Teaching and AI — new tools, new methods

Opinion

Why do we have to go to back to school?

Good question. As teachers and students get prepared to start the new school year, the effect of artificial intelligence in the classroom looms large. For students, they may wonder what’s the point of school at all if AI can give them any answer they want with a few keystrokes. To the teacher, they may be wondering if their jobs are going to be outsourced since their expertise is no longer relevant in a world of expert bots at the ready.

This is the same age-old discussion that has taken place whenever new technology has come along. Sure, AI can provide all the answers. Before that, Google was able to provide the answers. Farther back, books held all the knowledge. And even before books, a wise town sage was able to provide all the answers. But school is never just about getting the answers.

Technology, especially now in the age of AI, facilitates an even greater shift in the teacher and student roles. The shift that unlimited access to information and content creation in the classroom provides means that teachers can be less of a sage on the stage, and more of a guide on the side.

The traditional ways of teaching may be changing irrevocably with AI. Whereas an English teacher might ask students to produce an essay to show their understanding of a piece of literature, or a math teacher asking students to show how to solve a complex problem, both of which can be completed in seconds by an AI agent on behalf of students, which means teachers will be fighting a losing battle trying to police what might be seen as a good use of technology by students.

For students, the temptation to use AI might be irresistible and it may seem pointless to do things the old-fashioned way. There will need to be earnest conversations about when AI should be used and when it shouldn’t. Over the past few years, there have been restrictive rules enacted for cellphone use in schools mainly because they were deemed a distraction and a detriment to learning.

But I don’t think we can go that route with AI. AI is part of the continuation of intellectual advancement, from not merely providing more information and organizing it for us, but allows for expression in different media in complete customized forms. Its output is at the level of our intellect, fully and completely constructed in a finished form. But that is both a strength and weakness in the realm of education, where finished output by students is a benchmark of learning.

A greater conversation about AI is not what it can do, but how we can use it to benefit learning. Ethics and responsibility, as well as health and safety considerations, should always be addressed about the use of any new technology in the classroom. Given the scope and influence that AI might have on peoples’ lives, this conversation among all stakeholders is critically important.

To get back to the original question, yes, you have to go back to school. Because learning is thinking, and thinking is living. “I think therefore I am” Rene Descartes famously said, and although it may be helpful to use AI to offload some tasks, never let the AI do the thinking for you. Living is learning and you should be learning your entire life, creating personal fulfillment and maybe some human advancement along the way.

Because learning is a lifelong process. Learning how to learn is more important no matter what new technologies come along. And believe it or not, AI will become an old technology one day and education with have to adapt to some yet revealed advancement — but learning how to learn will always be important.

In a previous time and iteration of technology, I was involved in the development of such a process which is cyclic and ongoing. In short the process is: question and plan, gather and make sense, produce to show understanding, communicate, and reflect. This learning cycle starts again with a new question and can continue indefinitely. Such meta-cognitive approaches can be used by teachers and students in partnership, the expertise of the teacher needed even more to guide students in their learning. And although this particular learning process was developed with technology in mind, its universality could be applied at any time and any learning context.

What will classrooms look like with AI? How will teachers use it to best benefit student learning?

You can bet that our fantastic teachers will be thinking about that regularly as they begin another journey into the new school year. The answers will become apparent in the process, and will continue with curiosity and purpose, because the best learning always starts with a good question.

David Nutbean was a high school teacher for many years among his many educational roles. He continues to learn every day from his home in Oakville, Manitoba.