Openness and Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIED)

Dr. Rob Farrow (IET, OU)

The ongoing impact of AI on educational practices is explored in this presentation, which highlights several areas of academic, pedagogical and legal debate. AI technologies have been highlighted for their disruptive effects on traditional academic practice while being lauded as a generational shift in possibilities.  These issues are explored within the context of open educational practices (OEP) and open educational resources (OER).  Many AI technologies brand themselves as “open” when they are anything but.  It will be argued that there is a need to articulate an authentic account of open practice relating to AIED.  Areas where AIED and open educational practices overlap include: using open algorithms and open data to support smarter repositories and learning platforms; developing AI tools for search, discovery, reuse and sharing of OER; use of algorithms in open learning environments; new forms of pedagogy; ameliorating injustice in education; and regulatory/policy support for “open” AIED (Farrow, 2023; Stacey, 2023). Explicable AIED (XAIED) as a vector for openness will be explored, and the possible implications of generative AI for the creation of OER will be highlighted.  I will conclude by asking whether AIED should be considered a potential force for inclusion or risks exacerbating the digital divide.