Chatbots as Learning Partners: Exploring Dialogue in AI-Enhanced Learning

Chatbots as Learning Partners: Exploring Dialogue in AI-Enhanced Learning

📅 Monday 18/05 14:00-15:30h

📍 Main Hall

🔎 Needs Analysis

The rapid integration of generative AI (GenAI) is reshaping Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), yet GenAI–based chatbots are often used primarily as instrumental tools rather than as dialogic learning partners. This workshop addresses this gap by offering PhD candidates an experiential, theory-informed engagement with AI-mediated dialogue.

Although TEL researchers are expected to examine emerging technologies through theoretical and ethical lenses, many practitioners in education still lack familiarity with pedagogical uses of GenAI and access to customizable learning tools. Consequently, AI-enhanced learning is often discussed conceptually rather than experienced in designed contexts. Through an ethical dilemma task and interaction with chatbots varying in modality and dialogic orientation, participants explore how design choices shape dialogue, personalization, and learner agency.

📒 Session Description

This workshop is an interactive, hands-on session focused on participation, reflection, and discussion. Participants will begin with a shared learning task and will be randomly assigned to work with one of several chat-based systems, using either text or voice interaction. All participants will engage with the same task, which involves discussing and making decisions around a complex issue in an educational context.

During the activity, participants will interact directly with the chatbot, exchange ideas, and reflect on how the interaction unfolds. After completing the task, they will fill out a short self-report questionnaire about their experience. The session will then move to guided reflection and small-group discussions, where participants compare experiences and discuss how different interaction modes influenced their thinking and engagement. The workshop will conclude with a whole-group discussion, allowing participants to share insights and questions arising from the activity.

💡 Learning Objectives

By the end of the workshop, participants will be able to:

• Experience and reflect on the use of generative AI chatbots as learning partners, rather than as tools for information delivery or productivity support.
• Identify dialogic versus agreement-oriented chatbot behaviors and their impact on learning.
• Compare text-based and voice-based chatbot interactions and their effects on learning.
• Apply core dialogic learning principles to the design and evaluation of AI-enhanced activities.
• Critically examine the role of personalization and adaptivity in AI-supported learning from an interactional and dialogic perspective.
• Analyze learner–AI interactions using a qualitative, reflective lens, identifying interactional patterns relevant to TEL research.
• Identify key pedagogical opportunities and challenges of using generative AI in education.
• Formulate research-informed questions or design considerations for using chatbots in Technology Enhanced Learning contexts.