Abstract:

As the role of digital technologies in education continues to expand, there is a growing need for educators to develop competencies in emerging fields like “Conversational Artificial Intelligence (AI)”. This paper presents a syllabus designed for a new certification, "Conversational AI", to be launched by the University of Genoa in Fall 2024. This certification is part of the EPICT - European Pedagogical ICT Licence program, aimed at equipping school teachers with the skills necessary to effectively integrate digital technologies into their teaching.

The syllabus is structured into three levels: Experimenter, Expert and Leader, aligned with the European DigComp 2.2 framework, ensuring comprehensive digital competencies and facilitating international recognition and professional mobility.

Components of the Syllabus are:
Foundations of AI:
Introduction to AI concepts, focusing on symbolic, sub-symbolic, and neural AI, with an emphasis on using chatbots in education.

Advanced Language Models and Generative AI:
In-depth study of LLMs like ChatGPT and Gemini, covering architecture, functioning, and applications in educational content creation, including advanced topics like fine-tuning and API interactions.

Prompting Techniques:
Training in effective prompt formulation for AI systems, from basic to advanced strategies, including specialized techniques like chain-of-thought prompting.

Ethical, Social, and Legal Implications:
Focus on ethical AI use, privacy concerns, and bias mitigation, preparing educators to navigate AI's complexities in education responsibly.

Leadership and Innovation:
Encouraging educators to lead AI adoption in institutions, fostering innovation and continuous improvement.

This syllabus is not only a response to the increasing integration of AI in educational contexts but also a proactive approach to equipping educators with the necessary tools to harness these technologies effectively and ethically. The certification aims to prepare teachers to use Conversational AI to enhance learning experiences, improve student engagement, and streamline administrative processes.

The paper emphasizes that the introduction of AI in schools is an additional digital tool, not a replacement for teachers. It highlights the emerging role of teachers as "prompters" who must formulate clear, specific requests and critically evaluate AI responses. Teachers remain crucial in guiding, contextualizing, and assessing the use of these tools. Conversational AI is presented as an assistant capable of creating personalized learning experiences, such as tailoring stories to individual student interests or generating infinite variations of math problems for practice.

While Conversational AI opens new possibilities, it also demands new competencies from both teachers and students to utilize it effectively. The paper draws an analogy between a teacher guiding students through questions and instructions, and a prompter guiding AI. It stresses that prompt quality directly influences response quality. To illustrate this, the paper will provide examples of effective prompts for using conversational AI as an educational tool.

The introduction of the EPICT "Conversational AI" certification represents a significant step towards modernizing the teaching profession, ensuring that educators are prepared to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by AI technologies in the classroom, while maintaining their irreplaceable role in the educational process.

Keywords:

Conversational AI, Certification, Teacher Training, Education.