Venturing into the Unknown: Critical Insights into Grey Areas and Pioneering Future Directions in Educational Generative AI Research
Junhong Xiao
a
,
Aras Bozkurt
b
,
Mark Nichols
c
,
Angelica Pazurek
d
,
Christian M. Stracke
e
,
John Y. H. Bai
f
,
Robert Farrow
g
,
Dónal Mulligan
h
,
Chrissi Nerantzi
i
,
Ramesh Chander Sharma
j
,
Lenandlar Singh
k
,
Isak Frumin
l
,
Andrew Swindell
m
,
Sarah Honeychurch
n
,
Melissa Bond
o,p
,
Jon Dron
q
,
Stephanie Moore
r
,
Jing Leng
s
,
Patricia J. Slagter van Tryon
t
,
Manuel B. Garcia
u
,
Evgeniy Terentev
v
,
Ahmed Tlili
w
,
Thomas K. F. Chiu
x
,
Charles B. Hodges
y
,
Petar Jandrić
z
,
Alexander Sidorkin
aa
,
Helen Crompton
ab
,
Stefan Hrastinski
ac
,
Apostolos Koutropoulos
ad
,
Mutlu Cukurova
ae
,
Peter Shea
af
,
Steven Watson
ag
,
Kai Zhang
s
,
Kyungmee Lee
ah
,
Eamon Costello
h
,
Mike Sharples
g
,
Anton Vorochkov
ai
,
Bryan Alexander
aj
,
Maha Bali
ak
,
Robert L. Moore
al
,
Olaf Zawacki-Richter
f
,
Tutaleni Iita Asino
am
,
Henk Huijser
an
,
Chanjin Zheng
s
,
Sunagül Sani-Bozkurt
b
,
Josep M. Duart
ao
,
Chryssa Themeli
ap
a Open University of Shantou, Shantou, China
b Anadolu University, Eskişehir, Türkiye
c Open Polytechnic, Lower Hutt, New Zealand
d University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA
e University of Bonn, Bonn, Germany
f Carl Von Ossietzky Universität Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany
g Open University, Milton Keynes, UK
h Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland
i University of Leeds, Leeds, UK
j Dr B R Ambedkar University Delhi, New Delhi, India
k University of Guyana, Georgetown, Guyana
l Constructor University, Bremen, Germany
m Asian University for Women, Cambridge, USA
n University of Glasgow, Scotland, UK
o EPPI Centre, University College London, London, UK
p University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
q Athabasca University, Athabasca, Canada
r University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, USA
s East China Normal University, Shanghai, China
t East Carolina University, Greenville, USA
u FEU Institute of Technology, Manila, Philippines
v HSE University, Moscow, Russia
w Smart Learning Institute of Beijing Normal University, Beijing, China
x Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
y Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, USA
z Zagreb University of Applied Sciences, Zagreb, Croatia
aa California State University, Sacramento, CA, USA
ab Old Dominion University, Norfolk, USA
ac KTH Royal Institution of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden
ad University of Massachusetts Boston, Boston, USA
ae University College London, London, UK
af University at Albany, Albany, USA
ag University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
ah Seoul National University, Seoul, South Korea
ai Autonomous University of Madrid, Madrid, Spain
aj Georgetown University, Washington, USA
ak American University in Cairo, Cairo, Egypt
al University of Florida, Gainesville, USA
am Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, USA
an Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia
ao Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain
ap NTNU, Trondheim, Norway
Abstract: Advocates of AI in Education (AIEd) assert that the current generation of technologies, collectively dubbed artificial intelligence, including generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), promise results that can transform our conceptions of what education looks like. Therefore, it is imperative to investigate how educators perceive GenAI and its potential use and future impact on education. Adopting the methodology of collective writing as an inquiry, this study reports on the participating educators’ perceived grey areas (i.e. issues that are unclear and/or controversial) and recommendations on future research. The grey areas reported cover decision-making on the use of GenAI, AI ethics, appropriate levels of use of GenAI in education, impact on learning and teaching, policy, data, GenAI outputs, humans in the loop and public–private partnerships. Recommended directions for future research include learning and teaching, ethical and legal implications, ownership/authorship, funding, technology, research support, AI metaphor and types of research. Each theme or subtheme is presented in the form of a statement, followed by a justification. These findings serve as a call to action to encourage a continuing debate around GenAI and to engage more educators in research. The paper concludes that unless we can ask the right questions now, we may find that, in the pursuit of greater efficiency, we have lost the very essence of what it means to educate and learn.