GeoDemAI - back to working 'in Europe'

After a gap of a few years, I'm back working with European colleagues who I have worked with for many years.

ERASMUS+ is sadly no more, but I've started working on a project which is funded by the Civics Innovation Hub.

You can see what we've done so far on this project page on the Eurogeo website.

Details of the project:

The GEODEM-AI project aims to encourage a healthy, critical view of ethical issues related to the use of AI in Geography teaching and learning.

GEODEM-AI addresses democratic principles, civic engagement, and social responsibility of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in geographic information, by offering interactive multimedia training materials for teachers and educators based on real-world civic applications, with the aim to foster active citizenship and civic participation.

Main outputs:

– A research report on AI and ethical issues in geoinformation – download and read the report

– A Civic Education training module (Web-based) – tested and piloted
– A set of (educational) guidelines/recommendations for the ethical uses of AI in geoinformation
– A series of AI and geoinformation teacher stories


Through the research review, online training module, guidelines/recommendations and teacher stories, GEODEM-AI will encourage an informed, healthy, critical view of ethical issues related to the positive and negative challenges from the rise of AI for the collection, use, reuse and storage of geographic information and geo-data in education.

This has been published - see the link above.

The GEODEM-AI project will develop innovative civic education training and useful resources to enhance teachers’ understanding of the positive and negative challenges faced by the rise of Artificial Intelligence specifically from the perspective of the increasing utilisation of geographic information and geo-data.

Based on the recognition by the European Commission of the significance of previous data driven democracy projects (D3 and GEODEM), GEODEM-AI will address specific issues concerning democratic principles, civic engagement, and social responsibility concerning AI developments in geographic information, offering teacher-developed interactive multimedia learning experiences based on real-world applications to foster active citizenship and civic participation among citizens.

The key target groups will be teachers and educators, teaching the transition years from high school to university education as well as NGOs and agencies working in civic education.

AI, particularly Generative-AI has made a big impact since it first appeared, and the pace of change is rapid.

The rapid development of AI requires educators to refocus on critical thinking skills and consider the potential for individualised learning.

At the moment, there is nothing much there when you click 'View Project' on the webpage,  but the materials for teachers, including a MOOC, AI Case Studies and some thinking will appear in the months ahead.

My role is to develop some resources linking pedagogy and citizenship - linked to the ethical use of AI, and in particular how to connect this with the geography / geospatial curriculum.

I'll also share some of the inspiration behind my thinking in more posts over the next few months as these resources start to take shape. I've already blogged one of these: Richard Allaway's excellent session at Practical Pedagogies - his resources are shared here.

And if anyone has some suggestions for how the ethics of AI use can be incorporated  into the geography curriculum, perhaps because you are already doing it, I'd love to hear from you!! Otherwise you'll be forced to read MY ideas on the matter....