Critical AI Learning Lab (CALL)

About

The Critical AI Learning Lab (CALL) works to develop critical thinking toward Artificial intelligence (AI), or “AI literacy,” so educators can support students in building a balanced perspective on AI and competencies for using AI effectively and responsibly.

AI is revolutionizing the learning experience for students of all ages, and innovative instructional strategies supported by AI have the potential to make educating the next generation more personalized, efficient and effective.

Educators who use AI can help students achieve their full potential and prepare them for a future that demands critical thinking, problem-solving and adaptability. To succeed, they must also understand the limitations, ethical issues and public concerns associated with AI.  

CALL is dedicated to preparing educators to face these seismic shifts and empower their students to use AI for diverse purposes. Our lab is affiliated with the Department of Educational Theory and Practice in UAlbany’s School of Education.

 

A teacher working with students using tablets in an elementary school classroom.


 

Contact CALL
Dr. Haesol Bae
Catskill 267

1400 Washington Avenue
Albany, NY 12222
United States

Office Hours

9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday

Publications

Bae, H., Park, J., Zhao, Y., & Walton, D. (2026). Constructing Teacher Identities: Navigating Societal and Professional Values in Ethics-Centered AI Literacy. In Kumi-Yeboah, A., Aikins, S., & Yankson, B (Eds.), Revolutionizing Secure Learning in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. IGI Global Scientific Publishing.

Bae, H., Walton, D., Park, J., & Zhao, Y. (2026). Design as Pedagogy: Employing Design Problem Solving to Develop Critical AI Literacy in Teacher Education. In Litts, B.K., DeLiema, D., Lee, C., Krist, S., Mawasi, A., Martin, L., & Kumpulainen, K. (Eds.), In Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), (pp. 1528-1532).

Walton, D., Bae, H., Park, J., Zhao, Y., Weiss, R., & Tashjian, S. (2026). Living the Impossible: Designing Life Happens, an AI-Supported Budget and Justice Simulation. In Litts, B.K., DeLiema, D., Lee, C., Krist, S., Mawasi, A., Martin, L., & Kumpulainen, K. (Eds.), In Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), (pp. 2866-2868).

Zhao, Y., Bae, H., Park, J., Walton, D., & Weiss, R. (2026). Shared Epistemic Agency in K-12 AI-Infused Lesson Planning: Exploring Human-AI Collaboration in Designing Pedagogically Meaningful Learning Experiences. In Litts, B.K., DeLiema, D., Lee, C., Krist, S., Mawasi, A., Martin, L., & Kumpulainen, K. (Eds.), In Proceedings of International Conference of the Learning Sciences (ICLS), (pp. 1009-1018).

Walton, D. & Bae, H. (2025). The Right to Red-Team: Adversarial AI Literacy as a Civic Imperative in K-12 Education. In D. Belgrave and C. Zhang & H. Lin and R. Pascanu and P. Koniusz and M. Ghassemi and N. Chen (Eds.), In Proceedings Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS). San Diego, CA. 10.52202/085713-2742

Zhao, Y., Bae, H., Park, J., & Walton, D. (2025). Transformative Learning through Situated Practices: Understanding In-Service Teachers’ Critical Engagement with AI Tools in Education. In Rajala, A., Cortez, A., Hofmann, R., Jornet, A., Lotz-Sisitka, H., & Markauskaite, L. (Eds.), Proceedings of the 19th International Conference of the Learning Sciences - ICLS 2025 (pp. 2145-2149). International Society of the Learning Sciences.

Park, J., Bae, H., Walton, D., & Zhao, Y. (2025). Exploring Teachers’ Value Beliefs about AI in K-12 Education. In R. Lindgren, T. Asino, E. A. Kyza, C.-K. Looi, D. T. Keifert, & E. Suarez (Eds.), In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference of the Learning Sciences-ICLS 2025, (pp. 2889-2891).

Walton, D., Bae, H., Park, J., & Zhao, Y. (2025). Less Speed, More Thought: Message Pacing in Student-AI Interactions. In R. Lindgren, T. Asino, E. A. Kyza, C.-K. Looi, D. T. Keifert, & E. Suarez (Eds.), In Proceedings of the 19th International Conference of the Learning Sciences-ICLS 2025, (pp. 1654-1658).

Acosta, H., Lee, S., Bae, H. et al., (2024) Recognizing Multi-Party Epistemic Dialogue Acts During Collaborative Game-Based Learning Using Large Language Models. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education.

Bae, H., Hur, J., Park, J., Choi, GW., & Moon, J. (2024) Pre-Service Teachers’ Dual Perspectives on Generative AI: Benefits, Challenges, and Integration into their Teaching and Learning. Online Learning.

Bae, H., & Bozkurt, A. (2024). The untold story of training students with generative AI: Are we preparing students for true learning or just personalization? Online Learning, 28(3), (1-9). DOI: 10.24059/olj.v28i3.4689

Bozkurt, A., & Bae, H. (2024). May the Force Be With You JedAI: Balancing the Light and Dark Sides of Generative AI in the Educational Landscape. Online Learning, 28(2), 1-6.

Walton, D., & Bae, H (2024). A Multi-Level Framework for Exploring the AI interaction through Joint Reasoning. In Proceedings of the International Society of the Learning Sciences (ISLS).

Team

Principal Investigator

Haesol Bae
Haesol Bae
  • Assistant Professor
Department of Educational Theory & Practice; School of Education
Catskill 267

Graduate Students

Jaesung Park
Jaesung Park.

Jaesung Park is a doctoral student in UAlbany’s Curriculum and Instruction PhD program. He focuses on articulating curricular basis for K-12 AI education and implementing them to support teachers in teaching about AI in classrooms.  

His research interest also covers developing teacher education programs that support pre-service science teachers’ learning of how to teach climate change in classrooms.

Email: [email protected] 

Matt Powers
Devan Walton

Devan Walton is a doctoral student in UAlbany’s Curriculum and Instruction PhD program. He teaches computer science at a community college in Massachusetts.  

His research interests include student reasoning with LLMs, AI equity in marginalized educational contexts and agent-based learning environments.

Email: [email protected] 

Raymond Weiss Jr.
Yingru Zhao
Yingru Zhao.

Yingru Zhao is a doctoral student in UAlbany’s Curriculum and Instruction PhD program.  

Her research focuses on exploring the challenges and integration of AI in language education and classroom applications. She collaborates with college and K-12 teachers in China to understand their perspectives on the role of AI in the classroom.  

Her work aims to build common ground between educators and chatbots by aligning lesson objectives with educational contexts and designing effective prompts to support lesson planning and language acquisition.

Email: [email protected] 

AI Learning Resources

Explore practical AI learning resources featured in Adversarial AI and Dispatch.