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About the Ethics Focus Area  

Together with Tamar Sharon, Marthe leads the ethics focus area at NOLAI, which further consists of postdoc Imré Bard, PhD candidate Yuri Tax, and Teacher-in-Residence Kevin van der Pol. Marthe: "Ethics is best known for committees that assess research projects, for example, and for ethical guidelines around privacy and data protection. Within NOLAI, we work hard to comply with all these ethical procedures and guidelines. At the same time, there is also a lot that is still unknown about the responsible application of AI in education, and there are many ethical issues that we still know quite little about. This is the key area in our research." 

The introduction of AI is changing the way education is delivered, which happens in all sorts of unexpected ways that we find difficult to predict in advance. This is what we are focusing on in our research.

Embedded Ethics or Parallel Ethics 

AI is gaining an increasing role in education, and the hope is that it will improve the quality of education. But AI technology is not a neutral, passive tool used only to perform a task; it brings changes to the field of education. Marthe: "The introduction of AI is changing the way education is delivered, which happens in all sorts of unexpected ways that we find difficult to predict in advance. This is what we are focusing on in our research. We are very closely involved in the development of AI for education, which we call embedded ethics or parallel ethics. We don't just focus on testing already developed technology, but think about the whole process to develop AI responsibly."

Value Conflicts in Education 

"In our research, we look at existing values that are important in education, such as pedagogical expertise, equal opportunities and collaboration. Public values such as autonomy, justice, and humanity can also come into play in education. Take, for example, a value like collaboration, which is historically important in Dutch education. How will that value develop with AI? Many applications with AI are about personalisation and providing tailor-made education. But how does personalisation relate to a value like collaboration? We explore the value conflicts that arise when we start using AI applications in education, and it will be critical if AI applications clash with what is considered good education in the Netherlands." 

If teachers' core tasks are automated, their autonomy and pedagogical expertise may come under pressure. We don't want AI to reduce or replace teachers' roles but to support them.

Autonomy  

NOLAI adopts a hybrid model, where AI supports the teacher. Teacher autonomy is an essential value here. Marthe: "If teachers' core tasks are automated, their autonomy and pedagogical expertise can come under pressure. We don't want AI to reduce or replace teachers' roles but to support them. Students should also be able to continue making autonomous choices, which is something we are considering how best to do as an ethics team. To do this, it's important to look at the autonomy of the whole education sector. Which companies are we going to develop AI products with? If you continuously bring in the big technology companies for that, you make the sector dependent on these corporations, which develop technology on their own terms. This can lead to putting the autonomy of schools under pressure, which we want to avoid."   

Ethical Thinking 

In education, you traditionally see fewer ethical committees, councils and guidelines than, for example, in healthcare. Marthe: "I think the education field should become more critical. AI will bring much development, but it is certainly not a solution to the complicated problems in education. My long-term goal at NOLAI is to encourage this kind of ethical thinking throughout this sector. I want to do this by supporting and training teachers to think critically about AI technology so schools can become more resilient and better assess the responsible innovations they want to use. We hope to contribute to this with our research so that AI can be used to strengthen education in the Netherlands."