Why You Need to Talk About AI Image: GPT-4/DALL-E It’s time to have "the talk." You’ve been avoiding it. It’s a little awkward because you’re not really sure how to go about it. Students are getting anxious for lack of clear information and they don’t know who to go to for advice. Some teachers really want to dive right in, but others don’t think it has any place in school. Parents are asking questions about how to navigate this important moment in their children’s education… It’s time to talk with kids about AI. Education has three purposes : to prepare students for the workforce, to prepare students for participation in civil and democratic society, and to prepare students for a fulfilling life. AI is already propelling significant changes in each of these areas. So great is the impact on each of these areas that failing to talk with students about the role of AI in their (and our) lives amounts to a level of professional negligence. As educators and citizens, we failed
Image: An annual calendar of international EdTech conferences Short answer: yes. Longer answer: follow up is necessary. Why? Conferences don’t change practice, sustained professional development does. But conferences do provide new inspiration and ideas for what sustained professional development might include. Linda Darling-Hammond’s research reminds us that the best professional development is ongoing, collaborative, practice-focused, and student-centered. Conferences light the spark, but an ongoing, collaborative structure is needed to fan the flame into a fire. This past week, I attended the annual conference of the National Association of Independent Schools, and I attended nearly every session on artificial intelligence. It was an enriching dive into how leading schools are thinking about AI in their classrooms, and it raised questions about pedagogy, law, ethics, equity, and more. If I were currently teaching, I wouldn’t have walked away from most sessions with tactics I coul