Prof. Emmanuel Jean Francois
Dr. Emmanuel Jean Francois is Associate Professor of Comparative and International Education at Ohio University. He is the Coordinator of the Doctoral program in Educational Administration/Leadership, aswell as the doctoral specialisation in Comparative and International Educational Leadership.
CG5: Artificial Intelligence and Adult Education: Policies, Practices and Challenges
Co-Moderators:
During the last five to six decades, the utilization of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been an integral part of the curiosity and lives of many people, especially in industrialized and urban spaces. The emergence of Generative AIs such as ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Adobe Firefly, and AI Meeting Assistants (just to name a few) has uncovered both the benefits for efficiency and the threat to various aspects of humanity and work associated with the development and utilization of AI. Recently, AI has integrated most industrial and occupational sectors, including Adult Education. Many governments are bracing for a future that involves AI as part of lifelong learning and the reskill of adult learners who will integrate the global marketplace. International organizations such as UNESCO, the European Union, and universities in many countries have issued guidance and guidelines for the use of AI in education and research. Scholars argue that GenAI carry potential to support adult education, especially with respect to accessibility and inclusivity, skill assessment and gap analysis, lifelong credentialing, adaptive learning systems, content generation and curation, personalized learning, and AI tutors and assistants. However, critiques have raised concerns about the ethical challenges posed by the development and utilization of AI, as well as its potential to exacerbate the digital divide in education and society, especially for adult learners. This module aims to empower participants to critically discuss and analyze various types of AI, development platforms, applications, policies/guidelines, as well as the equity and ethical challenges posed by their utilization in Adult Education and Learning. More specifically, participants who attend this comparative group will be able to:
- Identify and discuss Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools for adult education and learning;
- Analyze the policies/guidelines related to the utilization of GenAI tools in adult education and learning;
- Compare the equity and ethical challenges related to the utilization of GenAI tools in adult education and learning between two or more countries.
