Appreciated this breakdown. The sanguine expectations of people not in classrooms reminds me of the four-square meme "What my friends think I do; What my parents think I do; What society thinks I do; What I actually do." What I actually do is open up a world to students, help motivate them, grab "the book" for a reluctant reader and put it in their hands, make students feel seen/heard, create a safe space, help them through hard conversations (for example in Montana, addressing anti-Indiginous bias). I know AI can help me do my job, and I know there is inefficiency in education, but the idea that schooling is on the cusp of a breakthrough... I'll believe it once school bandwidth and equitable access to tech becomes a reality. I see a lot of room for the "Matthew effect" in children's education as AI takes off.
Recently I had dinner with my former assistant teacher who had moved to New Hampshire. She had decided to become a substitute teacher because the district she now lives in is in desperate need. So she has been substituting in a school walking distance from her house that was declared a Blue Ribbon School. The school has an overflow of funds. Hanging on the wall of each classroom is a giant TV type screen. She was working with first grade. The sub notes told her to turn on the TV thing for it to read the days book choice to the children. So she did. Barely any of the children watched while the TV turned the pages and read the book. They squirmed and talked and poked each other but few engaged. Later in the day she READ a book to the children. She is a master of voices when she reads and the children were completely enthralled. They threw question at her about the reading. Since the story was placed in the South one asked if she could read in a Southern accent so she did. Not one child wiggled, rolled, poked, or talked to a friend. It was the TEACHER who is a master at reading a story. This is not limited to reading. I have had teachers tell me their children are not interested in "calendar" time until they have watched me present the "calendar" to the class and see the magic of engagement. All the AI in the world cannot do this.
Thanks for expanding our collective understanding of the work of teaching in this thread. I think there is a hivemind sense among education technologists that classrooms are places where students line up to be filled with the right amount and kind of knowledge slurry, and of course technology could support or even take over that task. Educational technologists would do well to tune into your comment.
Thank you for another great post. This is quickly becoming my favourite newsletter on substack! As far as i can tell, the disconnect between <students and the teachers who serve them> and <those trying to profit from their needs> has only gotten worse since I started working in Ed tech ~12 years ago 🥴 there are so many amazing startups founded by former teachers who seem to ‘get it,’ but they really struggle to get attention and funding like khan and his peers 😔
First week of class, and I'm reminded what a headache it is just to keep track of who is in my class. Checking who's set up a MyOpenMath account, one guy hasn't and I go to email him but then I see he's dropped (these are college students, they're in and out like swinging doors the first coupla weeks.)
Anyway, some system that doesn't require me to log into our college website using two-factor authentication to download a current roster into an Excel sheet where I can work with it would be nice. If it actually did this checking-up on stuff like "Did they do the HonorLock System Check yet?" and just told me who to email with reminders (I'll write the emails myself, thanks) that would be wonderful.
BTW, PeopleSoft, which manages my student roster, will place a student at the bottom of the list if they make the mistake of starting their last name with a lower-case character rather than upper-case. People are talking about the wonders of an AI classroom, and here I am wishing for a system that could do case-insensitive alphabetization.
Dunno - I think that some of the generative AI is going to start snowballing. I've got a colleague who teaches English who submits student writing plus a rubric and gets comments back. Now you can't just never read the work or the comments - you have to review both and make edits at times to the comments - but for the most part the AI comments are accurate.
I think that is pretty significant? No? It's the edge, and not yet evenly distributed, but I think it's worth considering.
Definitely worth considering. Just because I'm critiquing the AI maximalist position (which is too broadly shared IMO) doesn't mean I'm taking a minimalist position. Quality of life improvements seem available. Nothing that will bend national trends. Nothing that will result in the touted two sigma difference, etc. But I'll take improved quality of life.
Man, I wish I could paste a screenshot here of an interaction I had on Khanmigo a few days ago. It gave me confusing and incorrect feedback on a *basic algebra equation* (2P - 2 = 2.50, refused to acknowledge this can be restated as 2P = 4.50). So even relatively simple stuff has not been mastered, much less being able to understand student misconceptions in any sort of sophisticated way.
Teaching requires synthesizing technical knowledge with human knowledge and empathy as much as any other job. I'm not saying it will never happen. But it's not going to happen until computers are virtually indistinguishable from humans.
I think I agree, and if that happens inside of five years, the world will look so different that all of you will be too busy in your stately pleasure domes or digging rocks in the lithium mines, to think to dunk on me for missing my prediction.
Love it man. Everything with AI and Education is moving so slow. The inertia of the institution is giving us a chance to sort out the wheat from the chaff.
Appreciated this breakdown. The sanguine expectations of people not in classrooms reminds me of the four-square meme "What my friends think I do; What my parents think I do; What society thinks I do; What I actually do." What I actually do is open up a world to students, help motivate them, grab "the book" for a reluctant reader and put it in their hands, make students feel seen/heard, create a safe space, help them through hard conversations (for example in Montana, addressing anti-Indiginous bias). I know AI can help me do my job, and I know there is inefficiency in education, but the idea that schooling is on the cusp of a breakthrough... I'll believe it once school bandwidth and equitable access to tech becomes a reality. I see a lot of room for the "Matthew effect" in children's education as AI takes off.
Special shout out to you, Paula, and SteveB for expanding our collective sense of the work of teaching in this thread.
Recently I had dinner with my former assistant teacher who had moved to New Hampshire. She had decided to become a substitute teacher because the district she now lives in is in desperate need. So she has been substituting in a school walking distance from her house that was declared a Blue Ribbon School. The school has an overflow of funds. Hanging on the wall of each classroom is a giant TV type screen. She was working with first grade. The sub notes told her to turn on the TV thing for it to read the days book choice to the children. So she did. Barely any of the children watched while the TV turned the pages and read the book. They squirmed and talked and poked each other but few engaged. Later in the day she READ a book to the children. She is a master of voices when she reads and the children were completely enthralled. They threw question at her about the reading. Since the story was placed in the South one asked if she could read in a Southern accent so she did. Not one child wiggled, rolled, poked, or talked to a friend. It was the TEACHER who is a master at reading a story. This is not limited to reading. I have had teachers tell me their children are not interested in "calendar" time until they have watched me present the "calendar" to the class and see the magic of engagement. All the AI in the world cannot do this.
Thanks for expanding our collective understanding of the work of teaching in this thread. I think there is a hivemind sense among education technologists that classrooms are places where students line up to be filled with the right amount and kind of knowledge slurry, and of course technology could support or even take over that task. Educational technologists would do well to tune into your comment.
You mean it's not the same as plugging your Tesla into the Supercharger?
Thank you for another great post. This is quickly becoming my favourite newsletter on substack! As far as i can tell, the disconnect between <students and the teachers who serve them> and <those trying to profit from their needs> has only gotten worse since I started working in Ed tech ~12 years ago 🥴 there are so many amazing startups founded by former teachers who seem to ‘get it,’ but they really struggle to get attention and funding like khan and his peers 😔
First week of class, and I'm reminded what a headache it is just to keep track of who is in my class. Checking who's set up a MyOpenMath account, one guy hasn't and I go to email him but then I see he's dropped (these are college students, they're in and out like swinging doors the first coupla weeks.)
Anyway, some system that doesn't require me to log into our college website using two-factor authentication to download a current roster into an Excel sheet where I can work with it would be nice. If it actually did this checking-up on stuff like "Did they do the HonorLock System Check yet?" and just told me who to email with reminders (I'll write the emails myself, thanks) that would be wonderful.
BTW, PeopleSoft, which manages my student roster, will place a student at the bottom of the list if they make the mistake of starting their last name with a lower-case character rather than upper-case. People are talking about the wonders of an AI classroom, and here I am wishing for a system that could do case-insensitive alphabetization.
Dunno - I think that some of the generative AI is going to start snowballing. I've got a colleague who teaches English who submits student writing plus a rubric and gets comments back. Now you can't just never read the work or the comments - you have to review both and make edits at times to the comments - but for the most part the AI comments are accurate.
I think that is pretty significant? No? It's the edge, and not yet evenly distributed, but I think it's worth considering.
Definitely worth considering. Just because I'm critiquing the AI maximalist position (which is too broadly shared IMO) doesn't mean I'm taking a minimalist position. Quality of life improvements seem available. Nothing that will bend national trends. Nothing that will result in the touted two sigma difference, etc. But I'll take improved quality of life.
Man, I wish I could paste a screenshot here of an interaction I had on Khanmigo a few days ago. It gave me confusing and incorrect feedback on a *basic algebra equation* (2P - 2 = 2.50, refused to acknowledge this can be restated as 2P = 4.50). So even relatively simple stuff has not been mastered, much less being able to understand student misconceptions in any sort of sophisticated way.
Your annoyance with tech bros in education is endlessly amusing
Teaching requires synthesizing technical knowledge with human knowledge and empathy as much as any other job. I'm not saying it will never happen. But it's not going to happen until computers are virtually indistinguishable from humans.
I think I agree, and if that happens inside of five years, the world will look so different that all of you will be too busy in your stately pleasure domes or digging rocks in the lithium mines, to think to dunk on me for missing my prediction.
Love it man. Everything with AI and Education is moving so slow. The inertia of the institution is giving us a chance to sort out the wheat from the chaff.