Amany AlKhayat
Amany Alkhayat is the CEO of Language Cities and a consultant to several VR companies leveraging conversational AI for educational initiatives. With a strong academic background and two Master's degrees, including one in TEFL from the American University in Cairo, she brings a unique perspective to the integration of cutting-edge technologies in education. Amany is also pursuing her doctoral studies at the Instructional Technology and Media Program at Teachers College, Columbia University.
Amany's expertise lies in the intersection of language learning and advanced technologies, particularly in virtual reality environments and conversational AI. Additionally, Amany's commitment to educational innovation is evident through her founding of the VirtuaTELL annual conference, which brings together educators, practitioners, researchers, and technology enthusiasts in their shared mission to seamlessly integrate emerging technologies into education.
As an adjunct faculty member at NYIT, Amany teaches Human-Computer Interaction, sharing her knowledge and insights with students. Her research interests encompass conversational AI and Extended Reality for education.
Round-Table
A whole new world or just more of the same? AI and education
Abstract
Empowering Language Learners: Embracing the Era of Large Language Models
Chatbots have been used in the past decade to help students improve their grammar and speaking skills in addition to inhibiting the affective filter (Krashchen, 1975). Numerous studies explored students’ academic performance using chatbots such as Tutor Mike, Pandorabot, Celeverbot and others (Fryer, & Carpenter. 2006; Alkhayat, 2017; Kim, 2019; Heller et al, 2005; Huang et al, 2018).
Before Chatgpt, challenges in such interactions were attributed to memory and contextual limitations (Alkhayat, 2017, Tani, 2014). The latest advances in Large Language Models such as Chatgpt where chatbots communicate with users intelligently, has opened a lot of potential to empower students and revolutionize language learning. In this plenary talk, the speaker will address relevant research, including her own, and discuss ways chatbots are used and how teachers can optimize the use of chatbots in the classroom.