Nice piece, Nick. One of the elements that ties some of the analysis together is how focused so much ed-tech is on individualized experiences. It seems to me the potential for generative AI is in creating social experiences that involve teams of students guided by teachers tackling some problem or situation embedded in an LLM. The focus on the screen is displaced by the human interaction that surrounds it. Young children focus on a caregiver to understand the symbols and contextualize them. The engagement loops are not mediated by algorithms but guided by humans.
The rise of rubbish AI generated material on children's youtube channels highlights a significant risk / ethical dillema. It's not designed to be educational and it's completely nonsensical but it's visual and audio cocaine to a developing mind.
I agree, Michael. This article hit home really hard. It is actually really hard to know where to start in the hard work of pushing through the rubbish when you see how systemically the foundation has been laid out. iPads and cell phones are not our children's friends. The statistics on mental health and academic declines are beyond concerning. Hopefully, our generation will be the one that finally wakes up!
Love the summary on the (lack of thoughtful) integration of AI tools in classrooms and how the upshot seems to be increased engagement, but not necessarily learning. Clearly, they go hand in hand, but sometimes one hand does not know what they other is doing ....
Nice piece, Nick. One of the elements that ties some of the analysis together is how focused so much ed-tech is on individualized experiences. It seems to me the potential for generative AI is in creating social experiences that involve teams of students guided by teachers tackling some problem or situation embedded in an LLM. The focus on the screen is displaced by the human interaction that surrounds it. Young children focus on a caregiver to understand the symbols and contextualize them. The engagement loops are not mediated by algorithms but guided by humans.
The rise of rubbish AI generated material on children's youtube channels highlights a significant risk / ethical dillema. It's not designed to be educational and it's completely nonsensical but it's visual and audio cocaine to a developing mind.
I agree, Michael. This article hit home really hard. It is actually really hard to know where to start in the hard work of pushing through the rubbish when you see how systemically the foundation has been laid out. iPads and cell phones are not our children's friends. The statistics on mental health and academic declines are beyond concerning. Hopefully, our generation will be the one that finally wakes up!
Love the summary on the (lack of thoughtful) integration of AI tools in classrooms and how the upshot seems to be increased engagement, but not necessarily learning. Clearly, they go hand in hand, but sometimes one hand does not know what they other is doing ....
Thanks, Nigel!!!