The tenth edition of the Curriculum Innovations seminar, which opened this Tuesday (4), will discuss, during the three days of the event at Unicamp, the theme “Artificial Intelligence – Skills and digital technologies in higher education”, with lectures, poster presentations and workshops. The objective is to reflect on how new technologies can contribute to a more creative and innovative education, but, at the same time, promote ethics and equity.
The full schedule can be viewed here. https://inovacoes.ea2.unicamp.br/
At the opening of the event, the Vice-Rector for Undergraduate Studies, Mônica Cotta, recalled the legendary TED Talk by British educator Sir Ken Robinson (1950-2020) in 2006, in which he stated that "we are educating people to be less creative."
“So many years later,” Cotta declared, “we have to ask ourselves if we are teaching in the same way, since today we have a whole technological arsenal at our disposal. Education is a construction, and we are trying to deal with all the complexity of using technology in the classroom.” For Cotta, the debate is essential to provoke reflection. “We need to point out paths and update ourselves so that we can understand this generational transition, achieve a less unequal education, and identify the pitfalls that lie in our way,” he concluded.
The coordinator of the Teaching and Learning Support Space (EA2), Sílvio Roberto Consonni, organizer of the event, highlighted the importance of educators being concerned so that there can be reflection on the use of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) in new teaching practices. But Consonni, a professor at the Institute of Biology (IB) at Unicamp, emphasizes that technology, by itself, is not enough. "We need to understand how to use them to strengthen our skills."
Matheus Souza, coordinator of the Educational Technologies Management Group (GGTE), reinforces the importance of discussing technology in education, but raises a question: "AI has come to bring about change, but what we should reflect on is whether we will use technology to transform and innovate education or whether we will be transformed by it."
Record number of participants
The Curriculum Innovations event, a biennial initiative that began in 2007 with the goal of strengthening dialogue between teaching, research, and outreach, is reaching its 2025 edition with a record number of participants. “We have 1502 registered participants, 480 of whom attended in person, with 250 accepted papers. For comparison, in the sixth edition, in 2017, we had 703 registered participants and 260 in-person attendees,” reports Consonni.
The theme of this edition originated from a panel discussion at the previous event. "We saw a great opportunity to discuss how AI practices impact our daily lives, whether in classrooms or in our institutions," says the organizer. "We have speakers from the University of Lisbon, the University of Porto, and the University of Minho in Portugal, in addition to..." Erasmus University Medical Center"From the Netherlands. All these institutions are discussing digital skills in teacher development," he adds.
At the opening of the event, the Skabides group of student-artists, formed by undergraduate students of the Music course at Unicamp, presented two original compositions. The inaugural lectures were “Artificial Intelligence and Higher Education: Paths to Innovative Teacher Training”, with Sara Dias Trindade, from the University of Porto, and “Technological and Methodological Innovations for Virtual and Hybrid Education”, which included the participation of Cassio Cabral Santos, from the University of Lisbon.
COVER PHOTO
