Excellent talk, and I think a necessary corrective to "change the world" language around GenAI in schools. Dan, I am curious -- have you yet spoken to any teachers who are successfully incorporating GenAI in their classrooms? I know that what's in wide use now (the big players you appropriately cut down to size) is more than underwhelming, and in some cases can actually be deleterious to the students using them (don't get me started on "Wizard" School...). But for places that aren't rushing to market -- and, admittedly, I am building one such company -- creative teachers have found ways to amplify their classrooms. I'd be curious if you'd spoken to any such teachers.
I'm asking teachers about generative AI constantly. Family members. Local teachers. Teachers online. I would love nothing more than to learn that genAI saves teachers time and energy at a level that would materially change their work / life balance or their interest in remaining teachers. I have heard nothing close to it. The best I have heard from ELA teachers is that genAI supports them in giving students feedback on their essay writing. The best I have heard from math teachers is that genAI supports them in quickly creating alternate versions of tests or alternate versions of word problems—impressive use cases, truly, but nothing that meets any particularly basic need of an educator.
Yeah, I'd be skeptical of anything that claims to material change a teacher's work/life balance! Products / Tech folks declaring revolution will never be able to deliver, and create a hype bubble that steals time and attention from school leaders. The whole discourse makes me think of the best PD I ever had as a teacher, which was just called "Small Changes." It was essentially 3 or 4 really simple things we could do as teachers to improve things like organization and classroom management. This PD was 15 years ago, and I still think about it constantly. I think products that will actually help should focus on small changes. No revolution is coming.
Thanks for this and please keep at it!
favorite slide was the chatbot promising not to open other tabs!
Excellent talk Dan!
Wondering if there's a transcription anywhere?
Thanks, Julian. No transcript that I know of unfortunately.
Thanks for the response.
You've hit lots of nails on the head in your talk!
Excellent talk, and I think a necessary corrective to "change the world" language around GenAI in schools. Dan, I am curious -- have you yet spoken to any teachers who are successfully incorporating GenAI in their classrooms? I know that what's in wide use now (the big players you appropriately cut down to size) is more than underwhelming, and in some cases can actually be deleterious to the students using them (don't get me started on "Wizard" School...). But for places that aren't rushing to market -- and, admittedly, I am building one such company -- creative teachers have found ways to amplify their classrooms. I'd be curious if you'd spoken to any such teachers.
I'm asking teachers about generative AI constantly. Family members. Local teachers. Teachers online. I would love nothing more than to learn that genAI saves teachers time and energy at a level that would materially change their work / life balance or their interest in remaining teachers. I have heard nothing close to it. The best I have heard from ELA teachers is that genAI supports them in giving students feedback on their essay writing. The best I have heard from math teachers is that genAI supports them in quickly creating alternate versions of tests or alternate versions of word problems—impressive use cases, truly, but nothing that meets any particularly basic need of an educator.
Yeah, I'd be skeptical of anything that claims to material change a teacher's work/life balance! Products / Tech folks declaring revolution will never be able to deliver, and create a hype bubble that steals time and attention from school leaders. The whole discourse makes me think of the best PD I ever had as a teacher, which was just called "Small Changes." It was essentially 3 or 4 really simple things we could do as teachers to improve things like organization and classroom management. This PD was 15 years ago, and I still think about it constantly. I think products that will actually help should focus on small changes. No revolution is coming.
The talk lived up to the advance hype! They will not find Sam Altman's bones.
👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏