Theme: Trends and Current Issues
Specialisms: Generative AI
Speaker: Dr Simon Bates, Vice-Provost and Associate Vice-President, Teaching and Learning, Professor of Teaching, Dept of Phy, University of British Columbia (UBC)
Facilitator: Leo Chon, EDC
Date: 06 Jan 2026
Time: 2:30 PM - 3:30 PM
Venue: BC401 and Online via Zoom
As AI continues to move towards a general purpose technology (like the Internet and mobile devices before it), many educators are concerned about the implications of unchecked use of these tools is going to have on the very essence of the critical learning skills that are at the heart of a university education. As it becomes increasingly more difficult for students not to use AI in the tools and applications they rely on, I assert that we need to urgently re-articulate the value proposition of the effortful struggle of learning at universities, and that AI tools can be an empowering addition, rather than an easy and frictionless replacement. This has implications for faculty development: subject matter expertise is still critical, but I argue that in addition educators need to model a wider range of affective ‘ways of being’ to bring to students what these tools cannot.
Speaker:
Simon Bates is a multi-award-winning educator, who has held a number of leadership positions relating to student learning in globally-ranked universities. Following degrees and graduate work at the boundary between computational chemistry and physics, he has for the last 25 years worked in the area of technology-led educational enhancement and research.
Since 2012, he has been a Professor of Teaching in the Department of Physics and Astronomy at UBC Vancouver. He currently serves as Vice-Provost and Associate Vice President, Teaching and Learning, the inaugural holder of this position.
EDC Coordinator: Leo Chon
