Uniting Tradition and Technology: Humanistic AI in South African Education
Keynote and master class facilitator
A keynote and hands-on master class at the Siyaphumelela annual conference, making the case that everyone has a stake in the ethical deployment and responsible development of AI.
At the 2024 Siyaphumelela conference in Johannesburg, I delivered a keynote on what it means to keep human judgment and cultural context at the center of AI adoption in higher education. Siyaphumelela means "we succeed" in isiXhosa, and the network exists to help South African institutions improve student success. That framing shaped everything I brought to the stage.
My argument was that responsible, proactive experimentation is a form of stewardship. When educators in the Global South engage with AI early and on their own terms, they help ensure these systems absorb their languages, their cultures, and their contexts. Sitting on the sidelines carries its own risk: models trained without that participation, and a technology shaped elsewhere and handed down.
The master class turned the ideas into practice through an AI Integration Challenge. Teams designed generative AI tools to address real student affairs problems, building math tutoring assistants, career counseling GPTs, and academic advising systems grounded in their own institutions. Faculty from partners including Saide, OER Africa, and the University of the Free State took part.
What stayed with me were the responses. One dean said the session prompted new institutional questions about AI in the classroom, and a vice-chancellor named AI as something to reckon with seriously, well beyond the hype. The work was supported by Achieving the Dream, Saide, and the Kresge Foundation.