Date and time: Thursday 23 April 2026, 14:00-15:00 CEST
Speaker: Dr. Jan L Plass, Paulette Goddard Chair, Digital Media & Learning Sciences, New York University
Title: The Role of Human Agency in Personalizing Learning with AI
Where: Digital Futures hub, Osquars Backe 5, floor 2 at KTH main campus OR Zoom
Directions: https://www.digitalfutures.kth.se/contact/how-to-get-here/
OR
Zoom: https://kth-se.zoom.us/j/69560887455
Host: Olga Viberg
Bio: Dr. Jan L. Plass, Professor and Paulette Goddard Chair in Digital Media and Learning Sciences at New York University, is the founding director of the CREATE research center at NYU and co-director of the Games for Learning Institute. He earned his MA in Mathematics, Physics, and CS Education in 1990 and his Ph.D. in Educational Technology in 1994 from Erfurt University. He draws from cognitive science, learning sciences, computer science, and design to envision, design, and study the future of learning with digital technologies, with a current focus on games, XR, and AI.
He has published widely and is, with Slava Kalyuga, author of Rethinking Cognitive Load Theory(Oxford, 2025) and the lead editor of Cognitive Load Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2011), the Handbook of Game-based Learning(MIT Press, 2020) and the Handbook of Learning in VR (MIT Press, forthcoming).
Abstract: This presentation will discuss two separate aspects of human agency in personalizing learning with AI. One form of agency is related to the learner and describes which choices they are given in personalized learning, and how related systems should be designed. A second form of agency is that of the learning experience designer, who can either leave the all aspects of the personalization to the AI, such as in the use of chatbots, or take an active role in determining the personalization method, i.e., retain control over the theoretical or empirical argument based on which adaptations are made. I will argue that the latter approach will open rich opportunities for research on personalized learning with AI that contributes to theory development.
