Written by Pati Ruiz
Key Ideas
- Ethics requires consideration for how we work with technology.
- We are forming a Practitioner Advisory Board to help guide our work.
- Apply to join our Advisory Board where educator feedback is valued, learning and career development happens, and there are opportunities to make connections.
One of our primary goals is to work with teachers, educators, students, and families to understand how artificial intelligence (AI) systems and tools will be used in practice and to help design the tools and systems that we hope to implement within classrooms in the future. Engage AI is concerned with ethics–both in how we work as a research institute and in the implementation of the technologies we develop. To do this, we seek to involve our internal team and an external community in our work (this is where you come in)!
Are you a U.S. PK-12 educator interested in working with us on difficult problems related to the integration of AI in schools and classrooms? We are seeking 5-10 people to work with us over the next four years (or more!). There are SO many benefits to joining this work, but here are three.
1. Your Feedback is Valued
Your input is essential, especially at the beginning stages of this work. As someone who will be interacting with these technologies in real-time, having your thoughts and feedback is what will allow us to carry out our commitment to developing equitable and inclusive systems. We can’t do this work without you–we value you. Some of the ways you can contribute include:
- Helping us understand how teachers and students use or will use these tools and what they need in order to be prepared to use them.
- Helping us understand potential harms and anticipating issues (like the perpetuation of systemic biases).
- Helping us understand how the system will affect you, students, or their families.
2. Learning and Career Development
Your participation with the Practitioner Advisory Board will be a learning journey. As a group, we will explore the use of emerging technologies in classrooms, and how we might leverage technologies to better support educators and their students. We hope to foster a sense of community within the group where researchers and developers can learn along with you as we all go through the process of reviewing technologies and making recommendations on their use. Most importantly, the advisory board will also advise on rounds of iteration as the work of the Institute progresses. This is an excellent opportunity for continued growth and success in your career.
3. Making Connections
Finally, the advisory board will plug you into a nationwide community that will give you the opportunity to connect with colleagues across the U.S. who are working to improve students’ learning experiences and teaching practices. Our community understands the important role that technology might play in supporting the work of a teacher and the individualized needs of students. We believe that technology should not replace a teacher during the learning process. Throughout this process, we will provide advisory board members the opportunity to connect with researchers, developers, other practitioners, as well as students. Please consider joining us in this learning sciences-based work so that we can design new approaches to help people learn!
Apply to join our Advisory Board and let us know what you think by tagging us @EngageAIEdu on Twitter and sharing your thoughts!