Whenever she talks about teachers using artificial intelligence, University of Maine associate professor of special education Sarah Howorth likes to remind whoever she’s talking to that educators have always used technology to support student learning.

“Probably the most relatable example for most people is the use of calculators in math class,” Howorth says. “We’ve also had computers in schools for a couple of decades now. So throughout history, educators have adapted to the latest emerging technologies.”

While much of the public discussion around AI in education has focused on the potential negatives, such as cheating, information bias and concerns over technology replacing the human element of teaching and learning, Howorth and colleagues across the country are exploring some of the ways the technology can be used to help teachers and their students. The latest issue of the , which Howorth guest edited, features research on AI’s potential as a game-changing tool for educators, learners and families.

“The genie is already out of the bottle in terms of AI in schools,” Howorth said. “So the questions then become: How can we use AI to enrich learning for all students? And how can we use it to support teachers?”

The special issue of the journal is part of a project led by Howorth titled “Leading the Way: AI in Special Education Teacher Education,” which launched last year. It’s supported by a $9,000 grant from the (CEC), the largest professional organization focused on improving the educational success of youth with disabilities, as well as special gifts and talents. The project also includes a free based on the articles in the special issue. Howorth is featured in a to the series, which was produced by the Center for Innovation, Design and Digital Learning (CIDDL) at the University of Kansas.

For students with special needs, Howorth said AI can be beneficial. For example, a student with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder might be able to reduce their cognitive load by using an AI note taker to summarize classroom presentations and create action items for homework assignments. Generative AI can be used to level a text to a student’s reading ability, making assignments more inclusive, or to create social stories that teach students with autism about norms and how to communicate with others.

“AI is great for creating educational materials that appeal to students’ interests,” Howorth says. “If I’m a teacher and I have a student who’s really into horses, I can use AI to create stories and images of horses that I can incorporate into my lessons in ways that are more engaging for them. Students can also use AI tools to express their creativity and knowledge.”

At the same time, Howorth says it’s important for teachers to recognize when and how to use AI. She says a good rule of thumb for how to incorporate AI into instruction is to design assignments that can’t be completed with the technology alone. In other words, students should be able to show how and why they used AI to do the assignment. She notes that no technology can supplant the knowledge and skill of professional educators.

“We still need teachers to be teachers,” she says. “A skilled and compassionate human being is needed for effective instruction.”

91¸ŁŔű senior lecturer of education Tammy Mills has also been working through some of the complexities around AI with both undergraduate teacher education students and graduate students who are already working in schools. For example, she asks her students to prompt ChatGPT to produce things like lesson plans and assessments for student learning.  

“For the most part,” she said, “they’re not happy with the results, because they know best practices for instruction and assessment. They look at what ChatGPT comes up with and they can do it better.”

Like Howorth, Mills said she thinks AI will transform education. But she says it needs to be employed safely and ethically. She said she considers herself a co-learner along with her students as they figure out best practices together. 

“You have to recognize that whatever you put into AI is going to be reflected in what you get out of it,” said Mills. “We talk about privacy and making sure you’re not putting personal information about students into any AI tools. We also talk about making sure we’re being culturally sensitive and aware of the biases inherent in AI, so that when we use it we’re able to get something that represents the demographics of the learners.”

“If anything,” she adds, “it makes human knowledge and skill more important than ever. Teachers know their students’ strengths, preferences, needs and interests, and can use this information to support kids with a variety of technological and pedagogical tools.”

Contact: Casey Kelly, casey.kelly@maine.edu

With rural schools facing significant shortages of highly-qualified teachers, particularly those in STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields, the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development will use a grant from the National Science Foundation to boost support for future and current STEM educators in rural school districts.

The nearly $100,000 award is part of NSF’s Robert Noyce Teacher Scholarship Program, designed to support talented undergraduate STEM majors in becoming effective K-12 teachers, as well as to help practicing educators in areas with recruitment challenges become STEM master teachers. 

“One of the primary reasons for STEM teacher shortages is low enrollment in initial licensure programs in math, physical science and life science. Rural schools run into additional hurdles due to limited local populations, budget constraints and issues recruiting experienced teachers,” said Ezekiel “Zeke” Kimball, associate dean for undergraduate and teacher education in the College of Education and Human Development. 

Kimball is principal investigator of “Rural Reimagining of Opportunities for Undergraduate Teacher Education in STEM: A Capacity Building Project.” The year-long initiative will involve developing a survey to examine what motivates undergraduate students to choose STEM or teacher education majors, hosting workshops with school district partners to create rural focused teacher licensure pathways, and conducting market research with rural STEM and education majors to determine best strategies for boosting their licensure. The efforts are intended to support a future proposal designed to create innovative new pathways to initial licensure. Catharine Biddle, an associate professor of educational leadership and director of the School of Educational Leadership, Higher Education and Human Development, and Mohamad Musavi, associate dean of the Maine College of Engineering and Computing, are collaborating with Kimball on the project. 

“Boosting the rural STEM teacher workforce in Maine and beyond will strengthen local and regional economies as these educators inspire young people to pursue careers in science, engineering and math-related fields,” Biddle said. “We’re excited to partner with rural districts and communities to develop a set of best practices around the recruitment, training and retention of these vital classroom teachers.” 

The project, expected to launch in the fall, aligns with several other initiatives led by the 91¸ŁŔű College of Education and Human Development. That includes the New England Rural Education Hub, a partnership with the nonprofit to advance preparation and professional development of high-quality teachers and school leaders throughout the Northeast, as well as cutting-edge research on the use of artificial intelligence and virtual reality in K-12 classrooms.

91¸ŁŔű is also embarking on a new initiative called the Rural Educator Resilience Project to expand professional development, mentoring and other evidence-based resources for rural teachers and administrators statewide. Faculty and staff from the College of Education and Human Development will work with other University of Maine System campuses on the project. The System received $3.3 million in included in a federal budget bill passed earlier this year, secured for UMS at the request of U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, and U.S. Sen. Angus King.

Contact: Casey Kelly, casey.kelly@maine.edu

The talk, “Sunshine, Public Art, and Multiplication: The Design of an Interactive Mathematical Sculpture,” covered the invention and development of the SunRule, an interactive sculpture that harnesses the rays of the sun to help users explore multiplication and division. Dimmel and Pandiscio came up with the idea for the sculpture, which was designed and built in collaboration with associate professor of art Greg Ondo and sculpture studio technician Sam Hoey through 91¸ŁŔű’s MIRTA accelerator program.

The Balomenos lecture is named for the former chair of the Department of Mathematics at the University of New Hampshire, who died in a car accident along with his wife in December 1986. Each year, ATMNE selects memorial lecture speakers who exemplify Balomenos’ devotion to thinking carefully and deeply about the improvement of mathematics education.

Pandiscio and Dimmel also hosted a workshop at the ATMNE conference titled “Multiplication by Sunlight.” 91¸ŁŔű 30 educators who participated in the workshop were able to build their own hand-held versions of the SunRule and learn about the design and mathematical affordances of the devices.

Ethan Geheb, a doctoral student in STEM education in the University of Maine College of Education and Human Development, has received a Susan J. Hunter Teaching Assistantship from the 91¸ŁŔű Graduate School. Geheb will teach a lower division undergraduate course during either the fall 2023 or spring 2024 semester. The fellowship also includes a $10,000 stipend and a tuition waiver. Geheb ’13, ’18G joined the STEM Education Ph.D. program after earning both his bachelor of science in biomedical engineering and a Master of Science in Teaching from 91¸ŁŔű. His dissertation research focuses on engineering education. More graduate student awards were announced on the 91¸ŁŔű Graduate School website.

The COVID-19 pandemic has been a “wicked problem” for higher education, argue researchers from the University of Maine who recently published a study exploring how the first year of the pandemic affected research activities at the institution.

“Wicked problems are complex, nonlinear and unique, with a high likelihood of serious consequences without quick solutions,” says Asli Sezen-Barrie, lead author of the study and an associate professor of curriculum, assessment and instruction at 91¸ŁŔű’s College of Education and Human Development.

“We view the pandemic as a wicked problem for higher education, because it forced decision-makers to develop urgent and dramatic solutions to prevent viral spread, such as travel restrictions, transition to online teaching and safety measures for labs and classroom facilities,” says Sezen-Barrie.

As is often the case with wicked problems, Sezen-Barrie and her co-authors say the pandemic amplified challenges that were already present in higher education, including financial instability, inequalities, and social and cultural barriers to creating communities of practice and social connections on a college campus.

To better understand the challenges raised or exacerbated by the pandemic, they surveyed more than 400 University of Maine faculty, staff and graduate students about how the first year of living with COVID restrictions affected research activities, productivity, and health and wellness, as well as how pandemic conditions made them think about adaptations to sustain or increase their scholarly work.

According to the survey, 78% of participants reported reduced research and scholarship productivity, including 83% of tenure-track faculty and 77% of graduate students.

The reasons for reduced productivity included increased work responsibilities, limited access to research fields and inadequate resources. Some specific examples were captured in qualitative survey responses. For example, one faculty member discussed not being able to access K–12 schools, where they were conducting research.

“I had a five-year pilot project for a school-based intervention effectively shut down by the pandemic,” the faculty member reported. “We were going to run a quasi-experimental evaluation of the project in the schools we partner with after four years of work this year and are now unable to because of the disruption schools have experienced.”

A graduate student talked about how lack of resources affected their course of study.

“I’ve had to abandon my thesis altogether, for lack of access to research materials, and switch to completing my degree by coursework alone, which has set me back about 18 months,” the student said.

At the same time, the study asked participants how they adapted to improve or sustain productivity in the face of pandemic restrictions. One theme that the authors note from the survey data was the emergence of new opportunities due to wider adoption of virtual tools.

“Scientific conferences going online is a huge boon,” said one professor from the Sciences. “Saves TONS of time and money and creates great opportunities for undergrad and grad students to attend whereas they otherwise would be excluded due to the high costs.”

In terms of health and well-being, nearly a third of survey participants (29%) highlighted mental health issues, including anxiety and fear about the pandemic, burnout/exhaustion and increased stress. One junior faculty member talked about how the pandemic impacted family obligations and led to increased stress when it came to their career aspirations.

“It cannot be stated enough how hard it has been getting any research done with a 2- and 4-year-old at home,” said the faculty member, identified as a female assistant professor. “It is mentally hard to see colleagues without kids being more productive and just having absolutely no way to get there.”

Besides Sezen-Barrie, the study’s authors include Lisa Carter, Ph.D. student in higher education; Sean Smith, associate professor in the School of Earth and Climate Sciences; Deborah Saber, associate professor of nursing; and Mark Wells, professor of marine sciences. The project was initiated by the Research and Scholarship Committee of the University of Maine’s Faculty Senate and received funding from the Office of the Vice President for Research and Dean of the Graduate School.

The authors say their findings suggest that resuming pre-pandemic operations is not a viable option for higher education institutions moving forward.

“There’s a need to collaboratively develop new sets of guidelines to help researchers and scholars optimize operational responses based on what we have learned from the pandemic conditions,” they argue.

They also suggest that other colleges and universities undertake similar studies to “provide a basis for comparisons of institutions in varied geographic settings and demographic situations to guide holistic strategies for higher education at a national level.”

The study was published in the journal Innovative Higher Education and is available .

Contact: Casey Kelly, casey.kelly@maine.edu.

Sezen-Barrie is former co-principal investigator of a National Science Foundation-funded project with colleagues from the Education Development Center (EDC) in Waltham, Massachusetts; Mount Washington Observatory (MWO) in North Conway, New Hampshire; and the University of Washington, titled “WeatherX: Building Data Literacy Among Rural Youth.” She had to step down as co-PI last year, when she accepted a two-year position as program director of the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division for Research on Learning in Formal and Informal Settings. She still designs and leads research efforts during her approved independent research time.

The WeatherX project works with middle school science teachers in New Hampshire and Maine to promote interest in data science careers among students from low-income rural communities. The research team developed and has been testing two, three-week prototype curriculum units in which students investigate local weather patterns using large-scale data collected from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and extreme storm data from MWO, a site that has been called the “Home of the World’s Worst Weather.”

“Our project team has designed equitable and locally relevant units to engage middle school students in analyzing data on extreme weather, one of the grand challenges of our time,” says Sezen-Barrie, who participated in the STEM for All Video Showcase . “Students have opportunities to work with the scientists at the summit of Mount Washington and community members in their local neighborhoods. We are participating in the STEM for All Video Showcase because it gives us [the] opportunity to share our work with [a] wider audience and connect with similar projects nationwide.”

The WeatherX team’s showcase presentation can be viewed on the STEM for All .

Now in its eighth year, the annual showcase will feature over 250 projects aimed at improving science, technology, math, engineering and computer science education that have been funded by NSF and other federal agencies. During the eight-day event, researchers, practitioners, policy makers and members of the public are invited to view short videos, discuss them with the presenters online and vote for their favorites.

The theme for this year’s event is “Access, Inclusion, and Equity.” The presentations cover a broad range of topics including science, mathematics, computer science, engineering, cyberlearning, citizen science, maker spaces, broadening participation, research experiences, mentoring, professional development, Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) and the Common Core.

Last year’s is still being accessed, and to date has had over 103,000 unique visitors from 178 countries.

The showcase is hosted by the nonprofit , in partnership with: ,, , , , , , , , and . The showcase is funded by a grant from the NSF.

Dimmel is now associate professor of mathematics education and instructional technology. He teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses in the School of Learning and Teaching. In addition, he is the founder and director of the Immersive Mathematics in Rendered Environments (IMRE) Lab, which designs virtual and augmented reality math and science learning environments, and investigates how VR and AR technologies can transform STEM education. Dimmel recently received a National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the organization’s most prestigious award for early career faculty.

Hakkola is now associate professor of higher education in the School of Educational Leadership, Higher Education and Human Development. She teaches master’s and doctoral-level courses in the graduate programs in higher education. Her research examines how local, national and global discourses about diversity are developed and conveyed in the higher education, focusing on how these discourses shape and are informed by educational policies and practices, and how they affect student success.

91¸ŁŔű’s annual announcement about promotion and/or tenure recognizes outstanding achievement in teaching, scholarship and research, and community engagement by faculty across the university.

Congratulations to Drs. Hakkola and Dimmel on this achievement!