Stewart Alan Robertson Lecture Series: AI Education for Meaningful Life, Life Together, and Life on the Planet
Speaker: Professor Matti Tedre, University of Eastern Finland
Chair: Professor Judy Robertson, University of Edinburgh
When: 12 March 2026, 12:30-1:30pm
Where: in person (Room 2.55, Edinburgh Futures Institute) and online (Teams)
Abstract
Finland's Basic Education 2045 vision positions the K-12 school as a futures-shaping institution grounded in human growth and flourishing, agency, and the ethical use of technology. It views education through three intertwined aims: cultivating a meaningful life (significance and purpose), life together (communities and democratic collaboration), and life on the planet (ecological sustainability).
AI systems play a role in all three. They shape how we construct meaning, how we relate to one another, and how people live within ecological systems. AI systems increasingly mediate knowledge, participation, production, and consumption, quietly influencing personal identity, public discourse, and planetary resource use. In a society increasingly mediated by invisible, data-driven systems, ethical use is not enough. Students must understand how AI systems are built, trained, and embedded in their lives and in the planetary systems.
This talk presents Generation AI, a six-year program to develop K-12 AI education in Finland, and views it in relation to the vision above.
Based on longitudinal classroom research, it shows how inquiry-driven AI education can cultivate data agency, critical understanding, and transformative AI literacy, as well as empower students not merely to adapt to change, but to shape their own sustainable, meaningful, and collective futures.
Speaker's bio
Matti Tedre is Professor of Computer Science at the University of Eastern Finland, Extraordinary Professor at North West University (RSA), and Guest Professor at TU Wien (AT). He currently spends most of his time leading Generation AI, a six-year national research program on K-12 AI education funded by the Strategic Research Council established within the Research Council of Finland.
Find out more about Generation AI.
If you have any questions about this event, please email MHSES-RKEI-Events@ed.ac.uk.