I also enjoyed reading this, and it gave me a lot to consider. Teachers in Austria and elsewhere have widely different comfort levels and experiences with various technologies, and you covered many scenarios.
One part that stuck out was the “hallucination” issue. I tend to agree with Jordan Peterson and some philosophers that exact facts aren’t as important as the feeling/story/moral we get from learning. As a concrete example, predating mass AI, an English textbook for Austria contained some laughably inaccurate information on a reading sample about South Africa. It was clearly just whoever wrote it patching together ideas about how racism was bad, and stitching these ideas together in a way that made sense to someone who only has a vague idea about the topic. (Like if you were to read in a German textbook that National Socialism began in the 1800s to stop Turkish guest workers from stealing auto factory jobs in Graz, you would think WTF is this nonsense?) So personally, I would trust AI more than humanity, because I’ve seen enough examples like this. But yes, comparing side by side and keeping a wary eye out is important.
Thanks for sharing your workshop approach with K-12 teachers! I mostly work with college teachers, but all of this still pertains: the gentle introduction, hands-on encouragement, learning with students, and connecting with colleagues. I appreciate how you take teachers' anxieties and concerns seriously! They didn't ask for this, but have to respond.
I wrote one last week about the latest studies on how students use AI... and after I read your take on AI in education, it further solidified how AI usage is tilted towards STEM, especially CS subjects, compared to all else.
(I suppose the teachers you spoke to aren't from CS and a few of them are from STEM... so correct me if I'm mistaken)
Especially one of the comments I received on Medium was that teachers/ professors use AI much more than students themselves, in tasks like grading homework, writing papers, and annual reviews for students...
I wonder if this imbalance in AI usage will create inequality, or if this will just be the same as when people adopt computers or the internet... That said, we already see many poor families or remote areas have no access to the internet...
It'd be great to hear more of your take on comparing both worlds!
I really enjoyed reading this, Alicia! As someone who’s also actively involved in equipping education stakeholders with the digital literacy needed to thrive in the 4IR, I can say I’ve experienced 99.9% of what you described in this post.
In the latest training session I organized, there were actually more AI skeptics at the start than I expected. But by the end, it was clear that skepticism doesn’t prevent curiosity, every participant became a proud advocate for the responsible use of AI in the classroom.
I truly believe that most educators are curious about using generative AI in their classrooms at different levels; it’s just the lack of proper support systems that makes the whole learning (and unlearning) journey feel overwhelming or not worth the effort.
You're doing exactly what's needed, and I applaud you for that! Keep it up!
I concur with a lot of this as someone who has done some professional development for teachers. That said, I have limited sympathy for a teacher who is incapable of navigating a Google account - where have these folks been? If the pandemic didn’t jumpstart your comfort level with technology, what happened? And if you started teaching since then, you should be young enough to figure this out. But I agree that the landscape has not been easy to traverse. But for the naysayers, you’d better start. We are in the midst of a knowledge revolution.
Arbeitet ihr auch mit Fobizz und FelloFish in Österreich? Meine SuS und ich lieben die 2 Plattformen (ihre Eltern auch, am Wochenende 😉). Danke für das Teilen Alicia!
Ich bin wieder angefragt worden, ich soll meine Klassenarbeit mit KI-Unterstützung (Deutsch, 6. Klasse, sachlicher Brief) vorstellen. Auf LinkedIN habe ich einige Beiträge dazu verfasst, letzte Woche
I also enjoyed reading this, and it gave me a lot to consider. Teachers in Austria and elsewhere have widely different comfort levels and experiences with various technologies, and you covered many scenarios.
One part that stuck out was the “hallucination” issue. I tend to agree with Jordan Peterson and some philosophers that exact facts aren’t as important as the feeling/story/moral we get from learning. As a concrete example, predating mass AI, an English textbook for Austria contained some laughably inaccurate information on a reading sample about South Africa. It was clearly just whoever wrote it patching together ideas about how racism was bad, and stitching these ideas together in a way that made sense to someone who only has a vague idea about the topic. (Like if you were to read in a German textbook that National Socialism began in the 1800s to stop Turkish guest workers from stealing auto factory jobs in Graz, you would think WTF is this nonsense?) So personally, I would trust AI more than humanity, because I’ve seen enough examples like this. But yes, comparing side by side and keeping a wary eye out is important.
Thanks for sharing your workshop approach with K-12 teachers! I mostly work with college teachers, but all of this still pertains: the gentle introduction, hands-on encouragement, learning with students, and connecting with colleagues. I appreciate how you take teachers' anxieties and concerns seriously! They didn't ask for this, but have to respond.
Thanks so much for sharing this Alicia!
I wrote one last week about the latest studies on how students use AI... and after I read your take on AI in education, it further solidified how AI usage is tilted towards STEM, especially CS subjects, compared to all else.
(I suppose the teachers you spoke to aren't from CS and a few of them are from STEM... so correct me if I'm mistaken)
Especially one of the comments I received on Medium was that teachers/ professors use AI much more than students themselves, in tasks like grading homework, writing papers, and annual reviews for students...
I wonder if this imbalance in AI usage will create inequality, or if this will just be the same as when people adopt computers or the internet... That said, we already see many poor families or remote areas have no access to the internet...
It'd be great to hear more of your take on comparing both worlds!
I really enjoyed reading this, Alicia! As someone who’s also actively involved in equipping education stakeholders with the digital literacy needed to thrive in the 4IR, I can say I’ve experienced 99.9% of what you described in this post.
In the latest training session I organized, there were actually more AI skeptics at the start than I expected. But by the end, it was clear that skepticism doesn’t prevent curiosity, every participant became a proud advocate for the responsible use of AI in the classroom.
I truly believe that most educators are curious about using generative AI in their classrooms at different levels; it’s just the lack of proper support systems that makes the whole learning (and unlearning) journey feel overwhelming or not worth the effort.
You're doing exactly what's needed, and I applaud you for that! Keep it up!
Thanks so much for taking the time to comment. Interesting that we see this in many places.
I concur with a lot of this as someone who has done some professional development for teachers. That said, I have limited sympathy for a teacher who is incapable of navigating a Google account - where have these folks been? If the pandemic didn’t jumpstart your comfort level with technology, what happened? And if you started teaching since then, you should be young enough to figure this out. But I agree that the landscape has not been easy to traverse. But for the naysayers, you’d better start. We are in the midst of a knowledge revolution.
Arbeitet ihr auch mit Fobizz und FelloFish in Österreich? Meine SuS und ich lieben die 2 Plattformen (ihre Eltern auch, am Wochenende 😉). Danke für das Teilen Alicia!
Ich bin wieder angefragt worden, ich soll meine Klassenarbeit mit KI-Unterstützung (Deutsch, 6. Klasse, sachlicher Brief) vorstellen. Auf LinkedIN habe ich einige Beiträge dazu verfasst, letzte Woche
Danke Isabel. Ich kenn Fobizz gut. Hatten eine Testlizenz. Fellofish nicht weil es etwas kostet.
Machst du auch FoBis?
FelloFish kannst du auch testen
Yes! May I recommend my most recent piece that touched on this? Let me know your thoughts after reading it!
https://nickthelightkeeper.substack.com/p/rage-against-the-machine-teaching?r=5kbbdx