This article was originally published in the Reading Eagle:
https://www.readingeagle.com/2023/12/07/superintendents-forum-artificial-intelligence-as-a-tool-for-learning/
By: Dr. Richard Mextorf, Hamburg Area School District
Thursday, December 7, 2023
I learned to drive in a 1974 Ford Pinto. For those of you old enough to remember, that was the one with the exploding gas tank. It was a standard shift with no power steering or power brakes. Dad made us learn on a standard shift car so we would always have that skill. The radio was AM only and the windows were manual.
I used a key to open the door and start the car, the high-beam switch was on the floor, and the maps were in the glove box. Dad and I practiced three-point turns and parallel parking every time we went out. You needed those skills to pass the test to qualify for a driver’s license.
Much has changed in the last 50 years. I haven’t driven a standard shift since the 1980s. The steering and brakes in modern cars are powered. We’ve gone from AM radio through AM/FM, eight-track players, cassette players and CD players, to music being streamed into our cars through our phones.
The high beams have been moved to the steering column, and the maps in the glove box have been replaced by the navigation system on my phone. The cars today will even parallel park for you. Can the automatic three-point turn be far behind? Driverless cars? Who knows what the future will hold?
This isn’t meant to be a “when I was your age story.” It is an example of how things evolve and how technological advances have improved, in this case, the quality of the driving experience. You would be hard-pressed to find someone (classic car collectors notwithstanding) who would choose the amenities in the 1974 Ford Pinto over the modern conveniences of today’s vehicles. If a technological advancement makes our lives easier and/or better, we take advantage of it.
When we think of artificial intelligence, we tend to let our minds wander toward an Orwellian dystopia ruled by our robot overlords. History teaches us that new technology has always been viewed with skepticism. There was concern that people would become overly educated with the advent of the printing press. The cotton gin, the standardization of the loom, and the advent of the automobile are just a few examples of world-changing technologies that were initially met with resistance. In all these examples we did what humans do. We adapted.
We will do the same with AI. It’s a scary proposition to think of what a computer can do these days. But if we harness its potential, it can be used to make our work lives easier and more productive. In schools, we can use AI to ask better, deeper questions of our students. We can move past the cursory information that focuses on memorizing names and dates and probe the deeper reasons behind developments in history, science, math, language, and the arts.
The emergence of the Internet and social media has taught us that the digital world can be a cesspool of misinformation and narrow-minded thinking, or it can be a tool for connection, collaboration, sharing, and deeper learning.
Teachers are bright, creative people. Given the support, time, and resources, they will use AI to give our kids a deeper, richer learning experience.
Let’s not be afraid of AI. Let’s use the lessons learned from the Internet/social media explosion to shape AI into a tool to transform learning and prepare our kids for a future that will see even bigger changes in the next 50 years.