Using AI to hone self-regulation (not outsource it)

Authors

Libby Hills

Senior Advisor for Learning Ventures Jacobs Foundation

Owen Henkel

AI Researcher, University of Oxford

This season Libby Hills from the Jacobs Foundation and AI researcher Owen Henkel continue to speak with leading researchers, practitioners and educators on the Ed-Technical podcast series about the cutting edge of AI in education. They will break down complex AI concepts into non-technical insights to better understand what the research says and help educators sift the useful insights from the AI hype. 

In this episode, Libby and Owen talk to Sanna Järvelä and Inge Molenaar, two of the world’s leading scholars on self‑regulated learning (SRL). 

Together they cover SRL 101: what self-regulated learning is and why it is a valuable skill. Self-regulated learning is students setting their own goals and then monitoring their learning to achieve those goals. Self-regulation can come more naturally in informal learning settings like sports, but it can be harder to monitor your learning and know if you’re on track in school. 

Sanna and Inge explain how technology can help to address this, and make the learning process more visible. AI systems offer valuable opportunities for better understanding and measuring of self-regulated learning, but need to be carefully designed. We want AI to be a coach not a crutch: AI systems need to reinforce self-regulated learning, not encourage students to offload it.   

They also touch on the increasingly important question about how we self-regulate our own use of AI. When do I need to proofread this, when do I use autocomplete, and when do I turn AI off?

Guest biographies and links

• Sanna Järvelä is Professor of Learning Sciences & Educational Technology at the University of Oulu, Finland, where she leads the LET research unit. She is co-Director of CELLA, the Center for Learning and Living with AI supported by the Jacobs Foundation. 
• Inge Molenaar is Professor of Education & Artificial Intelligence at Radboud University and founding Director of the Dutch National Education Lab AI (NOLAI). She is co-Director of CELLA the Center for Learning and Living with AI alongside Sanna.