BERANANG, May 9 – Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), through its University Social Responsibility (USR) initiative GeekEd, successfully conducted the CikguLearnAI workshop for teachers of Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan (SMK) Khir Johari, Beranang, Selangor.

The programme served as one of the flagship activities under the UTM Knowledge Transfer Programme-Research Innovation Grant (KTP-RIG) 2026, funded by the UTM Centre for Community and Industry Network (CCIN).

The initiative also contributes directly towards the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4: Quality Education, which promotes inclusive and equitable quality education for all.

The GeekEd initiative received a RM20,000 grant under the UTM KTP-RIG 2026 funding scheme to implement four major community-based sub-projects for the selected community in Beranang, Selangor.

The overall project is led by Dr. Nurhasmiza Abu Hasan Sazalli, while CikguLearnAI specifically focuses on empowering educators through generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies and innovative digital teaching approaches.

The one-day workshop received highly positive feedback from participating teachers who described the programme as practical, relevant, and highly beneficial for today’s digital classroom environment. The workshop focused on helping teachers integrate generative AI technologies into teaching and learning processes to better support students with various learning needs.

During the workshop, teachers were introduced to advanced AI applications such as Gemini and NotebookLM, where participants learned how to create engaging teaching materials efficiently and creatively. The session on poster creation and visual content generation using Gemini was led by Wan Nur Amirah Wan Salzihan, an alumna of the UTM Master of Education (TESL) programme. Teachers explored ways to generate educational posters, infographics, and visual teaching resources creatively and efficiently to increase student engagement in the classroom.

One of the key highlights of the programme was the sharing session on 21st Century Teaching and Learning (PAK21) strategies. During the session, teachers were exposed to effective prompt-writing techniques through the “C-O-K-E” framework — Context, Objective, Criteria, and Extra — introduced by Dr. Nurhasmiza Abu Hasan Sazalli.

The framework helped participants generate creative classroom activities, Higher Order Thinking Skills (KBAT) questions, and differentiated teaching materials more effectively using AI tools.

The workshop also featured a hands-on session on NotebookLM conducted by Dr. Nuraqilah Nadjwa Miskam. Teachers learned how to upload PDFs and multiple teaching sources into the platform to automatically generate teaching slides, summaries, interactive worksheets, and customised learning materials.

The session demonstrated how AI could help educators integrate multiple information sources to produce more organised, student-centred, and differentiated teaching content.

Despite the majority of teachers using NotebookLM and Gemini for the first time, they successfully produced impressive posters, teaching slides, and creative infographics during the workshop.

Participants also shared their outputs through Padlet, which was also a new platform for many of them.

The hands-on approach and continuous support from facilitators helped build the teachers’ confidence and excitement in exploring AI-powered teaching tools.

The programme became even more exciting and motivating as teachers who actively experimented with AI tools and demonstrated strong effort during the workshop were rewarded with AEON vouchers, creating a fun and encouraging learning atmosphere throughout the session.

A total of 20 facilitators from UTM were involved in ensuring the smooth implementation of the programme. The facilitators consisted of UTM support staff, Computer Science students, and postgraduate students from the fields of Islamic Studies and Teaching English as a Second Language (TESL).

Their involvement reflected the strong collaborative spirit within the university community in contributing expertise and service to society.

Many facilitators shared that the programme provided valuable real-world experience in community engagement, communication, teamwork, and educational technology implementation.

They expressed happiness and satisfaction in assisting teachers directly during the workshop sessions and appreciated the opportunity to contribute to the community.

The facilitators also highlighted that the experience strengthened their motivation to continue participating in meaningful volunteer and educational outreach programmes.

The GeekEd initiative consists of four major sub-projects under the KTP-RIG grant. The first programme, Mama Papa 5G, led by Dr. Zilal Saari, focuses on empowering parents with digital and parenting skills.

CikguLearnAI, led by Dr. Nurhasmiza Abu Hasan Sazalli, focuses on empowering educators through generative AI technologies.

The upcoming programme, 5G Minds, led by Dr. Siti Suhaila Ihwani, will focus on leadership development for student leaders, while STEM Prodigy, led by Dr. Nuraqilah Nadjwa Miskam, will expose science stream students to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)-related activities and innovation.

Overall, the success of the CikguLearnAI workshop demonstrates UTM’s ongoing commitment to bridging the digital literacy gap between universities and the wider community through knowledge transfer, innovation, and sustainable educational development.

As highlighted throughout the workshop, “AI does not replace teachers; instead, teachers who use AI will lead the future.”

All photos, videos, and meaningful moments from the GeekEd projects are available on the official GeekEd Instagram page, geeked.utmkl. The public is warmly invited to like, follow, and support the inspiring community initiatives carried out by UTM and the GeekEd team.