In her keynote address, Inge Molenaar will explore the role of artificial intelligence in education, emphasizing the potential for hybrid human-AI collaboration. At the heart of effective education is the goal of fostering student learning and talent development. To achieve this, it is essential to align theories and scientific insights on learning and teaching with the possibilities offered by AI.

Molenaar will highlight the dual role of AI in education, as a tool and an actor. AI as a tool is used for understanding learners’ learning processes and refining learning theories. AI, as an actor, supports learners during learning and helps teachers improve their teaching. A significant gap exists in the application of theories and scientific insights in AI-empowered educational technologies. Only 50% of learner-facing solutions and 33% of teacher-facing solutions are grounded in these theories, indicating substantial room for improvement.

In her talk, Molenaar will outline how to design AI in education to connect learning theories and scientific insights with the possibilities of AI. She will contrast the replacement and augmentation perspectives and address the consequences of AI automation on teacher and learner autonomy. Through compelling examples, she will illustrate how AI in education can lead to the replacement, complementation, and augmentation of teachers and learners.

Moreover, she will propose an innovative approach to investigate the complex interplay among AI, teachers, and students, providing a practical framework for integrating AI’s dual role with the established scientific understanding of learning and teaching. This alignment may help to cultivate responsible educational practices that empower students to realize their full potential.

Inge Molenaar is the Director of the National Education Lab AI (NOLAI) and a Professor of Education and Artificial Intelligence at the Behavioural Science Institute, Radboud University, Netherlands. With over 20 years of experience in technology-enhanced learning, she has successfully navigated roles ranging from entrepreneur to academic.

Dr. Molenaar's research focuses on innovative, technology-empowered approaches to optimize human learning and teaching. Central to her work is the application of data, learning analytics, and artificial intelligence to understand the dynamics of learning over time.

Envisioning Hybrid Human-AI Learning Technologies, Dr. Molenaar aims to augment human intelligence with artificial intelligence, empowering both learners and educators to make education more efficient, effective, and responsive to individual needs. Her research group, the Adaptive Learning Lab, investigates how self-regulated learning can be supported through technology. At the National Education Lab AI, she develops new educational practices using AI and explores the responsible use of AI in education.

She is a recipient of several prestigious grants, including an ERC Starting Grant and funding for the National AI and Education Lab (NOLAI) and holds Master's degrees in Cognitive Psychology and International Business Studies, as well as a PhD in Educational Sciences from the University of Amsterdam.