AI Will Stupefy Our Students Unless We Do These Six Things
Note: this article was first published at the online magazine Educate AI (edu-ai.org) at https://edu-ai.org/ai-will-stupefy-our-students-unless-we-do-these-six-things/
Artificial Intelligence both terrifies and fascinates me. I have been an educator for 39 years, and as a classroom teacher, I, like all teachers, am navigating the new world of AI. This year, I have been experimenting with AI tools to help my students and me learn more deeply. I know AI is here to stay whether I like it or not. So, what is the future of AI? Will it numb or enhance learning? For me, the jury is still out.
A Bleak Prediction: AI Foolishness
Let me start by painting a bleak picture—something that woke me up last night. Arran Hamilton, Dylan Wiliam, and John Hattie wrote a haunting paper/article (The Future of AI in Education: 13 Things We Can Do to Minimize the Damage) which warns us that there is a significant “risk and reality of mass downgrading human skills and abilities.” (Wiliam, 2023). The premise goes something like this:
- AI is becoming exponentially more powerful and will exceed human capabilities for most cognitively demanding tasks.
- It will be too easy for students to take shortcuts to learning.
- AI will have devastating impacts on future generations of learners.
They even predict that illiteracy could rise since AI bots can talk to us, and there will be less need to read text. This stupefaction of students and, consequently, the world is frightening.
The learning process is incredibly challenging today because teachers compete with social media and other distractions for attention. A typical school curriculum often does not seem relevant to many students as they observe and experience their world. Still, most learning has always taken work and required concerted effort and grit. I have recently been reading an author’s works from the 16th century. The level of concentration I bring to the table is helping me learn difficult things through effort and determination. I could ask an AI agent to summarize the book/passage, but I don’t! It would be more efficient, but that would shortchange my learning. There is something about doing hard cognitive work that helps us grow as thinkers. It isn’t just about the facts. It is also about the process. More than anything else, we must teach students how to learn: How to hunker down, concentrate, and extract meaning from our world.
Learning is similar to how an athlete trains. As a former competitive triathlete, I knew that to be competitive, I needed to master swimming, biking, and running. When I first started doing triathlons, I was self-coached. And though I got better, I didn’t see breakthrough performances until I hired a coach. Even though the coach guided me and fine-tuned my skills, I HAD to do the work. I had to go out daily and swim, bike, and run. Similarly, students will learn best if they do the heavy lifting of learning in the context of an excellent teacher (coach). They need more repetitions to achieve mastery, and if AI answers all their questions, their learning muscles won’t grow.
Read the full article here: https://edu-ai.org/ai-will-stupefy-our-students-unless-we-do-these-six-things/