DkIT representatives JJ Quinlan and Jackie Toal, organised Gen AI: N³ AI Play workshops in Dundalk Institute of Technology on the 7th and 8th of November, followed with an exciting Design Thinking Generative AI Hackathon held on Friday, 15th of November.

These events are part of the new Gen AI: N3 strand under the N-TUTORR framework, designed to explore the exciting potential of Generative AI in education.

The AI Play workshops were immersive, hands-on, practical, fast-paced sprints to generate creative outputs. These had been organised for staff to show the potential of these technologies for future teaching and learning.  Participants engaged in activities such as creating podcasts, avatars, and experimenting with AI to generate new ideas for education. The workshops explored cutting-edge tools like Luma, Wondercraft AI, Synthesia, GenCraft, Claude, and ChatGPT to unlock possibilities in text, image, and audio-visual production.

The AI Hackathon brought together staff and students to collaborate on designing a new course and creating marketing materials, showcasing the power of teamwork and creativity with AI. Participants leveraged tools such as ChatGPT, Runway ML, Hugging Face, and Suno to co-create innovative outputs that reimagine the future of education.

The energy, enthusiasm, and creativity from all the participants were evident in their imaginative creations—it was very inspiring to see so many diverse and innovative ideas. The session concluded with an engaging discussion on the challenges of using AI in education—such as bias, hallucinations, and over-reliance—and the opportunities to add significant value to teaching and learning. This sparked a wealth of ideas for future exploration and implementation.

Speaking about the events, a representative from the Gen AI: N³ DkIT team said:

“Generative AI is proving to be a catalyst for change in education when used responsibly and ethically. A huge thank you to everyone who joined us and participated in these events. We look forward to seeing how these tools and ideas continue to spark innovation in curriculum development and delivery and shape the future of teaching and learning.”

These events are supported by N-TUTORR, a national framework driving innovation in Education for Sustainability, Universal Design for Learning (UDL), Employability, Equality, Diversity, Inclusion (EDI), and Digital Transformation.