Thinking Citizen Blog — Is AI A Boon Or A Curse For Educators? Whose Opinion Would You Trust? How Is AI Best Used?
Thinking Citizen Blog — Friday is Education and Education Policy Day
Today’s Topic: Is AI a boon or a curse for educators? Whose opinion would you trust? How is AI best used?
Socrates was skeptical of the value of books in that they tended to weaken memory, trivialize knowledge, and distract from real education — live, face-to-face dialogue. Historically, Socrates lost the argument. Is current skepticism about AI going to suffer the same fate? I think so. But I know very little about the details of how best to integrate AI into pre-school, grade school, middle, high school, college, and home school curricula. What do you know that the rest of us would benefit from learning?
I know of no human who has done more good work teaching millions of students of all ages around the world the intricacies of a broader range of subjects than Sal Khan, the founder of Khan Academy which has 150 million registered users in 190 countries, with lessons available in 50 languages.
Today, a few notes on why Sal Khan is a huge fan of AI.
How do you use AI in your work? In the teaching of your children or grandchildren? Is AI a threat to critical thinking or the best ever tool to build critical thinking skills?
Experts — please chime in. Correct. elaborate, elucidate.
THE SUPER POWER OF PERSONALIZING EDUCATION
1. “AI can adapt to each student’s individual pace and learning style, identifying their strengths, weaknesses, and offering tailored support and feedback.”
2. “This approach can approximate the effectiveness of one-on-one tutoring, which has been shown to be highly beneficial for student performance, but is typically unattainable at scale due to cost,”
EMPOWERING TEACHERS
1. “AI can serve as a powerful teaching assistant, handling routine tasks like grading, generating progress reports, and helping with lesson planning.”
2. “This frees up teachers’ time to focus on building relationships with students, providing more individualized attention, facilitating group work, and fostering deeper engagement.”
BRIDGING LEARNING GAPS AND INCREASING ACCESSIBILITY — have you used “Khanmigo”?
1. “AI can help address learning disparities and provide access to high-quality education for a wider range of students, including those in underserved areas or with different learning levels.”
2. “AI can also offer a safe space for students who may be hesitant to ask questions in a traditional classroom setting, enabling them to gain a deeper understanding.”
Khan Academy’s founder on how AI can supercharge “mastery learning”
Opinion | A Teachers Union’s Dangerous Embrace of AI
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IP5ATbqCWPv0WKC4dCDgAiidbFVOaqR_
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
YOUR TURN
Please share the coolest thing you learned in the last week related to education or education policy. Or the coolest thought however half-baked you had.
Or the coolest, most important thing you learned in your life related to education or education policy that the rest of us may have missed.
Or just some random education-related fact that blew you away.
This is your chance to make someone’s day. Or to cement in your own mind something that you might otherwise forget. Or to think more deeply than otherwise about something that is dear to your heart.
