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| Image Source: Public Domain Pictures.net |
You can’t wave a stick without hitting AI like some piñata. Some of my favorite blog entries start with questions. Usually they are mine, but often, they flow from other people. They may not even know they are contributing a question to a new blog entry.
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| Image Source: Luis Ricardo Ramos, México, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons |
The Question
Someone recently asked (anonymized to protect the innocent):
How would you show teachers the best ways to use AI in the classroom, or how they might model its use for students?
As the tsunami of AI tools, hype hit schools, is there any hope of preparing? The truth is, “Probably not.” We already know what works with student brains. We simply want to keep our heads above water and use our critical thinking prowess to intelligently move forward.
I wasn’t sure how to respond. What angle should I approach this from?
One Response
At this time, lots of places are offering introductory workshops on AI. These are less about how AI can impact teaching and learning, more about showing you a digital tool then drawing a line to an instructional activity. I like to think of it as “novelty teaching.” You know, teaching something that’s popular, brand-new, and guaranteed to get people to pay. Does it result in substantive change? Well, what does?
Like any edtech tool, AI tools cost money. I like to think of AI peddlers as trying to get you hooked on a new drink or vice. Once you are hooked, you want to pay for it and offer to buy it for all your friends (using taxpayer funding).
If you’re going to get addicted to something, you may as well do it on your own terms.
Technology is the…Accelerator?
Most AI workshops so far are simply coming to grips with AI as a force in the classroom. Too often, AI is treated as edtech of yesterday. A force that will transform teaching and learning but there is little evidence or research to support edtech’s use in schools. What about AI’s efficacy? It is “popular” to tout AI as a classroom altering technology everyone must have. But what impact will it have on the lesson cycle? On teaching and learning?
Perhaps, as veteran edtech professionals, we should ask another question:
Should schools eschew their use of evidence-based, high-effect instructional strategies, and spend their precious time and funding on AI how-to?
Of course, AI is going to change everything. We discuss how to blend AI with high-effect size instructional strategies in such a way that accelerates student learning. We can discuss the importance of critical thinking, problem-solving, design-thinking, engineering based design, and treat AI like an all-knowing assistant who helps us through the mundane tasks of learning.
AI may be no more than a productivity accelerator (as Michael Fullan says, “Pedagogy is the driver, technology is the accelerator.”).
Of course, others might argue that “Billionaires are the drivers, technology is the accelerator, and Pedagogy got run over.”
DEMAND EVIDENCE ON AI EFFICACY
AI short-circuits the hard work students must do to use their minds when learning. What role should school districts and money-making for profits take when discussing the use of AI in K-16 classrooms?
Perhaps, we should hold AI claims’ metaphorical feet to the fire, ask for ESSA’s four tiers of evidence. Doing so sends a strong message to teachers, superintendents, and principals…that AI is exciting, popular, but doesn’t change the years of research we have on how students learn.
And, until it does, it is a productivity tool, an expensive pencil or multi-colored pen. Use it, but don’t build your world around it.
WHAT DO I DO NOW?
For now, I would blend AI tools into the everyday of the workshop sessions you do now.
Show how they can make teachers’ jobs easier, and discuss how they could better fine-tune student assignments to make them more engaging, hands-on, and harder to complete if relying on AI.
For students, especially older ones, show them how AI can make certain aspects of their work easier. Model responsible academic use. In the end, ensure that the final work reflects their own thinking and work. I like to think of putting AI through the critical thinking grinder, so to speak.
Everything posted on Miguel Guhlin’s blogs/wikis are his personal opinion and do not necessarily represent the views of his employer(s) or its clients. Read Full Disclosure
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