Abstract
The interest for the potential of artificial intelligence in education (AIED) is increasing in many fields. AIED tools are said to offer more personalized, flexible, inclusive and engaging learning. This leads to massive investments in the sector of education and the need to involve the main actors whose role is particularly questioned by this technology. We argue so that AIED can be seen as a techno-scientific promise, an apparatus for creating a horizon of expectation where this new technology appears as a necessity—or desirable, according to science and technology literature. This techno-scientific promise plays a key role in legitimizing AIED and mobilizing resources to achieve what is seen as a major challenge, on three interlocking levels: the macro-level of politics, economy, values and culture, the meso-level of the education field and the micro-level of teachers’ training and practices. This study focuses on the French case and the two last levels, through a field survey which examine the interrelations between the Ministry of Education Digital Working Group dedicated to AIED and teacher training course and experimentation, using a grid of analysis taking in account the type of promise, the actors’ constellation, the sources of legitimacy and credibility, the contestations and control of the agenda, the dynamics of expectations. As techno-scientific promises shape the relation to the future and are designed by it, we ultimately try to identify how this concept fits with “regimes of historicity” and set AIED within the long story of attempts to introduce technology into education.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
AI, EDUCATION, SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY STUDIES
