AI in teacher education: What’s next?

ISTELive 23 in Philadelphia has come and gone so now the task for us is to apply what we learned at the conference to our own educational settings. There were so many inspiring and thought-provoking speakers and sessions that highlighted the power of using technology for learning and teaching. Congratulations to the authors of our 2023 Outstanding Research Paper Award - Instructional Practices Promoting Computational Thinking in STEAM Elementary Classrooms (published in JDLTE 38(4)). Drs. Danielle Herro (Clemson University) and Cassie Quigley (University of Pittsburg) along with Holly Plank, Oluwdara Abimbade, and Aileen Owens gave an outstanding ISTELive 23 presentation highlighting the findings from their published study and shared implications for teachers and teacher educators related to instructional practices that encourage computational thinking during problem solving activities. Another popular conference topic was any session that included “AI” in the title. There were conference sessions that included simple strategies for getting started with AI, while other sessions promoted exploring opportunities to reimagine education with AI as well as putting generative AI in the hands of students. From a research perspective, we need more studies (especially within teacher education) that explore the impact of both computational thinking and AI on teaching and learning.

This issue features an Editors’ Invited Paper authored by Dr. Punya Mishra and Rezwana Islam from Arizona State University and Dr. Melissa Warr from New Mexico State University. We are thrilled to publish, TPACK in the Age of ChatCPT and Generative AI, as it is a timely contribution to our field. As educators, we tend to struggle to understand the value and impact of emerging technologies like Generative AI (GenAI), especially in the context of our own classrooms. The authors provide us with clear guidance by using the TPACK framework to explore (and explain) what teachers need to know to integrate technologies, like GenAI, in their teaching. The article seeks to answer the question, “What does TPACK look like and mean in the age of GenAI?” We hope you enjoy reading this thought-provoking piece!

Want to learn more about Generative AI? ISTE and the U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Educational Technology have released some resources that might be a good place to start.

• AI in the Classroom: Strategies and Activities to Enrich Student Learning (Jump Start Guide) (see https://my.iste.org/s/store) – A quick reference guide to explore a variety of AI technologies and a roadmap for bringing AI to the classroom. Highlights exciting things happening with AI in classrooms. (Black, 2023)

• Teaching AI: Exploring New Frontiers for Learning (see https://my.iste.org/s/store) – Learn about what AI is, how it works and use it to guide and create AI integration ideas for classrooms. Helps you push the boundaries of artificial intelligence! (Zimmerman, 2018)

• Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations (see https://tech.ed.gov) – This report intends to inform and engage all constituents (like educational decision makers) about the role AI has in teaching and learning. It highlights the opportunities and issues surrounding AI in education (U.S. Department of Education & Office of Educational Technology, 2023)

Three additional articles appear in this JDLTE issue and all share interesting insights and make rich contributions to our technology and teacher education research community. In the article titled, Use of an Institutional Hashtag: Tweet Types, Interactions, and Possibilities, authors examine the benefits and drawbacks of using an institutional hashtag on Twitter. Findings identified who tweeted, what they tweeted, and which tweets collected the most interactions. As a result, read about the three specific strategies these authors recommend using to engage and build digital networks around institutional hashtags. The article, Evidence of the ISTE Standards for Educators Leading to Learning Gains, uses a scoping review methodology to identify if the key practices with technology listed within the ISTE Standards for Educators have an impact on student learning. The article summarizes how empirical evidence found in the literature aligns to all seven standards and how these practices with technology might lead to learning gains. And finally, the article titled, Using interactive technologies to enhance student engagement in higher education online learning, uses a mixed method approach by examining how interactive technologies, like Padlet, Google Docs, and Panopto, might impact student engagement in online courses. The authors argue that educators need to understand certain impacts and effects of technologies used in online teaching, especially to promote engagement. Results are discussed around five dimensions of engagement—cognitive, behavioral, social, collaborative, and emotional. There is clearly much to learn about around technology and teacher education in this issue of JDLTE!

Denise A. Schmidt-Crawford Iowa State University[email protected]
Denise L. Lindstrom West Virginia University
Ann D. ThompsonIowa State University https://doi.org/10.1080/21532974.2022.2073744

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).