History is littered with unfulfilled promises that emerging technologies – from radios to televisions, and from computers to mobile phones – would completely transform teaching and learning. Now the same promises are being made of generative artificial intelligence (AI). This presentation argues that we should not be focusing on educational revolution, but instead on educational evolution. Education is a complex social, cultural, and political endeavour, serving multiple purposes and multiple stakeholders, and technology is just one of many elements in this large ecosystem. Focusing on the context of language teaching and learning, this presentation discusses what has changed technologically, and suggests what could and should change educationally. It shows that ChatGPT and a range of other generative AI tools can contribute to language and literacy development in a number of ways, but that we need to be wary of their pedagogical, social, and environmental risks. Educators must develop the AI literacy necessary to take a more nuanced view of generative AI, and we must help our students to do the same. This paper is based on a keynote presentation delivered at the English Australia Conference in Perth, Australia, on 12 September 2024, with some elaborations for the written version alongside minor updates to reflect more recent developments and publications.

中文翻译：

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从革命到进化：生成式 AI 对语言学习的真正意义


历史上充斥着未兑现的承诺，即新兴技术——从收音机到电视，从计算机到移动电话——将彻底改变教学和学习。现在，生成式人工智能 （AI） 也做出了同样的承诺。本报告认为，我们不应该关注教育革命，而应该关注教育进化。教育是一项复杂的社会、文化和政治活动，服务于多种目的和多个利益相关者，而技术只是这个大型生态系统中的众多元素之一。本演讲着眼于语言教学和学习的背景，讨论了技术上的变化，并提出了可以和应该在教育上发生的变化。它表明 ChatGPT 和一系列其他生成式 AI 工具可以通过多种方式促进语言和识字发展，但我们需要警惕它们的教学、社会和环境风险。教育工作者必须培养必要的 AI 素养，以便对生成式 AI 有更细致的看法，我们也必须帮助我们的学生也这样做。本文基于 2024 年 9 月 12 日在澳大利亚珀斯举行的英语澳大利亚会议上发表的主题演讲，对书面版本进行了一些详细说明，并进行了细微更新，以反映最近的发展和出版物。