The University of Eastern Finland provides support for its teachers in the use of various AI applications in education.
“Our teachers have asked for guidance and rules on how students can use AI applications, such as the famous ChatGPT, in their studies. We want to support our teachers in the use of this and other similar tools as well,” Academic Rector Tapio Määttä says.
According to Määttä, many teachers have already integrated AI applications into their teaching. Spring 2023 will witness a series of discussion and training sessions where teachers can share best practices, and the entire academic community will have an opportunity to discuss the matter. Students, too, will be included in the work.
“We want to be pioneers in the development of education and in the introduction of new tools. We are talking about transferable skills, and we want to ensure that our graduates are equipped with skills that are relevant,” Määttä points out.
Internal training and discussion sessions will be organised by the Learning, Everyday Life and Work in a Digitalized Society research community, DIGS. DIGS is a multidisciplinary research community comprising 26 professors and 110 researchers, and it is one of the field’s strongest research clusters in Finland. The research community focuses, e.g., on the new learning opportunities and tools offered by a digitalised society, as well as on the learning requirements and expectations set by society.
Led by Senior Researcher Henriikka Vartiainen, one line of research within DIGS focuses on applications of generative artificial intelligence in education in the context of upper secondary schools and teacher education. Experiences from pilot studies conducted in 2022 will now be made available for discussion by the academic community.
During spring 2023, the academic community will have an opportunity to learn about the possibilities and limitations of artificial intelligence that generates text, images and code. Possible uses of such AIs, and experiences from different academic subjects, will be discussed. Generative artificial intelligence will also be addressed as a novel platform for creativity and productivity, and the new kind of transferable skills required to use such AIs will also be discussed.
At the University of Eastern Finland, the matter has been prepared by the network of deputy heads responsible for education. A presentation given for this network by Professor Matti Tedre and Professor Teemu Valtonen can be viewed as a Teams recording at: https://bit.ly/3jUMhOd.
Website of the Learning, Everyday Life and Work in a Digitalised Society research community, DIGS: uef.fi/digs.
