Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming education, presenting both opportunities and challenges for PK-12 students and teachers – as well as the higher education institutions preparing said teachers. At National Louis University (NLU), we recognize the critical need to prepare current and aspiring educators - and university faculty - to confidently navigate and leverage AI in meaningful, effective, and ethical ways to bridge the digital divide.
Building AI Competencies through Professional Development
Through a comprehensive landscape survey, our education program leadership assessed our internal AI understanding and integration efforts across our faculty and programs to identify strengths and areas for growth. NLU and its education programs used the UNESCO AI Competency Framework for Teachers as a lens to guide and inform its efforts accordingly. This framework covers five key domains or “aspects”:
- Human-centered mindset
- Ethics of AI
- AI foundations and applications
- AI pedagogy
- AI for professional development
Ensuring fair access remains a central concern in AI adoption—who has access to AI tools, and how can we ensure they don’t widen existing disparities? We recognize that confident, AI-literate university faculty are essential to preparing future educators. By continuing to address this need (including a recent 12 session series aligned to Aspect #4 of the UNESCO framework), we are fostering more comprehensive and well-rounded AI-driven learning environments.
Expanding AI Learning through Coursework
A key element to UNESCO’s framework, specifically Aspect #4, is “guiding the pedagogical uses of AI while leveraging AI to open new pedagogical horizons” (2024, p. 40). For example, how can educators use AI to further improve how they acknowledge and value students’ backgrounds and experiences in the classroom?
Our faculty developed a 10-week module to assist teacher candidates to do just that. A research study done on this pilot showed significant shifts in both AI Teaching attitudes and Culturally Responsive Teaching. Taking it a step further, our Project ELEVATE residency program integrated AI competencies across a full 40-week curriculum. Residency candidates learned how to use AI to help create differentiated instruction, lesson plans, parent communication, as well as how to critically evaluate AI-generated products.
Additional efforts done by NLU faculty to model and integrate AI in their curriculum include:
- Studying the role of AI on supporting teacher candidates (e.g. improving lesson plans)
- Using various AI to model Translanguaging
- Teaching candidates how to use AI to implement Universal Design for Learning
- Instructing students to engage in ethical research and data analysis using AI
Scholarship and Thought Leadership in AI and Education
Beyond the above described research, NLU faculty are examining more closely how AI is currently being used in PK-12 school classrooms as well as considering bigger picture questions that challenge traditional notions of knowledge and learning such as:
- How does AI shift what “knowledge” is?
- What is “knowing”?
- Can an AI being “know”?
NLU and our faculty’s thought leadership extends further to engaging with the external community, focusing on collaboration with other leaders in the space. For instance you may see our faculty contributing their research to national conversations at conferences including IDEAcon, AERA, EAAI Symposium and ASU+GSV’s AI Summit Showcase. Others serve on editorial boards of AI in Education journals.
NLU is also the higher education partner of Leap Innovations’ Chicagoland Coalition for Human-Centered AI whose members are together shaping and sharing human-centered AI policies and best practices in schools. Several NLU faculty serve on LEAP’s steering committee and help co-design the quarterly convenings that bring together PK-12 educators and leadership, nonprofits and funding agencies.
Looking Ahead: AI Innovation in Teaching & Learning Badge
As part of our effort to expand support into school learning communities, NLU is excited to launch an AI Digital badge for PK-12 educators starting in Summer 2025. This eight-session online program will help educators learn how to leverage AI tools to design authentic, individualized and innovative learning experiences —whether they have never tried AI or are regular consumers of AI.Topics include:
- Designing assessments and rubrics
- Create and/or adapt lessons plans
- Provide individualized feedback
- Designing differentiated instruction
- Enacting translanguaging strategies
- Designing your own GPT tailored to your needs
- And more!
If you’d like to learn more about this AI Badge for you or your school, email our STEM Director, Dr. Vishodana Thamotharan at AIBadge@nl.edu.
Join the Conversation
As we continue to shape AI’s role in education, we invite educators, researchers, and organizations from around the country to collaborate with us. What AI initiatives are you working on? How can we partner to advance AI integration in PK-12 education?
If you’re attending the AI Show at the ASU+GSV Summit or other upcoming events, let’s connect! Email us at partnerships@nl.edu to learn more about our initiatives and explore opportunities for collaboration.
Together, we can shape the future of AI in education.
Sources:
Miao, F., & Cukurova, M. (2024). AI competency framework for teachers. Unesco Doc Digital Library. https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000391104
Written By:
- Christopher Lilly, Advanced Programs Director, National College of Education at National Louis University
- Elizabeth Mehringer, Director of Graduate Partnerships, National Louis University
- Vishodana Thamotharan, STEM Director, National College of Education at National Louis University
