AI in education workshop A: Speculative futuremaking
How do we imagine the future of education in a time when reading, writing, analysis, art, poetry, and music are impacted by AI – generative or otherwise? And how should we respond as educators? These questions are being considered by every academic institution in the world at the moment. While there is no straightforward answer or universal response, universities and educators must respond – sooner rather than later.
This workshop invites teachers, course coordinators, and other interested participants to engage in a speculative fabulation workshop, where we will explore both possible and seemingly impossible futures for educational practices and goals. We provide three future scenarios and ask groups to engage in fictional but hopeful world-building – perhaps by imagining artifacts, mundane activities, learning objectives, or imagined scenes. Rather than critiquing these futures, the goal is to creatively imagine how they might work in a constructive and affirming way.
Theoretical inspiration
The lighthearted and hopeful tone of this workshop is intentional. It builds on educational specialist Sian Bayne’s work [1] on speculative utopias for education and cultural theorist Terry Eagleton’s idea [2] that hopeful speculation is the starting point for moving beyond resignation and anticipation of futures we cannot control toward proactive construction of ideas that can be enacted. Speculative world-building is a way of specifying the imagination in particular scenarios. These can become more probable through aspirational recognition that “hope is not simply an anticipation of the future but an active force in its constitution” and therefore “confidence in a particular future may help to usher it in” (Eagleton, 2015, p. 59).
[1] Bayne, S. (2023). Digital education utopia. Learning, Media and Technology, 49(3), 506–521. https://doi-org/10.1080/17439884.2023.2262382
[2] Eagleton, T. (2015). Hope without optimism. Yale University Press. https://doi.org/10.12987/9780300220254
Workshop team
The development and facilitation team includes Dr. Anne Kustritz, Dr. Jasper van Vught, Dr. Karin van Es, Dr. Ingrid Hoofd, Ani Encheva, Professor Annette Markham, and Dr. Sigrid Merx, – a team with expertise in curriculum strategies, course design, educational leadership, and the impact of AI in education.
The primary facilitator, Annette Markham, is an award-winning university teacher with over 20 years of experience in creative curriculum design and workshop facilitation in the educational, governmental, and public sectors and a research profile focused on the impact of datafication and digitalization on young adults.
The event is coordinated and co-hosted by the Centre for Digital Humanities (CDH), the Futures + Literacies + Methods Lab, and the Department of Media & Culture Studies. The event is funded in part by USO AI in Education.
For any questions, please contact cdh@uu.nl.