I had a lot of fun writing this blog entry, Embodied Learning in a Gen AI Age:

“I had an argument with my son today about learning math and coding. He told me he doesn’t need to learn them anymore because he can just use Google’s AI mode to get homework answers and build anything he wants,” said Ebrahim K. His post made me ask the following:

If coding and essay writing are no longer the vehicles for teaching critical thinking, logic, and design, then what physical activity could be relied upon instead?

In this blog entry, I take a stab at figuring that out. And, it turns out that I’m not the only one to ask the question.

The Core Question

“How do we develop critical thinking skills in ways that GenAI can’t reproduce?” The question pushes me to leave my office, to step outside. GenAI has impacted everything from ethical systems to global economies. Now, it’s coming for critical thinking and student cognition.

Embodied learning may be one possibility

Read the rest online at TCEA’s website.

The Problem

Like many educators, I’ve struggled with the impact Gen AI has had on teaching and learning. Depending on the day of the week, I’ll give you one of these responses:

• Students in K-12 shouldn’t be using Gen AI at all
• Students in K-12 should only use Gen AI when it’s appropriate on the SOLO Taxonomy (Not for Surface Learning, most of Deep Learning, mostly at Transfer Learning)
• Teachers are the real beneficiaries of Gen AI in the sense that they can create Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) content that’s useful to enhance their work (which is probably WAY beyond what they can actually do, except for NotebookLM users)

But in the classroom, I can imagine educators avoiding using Gen AI with students because it replaces critical thinking and other activities students need to engage in to become thinkers.

One of the diagrams I share in my blog entry looks like this (created with the amazing AI tool, Napkin AI):

Embodied learning is something I didn’t learn in school, but I know some of my colleagues spend their entire day involved in this type of learning. Shifting to this would be something that would take time.

I have to admit that I’m attracted to viva voce, in living voice, approach. To that end, that’s a future blog entry. However, here’s a quick experiment:

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