UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — From generations of science fiction stories to modern-day concerns of robots taking over the world, technology has long captured our imagination. With tech trends constantly making news, how can educators use these breakthroughs to take global agricultural education to the next level?
Twelve educators from across the country had the opportunity to explore one technology — artificial intelligence (AI) — during a recent immersive workshop at Penn State University Park.
The experience was part of the Global Teach Ag Network’s Educators Empowering Educators Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Professional Development for Agricultural Literacy grant program, which increases the knowledge of food and agriculture among educators.
The Global Teach Ag Network, referred to as GTAN, is an online community and resource hub for educators to connect, collaborate and share knowledge about global agriculture and food security. It highlights instructional strategies for introducing cutting-edge agriscience research to diverse populations.
GTAN is a collaborative effort between the College of Agricultural Sciences’ Ag Sciences Global unit and the Department of Agricultural Economics, Sociology, and Education.
During the workshop, teachers and international agriculture and development program (INTAD) graduate students collaborated to learn about the potential of these developing tools under the direction of Penn State Teaching and Learning with Technology. They worked in groups with AI as a fifth teammate. The teams were tasked with blending two well-known board games and adding an educational component while relying on AI as an equal contributor to the effort.
One of the participating INTAD students, Mia Sullivan, worked with her team to create a new game combining Monopoly and Mancala. The team designed the game to enhance general knowledge of anaerobic digesters through experience-based learning.