First Lecture and Workshop of the Center for Media Literacy – “Artificial Intelligence in Education: Between Opportunities, Responsibilities, and New Challenges”

The first lecture and workshop titled “Artificial Intelligence in Education: Between Opportunities, Responsibilities, and New Challenges,” organized by Školska knjiga, the Catholic University of Croatia, and the CUC Center for Media Literacy, was held on Thursday, May 28, 2026, in the “Bl. Aloysius Card. Stepinac” Hall. 

Introductory speeches were delivered to the attending teachers and librarians by the Rector, Professor Željko Tanjić; the Head of the University Department of Communication Studies, Professor Danijel Labaš; and Ljiljana Studeni and Gordana Renić from Školska knjiga.
 

The keynote lecture, titled “Opportunities and Threats for the Application of Artificial Intelligence in Education,” was delivered by Professor Igor Kanižaj, Head of the CUC Center for Media Literacy. In his presentation, he analyzed how generative artificial intelligence is already fundamentally changing the way students learn, research, and complete their school assignments. Special emphasis was placed on the results of the latest national research from the BrAIn project and EU Kids Online 2025. It was highlighted that while teachers recognize the potential of AI tools for saving time and individualizing instruction, parents and guardians express significant concern regarding the reduction of critical thinking, loss of student independence, privacy risks, and negative effects on children's psychological and cognitive development.

During the lecture, sensitive issues concerning mental health and the role of algorithms as “advisors” in the life situations of young people were addressed, with emphasis placed on the importance of the encyclical Magnifica humanitas by Pope Leo XIV. It was pointed out that artificial intelligence lacks lived experience, moral conscience, and the ability to judge good and evil, which is why it is crucial to educate people on deciding when and for what purposes AI tools should not be used at all.

The practical part of the workshops was coordinated by Professor Kanižaj and Leali Osmančević, PhD, from the CUC University Department of Communication Studies.

The workshops covered the possibilities of creative content creation using AI tools as an aid in developing lesson plans, curricula, quizzes, and adapting content for students with disabilities; tools for content authenticity verification, such as platforms for detecting text generated by AI (e.g., SciSpace AI Detector and QuillBot); and risk identification, where issues such as attribution problems, theft of intellectual property, information inaccuracy (hallucinations), and the phenomenon of over-reliance on technology were discussed.