The First AI+Schooling Summit is poised to spearhead the global quest for “AI literacy”?

This past summer, a cohort of 350 contributors gathered at MIT to tackle the pressing question: Can education still foster inclusivity when digital literacy is no longer enough – an era where students must possess AI proficiency?

The event was hosted by Accountable AI for Social Empowerment and Schooling in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in collaboration with the App Inventor Foundation, the Mayor’s Office of the City of Boston, the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, and other organizations. The event featured an on-site “Hack the Local Weather” hackathon, where teams of both novice and experienced MIT App Inventor users spent one day developing an app focused on combating local climate change.

Researchers Eric Klopfer, Hal Abelson, and Cynthia Breazeal, as principal investigators of the RAISE project, outlined the evolving goals for achieving AI fluency. Klopfer noted that schooling extends beyond mere information absorption, emphasizing its broader impact on personal and social development. “Schooling is a comprehensive developmental journey.” How might we help scholars communicate more straightforwardly? Lecturers must be integral components of AI-driven dialogues. Abelson emphasized the empowering aspects of computational motion, particularly its immediate impact, noting that “what’s entirely different from years past when people taught about computers [is] what children can do right now.” Breazeal, director of the RAISE Initiative, underscored the importance of leveraging AI-supported learning, cautioning against treating technology like classroom robotic companions as a replacement for human collaboration and interaction between students and teachers. It’s crucial that people comprehend the fundamental principles of AI, enabling them to develop effective and responsible applications. We aim to empower individuals with a profound understanding of how AI must be seamlessly integrated into our society. We strive to equip a diverse range of people worldwide with the capacity to leverage AI, tackling pressing community concerns and unlocking solutions.

The summit featured some of the Prizes were awarded to apps in two categories: local weather and sustainability, as well as well-being and wellness. Profitable initiatives tackled pressing issues, such as developing object detection capabilities for visually impaired individuals, fostering empathy through interactions with AI-powered chatbots, and offering personal health assessments utilizing tongue imaging technology. Attendees engaged in hands-on demonstrations of MIT App Inventor, explored the interactive “playground” for social robots, and participated in a professional development session focused on cultivating responsible AI practices among educators.

The event’s unique blend of participants from diverse age groups, professional spheres, and global locations enabled the creation of a distinctive amalgamation of ideas that attendees could draw upon upon returning home. Papers presented at the convention showcased practical applications of AI in educational environments, mirroring the success stories of introducing AI-powered extracurricular programs, such as golf teams, while also addressing concerns over student data privacy and highlighting the results of large-scale experiments conducted in the United Arab Emirates and India. The plenary audio session focused on adopting a comprehensive audio system, with state authorities taking a stance in support of its implementation, and Francesca Lazzeri, Microsoft’s principal director of AI and machine learning engineering, outlining the possibilities and obstacles surrounding the utilization of generative AI in education? Lazzari highlighted the significance of software kits designed to implement safeguards around fundamental principles such as equity, safety, and transparency, thereby fostering a more regulated digital landscape. “I don’t think studying generative AI is solely the realm of computer science students,” Lazzeri said. “It’s about all of us.”

Crucial to early AI education has been the longstanding partnership between MIT and the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust, which enabled the deployment of project-based learning years ahead of its widespread adoption in pedagogy. A summit panel, comprising key stakeholders, successfully introduced this innovative approach to grades 4-6 in an initial pilot involving 32 Hong Kong schools, ultimately achieving the ambitious goal of scaling it up to over 200 schools across the region. At the panel discussion, Daniel Lai, director of CoolThink, noted that Hong Kong institutions such as MIT, the University of Hong Kong, and City University of Hong Kong were hesitant to introduce an additional curriculum outside of regular academic programs, not wishing to burden academics and students with extra responsibilities. They sought to integrate this concept into their educational framework, ensuring every child has an equal opportunity to acquire these skills and knowledge.

Since 2016, MIT has collaborated closely with CoolThink. Professor and App Inventor founder Hal Abelson assisted Lai in launching the venture from scratch. Several summit participants and former MIT analysis staff members emerged as leaders in the venture’s development. Josh Sheldon, an instructional technologist at MIT, led the development of the CoolThink curriculum and facilitated training for staff to enhance their skills. As the initial curriculum developer for the early stages of CoolThink, Karen Lang, then App Inventor’s learning and enterprise growth manager, crafted the lessons, alongside accompanying tutorials and worksheets, tailored to three distinct levels, with expert guidance from the Hong Kong education team, under the watchful eye of modifying support. Professor Mike Tissenbaum, currently affiliated with the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, spearheaded the development of the venture’s analytical framework, drawing upon his expertise in theoretical foundations. Between various key responsibilities, they led the initial instructor training sessions for the first two batches of Hong Kong scholars, comprising a total of 40 hours of instruction and approximately 80 academics in each group.

Daniel Huttenlocher, Dean of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT) Schwarzman College of Computing, The speaker likened the current state of AI to a “funhouse mirror” that distorts our understanding of reality, and posited it as another expertise that poses moral imperatives to seek out its beneficial applications that amplify human intelligence while also mitigating its potential risks. 

“Huttenlocher expressed his enthusiasm for a specific area: individual learning enabled by AI. He noted that AI is uncovering novel opportunities that people would not have encountered on their own.” As numerous summits have shown, AI and education are best achieved in tandem. “[AI] isn’t human mind. This isn’t human judgment. This concept stands alone in its uniqueness.