Cyber Humanism in Education: Reclaiming Agency through AI and Learning Sciences

TL;DR

The paper argues that generative AI reshapes education in ways that can threaten epistemic agency and teacher professionalism unless approached through Cyber Humanism. It develops a design lens with three pillars—reflexive competence, algorithmic citizenship, and dialogic design—and maps these concepts onto European and global AI-competence frameworks. Through higher-education case studies and the EPICT Conversational AI Educator certification, it demonstrates how prompt-based learning can strengthen epistemic agency while exposing tensions around workload, equity, and governance. The work then outlines a Learning Sciences research agenda to study human–AI collaboration within socio-technical infrastructures and to guide governance, policy, and practice in AI-rich education.

Abstract

Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly reshaping how knowledge is produced and validated in education. Rather than adding another digital tool, large language models reconfigure reading, writing, and coding into hybrid human-AI workflows, raising concerns about epistemic automation, cognitive offloading, and the de-professiona\-lisation of teachers. This paper proposes \emph{Cyber Humanism in Education} as a framework for reclaiming human agency in this landscape. We conceptualise AI-enabled learning environments as socio-technical infrastructures co-authored by humans and machines, and position educators and learners as epistemic agents and \emph{algorithmic citizens} who have both the right and the responsibility to shape these infrastructures. We articulate three pillars for cyber-humanist design, \emph{reflexive competence}, \emph{algorithmic citizenship}, and \emph{dialogic design}, and relate them to major international digital and AI competence frameworks. We then present higher-education case studies that operationalise these ideas through \emph{prompt-based learning} and a new \emph{Conversational AI Educator} certification within the EPICT ecosystem. The findings show how such practices can strengthen epistemic agency while surfacing tensions around workload, equity, and governance, and outline implications for the future of AI-rich, human-centred education.