Abstract:

The penetration of AI in education, on the part of both students and instructors, puts them on opposite sides. At the same time, ideally, AI can be used by both to enhance learning and assess knowledge. A recent European Research Project, the "INCLUDE-AI" project (Inclusive Artificial Intelligence for Democratic and Accessible Education), aims to do that. This initiative is led by the National Research Council of Italy (CNR) in partnership with Modul University Vienna. One of the most significant challenges in modern education is integrating AI effectively into educational settings without deepening existing inequalities or barriers to accessing and participating in education through democratic means. The "INCLUDE-AI" project was created to support the priorities of the European Digital Education Action Plan (2021–2027) by providing a conceptual and methodological approach to ethically implementing AI in schools and universities. To meet these objectives, the authors have employed comparative case study approaches to examine educational systems in both Italy and Austria, as well as ethnographic classroom observation, semi-structured interviews, digital maturity assessments, and co-design workshops. Using this array of methodologies will allow the authors to identify the ethical issues related to the application of AI across a variety of educational settings, as well as identify best practices for implementing inclusive applications of AI.

Based on these methodologies, the authors anticipate the following outcomes:
(i) a theory-methodology framework to outline the principles for an inclusive use of AI;
(ii) an open source, multilingual toolkit to assist educators and other stakeholders to create accessible and pedagogically informed applications of AI; and
(iii) policy recommendations to increase digital inclusion and ensure equitable access to AI-enhanced learning.

By integrating pedagogy, data ethics, and accessibility studies, the authors hope to contribute to establishing a 'European' approach to AI for All and to creating the Permanent INCLUDE-AI Network as a community of practice to advance inclusive AI development in education.

Keywords:

Inclusive Artificial Intelligence, Digital Accessibility, Ethics in Education, Personalized Learning, Educational Equity.