In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, free artificial intelligence tools allow teachers to instantly create an unlimited quantity of exercises and texts at the push of a button, giving the impression that we are witnessing the emergence of a new paradigm in education; one that will allow teachers to become less reliant on textbooks and other traditional sources of learning materials and empower them with more professional autonomy. However, these new opportunities also call into question fundamental aspects of teacher identity and professionalism.
- Will AI tools reduce teachers’ workload and support their practice or undermine their professional judgement and agency?
- Will AI generated materials enhance the student learning process or simply perpetuate ineffective instructional practices?
Questions like these highlight the importance of teachers developing a critical perspective regarding AI and adopting effective guiding principles for using these tools to produce materials in alignment with what we know supports language acquisition and other pedagogical best practices. Participants in this workshop will explore a series of frameworks and principles from the field of materials development and experience how they can be used to generate high-quality, engaging language learning materials for a variety of classroom contexts.
