The hosts of TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast invite in-room participants to focus attention on what should remain uniquely human about digital learning over the next 30 years as AI-assistance and other technologies bring new affordances and constraints. This highly interactive session will be recorded for release after the conference.

Terminology, tools, and concepts from the technology-mediated higher education learning environments of 30 years ago are now head-shakingly quaint and dated. Casting our collective imagination forward in time 30 years, in an era that is increasingly accelerated by artificial intelligence, is an exercise in fantasy with little practical benefit. Yet, what we lack in predictive specificity may be countered by a need to declare our highest human aspirations for the future we want to invent together as a community in the coming decades. This featured session led by the hosts of OLC’s partner podcast (TOPcast: The Teaching Online Podcast), Kelvin Thompson (University of Louisville) and Tom Cavanagh (University of Central Florida) will invite the in-room participants to focus attention on what should remain uniquely human about digital learning as AI-assistance and other technologies bring new affordances and constraints. Questions about anticipated shifting roles of institutions, faculty, learners, and technologies will guide responses (and interactions) from the podcast hosts, the in-room participants, the broader community (via crowdsourced input), and our current generative AI tools. Some specific applied topics to consider include learning personalization, human interaction, curriculum design, assessments of learning, new forms of Digital Divides, and more. Sample questions prompting interactions include: What are the possible dynamics and future role of AI-powered digital learning? What will be the role(s) of colleges/universities? How will the functions of “distance” learning shift? How can human-centeredness remain the focus for institutions, faculty, learners, and society This session will be recorded and will serve as the basis for a podcast episode to be released after the conference.