Information and Communication Technologies are transforming every single aspect of our lives in ways we had not imagined before. Education is not an exception and the changes it is undergoing demand us educators to try to keep up with the latest digital advances. In November 2022, Open AI shocked the world with the release of its AI-powered chatbot, ChatGTP, capable of producing humanlike texts and interactions. Since then an array of AI-powered apps and tools has evolved practically non-stop becoming a willing or unwilling integral part of our classrooms. Most students across the world are using AI tools to their advantage. However, due to fear of losing control, or lack of technical knowledge, among other reasons, some teachers are reluctant to integrate AI into the classroom.

As educators in the "Tecnologías en la Comunicación Pedagógica" course within the English Teaching Training Program at Universidad Nacional de Villa María (UNVM), we cannot but recognize the urgent need to aid professors in working with these new technologies and enhance their digital literacy. As a result, we designed a three-session workshop to introduce the concept of AI and analyze AI-powered tools to foster professional development and to better equip language educators in our department to enrich their teaching practices. For this professional development course, based on the latest literature review (Edmett et al., 2023; Philpott et al., 2023; Pokrivcakova, 2019), we carefully selected chatbots, automated writing evaluators (AWEs), and other AI tools to demonstrate their potential applications in English Language Teaching (ELT).

In this paper, an overview of the workshop will be provided; we will describe the content developed during the sessions, the outcomes of the workshop, and the valuable lessons learned. We will delve into the thorough analysis of AI and its main features, a wide range of AI-powered tools, their pedagogical implications, and ethical concerns that were examined and discussed during the meetings. We will share our findings regarding the profound impact that the application of AI systems may have on our pedagogical practices and the participants’ concerns and feedback in terms of the technology presented and the structure and design of the training course.

The main objective of this presentation is not only to communicate our experience but also to emphasize the necessity of offering similar training opportunities for professors in language training courses. By building digital literacy and promoting the use of AI-powered tools, we can increase the quality of language instruction and therefore, better prepare teachers-in-training for the challenges of future educational environments.