Global Education Deans’ Forum 2024

Moray House School of Education and Sport was delighted to attend and contribute to this year’s Global Education Deans’ Forum on the theme of Education in the age of AI: Utopia or dystopia?

The previous Head of School, Emeritus Professor Richard Andrews, attended the Global Education Deans’ Forum (GEDF) in Shanghai and Lijiang. 

The conference was attended by 56 deans or representatives from around the world, as well as many staff and students from the hosts, East China Normal University and Lijiang Normal University. The themes of the conference were ‘Education and Education Studies in the Age of AI’ (Shanghai) and ‘Educational Development and Teacher Professionalism’ (Lijiang).

As a contribution to the forum, Head of School Professor Carol Campbell, Professor Siân Bayne, Professor Judy Robertson, and Dr Ben Williamson collaborated to create a video, which was presented twice. In this video, they shared some of the work at Moray House School of Education and Sport surrounding the theme topic, and collaborative work with Edinburgh Futures Institute on related issues.  

Emeritus Professor Richard Andrews at the conference

Key topics addressed in Shanghai included:

  • the need for a new pedagogy in the light of AI
  • the economics of education
  • the question of whether AI was merely another wave of information technology (e.g. advent of the computer, the birth of the internet) or a more significant game-changer
  • teaching, learning, and assessment
  • the purpose of AI
  • ethical issues

In Lijiang, the focus was more on teacher development. Lijiang Normal University and the province of Yunnan in SW China have been given funding by the government in Beijing to develop teacher in-service and continuing education. LNU itself has a new emphasis on research and serves the many ethnic minorities in the region.

The conference included trips to Old Lijiang and Baisha Old Town, where attendees could see the cooperation between Beijing and the region’s ethnic minority groups in action. An additional dimension is the development of micro-credentials for the continuing professional development of teachers.

The next GEDF forum will take place in 2025 and will likely be held at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, supported by Florida State University and the University of Kansas.

Professor Carol Campbell, Professor Siân Bayne, Professor Judy Robertson and Dr Ben Williamson share work surrounding the theme topic.

Tags

Education
Technology and AI
Research
2024
Publication date