Educators and experts from Russia, the CIS, and China discussed issues of creating a developing educational environment in the age of AI

This is an annual interregional large-scale event, uniting the educational community of the Developing Environment Programme, Investment in the Future Charitable Foundation. The key topic of the Convention was the developing educational environment in the age of artificial intelligence.

More than 350 teachers, educational leaders, and experts from 32 regions of Russia took part in the Convention. Among those present, 82 schools and educational complexes, 41 kindergartens, 4 educational development institutes with the status of a personality potential development center, as well as 8 regional educational development institutes were represented by the delegates and ambassadors of the Programme. In addition, representatives of two pedagogical colleges participated in the event.

On the first day of the Convention, guests from Kaliningrad joined the activity: over 100 teachers and management staff from local schools and kindergartens, as well as delegates from the Kaliningrad Regional Institute for Educational Development and the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University.

An important part of the event was the international delegation from five post-Soviet countries — Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, and Belarus. The delegation included 31 experts from national academies of education, state universities, secondary schools, and non-profit organizations. The event was particularly important due to the first-time participation of experts from Beijing Normal University (People's Republic of China).

In recent years, increased attention has been paid to a person, their development and well-being. Today we got new context. How to be a human in the age of AI?

Welcoming remarks to the participants were made by:

• Peter Polozhevets, Executive Director of the Investment in the Future Charitable Foundation,
• Lilia Zorkina, Rector of the Kaliningrad Regional Institute for Educational Development,
• Maxim Demin, Rector of the Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, Candidate of Sciences in Physics and Mathematics.

Among the invited guests of the Convention:

• Tao Zhan, Director of the UNESCO Institute for Information Technology in Education,
• Ronghuai Huang, Co-Dean of the Beijing Normal University Smart Learning Institute, UNESCO, Chair on Artificial Intelligence in Education, Director of the National Engineering Research Center for Cyberlearning and Intelligent Technology.

In 2025, the Convention is timed to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the Foundation.

Peter Polozhevets Executive Director of the Investment in the Future Charitable Foundation

"Since its beginning, the Foundation has been looking for answers to the question: ‘How can we help a child move forward, relying on themselves, and develop regardless of the place of residence, socio-economic status of the family, and personal circumstances?’. For 10 years, the Foundation, in partnership with regional education authorities, universities, and professional development institutes, has focused on creating an educational environment that promotes the development of personality potential of children and adults. Together, we have translated scientific knowledge into pedagogical technologies and shown that change is possible, measurable, and manageable.

In recent years, increased attention has been paid to a person, their development and well-being. Today we got new context. How to be a human in the age of AI? According to experts, the opportunities provided by AI entail drastic changes in people's lives. These consequences will affect both the educational process and its participants. We invite all participants of the Convention to rethink our approaches to personality development in education in the context of the triad ‘Human. Machine. Environment".

Kaliningrad Region in the Developing Environment Programme

In 2019, the Kaliningrad Region was the first Russian region to enter the Personality Potential Development Programme (now ― the Developing Environment Programme), which is currently implemented in 50 regions of Russia in cooperation with the Moscow City University.

Within the framework of two agreements between the Ministry of Education of the Kaliningrad Region and the Foundation, and then between the Kaliningrad Regional Institute for Educational Development and the Foundation, the region has demonstrated impressive results over five years of joint work. In total, 980 teachers and educational managers from 49 general education schools, 21 kindergartens, and 3 additional education institutions have been trained and are implementing the Programme on the basis of the Kaliningrad Institute for Educational Development. The Pedagogical College of Chernyakhovsk is among the participants of the Programme. Currently, 19 educational organizations in the region have the status of Personality Potential Development Centers: 13 schools, 5 kindergartens, and the Pedagogical college of Chernyakhovsk.

The Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University is a member of the University Research Consortium "Personality Potential Development in Education", which was established and operates with the support and direct participation of the Foundation's experts.

The Community of the Developing Environment Programme

This year, the core community of the Developing Environment Programme consists of 221 Personality Potential Development Centers and 132 ambassadors of the Programme from 33 regions of Russia. Personality Potential Development Centers are schools, kindergartens, regional educational development institutes, and teacher training colleges participating in the Developing Environment Programme of the Investment in the Future Charitable Foundation, which successfully shape their organizational culture aimed at developing the personality potential of children, teachers, and parents; they change the space of the educational organization in order to develop the personality potential of all participants in educational relations; pay special attention to the professional and personal development of teachers for them to work on the personality potential development of students; integrate methods of personality potential development into the process of teaching and upbringing: they regularly conduct classes on the social and emotional development of children and the development of the personality potential of adolescents, while conducting subject-based classes use methods to develop universal competencies and skills of the 21st century; an evidence-based approach is used in education to assess the effectiveness of the Programme and its impact on the effectiveness of the educational process.

Additional information

Learn more about the work of the Kaliningrad region’s educational institutions as part of the Developing Environment Programme (until 2023 ― Personality Potential Development Programme).
Learn more about the IV Convention of the Personality Potential Development Centers and the Ambassadors.
See the online broadcast recording of the Convention’s opening ceremony and the plenary session.