AI Education - Have we learnt what NOT to do?
I created this meme last week.
An inspirational #educator Pip Cleaves messaged me to say:
I feel the same about AI. This is our chance. Thanks to Web 2.0 and Covid, we have also learnt what not to do… we should take this as a lesson.
Such powerful words of support but as with so much in the #AfterChatGPT (#AC) era, a powerful spark for another ray to beam from the thought nucleus of a burning AI sun in the words - "We have also learnt what not to do".
So, I began digging around to ascertain the consensus of views on what we have learned from the pandemic. What are the 'things' we have learned not to do?
Research
There is a dominant piece of research that draws a large amount of attention to how the pandemic exposed the frailties in our education systems, approaches and beliefs.
According to Zhao and Watterston:
The fallout of seeing students trying to learn during COVID shows us that:
Learning has to become more based on strengths and passions and become personalized.
This means that schools:
have a unique opportunity to positively and proactively change as a result of COVID-19 and the need for global connections. It is possible to see schools rearrange their schedules and places of teaching so that students can at the same time take part in different and more challenging learning opportunities regardless of their physical locations. Relevant online learning will be on the rise and perhaps becomes a regular part of the daily routine for many students.
So, in summary:
It is important for us to reimagine a better education with technology and find creative ways to make education more equitable, including wiping out the digital divid
we wish to urge scholars, policy makers, and educators to have the courage to make bold changes beyond simply changing instructional delivery.
For those who have been demanding change for such a long time, this rhetoric is no surprise. We did not need a pandemic to tell us this. But I decided to dig deeper....
Using Google Scholar, I then looked at who had cited this work:
Example 1 - Aldhafeeri & Alotaibi:
we proved that the innovative DES approach can indeed make digital learning more engaging, effective, and a viable alternative or at least an aligned and integrated form for conventional education in the long run.
Example 2 - Jackson et al:
working together, education in Australia can be delivered to build equity, innovation and collaboration. It explores three practices that will help to shape the future: adaptive leadership, responsive teaching and generative assessment. Embedding these practices would amount to a paradigm shift in Australian school education, accelerating the shift towards a future-ready system that has been brewing over the last decade. This can only be achieved with collaboration from the many stakeholders in the education system. It requires both ‘top-down’ guidance from policy-makers, and a ‘bottom-up’ push from teachers and school leaders to challenge existing structures. Critically, it requires extending power to students as agents in their learning, to embrace change in what they learn, and how they learn it. This paper shows by working together, education in Australia can be delivered to build equity, innovation and collaboration.
There are many more papers and examples but these two highlight both practices and systemic changes that are being called for to overhaul education in its current form.
I then engaged with more opinion based pieces where the views and opinions of those with a less of a research agenda could be heard.
Commentary
I fed the following articles into Bing Chat:
It summarised these as follows:
The pandemic has had devastating impacts on learning. According to a survey of 800 schools, 7 things we learned about COVID’s impact on education are:
Students have fallen behind in learning, and the gap is wider for low-income students and students of color.
The pandemic has exacerbated existing inequities in education.
Students’ mental health has suffered during the pandemic.
Teachers have been under immense stress and pressure.
Remote learning has been a challenge for many students and teachers.
The pandemic has highlighted the importance of social-emotional learning.
The pandemic has accelerated the use of technology in education.
So, as I sit drinking a lovely example of South Australian blended GSM red wine, as winter takes a surprising turn to mid 20s C, I see so much we could have learned but I wonder how much have we actually done so.
I think it is best summed up as follows where the questions and issues are largely the same pre and post COVID -
What do we value in education?
What systems do we need to change?
What practices do we need to change?
What changes do we need to make to ensure relevance for our students?
What changes do we need to make to ensure engagement for our students?
What changes do we need to make to ensure our students are gaining the right knowledge?
What changes do we need to make to ensure our students are gaining the right skills?
What changes do we need to make to ensure our students are gaining the right dispositions?
AI will not stop. We are dealing with the poorest version of AI. We need to be proactively thinking and discussing, planning and startegizing for an #aifuture
