Even as a high school teacher I agree with what has been said here. At my level I tend to frame this as how we as teachers need to move into a post-tool space. In earlier years the emphasis was on how we as professionals can use AI as a tool to help us differing our curriculum, create additional scaffolds, and buoy ourselves in a sea of bureaucratic paperwork to prove we are good at our job. Now some of us have fought hard to find ways to build agency and awareness in our students as they try to navigate AI as a tool. Next, this work is growing from teacher to teacher as we try to spread AI literacy and think carefully about where we need students to be AI-free as they build domain knowledge necessary for discernment. But what systems are in place to build this kind of durable ed reform through teacher growth? We need a movement, we need leaders, we need edpunk spirit! Where is our Pablo Freire? How can we grow a movement?
This is all true but will require a level of coordination and institutional trust that, unfortunately, does not seem to exist at the current moment at the college level. Most of the college students I talk to encounter a significant number of professors who are just philosophically, ethically, and morally opposed to the technology. That makes what you describe an extremely heavy lift. I don’t think higher ed will seriously grapple with the challenges of AI until it has a direct and demonstrable effect on their bottom line.
I agree that in many places across higher ed and the country at large, trust has been significantly reduce (if it exists at all). I hear you about the bottom line--I think though by the time that happens directly to faculty, we will have already hit the iceberg...
As always, such a helpful and well-written piece! I may offer this as highly recommended pre-reading before convening this summer's cohort of our community of practice in a few weeks. I recognize the challenge others bring up about needing institutional coordination, but I think individual faculty, departments, teams, and units have power and agency too. We don't have to wait for formal institutional coordination or a top-down mandate to start coordinating. It's more an issue of what we have energy and time for...
thank you so much Hannah! Yeah, I think acting sooner than later is going to be really important at this point...we can chat as some of the external work I've been doing lately is helping foster the dept conversations so I might have some tips/insights/considerations for you!
Even as a high school teacher I agree with what has been said here. At my level I tend to frame this as how we as teachers need to move into a post-tool space. In earlier years the emphasis was on how we as professionals can use AI as a tool to help us differing our curriculum, create additional scaffolds, and buoy ourselves in a sea of bureaucratic paperwork to prove we are good at our job. Now some of us have fought hard to find ways to build agency and awareness in our students as they try to navigate AI as a tool. Next, this work is growing from teacher to teacher as we try to spread AI literacy and think carefully about where we need students to be AI-free as they build domain knowledge necessary for discernment. But what systems are in place to build this kind of durable ed reform through teacher growth? We need a movement, we need leaders, we need edpunk spirit! Where is our Pablo Freire? How can we grow a movement?
Great article, let’s get to work in exactly this way, in collaboration with our students and our employers to reimagine our curriculum.
This is all true but will require a level of coordination and institutional trust that, unfortunately, does not seem to exist at the current moment at the college level. Most of the college students I talk to encounter a significant number of professors who are just philosophically, ethically, and morally opposed to the technology. That makes what you describe an extremely heavy lift. I don’t think higher ed will seriously grapple with the challenges of AI until it has a direct and demonstrable effect on their bottom line.
Hi Stephen,
I agree that in many places across higher ed and the country at large, trust has been significantly reduce (if it exists at all). I hear you about the bottom line--I think though by the time that happens directly to faculty, we will have already hit the iceberg...
As always, such a helpful and well-written piece! I may offer this as highly recommended pre-reading before convening this summer's cohort of our community of practice in a few weeks. I recognize the challenge others bring up about needing institutional coordination, but I think individual faculty, departments, teams, and units have power and agency too. We don't have to wait for formal institutional coordination or a top-down mandate to start coordinating. It's more an issue of what we have energy and time for...
thank you so much Hannah! Yeah, I think acting sooner than later is going to be really important at this point...we can chat as some of the external work I've been doing lately is helping foster the dept conversations so I might have some tips/insights/considerations for you!