Bonnie Stewart
Beyond BigAI: Agency as Educational Practice
This is a complex and challenging era in higher education, with expanding digital infrastructure and competing pressures in the classroom, in institutions, and in society at large. Amidst the din of contradictory narratives – is GenAI the future of education? is it an existential threat? – this talk will trace the promises and practicalities that currently shape teaching, learning, and society through a lens of threats to human agency. The keynote will overview uses and limitations of AI in education, while distinguishing between GenAI tools and the current consolidation of power around BigAI hype. It will emphasize practical pathways to fostering agency and connection within the current knowledge ecosystem, and centre on agency as a core pedagogical practice for futures that matter.
Biography
Dr. Bonnie Stewart is a longtime educator and digital researcher whose work in participatory learning has spanned all eras of the web. Associate Professor of Online Pedagogy and Workplace Learning in the University of Windsor’s Faculty of Education, Bonnie explores the implications of digital information ecosystems for institutions and society. As an early researcher of Massive Open Online Courses and digital disruptions in higher education, Bonnie has been thinking about digital systems and their impacts on education over decades of change. Holder of a Ph.D on Twitter (may it Rest in Peace), Bonnie currently investigates what it means to know, to learn, and to belong in an era increasingly marked by digital automation and weaponization.