Much of what is known on 21st-century skills and education, describes a situation where a broader range of skills is needed to complement the basic literacy, numeracy and scientific skills that are currently taught in our schools. There is a real need to use digital technology to develop innovative skills and competencies that will enable graduates of schools and universities in Cyprus to deal with an emerging economic, environmental, technological, political and social challenges of the current century.

There is a need to advance teaching approaches, assessment strategies and reporting or grading systems. There is a need to accommodate new innovative skills and competencies within an existing educational structure and curriculum. Schools need to Reengineer Education with Mobile Tech, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality Applications to develop higher-order level skills and validate appropriate pedagogy’s, curriculum assessment and evaluation strategies and other instructional support.

Furthermore, Cyprus belongs to a global community and we need to develop our students so that they are equipped with the skills, knowledge, creativity and digital competencies to be able to survive in this world of change. The foundation for this change is to begin equipping students with the tools they need regardless of their learning and living differences. The key is to differentiate our instruction and use the most appropriate digital devices that will enable us to cater for all students including those students with special needs and the Gifted and Talented. Artificial Intelligence is the most important change force in modern society. The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence (AAAI) and the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) launched what students from Kindergarten to the 12th grade (K-12) should know and be able to do in terms of Artificial Intelligence.

AI will be a net job creator starting in 2020.”   Artificial Intelligence will automate 1.8 million people out of work, but it will create 2.3 million jobs. So,  Artificial Intelligence will drive a net gain of 500,000 new jobs. (Gartner Symposium 2019) High school graduates know nothing about how  Artificial Intelligence  works, cannot imagine the opportunities it creates, how AI penetrates their everyday lives and how they should prepare for their future professional carriers. The question of how  Artificial Intelligence  and robots will affect jobs has been one of the darkest shadows looming over the 21st century. Gartner’s underlying assumptions is that  Artificial Intelligence  is going to play a complementary role to a lot of workers. It will make them faster, more efficient, and more productive.

Artificial Intelligence  is already behind everything in education but in Cyprus and Internationally we are witnessing a lag in impact in the education systems. At the same time,  Artificial Intelligence  is making leaps and bounds in all industries.

Code that learns will prove to be humankind’s greatest invention—and, some worry, its demise. Artificial Intelligence will have more influence on the lives and livelihoods of young people over the next several decades than any other factor. Fed by big data and equipped by robots and other enabling tools,  Artificial Intelligence will help address our most pressing problems: it will help us cure disease, unlock clean energy, and create valuable and affordable services. Simultaneously, it will cause massive dislocation, widen income gaps, weaponize robots and pose other existential threats.

This expert seminar will give valuable proactive hands-on experiences to educators on where can  Artificial Intelligence make the biggest advancements in education. Tutoring for example could be wiped out by  Artificial Intelligence in the next five years. Intelligent Tutoring Systems (ITS) will simulate one-to-one human tutoring. Assessment  Artificial Intelligence will help build more efficient, personalized and contextualized support for students. Smart recommendation systems or machine-assisted systems will show student mastery, repeat necessary lessons and suggest a personalized learning plan. Upskilling and continuous development will be assisted by  Artificial Intelligence . We’ll also see new models of boot camps and EdX-like offerings from universities to serve as gap-fillers for skills. Scheduling Algorithms will make it easier to maximize learning environments and schedules.

Augmented and Virtual Reality applications empower students to see beyond what their imagination may conjure. Tactile interaction where a student can have a learning relationship between their own thinking brain and the digital brain – the iPad. It’s an inclusive, differentiated tool that will surpass all other digital devices and empower Cyprus students to be equipped with learning skills and knowledge that will help them be ready for any future global educational change.

This seminar will offer valuable insight to owners and Middle and High school principals/managers, educational curriculum consultants and master trainers of private middle and high schools and institutes approved by Ministry of Education and Culture. All above schools need to transform and develop their educational practices that will lead students towards the development of the new 21^st century literacies.

This expert educator professional development workshop aims to provide Middle and High school principals/managers, educational curriculum consultants with the latest state of the art tools, platforms and educational pedagogies that will fully support them to acquire the following types of knowledge, skills and attitude-related objectives:

Knowledge-related objectives

• Understand the importance of Artificial Intelligence in education and how  Artificial Intelligence can change the way we learn and work.
• Comprehend the learning relationship between the Thinking Brain and the Digital Brain.
• Understand the need to prepare students for continuous change using unique devices, apps, tools and recourses.
• Be familiar with the power of Augmented reality as an ultimate educational tool to inspire and engage student’s knowledge
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Skills-related objectives (Be able to)

• Use Mobile Tech, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented reality tools and recourses to develop Literacy, Numeracy, Scientific and Engineering skills for life long learning.
• Integrate the pedagogical aspect of learning with tablets and iPads and artificial Intelligence tools into the Middle and High School Years Curriculum.
• Set up and personalize new tech tools and recourses for different students whether they have special needs or are gifted and talented.
• Use high tech devises from various operating systems and technologies to challenge and engage creativity and Innovation in the classroom.
• Engage students for indoor and outdoor learning with Augmented reality apps and new tech devices.
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Attitude-related objectives

• Choose appropriate pedagogical strategies, learning tools, resources and for personalized, independent and group learning.
• Design and deploy differentiated and inclusive learning plans using New Tech, Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality.
• Equip students to be independent and autonomous but at the same time to share with others their learning experiences through collaboration and communication.
• Be flexible in embracing the diversity of devises tools, recourses and applications during problem-solving.