OEB Annual Debate: "This House Believes that the Widespread Implementation of AI in Learning Will Do More Harm than Good."

Beth Havinga is the Managing Director of the European EdTech Alliance and the EdSAFE AI Alliance. Beth currently serves on the Digitisation Council of the state of Berlin in Germany, is chair of the advisory board of Kids.Digilab.Berlin, and serves on the board of the Children’s Future Foundation and the international advisory boards of both CoSN and ISTE. Beth represents the EEA in UNESCO’s Broadband Commission and Digtial Transformation Collaborative as well as the EdTech Roundtables of both the European Commission and the Council of Europe. Beth consults to the Council of Europe on the topics of AI and equitable public-private partnerships as well as to the project management organization of the German Federal Education Ministry regarding the international interoperability of education platforms.

Beth represents Germany as head delegate to the European Committee for Standardization of Interoperability for Learning Technologies and EdTech, and has worked closely with multiple governments and data protection agencies on national definitions for data modelling and certification.

Previously, Beth has served on the special board of the Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economics in Austria, as an expert in the field of “digitalisation in apprenticeships", and as a member of the expert Platform, "Digital Future: Learning. Researching. Knowledge" of the German Digital Summit by invitation of the German federal Minister for Education.

In addition to creating her own consulting firm, Beth has taught in schools, managed education software and publishing houses, founded two startups, and worked in over 45 countries to develop digital structures and strategies.

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Tim Unwin is a British academic and public figure, specialising in the uses of digital technology by the world’s poorest and most marginalised peoples. Trained as a geographer, he enjoys crossing boundaries between disciplines and sectors, and seeks to enhance international understanding between peoples and governments.

He attempted to make a calculating machine out of balsa wood in the mid-1960s and learnt to programme in Fortran in the mid-1970s. Subsequently, he became fascinated by the uses of digital technologies in learning, taught using Livenet in the early 1990s, and was involved in the UK’s Computers in Teaching Initiative in the mid-1990s. He led the UK Prime Minister’s Imfundo initiative (creating partnerships for using IT in education in Africa) between 2001 and 2004, was Secretary General of the Commonwealth Telecommunications Organisation between 2011 and 2015. and Chairholder of the UNESCO Chair in ICT4D at Royal Holloway, University of London between 2007 and 2023. In 2016 he was appointed Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St. Michael and St. George for his services to the Commonwealth.

His most recent work has challenged many taken for granted assumptions about the positive benefits of digital tech, especially for the world’s poorest and most marginalised peoples. His current interests focus mainly on the ways in which people have been enslaved by those who design and sell digital tech, by the environmental harms caused by its creation and use, by the failures of the UN system satisfactorily to address the role of digital tech, and by our cyborg futures.

Donald Clark is a Learning Tech Entrepreneur, CEO, Investor, Author, Podcaster, Blogger and Speaker. He was CEO and one of the original founders of Epic Group plc, which established itself as the leading company in the UK online learning market, floated on the Stock Market in 1996 and sold in 2005. He has been involved at all levels of investment – angel, VC, growth, PE and IPO. As well as being the CEO of Wildfire, an AI learning company, he also invests in, and advises, EdTech companies.
An investor and board member of learning companies Cogbooks (sold in 2021 to Cambridge University) and Learning Pool (sold 2021 for $200 million), he was also on the Boards of City & Guilds, Learn Direct, University for Industry and the Brighton Dome and Festival. Wildfire delivers AI products and consultancy. He has published 3 books, on ‘AI for Learning’, ‘Learning Experience Design’ and ‘Learning Technology’. His fourth book on Learning in the Metaverse has just been commissioned.
Donald has over 37 years experience in online learning, video, games, simulations, semantic, adaptive, chatbot, social media, mobile learning, virtual reality, AI and Metaverse projects. He has designed, delivered and advised on online learning for many global, public and private organisations. An evangelist for the use of technology in learning, he has won many awards, including the first ‘Outstanding Achievement in E-learning Award’ and ‘Best AIM Stock Market Company’, ‘Most Innovative Online Product’, ‘Best Online Learning Project and ‘JISC EdTech Award’.
An award winning speaker at national and international conferences, he has delivered keynotes in the UK, Europe, US, Africa, Australia, Middle and Far East.
His podcast series ‘Great Minds on Learning’ and 200+ articles on learning theorists are all online…… also a regular blogger (15 years+) on learning technology.
Books
AI for learning (2020) https://amzn.to/3HmAcIN
Learning Experience Design (2021) https://amzn.to/3zDMdYk
Learning Technologies (to be published Jan 2023)
Metaverse and learning (to be published late 2023)
Blogs
Series on 200 learning theorists, from the Greeks to the Geeks https://bit.ly/3OdrPBs
Podcasts
Great Minds in Learning
GREEKS https://bit.ly/3HpowVy
ENLIGHTENMENT http://bit.ly/3oy80ec
BEHAVIOURISTS http://bit.ly/3iUnINE
COGNITIVISTS http://bit.ly/3oUxOBK
PRACTICE http://bit.ly/3aAK5mk
INSTRUCTIONALISTS http://bit.ly/3FEdYk8
MORALISTS http://bit.ly/3qgdQC8
SOCIAL https://bit.ly/3MTLGEw
ASSESSORS bit.ly/3IX2A3C
AFFECTIVE https://bit.ly/3HsDDhe
INFORMAL https://bit.ly/3zym8Km
WORKFLOW https://bit.ly/3xU4Q9n
ONLINE LEARNING https://bit.ly/3Qn1Vgw

The Learning & Development Podcast with David James https://bit.ly/3zzCGSd
Reimagining Education with James Manion bit.ly/32D2LSf
AI, Data, and Optimism with Leading Learning https://bit.ly/3tEyQUa
AI is the New UI with John Helmer apple.co/3qF8oas
Enhancing learning experiences using AI with Learning Science bit.ly/3FJGdNR
The History of Learning and the Learning of History apple.co/3sMjXQ2

Videos
Don't lecture me! bit.ly/3HmLOtT
TEDx Talk More pedagogic change in 10 years than last 1000 years bit.ly/3quRxqU

Inge de Waard is the learning strategist at EIT InnoEnergy, she is a longtime researcher, activist, award-winning learning innovator and (e)Learning coordinator. She developed multiple online & hybrid courses, co-designed AI tools, and embedded learning innovations. Inge coaches and co-creates international, blended curricula with engineers and teachers, and explores innovative learning formats. Her expertise is recognized by peers, resulting in additional co-authored papers, invited talks and keynotes in both academic and professional conferences, workshops and seminars. She recently founded the Power Elders initiative to spotlight role models who changed their lives at any age beyond 50. Most of all, she likes to connect with people and share stories.

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Mr. Maximilian Jarrett, a dual British-Liberian national has over thirty-three years of professional experience in international economic and political affairs, multilateral government relations, and strategic communications. Since 2001, he has worked in several international organisations in a range of executive office roles, with a core focus on managing executive office institutional partnerships, strategy formulation, policy analysis and programme delivery. In July 2023, he was appointed as the new Director of Strategy and Delivery in the Office of the President of the African Development Bank Group.
As Africa Programme Manager in the division of Global Energy Relations at the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) from 2020-2022, he managed the Agency’s high level engagement across the African continent to support clean-energy transitions.
From 2018 to 2020, he was a co-coordinator of the Third Murdoch Commission of Murdoch University in Western Australia and co-lead author of the Commission’s 2021 report (Towards Inclusive Transitions on the Continent of Africa).
Prior to his engagement on the Third Commission, Maximilian served throughout 2017 as the final Director-in-charge of the Geneva-based Africa Progress Panel which was chaired by the late former United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
He holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, as well as a Bachelor of Science (Hons) in Economics degree from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
He began his professional life in August 1990 as an international broadcaster with the BBC World Service in Bush House, London.
He was born in Monrovia, Liberia.