We don’t get to choose the time we live in. We do get to choose how to spend that time. Or something like that from Tolkien. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here and with us. How we choose to engage with it as educators is completely our choice.
Is it really “Game over, man!”?
I can hear the fear. Will AI based platforms, like ChatGPT, do all the thinking for kids now? Will kids be able to write anything on their own ever again? Will they need a device to do simple math? Will teachers get replaced by laptops? Are we headed to a future of shiny robots coming back in time to keep us all in line? Should we all get a saltwater float tub to practice laying around in liquid acting like batteries? I mean, if that sounds good to you, sure.I guess. Or, maybe, we can take a reasoned look at one of the newest tools we have available to us. And, that might not be easy for a lot of us. New can be unsettling to put it mildly and when we’re unsettled it’s natural to be resistant. And that resistance can come out in all kinds of ways: fear, yes, but also anger, denial, even humor that’s more like “witty sarcasm” (my personal favorite).
We’ve Seen This Act Before
It really wasn’t that long ago that we all started recognizing that if a kid could Google something, then that might not be the right focus of our lesson. What was the point in spending precious lesson minutes to force fact memorization that a kid can take a few seconds with a web search to find? Those conversations were at least 10 years ago, right? The idea behind that sentiment was as true back then as it is today – thinking is the key to real and meaningful education – not memorizing math factors, or poems, or even whole passages from books. How much more impactful is teaching when we focus on understanding and connecting. Or when we shift to how kids use math facts in a real world problem instead of memorizing a computational trick. Asking, “how do those author’s words make us conceptualize our surroundings in a new and unique way” instead of “who wants to read this paragraph out loud for us”? And, what does that dive into a historic even tell us about ourselves today instead of a list of dates and names?
I have to wonder if we educators are seeing AI as the newest google level threat to classrooms and schools. But is it?
A Look Back: Desktops and that Google Threat
Cast your mind back to the days before 1 to 1 laptop initiatives were the norm, or at least one laptop cart (or cow) being near or in a classroom. Back then classes had one or two desktop computers as a station, maybe. Teachers integrated the tech into lessons, maybe. Libraries might have many desktops set up on big tables. Some schools even had a dedicated “computer lab” that took up an entire classroom with desktop computers and monitors galore. The technology was available, but were we really using it? Did we even know how?
When I was in the classroom back in those olden days I “won” a grant to have 5 sweet looking iMacs* in my class. My OWN CLASSROOM!
I reminded myself not to use them as just fancy new-fashion typewriters. Still, did I ask students to write out their ideas on paper before they went to the computers to type, add images, and…wait for it… print those essays? Of course I did, I was a work in progress. But I did also start to think about different ways my kids could engage with reading passages. And I tried. We did some claymation movies. We did some EARLY work on newsletters and brochures. Some kids started the writing process on those vintage machines with thought organizer “programs” to create bubble maps and thinking maps for brainstorming. Writing and reading could be extended with weblinks to real actual locations from around the state, country, planet, solar system…you get where I’m going with this.
The point is, the technology was in my room and I CHOSE to think differently about my own practice. I, like a lot of us, knew that computers in class weren’t going anywhere. But, there were still educators who were so resistant to using them. I would hear them say things like, The kids need to demonstrate they know how to think before they can get on those things and play. Play! Imagine that. IN SCHOOL!?
Maybe AI is a Tool, Not a Threat
Come back now from those ancient times and pre Covid days to the here and now. Now, we are faced not with google and physical computers dropping into our rooms and buildings, but with the looming menace of AI that’s come to steal our thinking abilities. And our rote writing, our mundane processes, and formulaic writing styles. And, when I put it that way, it doesn’t really sound so bad does it?
What if we had something that could help us educators cut through some of the clutter of where to start or what to use? Our time could be better spent thinking about HOW to best engage those we serve. Things like ChatGPT can do just that! These tools can give us time back in our days to do that. A fancy term for the focus on action and USING knowledge is “praxis”. Like all things, it’s important to keep the main thing the main thing – how will we best use ideas, skills, and tools to help kids make connections to their own lives and learn to think, and think critically at that.
So What’s the Real Worry?
What are we really worried about, then? Seems pretty clear that it’s “Change” with a capital “C”. AI is forcing us to think differently and act differently. That can be such a threat to who we are, or who we think we are. Ignoring AI in its many forms will get us nowhere. Taking the time to understand it and how we can use the tool might just keep us from losing ourselves to it in the end. We are still the ones building relationships, creating trusting environments, modeling what critical and creative thinking is and can do. Most of us have had enough of “unprecedented times” and could stand for a “precedented” moment or two. Recognizing that AI is here and taking the time to really dive into both its potential as well as its challenges has to be worth our comfort in the short term for the long term gains we can leverage for kids.
The Big Question: How Will You Choose to Engage With AI?
Technology change comes fast and it can be dramatic. “Education’s” adaptations to those changes? Often, it’s not nearly quick enough to keep up. And there are valid reasons for that which ground level, campus level, even district level educators can’t control. What all of us can control, and choose, is our own attitude.
No need for time traveling cyborgs or red and blue pills. Most of us didn’t have a say in AI’s creation and proliferation. We can choose how we will interact and use the tool though.
More information for you:
Here’s a great big picture view from The Wallace Foundation. Plenty of links in this as well.
A post from the Holdsworth Center in Austin
*The iMacs in my room in those ancient times were those cool looking bubble ones that came in different colors – ours were blue, fyi.
Learning to Leading Bridge 
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