Rupert Wegerif
Rupert Wegerif
Keynote - Generative AI and designing education for collective intelligence
Time: Wednesday 6 May 2026, 13:00 - 14:00
Location: The Factory, FARI
Generative AI and designing education for collective intelligence
Generative AI forces a basic educational question: if machines can now perform many of the tasks schools and universities have traditionally valued, what should education be for? This paper argues that the answer lies not in doubling down on individual performance but in redesigning education for collective intelligence. In a world shaped by ecological crisis, democratic instability, and global technological interdependence, the key educational challenge is to develop the capacity to think and act well together. Drawing on dialogic theory, the paper suggests that generative AI can help if it is used not as a substitute for human thought but as a resource for expanding inquiry, engaging difference, and supporting shared knowledge creation. The aim of education then becomes the design of dialogic environments in which learners, teachers, and AI systems contribute to deeper understanding, better judgement, and more responsible collective action.
About keynote speaker
Rupert Wegerif is Professor of Education in the Faculty of Education at the University of Cambridge and the founder and academic director of the Digital Education Futures Initiative at Hughes Hall, Cambridge (DEFICambridge.org). Since his PhD in educational technology in 1995 he has focussed on developing a new theory and practice of education in the digital age. His recent book with Louis Major ‘The Theory of Educational Technology: A Dialogic Framework for Design’ (Routledge, 2024) suggests ways to re-think education in the light of the AI-enhanced Internet. His even more recent book ‘Rethinking Educational Theory: Education as Expanding Dialogue’ (Edward Elgar, 2025) argues that education is about expanding ‘dialogic space’.