Chapters International

The current uses of AI in schools are perhaps the worst type. The most typical AI use in schools reported in the media and research reports is the formation of an AI circle. Simply speaking, teachers use AI to plan their lessons and develop work for students; students use AI to help complete the work and turn back to teachers, who will then use AI to evaluate the work and give feedback to students.

There are tremendous misunderstandings of what AI can do and should do in schools but schools, teachers, and students have not had much time and training to reflect and think about significant educational implications and meaningful uses of AI in schools. In this workshop, Professor Yong Zhao leads policy makers, school leaders, teachers, and students to reimagine learning, teaching, education, and schools within the context of rapidly developing AI technologies. The workshop will cover the following topics:

The Broad Impact of AI on Society and the Changing Context of Education: Discusses industry changes, job changes, changes in higher education, and new skills needed in the new age.

Educational Transformation with AI: Discusses how AI can be used to transform school operations, from curriculum to pedagogy, from course scheduling to student management, and from student activities to community collaborations.

AI for Learning and Assessment: Discusses how AI can be used to support personalization of learning and new forms of assessment. Also discussed is the role of teachers in these new forms of learning.

From AI to IA (Intelligent Augment): Discusses the co-evolutionary relationship of IA and the learner as well as the ethics, biases, and new digital literacy for students.

Dr. Yong Zhao

Dr. Yong Zhao is a Foundation Distinguished Professor in the School of Education at the University of Kansas and a professor in Educational Leadership at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne in Australia. He previously served as the Presidential Chair, Associate Dean, and Director of the Institute for Global and Online Education in the College of Education, University of Oregon, where he was also a Professor in the Department of Educational Measurement, Policy, and Leadership. Prior to Oregon, Yong Zhao was University Distinguished Professor at the College of Education, Michigan State University, where he also served as the founding director of the Center for Teaching and Technology, executive director of the Confucius Institute, as well as the US-China Center for Research on Educational Excellence. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and a fellow of the International Academy of Education.

Yong Zhao has received numerous awards including the Early Career Award from the American Educational Research Association, Outstanding Public Educator from Horace Mann League of USA, Distinguished Achievement Award in Professional Development from the Association of Education Publishers, ACEL Nganakarrawa Award, and AECT 2022 Outstanding Digital Learning Artifact Award and AECT Distinguished Development Award. He has been recognized as one of the most influential education scholars.

His works focus on the implications of globalization and technology on education. He has published over 100 articles and nearly 40 books, including Duck and Cover: Confronting and Correcting Dubious Practices in Education (w R. Ginsberg) (2023), Improbable Probabilities: The Unlikely Journey of Yong Zhao (w G. W. McDiarmid) (2023), Learning for Uncertainty: Teaching Students in a Rapidly Evolving World (w G. W. McDiarmid) (2022), Learners without Borders (2021), Teaching Students to Become Self-Determined Learners (w M. Wehmeyer) (2021), An Education Crisis Is a Terrible Thing to Waste: How Radical Changes Can Spark Student Excitement and Success (2019) What Works May Hurt: Side Effects in Education (2018), Reach for Greatness: Personalizable Education for All Children (2018), Counting What Counts: Reframing Education Outcomes (2016), Never Send a Human to Do a Machine’s Job: Correcting Top 5 Ed Tech Mistakes (2015), Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Dragon: Why China has the Best (and Worst) Education System in the World (2014), Catching Up or Leading the Way: American Education in the Age of Globalization (2009) and World Class Learners: Educating Creative and Entrepreneurial Students (2012). He has also worked with numerous schools to design new models of education within the existing school.

Best Practices for AI Usage with Students

Over the past two years, generative AI has woven itself into the fabric of our daily lives. In education, initial concerns about tools like ChatGPT have transformed into a recognition of AI's immense potential. We now understand that AI is not simply a cheating tool but a multifaceted resource with diverse applications.

Our conversation surrounding AI must evolve beyond mere usage. Instead, we must delve into the nuanced characteristics of various Large Language Models (LLMs) and student-facing AI to discern how their unique capabilities can be leveraged to achieve diverse educational objectives. By understanding the strengths and limitations of each LLM, we can strategically deploy them to optimize learning outcomes, personalize instruction, and foster critical thinking and creativity in our students

This session will unpack real student experiences, from actual K-12 classrooms to:

Demonstrate how student-facing AI tools have been successful in fostering stronger questioning and inquiry skills
The ways AI serves as a thought partner, empowering students to deepen their understanding of complex concepts
How the thoughtful implementation of student-facing AI has helped students to think more critically, and expand their creativity and research skills
How student-facing AI tools can help get students unstuck, alleviating their need to cheat or procrastinate.

We'll embark on a journey to understand how AI can elevate education by personalizing instruction and supporting all learners. With student-facing AI, we can create personalized chatbot tutors equipped with safety guardrails, helping ALL students dive deeper into concepts no matter where they are in the learning cycle.

Finally, we will address the evolving landscape of data privacy in education, recognizing that existing agreements may no longer be sufficient. We'll delve into the importance of asking thoughtful questions about how the information and data is safely delivered to students' devices as well.

Potential Audience:

K-12 educators

Holly Clark

Holly is an education thought-leader, international speaker, best selling author and an advocate for students. She is a twenty-plus year educator who has spent over 15 years teaching in a 1:1 classroom and over five years as an administrator in both public and private schools. She holds a master’s degree in Instructional Design and Educational Technology from Columbia University in New York City. Her passion is for helping teachers create classrooms where students want to learn and can become the agents of their own thinking and understanding.

She is a National Board Certified Teacher, Google Certified Innovator, and is now the Chief Learning Officer at The Infused Classroom, Inc. She still spends time co-teaching in classrooms where she can better help teachers and schools begin the process of putting students at the center of the learning. Holly consults with schools globally on blended learning environments where meaningful pedagogy is infused with the strategic use of technology. She authors a popular education blog: hollyclark.org and gives keynotes to audiences worldwide. You can follow her on twitter and instagram @HollyClarkEdu.

In 2017, Holly published her first book The Google Infused Classroom and in 2020, both The Microsoft Infused Classroom and The Chromebook Infused Classroom will be released.

Venue:

Shanghai American School

Address: 258 Jinfeng Rd, Minhang District, Shanghai, China, 201106

8:30 am to 3:30 pm
Registration at 8:00 am
on the 1st of March 2025