LEARNING FUTURES: HUMAN-CENTERED AI FOR EDUCATIONAL ECOSYSTEMS

NEWS!

Dates
17-22 February 2025

Location
IAAD. Turin

THEME AREA

The AI Apprentice: designing tomorrow’s minds

As AI tools become part of design education, students learn not just from teachers but from algorithms as well, encouraging them to become both creators and critical thinkers. AI will be both a mentor and a challenge for students, enabling new dimensions of design knowledge and creativity. Educators face the challenge of balancing foundational design skills with these emerging techniques, ensuring students are both grounded and innovative. How will AI reshape design education?

WORKSHOP

People hold diverse sensibilities toward artificial intelligence, its ethical implications, its significance, and the role that humans should have in relation to it. This workshop, rooted in speculative design and design fiction, explores possible near futures to envision how design education might evolve. Through collaborative activities, we will explore AI’s role in learning, while weighing social, technological, environmental and political implications for each scenario. Participants will then create speculative artifacts, which will give tangible form to imagined futures and foster a broader community debate. Ultimately, the workshop aims to broaden understanding of what lies ahead, highlighting how students, educators, and communities can shape education’s future.

TEAM LEADER

Matteo Palù

Matteo Palù is an interaction designer who investigates new ways of communicating and deriving meaning from data through emerging technologies. He has collaborated with cultural institutions and businesses, and his personal work has gained recognition both nationally and internationally. He teaches Interaction Design at the Politecnico di Milano and is pioneering AI courses in design schools like NABA Milan and IAAD. Turin, using lowcode tools.

RESULTS

The workshop explored the evolving role of AI in education through speculative design and collaborative activities. Participants first reflected on their own educational experiences – both positive and negative -before defining four scenarios for a more dynamic and engaging future application of AI:

• a mediator in the class, tailoring education to individual needs while supporting teachers;
• a relationship builder, fostering collaboration and teamwork;
• a lifelong companion, assisting with daily life and long-term personal growth;
• and a learning expert, designed to balance AI assistance with human autonomy.

Each scenario was analyzed through social, technological, environmental, and political lenses, identifying key opportunities and challenges. By envisioning these futures, the workshop fostered critical discussions on how AI can support, rather than replace, human learning and interactions.