With the participation of prominent international speakers, the seminar “Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education” was held at the University, which addressed how the use of technologies is impacting the training of professionals and how to face an increasingly dynamic context in what regards education.
The meeting was organized by the General Directorate of Liaison with the Environment and was broadcast online on the University’s YouTube channel. Before starting on the LED screens, an avatar created with AI was in charge of making the welcome words to the attendees who arrived at the Hall of Honor of the Central House.
The rector of the PUCV, Nelson Vásquez, indicated that the field of AI is debated within universities worldwide, as well as in our Institution. “Within the nine guidelines of the 2023-2029 Strategic Development Plan is the use of technologies. We are thinking about various supports and systems, about how teachers and researchers are applying these technologies in their work for more timely and effective decision making. In Chile, the development of a policy on AI that will accompany us in the coming years is being evaluated,” he expressed.
In this regard, the general director of Linking with the Environment, David Contreras, added that at an international level it is common to reflect on the contributions and risks of the use of AI, where the University has developed extensive work from various levels to deepen the use of the technologies.
“For more than a decade, the PUCV has been working with virtual devices and platforms, tools of a different nature. “We are working to take advantage of these possibilities from an ethical dimension in the use of information, considering the data and the students’ handling of these technologies,” he added.
INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITORS
The academic from the Open University of Catalonia, Josep María Duart, added that they have been working on the use of technologies for education for years, which has deepened with the use of the internet and the impact of the pandemic.
“Today we are living in the moment of AI, which is the great accumulation of data that we have and we have to see how teachers can create a type of education that uses this data so that people are more competent in an increasingly demanding society. It makes no sense to deny these technologies or prohibit them, we must use them as a resource or a companion to help us do tasks more efficiently,” he added.
Alejandro Armellini, dean of Digital and Distributed Learning at the University of Portsmouth in the United Kingdom, indicated that technology is changing people and how they use it.
“The impact will continue to grow, but like other technologies in the past, it is not this that changes the facts, but rather those who use them. It is important to make informed decisions. Technology itself has to serve as a vehicle to achieve the changes we need and that is beneficial for students and society. It is necessary to consider humans, who make good or not so good use of these tools,” she deepened.
Javiera Atenas, professor of University Didactics at the University of Suffolk in the United Kingdom, spoke about how AI impacts the Link with the Environment and added that in universities, technology is changing the training processes, but in some institutions the curriculum remains the same. As before.
“The panic is over. Now we are working on generating tools for the co-creation of knowledge and being able to use AI to make procedures more expeditious. More than transforming education, it is allowing us to have spaces to open interdiscipline and generate knowledge from another perspective, building another society, with more autonomous people,” he commented.
Alejandro Véliz, associate professor in Digital Design at the University of Plymouth in England, referred to the new ethics in research through the use of AI. “We have worked with communities that are marginalized in digital matters and in places far from urban centers, therefore, we are bringing them closer to health services and how to generate tools and technologies for them. “We promote the active participation of users, as a vehicle of social innovation.”
At the conference, successful AI initiatives developed by PUCV professors, Rafael Mellado from the School of Commerce, Ignacio Araya from the School of Computer Engineering, Gonzalo Farías from the School of Electrical Engineering and José Antonio García from the School of Construction and Transportation Engineering.
Previously, international experts met with the Rector’s team and members of the Superior Council to share experiences in the application of technologies in training and publicize the state of the art on AI in the world of education.
By Juan Paulo Roldán
Strategic Communication Department
