Revolutionizing Higher Ed with AI: Insights from the ShapingEDU Mini Summit

Utilizing AI Tools

Empowering educators to create more impactful, personalized learner opportunities

“Artificial Intelligence has the potential to create more impactful, individualized learning journeys that maximize learning experiences at every step, and streamline educator’s workload. With the wildly fast-paced introduction of new AI tools, we’re forced to process a new array of challenges and opportunities almost daily.”

— ShapingEDU Mini-Summit on AI x Higher Education

What an incredible event - so many wonderful panelists and discussions around the potential impact of AI and Higher Education. I am very grateful for having the opportunity to co-host this with the amazing Stephanie Pierotti. I’m already looking forward to future conversations…

Agenda

9:15amPT | Early Bird Coffee + Trivia

9:30amPT | Welcome! Why We're Here (Stephanie Pierotti, ASU ShapingEDU Director + Dr. Sean Leahy, ASU Director of Creative and Emerging Technology)

9:50amPT | What's Now: A Brief History Of Artificial Intelligence

10:00amPT | What's Next: One Year + Five Year Outlook (Hosts + Dr. Punya Mishra, Associate Dean of ASU Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College + Eric Wang, Vice President, Artificial Intelligence at Turnitin)

10:30amPT | Fireside Chat: AI x The Humanities (Phaedra Boinodiris, IBM Consulting's global leader for Trustworthy AI and co-founder of Future World Alliance + Dr. Julie Keane, Chief Learning Officer at Participate)

10:50amPT | Mini-Workshop: AI x Serious Play (Dr. Ruben Puentedura)

11:10amPT | AI x The Loneliness Epidemic - Student Insights (Sigrid Benitez, ASU Graduate Student, Counseling)

11:20amPT | Fireside Chat: AI x Visual Design (Stephen Hart, Principal Customer Success Manager - Education at Adobe)

11:45amPT | Fireside Chat: AI x Educational Technology (Ryan Gialames, Edtech Product & Design Leader at Robots & Pencils)

12:05pmPT | Fireside Chat: AI x The Future Of Work (Tim Sanders, Vice President of Client Strategy at Upwork)

12:25pmPT | AI x The Future of Learning Environments (Shawn Augenstein, Principal CX Consultant - Digital Velocity Solutions at CDW + Christopher Marcolis, Head of Analytics & Data Governance, Data and AI at CDW)

12:50pmPT | AI x The Future of Education (Michael J. Jabbour, Chief Innovation Officer at Microsoft Education)

1:10pmPT | Stephanie & Sean's Favorite AI Tools + Next Steps > ShapingEDU Global Cafe (online community)

Futures Futures Futures - ShapingEDU GCSS23

In February I was invited to present a handful of lectures and workshops to the ShapingEDU community at the ShapingEDU Global Community Solutioneering Summit 2023. The event was split over several days, starting with a virtual component where I presented a short lecture on Becoming A Citizen Futurist.

“
What could we accomplish together that we couldn’t accomplish alone?

For this event, we chose the theme of Education As Jazz. The Smithsonian Institute eloquently summarized the importance of jazz: “Often acclaimed as America’s greatest art form, jazz has become accepted as a living expression of the nation’s history and culture, still youthful, difficult to define and impossible to contain, a music of beauty, sensitivity, and brilliance that has produced (and been produced by) an extraordinary progression of talented artists.””

— Shaping ShapingEDU GCSS23

February 16 - Virtual Component

Lecture on Becoming A Citizen Futurist: Preparing for Uncertainty (a few select slides shared below)

February 23 - In Person Conference Event

Lecture on Educating for Sustainable Futures: Scanning the Futures Horizon (select images from presentation)

February 24 - In Person Workshop

Workshop on Strategic Foresight (Becoming a Citizen Futurist). This workshop focused on using the Axes of Uncertainty as an introductory foresight tool. This session was also followed up by an extended Q&A session of “Ask a futurist” where I fielded a wide range of questions from the conference participants. (A few select slides shared below)

Keynote: 2021 Winter Games Conference

Learning Futures: Designing the Horizon

I was thrilled to deliver the opening keynote address for the 2021 Winter Games conference, hosted by ASU’s ShapingEDU community and partners. Below is the publicly shared Zoom recording. Special thanks to my colleagues Dr. Punya Mishra and Jodie Donner for joining me in sharing our work.

Additionally, we also just released the second installment of our special issue in the ASU Journal Current Issues in Education, an Open Access Journal.

Vol 22 No 1 (Special Issue) Shaping the Futures of Learning in the Digital Age Part 2

Learning (Hu)Man

Around the Flagpole: The What, Why, and How of Learner-Centered Everything

Well campers… thats a wrap!

With the end of Learning(Hu)Man today, I’m reminded of how fun this event was. It was a real pleasure to not only present, but to moderate this amazing panel. It was interesting to see how various organizations have been building experiences with students at the center. Specifically, it was interesting to hear the approach of Instructure, the owners of CMS platform Canvas, and how their approach to creating spaces for students aligns with the work from ASU and Michigan State University.

Perhaps most impressive, was the inclusion of our students Sabrina in this panel. She brought the much needed student perspective to this panel all about center-role of students in the development of learning experiences.

A major thanks to Laura for organizing this session and the invitation to moderate.

“If it’s not in service of learners, then who is it serving?”

— ASU Learning(Hu)Man 2020

Multiple ways to connect - a virtual experience

While the online camp experience had several ways to connect, web streaming, Zoom, the organizers also provided a unique way to get more immersed in the ‘virtual’ environment through a virtual Second Life-esque experience called VirBELA. I thought this was a really compelling way to try and reach a deeper level of immersion while participating in the event remotely.

Reflections - Powered by Illustration

One of the fun elements of participating in events hosted and run out of the ShapingEDU community and ASU UTO - is the always present graphic illustrators who capture the conversations (big and small) and create these rich assets that capture the spirit and energy of the events.

Looking forward to returning to camp next summer!

Unconference: Dreamers Doers & Drivers of the Future of Learning

On April 25-27, 2018 I joined a small group of higher education change-makers for an unconference around the "Future of Learning in a Digital Age" in Scottsdale Arizona. The Conference was structured loosely around three main tracks: 1) Research to Action, 2) Mixed Reality Environments and Student Centered Learning Frontiers, and 3) Organizational Network Models.

“An unconference, also called an Open Space conference, is a participant-driven meeting. The term “unconference” has been applied, or self-applied, to a wide range of gatherings that try to avoid one or more aspects of a conventional conference, such as fees, sponsored presentations, and top-down organization.”

— wikipedia.org

The unconference structure of this convening allowed for a free (open) conversational flow with loads of great ideas (big and small) and a variety of perspectives on the emerging themes. While there were many high energy "neighborhoods" of discussion, I was particularly drawn to the discussions around Mixed Reality and discussion around use, deployment, contextual relevance, and scalability within the context of one-three-five years. Additionally, on the last day of the unconference I was engaged in conversations around the growing desire and challenges of Micro Credentialing.

Throughout the event participants used the Twitter hashtag #shapingEDU to share the ideas and connections from the unconference with the intention of continuing the conversation long after the two day event was completed.

The event (including presentations and discussions and share-outs) was captured via graphic facilitator. The full unconference is available at: https://uto.asu.edu/shapingedu where you can access all of the images and files shared. 

I am very much looking forward to continuing the discussions around the future of learning in the digital age.