One of the big problems schools have? Finding teachers to serve as tutors after-school and on weekends. One of the questions I always had, “Why do you need so much tutoring for students? Isn’t the teaching going on during the day getting the job done?” Of course, that was mostly a frustrated remark I’d make to my wife when she had to work on a weekend or after-school to tutor a group of kids.
Extinction is the rule. Survival is the exception.
— Carl Sagan
The Value of Tutors
Being one of those students that received extra tutoring, I can definitely speak to the value of tutors and the vital role they play IN ADDITION to teaching a whole day. I still remember Mrs. E, who tutored my son in learning how to read. Or, Ms. Tunon who helped me learn math basics better.
But are teachers breathing a sigh of relief now that a different type of tutor is being enlisted to assist students in core subject areas?
Yesterday evening, I read something that made me think, “Wow, you need to look further into the future.” That’s because in my previous blog entry, I wrote:
Tremendous pressure will be put on school systems to adopt AI tools, to tout those tools on their websites, in their curriculum guides, and eventually, teacher preparation programs. To be innovative, you need only state that you are using AI, or that your process was designed by an AI.
App-Based AI Tutoring
Schools that adopt AI are already popping up. Aside from the initial publicity (and we all know there’s no such thing as bad publicity), what’s the long-term plan or gain from this move?
‘We don’t have teachers‘ – This Austin private school lets AI teach core subjects. School leaders believe pairing AI and life skill courses is the future of education…To learn core subjects, the students work one-on-one with artificial intelligence for the first two hours of the day. It’s app-based AI tutoring. (Source: KVUE ABC, available 10/23/2023)
It’s quite interesting that the expectation is that “AI apps are feeding [educational information] to students at the appropriate level and pace that they need.” You know, spoon-feeding knowledge is such an effective instructional strategy, right? I wonder where this strategy would fall on the barometer of influence.
AI Recommendations
Have you seen this article about AI in education recommendations? It asks, “What is the point of schools?” It offers these recommendations, which are laughable considering how fast AI is being adopted for consumer use:
- End-user applications should go through additional risk-based approvals BEFORE being accessible to members of the public.
- Students (particularly children) should NOT have unfettered access to these ssytems before risk-based assessments/trials have been completed.
- Systems used by student should always have “guardrails” in place that enable parents and educational institutions to audit how and where children are using AI in their learning.
Some takeaways are that schools focusing on preparing students for “credentials” are going away. It’s about figuring out that if you have AI-impacted reality, what SHOULD students be doing in schools? “White collar people are the ones threatened the most.”
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| Arran Hamilton, Dylan Wiliam, John Hattie. The Future of AI in Education: 13 Things We Can Do To Minimize the Damage. |
The Risk of Infantalization
Wow, this is a powerful quote from the report to reflect on:
But what of the novices, the people currently in school that are preparing for the world of work? As a thought experiment, imagine you are 12 again but in today’s world – with access to ChatGPT and a projected acceleration of AI unfolding at, say, 10x per annum.
The risk is that the erosion of mental arithmetic, map reading, cursive skills etc. that we discussed in the previous section becomes the erosion of everything. Would we be motivated to learn things that machines can do in a fraction of a second, at near-zero cost?
What would be the point of acquiring these skills?
The authors also point out:
literacy skills may become as quaint as Latin and the Classics—things that we learn for bragging rights and the conferment of social status, but not in the least essential (or even useful) for day-to-day living. Instead, oral communication may take on greater significance. The skills to work in groups, translate, undertake teamwork, and probe may well become more critical.
Listen to the authors discuss the paper in this EdSurge podcast.
What Do We Do Instead?
Well, what should we be focusing on in schools? Anything that is difficult for AI to do…those will probably be things like:
- Plumbing
- Plastering walls (hey, “drywall” fixing of climate-induced foundation problems)
- Electricians
- Hands-on tasks
It makes me think, “Wow, I’m one of the last generations to make their living from knowledge work.” Should I go to a trade school to learn how to work with my hands? I’m reminded of old story I read about Jewish rabbis. I don’t have the story any longer, but I stumbled on this explanation:
…the great Hillel was a wood-cutter, his rival Shammai a carpenter,; and among the celebrated Rabbis of after times we find shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, sandalmakers, smiths, potters, builders, etc.-in short, every variety of trade. Nor were they ashamed of their manual labour….We can scarcely wonder at this, since it was a Rabbinical principle, that “whoever does not teach his son a trade is as if he brought him up to be a robber” (Kidd. 4.14). (source)
Back to App-Based AI Tutoring
Do we really need AIs feeding humans educational information? Sure, it’s a big time-saver, more accurate and efficient than us. Maybe “neura-links” (source: Clockwork Chimera series) will be the way to get information and data into students’ heads in the future. AIs handle the thinking and analysis, humans do the hands-on work.
As you watch the video showing how kids are using AI in the Austin school above, how does this idea of more hands-on work informed by AI relieving our cognitive load manifest?
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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