Your Job Is Teach
What We “Ken” Do About AI In Teaching
Barbieland (before AI)
Real World
(after AI)
Table of Kentents
01
04
02
05
03
06
My AI Summer
In other words…
What about us?
What's New?
What Ken We Do?
In Kenclusion
x
My AI Summer
01
AI Coffee!
A real, actual sign I came across in Seattle, WA while attending the AP Annual Conference.
(I did not try the robot coffee.)
X
AI Mammograms!
Because who wouldn’t want a robot in charge of this?
(Actually, medicine is one of the areas in which AI stands to make a huge positive difference!)
X
AI … Hiring Managers?
Kenfused?
It’s Actually A Thing!
x
In other words…
02
…WEIRD!
We can plan for what we can predict (though it is telling that, for the most part, we haven’t). What’s coming will be weirder. I use that term here in a specific way. In his book “High Weirdness,” Erik Davis, the historian of Californian counterculture, describes weird things as “anomalous — they deviate from the norms of informed expectation and challenge established explanations, sometimes quite radically.” That is the world we’re building.
I cannot emphasize this enough: We do not understand these systems, and it’s not clear we even can. I don’t mean that we cannot offer a high-level account of the basic functions… But zoom into specifics and the picture dissolves into computational static.
“If you were to print out everything the networks do between input and output, it would amount to billions of arithmetic operations,” writes Meghan O’Gieblyn in her brilliant book, “God, Human, Animal, Machine,” “an ‘explanation’ that would be impossible to understand.”
That is perhaps the weirdest thing about what we are building: The “thinking,” for lack of a better word, is utterly inhuman, but we have trained it to present as deeply human. And the more inhuman the systems get — the more billions of connections they draw and layers and parameters and nodes and computing power they acquire — the more human they seem to us.
So…what about us?
03
Bucket #1 - Serious Doubts and Worries
"I struggle to see any positive impact of AI on our lives in the future. Every year, it seems like we're losing touch with what makes us truly human because of growing reliance on "technology". AI is just another part of this concerning trend."
“I strongly believe it will do more harm than good, especially in teaching.”
"J'ai du mal à voir un impact positif de l'IA sur nos vies à l'avenir. Chaque année, il semble que nous perdions le contact avec ce qui fait de nous des êtres humains à cause de notre dépendance croissante à l'égard de la "technologie". L'IA n'est qu'un élément supplémentaire de cette tendance préoccupante."
“Je suis fermement convaincu qu'elle fera plus de mal que de bien, en particulier dans l'enseignement.”
x
Bucket #2 - Concern & Curiosity
I'm a little scared about AI, especially the shortcuts it might provide to students in thinking, learning, or writing. I'm concerned that the skills I teach might become outdated or irrelevant. But, I don't want to completely ignore it. Could there be ways to use AI in a controlled manner in the classroom, making it less of a temptation for students? Are there benefits I'm not seeing? Please help me!
J'ai un peu peur de l'IA, en particulier des raccourcis qu'elle pourrait offrir aux étudiants en matière de réflexion, d'apprentissage ou d'écriture. Je crains que les compétences que j'enseigne ne deviennent obsolètes ou non pertinentes. Mais je ne veux pas l'ignorer complètement. Existe-t-il des moyens d'utiliser l'IA de manière contrôlée en classe, afin qu'elle soit moins tentante pour les élèves ? Y a-t-il des avantages que je ne vois pas ? Aidez-moi, s'il vous plaît !
x
Bucket #3 - Inevitable & Thoughtful Blending
En cours, je favorise les travaux de production sans technologie pour permettre aux élèves de réfléchir par eux-mêmes, parfois en leur donnant de petits dictionnaires (ils existent encore!) et cela marche! J'essaie de développer cette prise de conscience chez eux et de leur montrer que les nouveaux outils tech + IA peuvent être utiles mais ne doivent par envahir leur environnement de travail, et encore moins la salle de classe. Interdire pour interdire, non, mais les encourager à regarder ce phénomène avec un esprit critique, oui."
“In class, I encourage technology-free production work to enable students to think for themselves, sometimes by giving them little dictionaries (they still exist!) and it works! I try to develop this awareness in them and show them that the new tech + AI tools can be useful but shouldn't invade their work environment, and even less so the classroom. Prohibit for the sake of prohibiting, no, but encourage them to look at this phenomenon with a critical mind, yes."
x
Bucket #4 - Practical Uses & Growing Excitement
"Tutoring through difficult subject matter, structuring (or scaffolding) a creative task, storyboarding, brainstorming, synthesizing ideas, etc. I think we're at the tip of an iceberg."
"Se structurer et approfondir des connaissances"
"I think using AI is becoming part of a skill set that will allow students to navigate the world with more fluidity because it is going to be a part of the landscape. "
"L'organisation de ses idées, être précis dans ses questions"
“Critiquing examples of robotic writing and learning how to make their own writing more natural”
“AI can make education more accessible for children with special or exceptional needs”
x
What's new?
04
An Arms Race
Major corporations are racing each other to control how we think about, use, and police generative AI. Any guesses?
Google Docs - AI Integration
DIRECT
MATERIAL
x
Custom "GPTs" & Search
NEW
FAMILIAR
x
AI-Powered Tools
INDIRECT
RELEVANT
x
Google "Labs" & "Experiments"
PERIPHERAL
PLAYFUL
x
What Ken We Do?
05
What We Always Do: Metaphor
“All perception is metaphor—as Wittgenstein put it, we never merely see, we always “see as.” Whenever we encounter an object, we immediately infer what kind of thing it is by comparing it to our store of preexisting models.”
"Toute perception est une métaphore - comme l'a dit Wittgenstein, nous ne nous contentons jamais de voir, nous voyons toujours "comme". Chaque fois que nous rencontrons un objet, nous déduisons immédiatement de quel type de chose il s'agit en le comparant à notre stock de modèles préexistants".
x
Some Metaphors
What kind of "demon" will we call forth? Benevolent? Angry? Vengeful?
Human behavior has brought it here, but there’s no getting rid of it now. Some things will die off and others will flourish, but we will adapt.
It gave us nuclear weapons (world-ending) and nuclear power (world-saving?).
It’s a tool. A powerful one, but one for which we will find uses and set limits.
It serves a very specific purpose and using it will enrich our aesthetic experience. We can survive on food prepared without it. But we would be missing out on so much.
It enhances the ability of our body (brain) to perform a task. Whether or not you consider it to be cheating depends on the drug, the task, and the law.
An Act of Summoning
An Invasive Species
The Manhattan Project
A Calculator
An Oven
A Performance-Enhancing Drug (PED)
x
What Could We Do: Seven Approaches
"The goal is to help students learn with and about AI, through practical strategies designed to mitigate risks such as complacency towards AI results, errors, and biases. These strategies promote active monitoring, critical evaluation of AI results, and the complementarity of AI capabilities with the unique knowledge of students. By encouraging students to remain 'the human in the loop,' the authors aim to improve learning outcomes while ensuring that AI serves as a support tool rather than a replacement."
x
What We Plan To Do: Lycée Statement
x
What We Will Actually Do: ???
What must we change about how we teach?
What do we think students will do?
What are we confused or unsure about?
What concerns do we have?
What do we like about this policy??
x
ChatGPT Scenario: Students complete three at-home, ungraded practice tasks in preparation for a graded DST on the same skills they practiced.
Timmy (DST grade: 18/20)
Bobby: (DST grade: 18/20)
Phil: (DST grade: 11/20)
x
Some Realities
We will not be able to prevent students from using AI. At school, at home, in private, in public. They will use it and disguise it and we won't know. We are better off assuming they will use it for everything.
What we think of as plagiarism - ideas that came from somewhere other than the student's mind - will be common on work completed at home. How we define what constitutes a student's "own" work may change.
Right now, AI detectors are biased, ineffective, and unreliable. They're not an option for adjudicating AI use.
AI might be the final nail in the coffin for "traditional" homework, which research has shown often does more harm than good. What happens inside and what happens outside the classroom may change (for the better!).
Students *will* use AI and we will not know.
AI Detectors don't work.
"Plagiarism" will be rampant.
"Homework" will change.
x
Some Practices
Starting from a position of distrust and antagonism with students is unlikely to be helpful. Approach the problem together with your students, rather than from opposite sides.
Be clear with students from the start about your feelings regarding AI and its use in your class. Set expectations and be realistic.
Talk with students about the importance of authenticity, voice, and ownership of their work. Interrogate the ethics and/or efficacy of AI use.
Build instruction and assessment in such a way that policing (and detecting, accusing, punishing) are not part of your job. It's the worst way for teachers and students to engage about AI.
Avoid antagonism.
Advertise authenticity.
Be frank and open.
Don't waste time (or Kenergy) on policing.
x
Be WEIRD.
WEIR(D): Habits of Mind
Wonder | Keep your mind open and vigilant about AI now and in the future. |
Expect | Things will keep changing! Expect newer, weirder things. Be ready. |
Incline | Try to lean in, with curiosity when possible, rather than out. |
Reflect | Think about your biases and prior beliefs. Self-monitor and adjust. |
(Decline) | Reserve the right to say "no thanks!" But try to do W-E-I-R first. |
x
In Kenclusion
06
What Is Ken?
This is Ken.
But also: this is ken.
x
What Is Ken?
You're just "ken".
x
What Is Ken?
Your Job Is Teach.
x
You are Kenough.