View full details from the College of Education.

When: Monday, March 3, 2025, 3–5 pm
Where: Sorenson Arts and Education Complex (SAEC), Art Works for Kids Auditorium

The College of Education Dean's Distinguished Speaker Series continues with H. Chad Lane's lecture, "Navigating the Rapidly Evolving Landscape of AI in Education: A Researcher's Perspective."

In his lecture, Professor Lane will discuss several key principles essential to the responsible and effective use of AI in educational settings. These include grounding AI systems in established pedagogical principles, developing robust control mechanisms, and fostering a human-centered approach that prioritizes meaningful interactions and preserves student-teacher relationships. Lane will also advocate for active engagement with emerging AI technologies and setting the goal to gain a deeper understanding of their capabilities and limitations before concluding with recommendations for educational researchers. By combining established principles with practical exploration and ongoing research, we can collectively chart a course for AI in education that truly benefits learners and supports educators in their vital work.

Professor Lane is a Professor of Educational Psychology and Computer Science at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and serves as the PI and Director of the NSF-IES INVITE AI Institute. His research focuses on the design, use, and impacts of intelligent technologies for engagement, interest development, and learning. This work involves blending techniques from the entertainment industry (that foster engagement) with those from artificial intelligence and intelligent tutoring systems (that promote learning).

His PhD is in Computer Science from the University of Pittsburgh (2004), and prior to joining UIUC, he spent ten years as a research scientist and Director of Learning Sciences Research at the USC Institute for Creative Technologies in Los Angeles, CA.