Keynote Speakers_2025
Speaker: Assoc. Prof. Montathar Faraon
Affiliations: Kristianstad University, Sweden
Assoc. Prof. Montathar Faraon
Biography: Associate Prof. Montathar Faraon is an interaction design researcher at Kristianstad University, Sweden. He received his PhD in Information Society from Stockholm University, Sweden in 2018. His research focuses on generative artificial intelligence in higher education, interaction design, and digital transformation. Dr. Faraon has published in high-impact peer-reviewed journals such as Education and Information Technologies, E-learning and Digital Media, and International Journal of Technology and Design Education. His recent work examines ChatGPT adoption factors among Nordic and American university students, and how AI can support design students’ creativity in divergent and convergent processes. Dr. Faraon has authored several books on web development and has received multiple scientific awards.
Speech Information
Abstract:The evolution of artificial intelligence (AI) has triggered a shift in higher education that echoes past technological disruptions. Just as calculators, search engines, and digital encyclopedias transformed learning environments, generative AI now presents both opportunities and challenges in academia. Current AI services operate primarily within a transactional paradigm and are designed to perform tasks such as defining concepts, generating content, or processing data. These services have shown their usefulness for lower-order cognitive operations on Bloom's digital taxonomy. However, as we move up from the lower cognitive levels toward the higher cognitive processes, we encounter limitations of transactional AI services. Transactional services prove particularly inadequate when confronting "wicked problems" in educational contexts, i.e., challenges that lack definitive formulations or solutions, exist in unique contexts, and resist simple classification as right or wrong. The trajectory of AI in higher education appears to be advancing toward relational AI services that establish contextually aware, value-sensitive connections with teachers and students. Such relational services may transcend the constraints of transactional AI by taking into consideration individual values, learning styles, contextual understanding, and emotional intelligence to further higher-order thinking abilities among students.