In celebration of World Teachers’ Day
“Khalifa Award”: Artificial intelligence is the path of education towards creativity, leadership and innovation
Amal Al-Afeefi: The teacher enjoys the care and empowerment of the wise leadership to convey their prominent role in society
Abu Dhabi: Friday, October 4, 2024
One of the fundamental inputs in improving the quality of education and motivating learners to be creative and engage with the material in innovative ways is providing teachers with the skills to employ artificial intelligence in the educational process, according to the General Secretariat of the Khalifa Award for Education. Several individuals from the educational sector were present during the “Creative Teaching in the Age of Artificial Intelligence” workshop, which was organized by the Khalifa Award and held at its Abu Dhabi headquarters in conjunction with World Teachers’ Day. The workshop was given by Dr. Omar Al-Hussein, an assistant professor at Khalifa University’s College of Computer Science.
The Secretary-General of the Khalifa Award for Education, Amal Al-Afeefi, emphasized the significance of this event in honoring teachers and their message and the role they play in society as an intermediary across generations. Teachers are a cornerstone of societal rebirth, advancement, and success; honoring them on this day is a reflection of the respect and admiration our wise leaders have for them and the importance we place on their message and role in society. Educators have always played a key role in society, serving as both a conduit for and an indicator of scientific understanding, originality, leadership, quality, and progress. Only by investing in its educators and expanding its educational infrastructure can society progress.
“We in the United Arab Emirates are grateful to God Almighty for the fact that we are living during a golden age when our wise leaders are taking good care of our educators and our schools, especially that their vision for education is innovative, progressive, and forever views education as a long-term investment.” While making her point, Al-Afeefi noted that the Khalifa Award for Education has been sending a message about how exceptional the education system is since its creation in 2007. The award’s message and its function in pushing male and female teachers to be creative and original in their field and specialization are supported by the fields presented in the award and related to the teacher. Throughout its history, the award has been successful in recognizing the innovative work of both male and female educators in a wide range of subject areas that benefit students at all skill levels.
The present technological revolution has many potential uses, and Dr. Omar Al-Hussein, speaking for oneself, stated that this interactive workshop covered the history of AI from its beginnings to the age of generative AI, with an emphasis on its many applications and how creative educators can reap their benefits. Starting with machine learning and deep learning, the course covered the fundamentals of AI before moving on to generative AI, which can create a wide variety of creative output.
The workshop, according to Dr. Omar Al-Hussein, focused on” Large Language Models (LLMs)”, its limitations, and how to make the most of them using techniques like “prompt engineering” and “In-context learning”. The former helps the model process tasks better by drawing on previous educational examples, and the latter uses “chain-of-thought prompting” to guide the model sequentially to accurate and explanatory answers.
According to Dr. Omar Al-Hussein, students’ creativity and engagement with academic subjects are greatly improved when teachers are given the opportunity to use artificial intelligence in innovative ways. The workshop covered a range of educational applications, including podcasts that allow for customized content and differentiated education, tools to summarize visual educational content more efficiently, and the generation of images from simple commands or drawings, among others.
Dr. Omar Al-Hussein concluded the workshop by stressing the significance of a classroom setting that inspires both students and educators to think beyond the box and delve deeply into artificial intelligence (AI), a field that will shape human history in the decades to come. Dr. Omar Al-Hussein was given with the Khalifa Award for Education shield by Amal Al-Afeefi at the conclusion of the workshop as a token of appreciation for his collaboration.