition, the internalization of AI models to influence human thought processes, and the extension of human cognition via tightly integrated human-AI systems. Prof. Cukurova argues for a balanced view that recognizes AI’s limitations and the need for AI systems that support human agency, facilitate the internalization of learning process models, and enhance human cognition without replacing it. The presentation concludes with an advocacy for a broader educational approach that includes educating about AI itself and innovating educational systems to remain relevant in a world with ubiquitous AI.

Bio: Dr. Çukurova is investigating the potential of analytics and artificial intelligence solutions to support human learning. He is particularly interested in supporting people’s ability to learn how to learn and solve complex problems collaboratively. In the big picture, his work aims to address the pressing social-educational challenge of preparing people for a future with AI agents that will require a great deal more than the routine cognitive skills currently prized by many education systems. His research is interdisciplinary and encompasses research in the learning sciences, computer science, and Human-Computer Interaction.

At the UCL Knowledge Lab, Dr. Çukurova manages research projects as an investigator (PI and Co-I), supervise postgraduate and postdoctoral researchers, and teach in the MA in Education and Technology programme. In addition, he is engaged in policy-making activities related to digital technologies for learning as an external expert (including UNESCO, IAEA, and EU external expert groups), part of UCL’s Grand Challenges on Transformative Technologies working group, an Editor of the British Journal of Educational Technology and an Associate Editor of the International Journal of Child-Computer Interaction.