Intersections: Does AI belong in the classroom?

Does AI belong in the classroom? Will tomorrow’s classroom look like today’s smart home? Is AI in the classroom a boon or a curse? How can educators and technologists work together to develop tools and methods that facilitate the learning experience? Can intelligent learning promote personalized intellectual exploration? This Intersections event puts faculty from the Stanford Graduate School of Education and the Stanford School of Engineering in conversation. Join us as Laura McBain, director of the K12 Lab at Stanford University’s d.school, moderates a discussion between computer science professor James Landay and education expert Karin Forssell on the ways that AI is changing today’s classrooms and school systems. Shelley Goldman, associate dean for faculty affairs and for student affairs and professor (teaching) at the Stanford Graduate School of Education, will provide introductions. This event is open to Stanford alumni and their guests. It is co-hosted by the Stanford School of Engineering and the Stanford Graduate School of Education. Light refreshments will be served following the talk. Click here to RSVP  Faculty bios: Karin Forssell is the director of the Learning, Design and Technology (LDT) master’s program and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She also directs the GSE Makery, a new maker space on campus where students and faculty can explore how making things helps people learn. In her courses, students learn to use research from the learning sciences and learning-centered design processes to create effective digital tools. Her current interests include maker space education, teacher technology adoption, and parenting in a digital world. Forssell draws insights from her many years of concurrent work as a teacher on special assignment for technology in the Palo Alto Unified School District. She earned her bachelor’s degree in linguistics, master’s degree in teacher education, and doctorate in learning sciences and technology design at Stanford University. Shelley Goldman (introductions) is associate dean for faculty affairs and for student affairs and professor (teaching) at the Stanford Graduate School of Education. She is also a professor, by courtesy, at the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford (“d.school”). Goldman is an educational anthropologist interested in the idea that learning takes place when students are actively engaged. She currently studies how families engage with mathematics in the course of everyday problem solving. Her quest to give people the tools they need to collaborate and accomplish learning has led her to study and design computer technologies. Goldman’s work focuses on creating opportunities for rich STEM learning and for understanding how design thinking and technologies can create access and be transformational. Current work includes broadening participation in STEM through family activities, design-based engagements, and empathy work with scientists doing outreach. James Landay is a professor of computer science and the Anand Rajaraman and Venky Harinarayan Professor in the School of Engineering at Stanford University. He specializes in human-computer interaction. He is the founder and co-director of the World Lab, a joint research and educational effort with Tsinghua University in Beijing. He is also the associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI). Previously, Landay taught at Cornell Tech, the University of Washington, and the University of California, Berkeley. In the corporate world, Landay was one-time laboratory director of Intel Labs Seattle and chief scientist and co-founder of NetRaker, which was acquired by KeyNote Systems in 2004. He earned his PhD in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1996. His dissertation was the first to demonstrate the use of sketching in user interface design tools. Laura McBain (moderator) is an adjunct professor at Stanford University’s Hasso Plattner Institute of Design (“d.school”) and the co-director of the K12 Lab at the d.school. Her work focuses on how human-centered design can be used to provide equitable and innovative educational experiences that will help all students thrive in a changing world. Formerly, she led adult learning graduate programs at High Tech High Graduate School of Education. She has also been a principal and taught middle and high school students.