ACEL 2023 Victoria’s President's Research Seminar, Artificial Intelligence: Its impact on classrooms, teachers and school leaders
Progress has exploded in artificial intelligence, and in particular, tools such as ChatGPT. It is promising to revolutionise education with educators both excited and apprehensive of how to make best use of it all. Schools and education systems are tussling with the opportunities and also the challenges that these rapid technological developments are bringing in their wake. The recent ban on the use of ChatGPT by public education systems in Australia and then the reversal of that ban is but one example of how our schools are struggling to understand how best to work with these tools in ways that are productive and beneficial, whilst not minimising the issues that accompany this rapidly developing frontier.
Our expert panel will help us to make sense of this revolution, looking at the implications for your classrooms, yourselves as teachers and school leaders. Please join us to hear from our expert speakers and enjoy the opportunity to pose your questions to our speakers afterwards.
Please join our expert panel:
Professor Therese Keane, La Trobe University: For over 25 years Therese has been a champion for empowering girls in STEM. Her passion and many achievements have been acknowledged by her peers in her receiving numerous international, national and state awards. She has worked in a variety of school settings where she has taught IT and lead in K-12 education as the Director of ICT. Therese has been involved in the provision of professional development to ICT teachers and research into the use of technology, gender inequalities in STEM-based subjects, robotics in education, and computers in schools for teaching and learning purposes.
Dr Matthew Harrison, University of Melbourne: Matthew is an experienced teacher, researcher and digital creator with a keen passion for utilising technology to enhance social capacity building, belonging and inclusion in education. Matthew is a member of the Learning Intervention team and the Director of Professional and Continuing Education (PACE) at the University of Melbourne’s Faculty of Education.
Dr Lucinda McKnight, Deakin University: Lucinda is an internationally recognised expert in the field of digital literacies, especially in generative AI and writing. In her current role as an Australian Research Council DECRA fellow, she is researching how Australian teachers are conceptualising digital writing.
Dr Amber McLeod, Monash University: Amber is a lecturer and researcher in the Faculty of Education at Monash. Her current research examines assumptions about digital technologies, cultural understandings of ICT, and ways to build pre-service teacher digital confidence and competence. She has delivered professional development workshops on coding, robotics and integrating digital technologies across the curriculum to support student learning to Australian and international primary and secondary school teachers. These experiences have given her an understanding of the barriers teachers face and where they require support.