Generative AI and Adult Education (#GenAI&B)
This project explores how generative AI can support educational practices in the Swedish folk high school and study association system. Through participatory action research, the project involves teachers, developers, and leaders in testing and analyzing AI tools in real learning environments. The aim is to understand how generative AI can enhance participation, create new learning opportunities, and be implemented ethically and pedagogically.
Background
Generative artificial intelligence (AI), which encompasses software-driven processes for creating, manipulating, or synthesizing data, has rapidly become a significant tool across many sectors. Although generative AI has existed for several years, the technology gained widespread attention with the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022. Since then, numerous tools have been developed that enable the creation, modification, and summarization of text, as well as the generation of images, audio, music, and video. At the same time, AI is increasingly being used to analyze data and streamline work processes.
Despite early questions regarding ethical and practical applications, debates often centered on bans and regulations, generative AI is increasingly seen as an indispensable tool across a growing number of fields.
In the field of non-formal adult education, where accessibility, democracy, and inclusion are core values, there is now great potential to explore how generative AI can support and enhance learning processes, as well as create new opportunities for participants. In today’s society, it has become essential for everyone to develop a basic understanding of how generative AI can be used—and how to ensure the accuracy of what it generates.
Aim and Objectives
The aim of the project is to examin how generative AI can be applied to support the learning models of non-formal adult education in Sweden, thereby promoting greater participation within the field.
The project is guided by two research questions:
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What experiences, perceptions, expectations, and concerns exist within the field of non-formal adult education regarding generative AI?
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How can the use of generative AI contribute to the development of new pedagogical practices in educational and learning contexts within non-formal adult education?
Outcomes
The project is expected to lead to a deeper understanding of the contexts and situations in which generative AI can, and should, be used within non-formal adult education.
By exploring generative AI in collaboration with practitioners from member organizations of the Bildningsförbundet in Östergötland, the project will generate hands-on experience of how this technology can influence the conditions for learning and civic education.
The project will also produce insights that support educational institutions in implementing generative AI in an ethically and pedagogically sustainable manner—thereby reinforcing the core values of non-formal adult education.
Project team
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