Mary Burns

Independent researcher, Escola Superior de Educacao de Paula Frassinetti

Mary Burns is an internationally recognized expert in technology in education,  teacher professional learning and AI in education. She has won national awards for teaching, research, and curriculum design. A former secondary school teacher and university instructor, Mary is often invited by universities, ministries of education, private schools, education foundations, and donor agencies to help them conceptualize, design and implement technology-based programs, train educators, conduct evaluation and research on these programs and to share her thinking on technology in general and AI in education in particular. Mary’s work—in over 100 countries – has spanned every level of the education system, from policy development to program design and implementation to instructional design and coaching. A practitioner who also does research, Mary has authored four books and hundreds of blog posts, articles, book chapters, peer-reviewed articles on technology, teacher professional development, and online learning. She is the author of UNESCO’s 2023 Global Education Monitoring think piece and of the Brookings Institution’s report to on AI in education, A new direction for students in an AI world: Prosper, prepare, protect. She is currently a visiting professor of AI in education at the University of Turin.