LEGISLATIVE BACKGROUND

The emergence of artificial intelligence in the educational context presents great opportunities, but also poses unprecedented challenges. The European Union introduced the AI Act (EU Reg. 2024/1689) to establish a common regulatory framework, ensuring the safe and reliable use of AI systems. The key points relating to education are:

1. High-risk AI systems: systems used to determine access or admission to educational courses, assess learning outcomes, predetermine the level of education an individual can access and monitor behaviour during assessment tests are considered  as high-risk ones[1].
2. Prohibited practices: the use of emotion recognition systems in schools is prohibited, except for exceptions for medical or safety reasons[2].
3. Obligations for providers: providers of AI systems must ensure compliance with the requirements of the regulation, implement a risk management system, provide clear instructions and fulfil registration and monitoring obligations.

In addition, it is essential to comply with the principles of 'privacy by design' and 'privacy by default' under the GDPR (EU Reg. 2016/679), and to ensure the security and compliance of AI systems through a risk assessment methodology[3].

HIGHLIGHTS

• Digital Literacy: the AI Act stresses the importance of making teachers and students aware of the issues concerning the ownership and protection of the data contained in the information collected and reused by AI applications, as well as making them aware of the chain of legal responsibility for any damage caused by AI-based devices is the first step towards a new literacy to tackle digital educational poverty, understood as the failure to acquire digital skills for autonomous and individual growth[4].
• Equity and Inclusion: Goal 4 of the 'Education 2030 Framework for Action' (2015)[5] promotes inclusion and equity as the basis for quality education and emphasises the need to address all forms of exclusion, marginalisation, disparities and inequalities in access, participation and learning. AI, especially generative AI, can benefit students with special educational needs by addressing inequalities and improving access and participation[6].
• Accountability and Transparency: The right to education is an irreplaceable human right to be placed within the framework of fundamental guarantees. This highlights the importance of a transparent and accountable use of AI, with clear lines of accountability, both in legal and ethical terms, for automated decisions. Transparency ensures an understanding of the processes and roles of the actors involved[7].
• Human Oversight: The AI Act requires human ovesight in the three areas of interaction between AI and education: educating about AI, educating with AI, and educating AI. This approach must be cultivated and integrated into the daily use of AI in schools[8].

IMPACT AND STRATEGIES

In order to address the complexity of the AI era, it is important to rethink new skills and methodologies to impart qualitative, emotional, ethical and sustainable knowledge drivingstudents to responsible, conscious, critical and self-determined education. 

The school context and the challenge of inclusion are already set within today's complex social framework. The latter is characterised by the plurality of cultural approaches and the rapid expansion of widespread knowledge and learning as a result of the exponential dominance of technological-computer languages. This recalls the need on the part of the entire teaching staff to carry out constant critical reflection in order to interpret the evolution taking place in the micro school contexts and in the macro socio-cultural ones, in order to grasp the positivity of creative and innovative solicitations, but also the potential and dangerous phenomenon of the emergence of new forms of discomfort and social, cultural and relational maladjustment.

The implementation of educational strategies that incorporate the use of AI systems will require co-creation processes to answer stakeholders needs. Tailored guidelines to assist educators will be useful to understanding and maximizing the potential of AI applications and data use in education, and to raising awareness among students and their families.

📅 Join us on October 29 for the Awareness Panel: Regulating data and AI in the age of EU digital reforms, where we will further discuss this topic! 
 

[1] Annex III, (3), (a)(b)(c)(d), Reg. (EU) 2024/1689.

[2] Article 5 (1) (f), Reg. (EU) 2024/1689.

[3] Articles 24, 25, 35; Recitals 75, 76, 77, 78, Reg. (EU) 2016/679. 

[4] Article 4, Reg. (EU) 2024/1689.

[5] UNESCO(2015). Education 2030 Framework for action: https://iite.unesco.org/publications/education-2030-incheon-declaration-framework-action-towards-inclusive-equitable-quality-education-lifelong-learning/

[6] UNESCO. (2023). Giudance for generative AI in education and research: https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000386693

[7] Article 13, Reg. (EU) 2024/1689.

[8] See Beijing Consensus on artificial intelligence and education, Paris, cited. Educating to AI means developing critical thinking and promoting knowledge and use of AI languages and logic (AIL). Educating with AI means using it to support teachers with the use AI and interact with students. Educating the AI refers to the use of AI in educational settings, which raises concerns about privacy as well as issues with humanity, autonomy, and justice.