Today Microsoft announced details of a newly produced Microsoft Dream Space TV series: brAIn_waves. The series, which is freely available online from today via rte.ie/learn, is designed to develop both AI (Artificial Intelligence) literacy and the skills required for the era of AI in young people.
Microsoft Dream Space TV is an innovative initiative that combines the expertise of the Microsoft education team with RTÉ’s commitment to engage young people in the world of technology and, in this case, AI.
This latest series of Microsoft Dream Space TV is the fifth to be produced in collaboration with RTÉ Learn, with previous episodes focusing on developing digital skills through themes of inclusivity, sustainability, and health and wellbeing.
brAIn_waves
brAIn_waves is comprised of six episodes, two of which have been designed for upper primary school students and four for post primary students. For upper primary school students, the two-part series explores computational thinking, algorithms, data, and how AI works at a basic level. For post-primary students, the four-part series explores the fundamentals of AI and its impact on our everyday lives with specific lesson areas including algorithms, data, machine learning, and ethics.
Post-primary students will have the added opportunity of participating in the Microsoft Dream Space and RTÉ Learn brAIn_waves series competition and will be in with a chance of winning incredible team prizes and competing for the All-Ireland title. The competition element simply focuses on putting the learnings from each episode into practice. Students will be encouraged to work in teams and develop their own AI for Good solutions, which they can then enter into the national brAIn_waves competition. Entries will be evaluated on innovation, data collection, machine learning, impact, creativity, and ethics. 20 teams will win a prize for their school and one overall winner will take home the grand prize and brAIn_waves All-Ireland Title.
Microsoft’s Commitment to Skill Up Ireland
This new online series builds on Microsoft’s recent commitment to help ‘Skill Up Ireland’ for an AI future by way of its national AI skilling programme. The programme is comprised of three initiatives targeted at providing access to industry recognised certificates for adult learners, including in Generative AI, and Microsoft Dream Space AI certificates for student learners.
Commenting on today’s announcement, James O’Connor, Microsoft Ireland Site Leader and Vice-President Microsoft Global Operations Service Centre: “We’re delighted to join the team at RTÉ Learn to announce the fifth series from Microsoft Dream Space TV – brAIn_waves. The series’ focus on AI is particularly important given the technology itself is central to many discussions across business, our education sector, and wider society. Through our STEM education experience, Microsoft Dream Space, we are helping the next generation to develop the skills that are required to succeed in our digital society and economy. AI is no longer a future technology, it is rapidly becoming accessible to all, and therefore it’s really important that we seek to immerse students in all things AI, helping to develop their understanding of and skills in this technology“Our commitment at Microsoft to empower people of all ages, backgrounds and experiences to gain the skills that are required to participate in our AI-enabled economy is the driving force behind our national AI skilling programme, which we launched late last year. As part of this commitment, we are providing every student across the island of Ireland – almost 1 million in total – with the opportunity to engage in Dream Space, our STEM-based learning experience.
“Our aspiration is that teachers and students leverage this free learning resource to bring AI to life in classrooms around the country. Critically though, I hope at the end of the series that the students are inspired to learn more about AI and cultivate their skills in this area. Congratulations to everyone involved in making this series a reality.”
Speaking about the initiative Suzanne Kelly, Group Head of Children’s & Young People’s Content at RTÉ said: “RTÉ are excited to once again team up with Microsoft Dream Space, this time to explore the latest frontier in technology – AI. AI technology touches almost every aspect of our lives and is continually evolving at breakneck speed, this incredibly timely series showcases how best to harness and understand where AI is going next.
“The Dream Space team have created informative, thought provoking, free learning materials to be used in classrooms across Primary and Post Primary schools and RTÉ Learn are delighted to work with Dream Space to deliver these resources.”
Microsoft Dream Space TV series: brAIn_waves is available from today via rte.ie/learn. A support guide for educators is being made available to support the delivery of the episodes to students and young people in classroom settings.