This November, as part of the ACT-AI Academy project, we took a step back from the design board to do what matters most: listen to the educators.

At INQUIRIUM, we believe that effective educational tools cannot be built in isolation. To ensure that Artificial Intelligence (AI) integration in schools is meaningful and practical, we organized two significant focus groups aimed at exploring the real perceptions, needs, and concerns of the educational community. We had the privilege of visiting two distinct educational settings to gather diverse perspectives:

• We visited the St. Maron Primary School in Nicosia where we held an in-depth discussion with 10 primary education teachers.
• We gathered at the Cyprus Computer History Museum, where we had the pleasure of interacting with a dynamic group of 29 kindergarten and pre-school teachers.

The primary goal of these workshops was to put the educators at the center of the conversation. We didn’t want to just present AI to them; we wanted to understand their reality. Through these participatory sessions, we achieved three key milestones:

• We recorded their firsthand experiences and their genuine concerns regarding AI in the classroom.
• We openly discussed the practical hurdles they face in their daily teaching routines.
• The data and feedback we collected will not go unused. Instead, they will serve as the foundation for designing the ACT-AI practical guides and educational materials. By using this bottom-up approach, we ensure that the final resources are tailored to the actual needs of the classroom, rather than theoretical assumptions.

We would like to extend a warm thank you to all the participants for their enthusiasm and their valuable contribution to this research.  Learn more about the project here: https://actaiacademy.eu/