The educational community is the main target audience of the CL.A.I.mate project. We asked Michalis Kalogiannakis, associate professor at the Department of Special Education at the University of Thessaly, how the project can help them deal with the development of AI and its entry into education.
Q: You have constant contact with educators (current and future) due to the subject matter of your department. How do they deal with the development of AI and how do they see it affecting their work? What do you think CL.A.I.mate can really offer them?
RE: There’s no doubt that artificial intelligence (AI) has been one of the most intriguing topics for both current and future educators. The reason they’re so interested is that AI not only can bring a lot of value to such serious and challenging tasks as creating curricula and adjusting teaching techniques but also can be the best way to help students with special needs. However, they are quite concerned about the possibility of losing jobs to machines, as well as the ethical side of the issue and the accuracy of the information they receive. Teachers’ opinions on the matter are backed up by actual research: they are sure they can benefit most from AI if it is used as a supplement to their own teaching, rather than as a replacement. In a word, educators see this radical global shift as a way to upgrade the educational system, not as a threat, especially if it is taken with a pinch of skepticism and supported by information from other fields of scientific inquiry. Initiatives like Cl.AI.mate, which enhance the quality of climate education, empower not only the teachers of today and tomorrow but also the students, since they now can alter their concerns into a good source of energy to promote change and shape the educational environment, which automatically translates into a collective drive for making the world a better, more sustainable place for everyone.
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