This piece truly made me consider the foundational challenges you're exploring. Given your "gold from lead" thesis how do you see the rapid evolution of technology like AI influencing our continued attempts at educational transformation?
As you might expect, I am skeptical that AI will do much for educational outcomes for the primary and secondary kids. I don’t say that because I’m an AI skeptic but because I think we know enough about learning to know that the current crop of AI edtech and LLM products are effectively short-circuiting cognitive development.
The people who are most successful at using AI are subject matter experts who have taken the time to learn the ins and outs of their preferred AI service. They know enough to prompt well, understand the subject matter they’re prompting about so they can audit the AI’s output for accuracy and efficacy, and they are generally doing work they already have the capacity to do without AI. Kids just aren’t going to be in this category so they’re not going to be effective users in ways that matter for their learning and academic growth. Older kids and college aged young adults could benefit from learning about and using AI a bit, but I wouldn’t want to see lots of kids 14 and under using it for core academics.
Beyond that, I worry about the non-academic uses of AI. For example, the explosive growth of AI companions seems dangerous and kids are often accessing these companions on school issued devices. Who knows what they’re learning from these relationships and whether that creates a whole other set of problems for kids’ social and emotional development.
I get why schools are adopting AI and why they tend to want to integrate the newest tech but, like phones and 1 to 1 computers in the last decade or so, we’re so readily persuaded that the latest thing is all that’s needed to fix everything that we forget to watch for the negative possibilities. I also doubt the motivations of many of the boldest proponents of AI in education because they seem to harbor a dim view of students, a hatred of teachers and schools, and a theory of society that rejects the idea of a democratic education.
This piece truly made me consider the foundational challenges you're exploring. Given your "gold from lead" thesis how do you see the rapid evolution of technology like AI influencing our continued attempts at educational transformation?
Thanks for the comment!
As you might expect, I am skeptical that AI will do much for educational outcomes for the primary and secondary kids. I don’t say that because I’m an AI skeptic but because I think we know enough about learning to know that the current crop of AI edtech and LLM products are effectively short-circuiting cognitive development.
The people who are most successful at using AI are subject matter experts who have taken the time to learn the ins and outs of their preferred AI service. They know enough to prompt well, understand the subject matter they’re prompting about so they can audit the AI’s output for accuracy and efficacy, and they are generally doing work they already have the capacity to do without AI. Kids just aren’t going to be in this category so they’re not going to be effective users in ways that matter for their learning and academic growth. Older kids and college aged young adults could benefit from learning about and using AI a bit, but I wouldn’t want to see lots of kids 14 and under using it for core academics.
Beyond that, I worry about the non-academic uses of AI. For example, the explosive growth of AI companions seems dangerous and kids are often accessing these companions on school issued devices. Who knows what they’re learning from these relationships and whether that creates a whole other set of problems for kids’ social and emotional development.
I get why schools are adopting AI and why they tend to want to integrate the newest tech but, like phones and 1 to 1 computers in the last decade or so, we’re so readily persuaded that the latest thing is all that’s needed to fix everything that we forget to watch for the negative possibilities. I also doubt the motivations of many of the boldest proponents of AI in education because they seem to harbor a dim view of students, a hatred of teachers and schools, and a theory of society that rejects the idea of a democratic education.