In a theater full of scientists, teachers and people interested in how to responsibly maximize the advances of artificial intelligencethe president of the University of Puerto Rico (UPR), Luis Ferrao Delgadoand the director of the Capacity Development Section of the International Institute of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO, in English), Yuma Inzoliasigned this Friday a cooperation agreement to strengthen higher education in the Latin American and Caribbean region.
“At UNESCO, we have been promoting the use of artificial intelligence in education in a responsible, inclusive and sustainable way.”. We are honored to be here, at the University of Puerto Rico, supporting the materialization of this very pertinent Congress. We have taken the opportunity to sign the first collaboration agreement with the UPR to strengthen institutional ties,” shared Dr. Inzolia, in an aside with The new day.
The UPR held the first International Congress on Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education, together with a dozen experts in the innovative field. The event agenda was highlighted by topics such as bioinformatics, pedagogical models and the effects of artificial intelligence in education, economics and language, among others.
“The UPR, fulfilling its role of bringing knowledge to its highest levels, prepared this congress, where we have a series of experts addressing a current topic that concerns us all. They are going to bring, inform and debate about where artificial intelligence is going“, Ferrao Delgado explained at the beginning of the event, at the UPR Theater, in the Río Piedras Campus.
Regarding the collaborative agreement, Inzolia explained that it will allow supporting the training of teachers, creating research projects, strengthening the development of lines aimed at educational innovation and “thus being able to consolidate a more solid offer from the university that has a greater impact at the national level.” and regional”.
“With the agreement, the UPR will continue to strengthen the development of lines of research in the educational field through distance and virtual education, which include technology consulting and technical assistance. We will facilitate this educational meeting of wills with our academics, specialists in different branches of knowledge, who will promote reflection and cooperation between higher education institutions both in the Caribbean like in Latin America“added Ferrao Delgado.
Both parties committed to carrying out joint actions to promote scientific events in this region of the planet, which benefit Latin American and Caribbean academia.
Meanwhile, Inzolia highlighted the multiple benefits of artificial intelligence, while admitting that there are still spaces for improvement so that technological advances do not exclude certain populations with lower purchasing power.
“With artificial intelligence, personalized tutors can be created for each of our students to help them, precisely, in achieving their learning results, But the problem is that we need this to be accessible to everyone, regardless of their purchasing power.”he emphasized.
According to UNESCO, artificial intelligence provides the necessary potential to address some of the biggest challenges in today's education and accelerate progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goal number four: “Ensure inclusive, equitable, quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.”
One of the main challenges around artificial intelligence and its inclusion in all social spheres is accessibility to connectivity, that is, access to high-speed internet, Inzolia argued.
“There are many countries, and especially in our region, that still do not have access to connectivity. There are even areas in Puerto Rico where this surely occurs, where connectivity is not very good. So, when we promote solutions based on artificial intelligence that require connectivity, we are unintentionally excluding others.yes,” he said.
The Venezuelan educator insisted that teachers must be trained to make the most of this type of technology to also be able to support, in an “offline” way, those people who cannot have access to virtual tutors to personalize their learning process. .
In addition, invited those teachers with resistance to artificial intelligence to acquire basic skills to be able to innovate and “remove those fears”. “Both citizens at a general level and academia, it is necessary that we have basic digital skills to be able to face this type of technologies as well as many others in our daily lives,” he stressed.
This Friday's activity featured artificial intelligence tools, such as the platform Wordlywhich allowed attendees to translate presentations from English to Spanish and other languages from their own phones.