Abstract:

Artificial Intelligence in Education (AI&ED) is an interdisciplinary field exploring the use of artificial intelligence algorithms and technologies to enhance the quality and effectiveness of educational processes. This field focuses on understanding the key opportunities of using AI, identifying challenges, preventing and mitigating emerging risks, and developing strategies for dealing with unintended consequences.

There are many research topics within this domain. Some of them focus on supporting students in their learning practises. For example, “student behaviour analysis”, which includes “sentiment analysis” and “emotional recognition”, aims at analysing data generated by students to improve educational effectiveness, engagement, and learning. Another area of research is “learning personalisation”, which aims to adapt instructional materials, methodologies, and strategies to individual student needs.

Other research fields are dedicated to supporting teachers in their teaching practises. This includes, for example, the creation of immersive and interactive teaching materials or learning environments and the development of tools for assessing student performance and adapting programmes in real time.
Finally, numerous research studies are related to ethical, security, and privacy issues. This discussion is crucial for two reasons: to use AI in education without dangerous consequences and to effectively redesign curricula and learning objectives in general in order to prepare students for an AI-based world where they could exploit its potential, always taking into consideration the several issues its usage could arise.

To foster a creative discussion in these fields and to gather the most promising ideas from experts and researchers, Politecnico di Milano organised the AI_Edu Camp (https://aieducamp.metid.polimi.it/), in the context of the Milano Digital Week (https://www.milanodigitalweek.com/), Italy's largest event dedicated to education, culture and innovation. The AI_Edu Camp has been composed of a rich programme of educational events, entertainment, and workshops on the theme of "Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Education."

In particular, experts from very different Italian and European backgrounds participated in three workshops to envisage “new learning objectives”, “new teaching practices”, and “new learning practices" that will arise through the introduction of AI in the higher education context.

Through creative group thinking and a strategic design approach, participants conceived, created, and synthesised new ideas about these three areas. The result is a collection of "99 snapshots from the future" (https://aieducamp.metid.polimi.it/?page_id=29), released with a CC-BY-NC-SA licence, that can be explored, expanded, combined, and exploited to renew higher education curricula and the related teaching and learning practices.

The workshops are the results of the collaboration between two areas of Politecnico di Milano, METID Learning Innovation and the School of Design. The article describes the main conceptual ideas underpinning the design of the workshop, the structure of the three workshops itself, the main results, and the possible different lines of exploitation of the conceived ideas.

Keywords:

AI&ED, AI-based learning practices, AI-based teaching practices, AI-based learning objectives, Higher Education.