Bring back penmanship and the blue book. Inexpensive tools that truly test knowledge. You can’t fake it or use AI with a short and/or long answer blue book test.
I'm not sure you're correct about the lack of incentives for AI companies to hook children on their products. It might not be accurate to call it addiction, but a kid who learns to use AI as a crutch when faced with any mentally demanding task will probably turn into an adult who continues to do so. From what I can tell, the "kids who like cheating" market is actually pretty substantial (at least, it's widely used. Not sure if the kids 'like' using it to cheat).
Among adults I know, the amount of use varies, but there are definitely heavy users out there who seem to use it constantly. Right now it does kind of remind me of the distribution of users for other vices. Some just dabble; others have trouble regulating their use. I'm not sure if that's the right way to look at it, but from that angle it makes perfect sense to start children using AI as soon as possible. You want to increase the number of people who will rely on it for life.
Another teacher here... I agree. We are training our students to let computers and AI do the thinking for them, yet I have continually had students in awe when they see I can type without looking at the keyboard. We are doing technology in school backwards. It's time to bring back the computer lab.
Unfortunately, there is zero chance that AI companies will be "the good guys" when it comes to kids. This is and will be a need for government intervention and regulation. NONE. It took decades to say it was okay to put mild restrictions on porn. As long as the government fails to set the rules of the road regarding minors, they'll continue to exploit our children.
As for bringing back the computer lab and the subtitle: 100 percent. I worked in public education, and at first glance, personalized learning held amazing promise for a myriad of ills, and I dutifully soldiered forward to help implement and institutionalize it, and it's been a @$%#@#$% debacle along with the proliferation of smart phones.
I worked in what many parents believe to be a good American public school in Decatur, Georgia, but found the actual reality of device-based learning slipshod from top to bottom. For world languages, they issued devices for the students but never invested in a single dollar of curriculum to teach Spanish, German, or French on said devices - they counted on the teachers to cobble together the curriculum, which was, at best, disjointed and heavily dependent on youtube. Meanwhile, some students are accessing hentai at school despite the filter, which will always fail, and as for investing in tools to manage the devices - again, not a dollar. And it goes on and on. Don't even consider what this may imply about schools that are "struggling" for reasons beyond technology.
Ultimately, I found this so disturbing that I quit that position and enrolled my children in private school with far fewer screens, a wrenching decision, as I believe in public education.
While many educators have tied their reputations and careers to this enterprise, it's woefully undelivered and brought costs and burdens too numerous to catalog. Many claim that educators need to teach students how to use this technology, it's at best wildly overstated. Any digital technology on a device lives and dies by ease of use - they exist to make money, ideally buckets of it, and being esoteric often precludes that possibility entirely, so rest assured, when I say anyone that can write a paragraph with a number two pencil can, if incentivized, learn to use any ap and most programs without making it central to day to day instruction.
As for digital citizenship - this is a sham and about as effective as anti-drug education would be if you handed kids crackpipes years before their first class with an unlimited supply of product on hand. Sure, some would understand that the crack pipe in their pocket is "bad" and could "damage them" and manage to smoke crack responsibly, but the great majority of minors, never mind the adults in their life, will not. Kids will send naked photos of one another so long as they have camera phones with a connection and there's no number of lessons about why one should not do it that will actually impact that reality.
Ultimately, printed books and written materials should be restored to their primacy in public education and instructional technology as sold for the past ten to twenty years tossed on a pyre, doused with gas, and set alight. The projectors, the online learning platforms, the chromebooks, the aps - the entire apparatus tech companies push free to hook tomorrow's customers today before they hit puberty - should be jettisoned. Ezra Klein reckoned recently that society will do just fine educating kids about technology and its usage, and nothing encountered in my two plus decades in public education convinces me he's wrong.
This is the first article you’ve printed here in a while that I have to applaud. Although you and I are equal as humans, in the world, you carry more weight. From reading others like you, I think there are a hearty, but small, number of leaders playing the role of Paul Revere on the issue of unexamined use of computing power. Please continue to be a town cryer on this issue. The basis for democracy is an educated public, we don’t need an algorithm to establish that for us.
My son was in Middle School when the school district ditched written math curriculum and decided to use IXL. He was taking Algebra as a 7th grader. His teacher that year was particularly awful. After several sessions of parental help throughout the year, it became clear that his teacher was teaching them absolutely nothing. He was letting IXL do all the work. It wasn't until the following year, however, that my son related the incredible story of the day the principal came to observe his class. After almost an entire year of babysitting the kids while they did IXL, the teacher went up to the board and explained stuff. The students looked at each other not sure what was happening since they hadn't experienced anything like it all year. All computers in the class have done is allowed teachers to be even lazier than before. Oregon Trail was awesome, though.
It's long past time to destroy the powered weaving machines.
AI is here. It hasn't replaced human interaction and if it's being used to cheat then the assignment is maybe useless in the first place.
Khan Academy is already in wide use, isn't that a form of AI? Many teachers used it during covid. Roughly a third of kids are reading at grade level, why blame phones, it's our education system that assigns grades. If a 16 year old can only read at a second grade level maybe they should be in the second grade.
Both of my kids use AI all the time. The elder to complete projects faster, using AI to write simple code, debug programs, and helps him learn new software very fast. An engineer needs to have some understanding of things not covered in school. AI is good at explaining. The younger who is still in school uses it to tell her where she messed up in solving equations. Office hours for professors is very short, and for hard courses TAs are backed up for hours. The goal with hard mathematics is to learn how to do it, not simply get the right answer on homework. AI can tell you where you went wrong and maybe why.
No need to worry. Recall the billionaire tech bros arrayed behind Don at his inaugural. And of course the former co-president, Elon. To steal a phrase, he's the world's richest man who was deputized to kill the world's poorest children. We should all relax. These impressive statesmen have done so much not just for the father of the "new" right-Don, but for the children of the world. I'm sure they'll tell Don everything he needs to know as he builds on the massive assistance now flowing to the workin stiffs from the "new" right's crowning achievement-the BBB. Our children have so many excellent role models... Good luck America.
Two futures for AI. If controlled by humans, it is a tool that can be used for good and evil. If it becomes independent, it is God. Interesting theological question as to what sort of God
I hadn't thought about computer lab in a long time. And I had to laugh (in a good way) at how far we've come. For us, in high school, 1973, computer lab was a teletype connected via time share to an IBM S360 at Rochester Institute of Technology. One teletype for 2400 students!
To your point: I think we are at a point to tailor learning about computers vs learning what they can do for us vs tools to accomplish a task, are different things. Both distinctions will lead to more learning and I think astute students will take up learning's in those areas they see deficiencies in their own education paths or where they have interest.
I’ve been saying this in my district for years. Love your catchphrase to make it stick. These kids spend all their time on screens, but do they know how to type? Do they know how to use core applications like Word and Excel efficiently? Do they know how to find useful information online? Can they use AI to build instead of to using it to cheat?
When we used computers growing up, it was always to learn how to DO something on the computer. It was intentional. Now it’s mostly a tool for efficiency, with questionable efficiency and major compromises everywhere else. My students do their work on paper, and if they break out a computer it’s either to access content I can’t easily print, or to dial in a final draft. Period.
Bring back penmanship and the blue book. Inexpensive tools that truly test knowledge. You can’t fake it or use AI with a short and/or long answer blue book test.
I'm not sure you're correct about the lack of incentives for AI companies to hook children on their products. It might not be accurate to call it addiction, but a kid who learns to use AI as a crutch when faced with any mentally demanding task will probably turn into an adult who continues to do so. From what I can tell, the "kids who like cheating" market is actually pretty substantial (at least, it's widely used. Not sure if the kids 'like' using it to cheat).
Among adults I know, the amount of use varies, but there are definitely heavy users out there who seem to use it constantly. Right now it does kind of remind me of the distribution of users for other vices. Some just dabble; others have trouble regulating their use. I'm not sure if that's the right way to look at it, but from that angle it makes perfect sense to start children using AI as soon as possible. You want to increase the number of people who will rely on it for life.
Another teacher here... I agree. We are training our students to let computers and AI do the thinking for them, yet I have continually had students in awe when they see I can type without looking at the keyboard. We are doing technology in school backwards. It's time to bring back the computer lab.
Unfortunately, there is zero chance that AI companies will be "the good guys" when it comes to kids. This is and will be a need for government intervention and regulation. NONE. It took decades to say it was okay to put mild restrictions on porn. As long as the government fails to set the rules of the road regarding minors, they'll continue to exploit our children.
As for bringing back the computer lab and the subtitle: 100 percent. I worked in public education, and at first glance, personalized learning held amazing promise for a myriad of ills, and I dutifully soldiered forward to help implement and institutionalize it, and it's been a @$%#@#$% debacle along with the proliferation of smart phones.
I worked in what many parents believe to be a good American public school in Decatur, Georgia, but found the actual reality of device-based learning slipshod from top to bottom. For world languages, they issued devices for the students but never invested in a single dollar of curriculum to teach Spanish, German, or French on said devices - they counted on the teachers to cobble together the curriculum, which was, at best, disjointed and heavily dependent on youtube. Meanwhile, some students are accessing hentai at school despite the filter, which will always fail, and as for investing in tools to manage the devices - again, not a dollar. And it goes on and on. Don't even consider what this may imply about schools that are "struggling" for reasons beyond technology.
Ultimately, I found this so disturbing that I quit that position and enrolled my children in private school with far fewer screens, a wrenching decision, as I believe in public education.
While many educators have tied their reputations and careers to this enterprise, it's woefully undelivered and brought costs and burdens too numerous to catalog. Many claim that educators need to teach students how to use this technology, it's at best wildly overstated. Any digital technology on a device lives and dies by ease of use - they exist to make money, ideally buckets of it, and being esoteric often precludes that possibility entirely, so rest assured, when I say anyone that can write a paragraph with a number two pencil can, if incentivized, learn to use any ap and most programs without making it central to day to day instruction.
As for digital citizenship - this is a sham and about as effective as anti-drug education would be if you handed kids crackpipes years before their first class with an unlimited supply of product on hand. Sure, some would understand that the crack pipe in their pocket is "bad" and could "damage them" and manage to smoke crack responsibly, but the great majority of minors, never mind the adults in their life, will not. Kids will send naked photos of one another so long as they have camera phones with a connection and there's no number of lessons about why one should not do it that will actually impact that reality.
Ultimately, printed books and written materials should be restored to their primacy in public education and instructional technology as sold for the past ten to twenty years tossed on a pyre, doused with gas, and set alight. The projectors, the online learning platforms, the chromebooks, the aps - the entire apparatus tech companies push free to hook tomorrow's customers today before they hit puberty - should be jettisoned. Ezra Klein reckoned recently that society will do just fine educating kids about technology and its usage, and nothing encountered in my two plus decades in public education convinces me he's wrong.
This is the first article you’ve printed here in a while that I have to applaud. Although you and I are equal as humans, in the world, you carry more weight. From reading others like you, I think there are a hearty, but small, number of leaders playing the role of Paul Revere on the issue of unexamined use of computing power. Please continue to be a town cryer on this issue. The basis for democracy is an educated public, we don’t need an algorithm to establish that for us.
My son was in Middle School when the school district ditched written math curriculum and decided to use IXL. He was taking Algebra as a 7th grader. His teacher that year was particularly awful. After several sessions of parental help throughout the year, it became clear that his teacher was teaching them absolutely nothing. He was letting IXL do all the work. It wasn't until the following year, however, that my son related the incredible story of the day the principal came to observe his class. After almost an entire year of babysitting the kids while they did IXL, the teacher went up to the board and explained stuff. The students looked at each other not sure what was happening since they hadn't experienced anything like it all year. All computers in the class have done is allowed teachers to be even lazier than before. Oregon Trail was awesome, though.
It's long past time to destroy the powered weaving machines.
AI is here. It hasn't replaced human interaction and if it's being used to cheat then the assignment is maybe useless in the first place.
Khan Academy is already in wide use, isn't that a form of AI? Many teachers used it during covid. Roughly a third of kids are reading at grade level, why blame phones, it's our education system that assigns grades. If a 16 year old can only read at a second grade level maybe they should be in the second grade.
Both of my kids use AI all the time. The elder to complete projects faster, using AI to write simple code, debug programs, and helps him learn new software very fast. An engineer needs to have some understanding of things not covered in school. AI is good at explaining. The younger who is still in school uses it to tell her where she messed up in solving equations. Office hours for professors is very short, and for hard courses TAs are backed up for hours. The goal with hard mathematics is to learn how to do it, not simply get the right answer on homework. AI can tell you where you went wrong and maybe why.
No need to worry. Recall the billionaire tech bros arrayed behind Don at his inaugural. And of course the former co-president, Elon. To steal a phrase, he's the world's richest man who was deputized to kill the world's poorest children. We should all relax. These impressive statesmen have done so much not just for the father of the "new" right-Don, but for the children of the world. I'm sure they'll tell Don everything he needs to know as he builds on the massive assistance now flowing to the workin stiffs from the "new" right's crowning achievement-the BBB. Our children have so many excellent role models... Good luck America.
Two futures for AI. If controlled by humans, it is a tool that can be used for good and evil. If it becomes independent, it is God. Interesting theological question as to what sort of God
I hadn't thought about computer lab in a long time. And I had to laugh (in a good way) at how far we've come. For us, in high school, 1973, computer lab was a teletype connected via time share to an IBM S360 at Rochester Institute of Technology. One teletype for 2400 students!
To your point: I think we are at a point to tailor learning about computers vs learning what they can do for us vs tools to accomplish a task, are different things. Both distinctions will lead to more learning and I think astute students will take up learning's in those areas they see deficiencies in their own education paths or where they have interest.
I’ve been saying this in my district for years. Love your catchphrase to make it stick. These kids spend all their time on screens, but do they know how to type? Do they know how to use core applications like Word and Excel efficiently? Do they know how to find useful information online? Can they use AI to build instead of to using it to cheat?
When we used computers growing up, it was always to learn how to DO something on the computer. It was intentional. Now it’s mostly a tool for efficiency, with questionable efficiency and major compromises everywhere else. My students do their work on paper, and if they break out a computer it’s either to access content I can’t easily print, or to dial in a final draft. Period.