The South by Southwest EDU Conference and AI in Education
I attended the South by Southwest EDU conference in Austin, Texas, for the first time this year and it was a great experience.
I had the opportunity to connect with several professionals in higher education, education technology and AI in education, and I learned a lot about the challenges and opportunities in the field.
As a company providing custom AI solutions , it’s very important that we understand the needs of institutions, educators and students, their concerns regarding artificial intelligence, and how we can help them leverage AI to solve real problems while protecting privacy and ensuring fairness.
The event offered a packed program, with several talks, workshops, networking opportunities and a large expo. The networking opportunities were especially helpful, with several facilitated meetups happening that gave me an opportunity to talk to other agencies doing work in the space, ed tech providers, educators, administrators and researches in the space.
My perception overall was of a very AI-positive audience, with a lot of interest in how AI can help improve education, curiosity over capabilities and limitations of AI, and several great discussions around potential risks, strategies to mitigate them, and how AI can be made safe for education institutions.
SXSW Expo and Interesting Solutions in the Space
Artificial intelligence has already arrived in the classrooms, be it in K-12 or higher education. AI is being used to enhance learning through interactive content, personalize learning paths through AI-powered tutors that respond to student’s individual needs, generate class plans and activities to help educators save time, among other applications.
The Expo was full of companies showcasing their AI-powered solutions, as well as AI-focused courses and learning resources.
A great insight from talking to companies in the space is that a lot of AI adoption in education process seems to be driven by students.
Students find the solutions, use them, and then bring them to the attention of their teachers and institutions, advocating for the value they provide.
There weren’t, however, solutions focused on helping automate administrative tasks for universities, or focused on helping institutions make more data-driven decisions and improve the services they provide with artificial intelligence. This is a gap we are looking to fill with our custom AI solutions, tailored to the individual needs of different universities and departments.
An interesting aspect of the Expo were the many products focused on K-12 education and, especially, younger students.
It is interesting to see different products designed to get children engaged with technology. This helps us build an understanding of how the younger generations are taught to interact with technology in general and artificial intelligence specifically, and how that relationship might shape how schools and universities need to approach AI.
AI in Education: Challenges and Opportunities
Another very interesting aspect of the event was the networking lounge. It provided a structured space to allow different groups of people interested in similar topics to sit down for an hour and discuss.
I had the opportunity to discuss challenges for AI in education with a company providing AI-powered tutoring solutions, a researcher studying the impact of AI in education, and a group of educators interested in better understand the actual risks involved with AI.
Some of the key challenges discussed were the need for more transparency in AI solutions, the concern for data privacy and security and a disconnect between institutions and students when it comes to the technology and how to approach it.
Discussions like this help us understand the pain points in the industry and tailor our solutions to meet the specific needs of the institutions we support, providing proper risk management and peace of mind.
Conclusion
South by Southwest EDU was an amazing event, with a lot of shared knowledge, experience, and interesting discussions.
It’s clear there are many opportunities in higher education to leverage artificial intelligence, not only for students and student experience, but for educators, researchers, and administrative departments.
Want to see how AI can help you? Contact us today!