Education for 2060: A New Chapter of Cooperation with Burundi

I am very pleased to share my appointment as Visiting Professor for AI and Pedagogy during August 2026, at Université Lumière de Bujumbura in Burundi. The appointment brings together several areas that have shaped my work for many years: education, artificial intelligence, international cooperation, institutional development, and the question of how we prepare learners for a future that is already beginning to take shape.

Université Lumière de Bujumbura is a recognized higher education institution accredited by Burundi’s Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research. With campuses in Mutanga Nord, Kinindo, Kajaga, and the Kubumenyi Compound in Bujumbura, the university offers a broad range of undergraduate and graduate programs, including communication sciences, law, management and administration, computer sciences, theology, clinical psychology, and political science and international relations. Its graduate offerings include areas such as business administration, corporate law, development management, organizational leadership, and IT management. The university also supports flexible access to higher education through traditional in-person teaching as well as online and distance-learning formats.

For me, this work is closely connected to the idea of Education for 2060. The year 2060 may seem far away, yet many of the students entering classrooms and universities today will still be active in their professions and communities at that time. Some will lead institutions, shape public policy, conduct research, establish businesses, educate future generations, and make decisions in environments that will look very different from those we know today. The educational choices being made now will influence how confidently and responsibly they can participate in that future.

Artificial intelligence is already changing the ways in which people search for information, communicate, conduct research, create knowledge, teach, and learn. Over the coming decades, these developments will become deeply embedded in educational and professional environments. This makes the role of education increasingly significant. Learners will require sound disciplinary knowledge alongside critical judgment, creativity, adaptability, ethical awareness, and the ability to evaluate information carefully. They will need the confidence to work with intelligent systems while understanding their limitations and recognizing the importance of human responsibility.

My cooperation with colleagues in Burundi provides an important setting in which to explore these questions. At Université Lumière de Bujumbura, I am interacting, discussing, exploring and collaborating with university leadership such as Dr. Bizimana Jean de Dieu, Deputy Vice- Chancellor – Global Partnerships, faculty, administrators, and educational partners through professional development and capacity-building activities focused on artificial intelligence, innovative pedagogy, educational transformation, and the responsible integration of AI into higher education. The university’s invitation places particular emphasis on the effective and ethical use of AI in teaching, learning, leadership, and institutional governance.

I am also particularly pleased that this work involves cooperation with Computers for Schools Burundi and the dynamic CEO and founder Emmanuel Ngendakuriyo. Educational transformation depends on strong relationships between institutions, educators, technology initiatives, and the communities they serve. Digital access, professional development, institutional capacity, and informed leadership all contribute to the conditions in which meaningful innovation can take place. Cooperation across these areas creates opportunities for knowledge to circulate and for ideas to develop within the realities of a particular educational environment. Discussions about the future of education and artificial intelligence gain strength through the participation of universities and educators from different regions of the world. Each educational context brings its own experience, knowledge, priorities, and questions. International cooperation creates a space in which these perspectives can meet, and this exchange can lead to research collaborations, new educational approaches, professional networks, and lasting institutional relationships.

Thinking about Education for 2060 also requires us to consider the future role of universities. Universities prepare people whose work will shape societies for decades. They are places of research, intellectual exchange, professional formation, and institutional leadership. As artificial intelligence becomes increasingly capable, universities will need to make thoughtful decisions about teaching, assessment, academic integrity, research, governance, and the preparation of graduates for changing professional environments. These decisions require informed leadership and sustained dialogue across the university community.

Teachers will remain central to this future. Artificial intelligence will provide increasingly sophisticated support for research, translation, content creation, feedback, and personalized learning. The educational relationship itself will continue to depend on human judgment, trust, encouragement, cultural understanding, and the ability to recognize the development of an individual learner. Preparing for 2060 therefore includes investing in educators and giving them meaningful opportunities to understand emerging technologies, experiment with new pedagogical approaches, and contribute to decisions about their use.

AI literacy will also become a fundamental part of education. Understanding artificial intelligence involves much more than knowing how to operate a particular tool. It requires an ability to assess the quality of AI-generated information, recognize uncertainty and bias, verify sources, understand questions of privacy and governance, and decide when human expertise must guide the process. These capabilities will become increasingly important for students, educators, researchers, and institutional leaders.

My appointment at Université Lumière de Bujumbura gives me the opportunity to connect these long-term questions with practical educational work. It creates a space for professional exchange, shared learning, and discussion about how institutions can develop their capacity for a future in which AI will be part of everyday academic life. I am especially interested in the knowledge that can emerge through dialogue with colleagues in Burundi and in the possibilities for future collaboration that may grow from this work.

Education for 2060 begins long before 2060 arrives. It is being shaped in today’s classrooms, universities, professional development programs, institutional strategies, and international partnerships. Looking several decades ahead encourages us to consider the kind of educational environments we want to create and the kind of human capacities we want to strengthen.

Appointment letter Burundi- Jasmin Cowin Download

As part of Touro University’s comprehensive initiative to introduce AI literacy across teacher education programs, I am engaged in a Touro University grant focused on developing AI literacy in TESOL candidates. My project-based approach empowers future educators to leverage AI as a strategic partner in curriculum design, bridging theoretical understanding with applied classroom practice.

Within this initiative, teacher candidates progress from mastering the fundamentals of curriculum mapping to designing comprehensive, differentiated learning sequences that reflect professional teaching standards grounded in research-backed principles.

My primary instructional goals are to:

Teach foundational and applied AI competencies,
Develop practical skills in standards-based curriculum design,
Showcase AI as a collaborative tool in instructional planning, and
Align deliverables with professional teaching standards.

Foundational AI Competencies

AI vocabulary is embedded throughout the project via explicit terminology such as prompt engineering, AI-assisted content structuring, LLM interaction, and iterative feedback loops. This structured language development ensures that candidates move from foundational comprehension to applied proficiency, demonstrating the ability to use domain-specific AI concepts meaningfully in curriculum contexts.

Ethical Thinking

Ethical reasoning is central to the project’s design. Candidates must maintain human oversight and exercise critical evaluation of AI-generated contributions for instructional quality and curricular coherence. By foregrounding professional judgment and ethical discernment, the project cultivates a nuanced understanding of AI’s potential and its limitations, underscoring the continued necessity of educator expertise.

In upcoming blog posts, I will showcase current student output, highlighting innovative examples of how TESOL candidates apply structured CoPilot prompting to create differentiated, AI-supported instructional materials. These exemplars demonstrate how AI literacy and pedagogical practice intersect to prepare a new generation of educators for the evolving digital landscape of teaching and learning.

Angelee Bess holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Science from Cornell University, a Master’s Degree in Childhood Education from Fordham University, and Extensions in both Early Childhood Education and Gifted Education. She is currently pursuing a TESOL Advanced Certificate at Touro University while working as a K-2 ENL Teacher at an elementary school in Brooklyn, NY. Angelee strives to create an inclusive environment that recognizes, embraces, and values the cultural and linguistic diversity of her students, helping them thrive both academically and socially. Her motto: “Be the change you wish to see in the world” – Mahatma Gandhi

Ms. Bess’ observation in working with CoPilot: “I was impressed by how quickly Copilot created a lesson tailored for Entering-level MLs. By including the grade level, topic, language proficiency, and support needs in my prompt, I received a mini-lesson with simplified text, a visual anchor chart, printable materials, a vocabulary table, and activity suggestions—all differentiated for beginner learners. I initially focused on Entering students to help plan for Stand-Alone ENL classes, but I can also see the value in using Copilot for Integrated settings. I plan to use similar prompts for other proficiency levels to support all MLs in my classroom. Copilot also gave the option to expand the mini-lesson into a full lesson plan with objectives, standards, and assessments, which makes it a powerful tool for creating instruction that connects to students’ experiences and supports their language development.”

Furthermore, Ms. Bess created anchor charts and visuals through structured prompting:

Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages Certificate

New York’s classrooms are some of the most culturally and linguistically diverse in the country. Our TESOL certificate program prepares NYS-certified teachers to provide responsive, comprehensive education to students of every background.

Personal Opinion: Pedagogical Value of Discussion Boards in Online Courses
I utilize discussion boards as essential scaffolding tools in my online courses at Touro University, providing multilayered support for my master’s degree candidates’ academic development. These course discussion boards function as preparatory spaces where my teacher candidates can practice academic writing conventions, develop critical thinking skills, and experiment with disciplinary discourse before tackling more substantial assignments such as research papers or presentations. Through regular posting requirements, my candidates create meaningful artifacts that demonstrate their evolving command of academic English and pedagogical understanding, including proper APA citation practices which prepare them for graduate-level academic work. The iterative nature of discussion board participation enables me to track my candidates’ linguistic and academic progress throughout the semester, providing valuable opportunities to observe candidate growth over time and identify when coaching sessions are needed, particularly when I notice disconnects between course materials and student responses.

Student Angelee Publication EDDN 637 -1 Download