(January 9th) Illuminators’ Forum — Episode #6 Dialogic Immersion, Human–AI Learning Design, and the Expanding Ecology of Immersive Learning

episode #6: “Dialogic Immersion and Human–AI Learning Design”

Friday, January 9, 2026
7:30am Pacific | 10:30am Eastern | 3:30pm UTC

withForum Host: Jonathon Richter
Special GuestGuest: Lisa Dawley
Co-founder (AERA SIG origins of iLRN) · Educational Technology Scholar · Human–AI Learning Design

Episode

This Framing

Focus Areas: Dialogic & Reflective Immersion · Human–AI Learning Design · Open Science & Scholarly Systems · Immersive Data Visualization · Deliberative Discourse

This conversationFriday, contributeswe will contribute to shared sense-making as iLRN continues its transition toward an Open Immersive Society,Society, connecting early immersive learning research with emerging forms of dialogic and reflective immersion.

As immersiveAI systems become increasingly present in learning matures as a field, questions of what counts as immersion—and howcontexts, immersion is designed,no experienced,longer only understood as spatial presence in mediated environments, but also as sustained engagement in iterative dialogue, sense-making, and governed—areidentity re-emerging with renewed urgency. Advances in artificial intelligence, scholarly infrastructure, and open knowledge practices are expanding immersion beyond spatial and sensory presence into sustained dialogic engagement, reflection, and meaning-makingwork over time.

ThisOur sessionguest, brings those questions into focus through dialogue rather than declaration.

Featured Guest

Lisa Dawley

Co-Founderis (a co-founder of the AERA SIG originswhere iLRN’s earliest work began (circa 2007). Her perspective offers a rare throughline from early work on immersive virtual worlds and situated learning to her current development of iLRN)
Educational Technology Scholar | Human–AI Learning Design

Lisa Dawley joins the Illuminators’ Forum as a co-foundational voice from the early formation of immersive learning research. Her work helped shape early definitions of immersion grounded in situated learning, virtual worlds, and simulated environments.

Today, her research centers on Human–AI Learning Design, with particular attention to dialogic and reflective forms of immersion—where learners engage deeply in sense-making, identity work, and iterative reflection through sustained interaction with AI systems.

For this session, Lisa will share her Human–AI Learning Design Framework—a structured approach for understanding how learners engage with AI as dialogic partners in anways that shape reflection, agency, and meaning-making.

In this episode, we will explore:

• open-draftFrom form,Virtual inviting structured community feedback priorWorlds to publicationDialogic inImmersion: alignmentWhat withStill iLRN’sHolds
We Openwill Immersive Society principles.

Guiding Questions

This episode is organized around several interpretive questions:

• How wererevisit early definitions of immersive learning rooted in virtual worlds, simulation, and presence, then examine what remains continuous as immersion expands into dialogic and reflective modes.

  • Immersion as an Ecology, Not a Category
  Rather than treating “immersive” as a bounded label, we will examine immersion as an ecology spanning spatial, social, cognitive, affective, and intrapersonal dimensions—each shaped by immersivedesign technologieschoices and situatedlearner learning theory?agency.

•

• Human–AI

  InLearning Design: Structure for a New Interaction Paradigm
  Lisa will share an open-draft version of her Human–AI Learning Design Framework and invite community input. We will discuss what waysthe isframework immersionclarifies now unfolding through dialogic, reflective, and intrapersonal processes enabled by AI systems?

• Can spatial, social, and dialogic immersion be understood as part of a broader ecology of immersive learning, rather than discrete or competing categories?

• What new design responsibilities emerge when immersion increasingly mediatesabout attention, scaffolding, feedback, reflection, and identity?identity in human–AI dialogue.

•

Discourse
To situate the dialogue,discussion, the sessionJonathon will briefly surfacehighlight advances identifiedobserved through the 2025 Illuminators’scan Forum global scans, including:

• Open Science and Knowledge Sharing
  Increased use ofin open drafts,science transparentpractices, methods,evolving andscholarly community-engaged scholarship.

• Evolving Scholarly Systems
  New infrastructures for peer review, publication, and collective sense-making beyond traditional venues.

• Immersive Data Visualization and Knowledge Representation
  Emerging uses ofsystems, immersive anddata multimodal representations to support interpretation and synthesis.

• Deliberative Scholarly Discourse
  A shift toward slower, dialogic,visualization, and more reflectivedeliberative forms of professional exchange.

These developments provide the backdrop for discourse—positioning dialogic and reflective immersion as part ofwithin a broader trajectorybody ratherof thanmovement an isolated trend.

Session Flow (Approximate)

1. Opening Context — iLRN environmental scan highlights and Open Immersive Society framing

2. Foundational Reflection — From immersive virtual worlds to dialogic immersion

3. Dialogue — Immersion as an ecology across spatial, social, cognitive, and intrapersonal dimensions

4. Community Discussion — Participant questions and shared sense-making

5. Closing Synthesis — Implications fortoward 2026 and future iLRN workbeyond.

Why This Conversation Matters

This session works to• clarifyDesign relationshipsResponsibilities betweenin pastReflective and presentDialogic research,Immersion
We betweenwill immersiveexamine environmentspractical and dialogicethical systems,implications: how learner agency is protected, how reflective dialogue is shaped, what “good scaffolding” looks like, and betweenwhere technologicalrisks affordancesemerge and(overreach, humandependency, learningmis-calibration, processes.opacity).

ItTogether, supportsthese iLRN’sthreads ongoingreflect efforta tocore articulatereality surfaced in the 2025 scan: immersive learning asis aexpanding coherentin butform pluraland ecosystem,reach, capableand the field now needs language and design frameworks that can hold multiple modes of evolvingimmersion responsiblywith alongsideconceptual advances in AI, XR,precision and openpractical responsibility.

All are welcome to join as we continue mapping the trends, signals, and scholarly practice.conversations that will inform iLRN’s 2026 report and the Athens conference.

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  following link:
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  Dialogic Immersion and Human–AI Learning Design with Special Guest Lisa Dawley (Episode #6 — January 9, 2026)

• Dialogic and Reflective Immersion

• Immersive Learning Ecologies

• 2025–2026 Global Environmental Scans