University of Tartu
University of Tartu
11/12/2025 | Press release | Archived content
Professor of Educational Technology Emanuele Bardone gives his inaugural lecture on the role of artificial intelligence in shaping future education in Estonia 13.11.2025
On Tuesday, 18 November at 16:15, Professor of Educational Technology Emanuele Bardone gives his inaugural lecture "Postdigital Education Futures in the Making: Estonia between Digital Hype and Educational Leaps" in the White Hall of the University of Tartu Museum. The lecture is in English.
While often associated with efforts to improve teaching and learning, the use of technology in education also serves as a generator of visions, imaginations, and narratives about how the future of education ought to be. Rather than functioning as a neutral tool for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness, technology operates as a prism through which we collectively imagine what shape schools, education and learning might take in the future in the broader context of societal change.
In his inaugural lecture, Emanuele Bardone will examine the entanglement between technology, on the one hand, and visions and stories of the future of education, on the other, using the recent AI Leap (TI-Hüpe) initiative as a case in point. The AI Leap is an educational innovation programme aimed at introducing generative AI into upper secondary education, chiefly grades 10 and 11. It also represents an attempt to articulate a vision of education future that grapples with the postdigital predicaments of our time. Rather than embracing a techno-optimistic vision that would let AI itself bring about positive change to education, the AI Leap articulates an education future that prioritises protecting children from potential harms that AI can cause and calls for pedagogical transformation. In this respect, the AI Leap can be read as a postdigital education future, that is, the one that both inherits and critically interrogates the legacy of the digital era.
Emanuele Bardone is Professor of Educational Technology at the University of Tartu, Head of the Centre for Educational Technology, and Programme Director of the master's programme in Educational Technology. He obtained his PhD in Philosophy from the University of Pavia (Italy). In his research, he has been focusing on education futures and the imaginative dimension involved in designing and appropriating emerging technologies in education. His other research interests include critical educational technology and responsible research innovation.
The aim of the inaugural lecture is to give the new professor an opportunity to introduce himself, his specialisation and field of research. At the end of the public lecture, the audience will be able to ask the professor questions. Everyone interested is welcome. The meeting is broadcast by UTTV.
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