The two days of kick off were organized around the metaphor of "guiding ourselves" through the complexities of the entire project as well as dive into the specifics of each of the six work packages. Kim Toft Hansen (AAU) as the project leader - or rather the overall "tour guide" - started by walking us through the complete narrative of the GAIYA project, including some previously unrevealed behind the scenes thoughts and ambitions.
The remaining time was then spent discussing each of the work packages in depth, including key concepts, ideas for content and how to work with them separately as well as integrated. Spending time establishing a common understanding of the work lying ahead, sharing ideas and getting to know each others' professional backgrounds and competences, was time very well spent. The concortium consists of researchers from different backgrounds, countries and experiences which allows for interdisciplinary thinking - but also requires understanding each others' perspectives.
Ilka Nagel and Stine Brynildsen (ØUAS) are leading the third work package (WP3) which is really at the heart of the project because it entails the project's empirical data collection. One of the overall aims of the GAIYA project is to explore how upper secondary students and teachers in the Nordic L1 subjects - Swedish, Norwegian and Danish - understand and use genAI. Data will be collected through student and teacher interviews in each of the three Scandinavian countries, as well through an international survey for the students. In order to gather as relevant and valid data as possible, we spent a lot of our allocated "guided tour" of WP3, discussing content and form with the other participants. Prevailing questions, not only in this WP, but overall are questions like: How do we explore a phenomenon and technology that is constantly changing? How to deal with genAI as a moving target - and what do we even mean by genAI? What are specific L1 topics and literacy and what are more overall comptences and AI literacies?
In addition to discussing these and many other interesting and relevant questions, we also engaged in various non-GAIYA conversations, ate lovely Danish food, drank litres of coffee and juice - all during two beautiful days of spring. We look very much forward to the next meeting.
Overview of participants:
- Kim Toft Hansen (Aalborg University/ AAU, project leader)
- Anders K. Møller (AAU)
- Kristine Bundgaard (AAU)
- Rain Mikser (University of Tartu/ UT)
- Daniel Brodén (University of Gothenburg/ UGOT)
- Andreas Jacobsson (UGOT)
- Ilka Nagel (Østfold University of Applied Sciences/ ØUAS)
- Stine Brynildsen (ØUAS)