As Sir Anthony Seldon said, “Education has been the Cinderella of the AI story – largely ignored in the literature and by governments, companies and educational institutions worldwide. This needs to change rapidly: AI could be the Princess Charming or the Ugly Sisters in education."
Indeed, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has the potential to address some of today’s biggest educational and training challenges, to innovate teaching and learning practices, and to accelerate progress towards quality, inclusive, equitable, and lifelong education (4th Goal of Sustainable Development of UNESCO, 2015). However, both AI and its presence in the educational system and in societies already have a history, and numerous authors of the past – pedagogues, sociologists, philosophers and intellectuals belonging to different fields of knowledge – have questioned the opportunities, risks, and challenges generated by rapid technological developments. Among the many questions asked, the following seem to be particularly inspiring: How have AI systems changed, how are they changing, and will they change the educational experience? What has been, is, and will be the impact of AI on the institutional places of education and training, and on the ideas that guide the governance processes? How have the AI systems changed, how are they changing, and how will change relationships and social interactions?How should education be implemented to produce a constructive interaction between humans and machines? Which type of education system can bebest integrated into a highly or totally digitalized society?
Through the reconstruction of the ideas that have historically animated the debate on these issues, it is also possible to explore a range of contrasting positions. Some authors,particularly suspicious of technological innovation, have called for a return to a classical and "traditional" education, while others have argued for the need for a training decidedly centered on techno-scientific knowledge, relegating the humanities to an ancillary function. There is, however, no lack of intermediate positions, which have seen automation as an opportunity to affirm a humanistic approach to the use of AI itself, hoping for an integral type of education.
With this in mind, we welcome contributions that explore the evolution of the debate on AI and its profound impact on human societies, on education and lifelong learning systems, even on the labor market and economies. The aim will be to first investigate the history and, secondly, the implications of the use of AI in education, in relation to the future of the labor market and the development of skills in training courses. The emergence of AI is, in fact, stimulating a reflection on the change both in the ideas of education, teaching and learning, as well as in the formal, non-formal, and informal places of education. In other words, the need for a new—or different—pedagogical, ethical, and social awareness is emerging.
The contributions, in essay form for a minimum of 20,000 characters to a maximum of 60,000 characters (including spaces and notes), may be written in English (preferably), Italian, or Polish, and must be received by 31/10/2022.
