If you like winter, come to Ohio. It’s winnnnnnter here. I mean it. Cold as bones, and impressively snowy. It’s the kind of winter I thought we’d forgotten how to have.
“Principal Problems” has subscribers all over the world (Hi, Australia!), so while I write this, buried in an awesome snow event, I realize that some of you aren’t seeing this snow at all. You’re perfectly warm. Isn’t that wild, how different it can be? How big the earth is? You see my snow, and raise me a hot summer day. Crazy.
Speaking of which. Last weekend, I was in San Diego. Warm, sunny, and therapeutic. Three of us from my district were there, taking advantage of an opportunity to attend a conference dedicated exclusively to AI in schools. The conference and travel were fully funded by Google (thanks, big G!) and provided a Saturday-and-Sunday sandwich of content about AI. (The “sandwich” is because we skittered off to Coronado in between the daylong sessions).
I’m fatigued by the AI conversation, sure. But the truth is, turning away from it isn’t an option. As one speaker said, “If you’re ignoring AI, or, worse, if you’re forbidding AI, you’re hurting your teachers and your students.”
This risk is real. One attendee, a tech specialist at a private school in the south, said his Board of Trustees is trying to “ban” AI. All the while, students are openly using it, and teachers are secretly using it.
Gulp.
Most of us, though, are trying to get arms around this whole new thing, a thing that has emerged in what feels like four and a half minutes. I applaud the people who aren’t hiding— they’re sticking their heads out and taking a look.
It struck me— sitting there in the conference breakout rooms, listening, thinking, worrying, and wondering— that this is the first time (in, well, ever!) that students “know” as much as their teachers. Teachers used to hold the key— literally, the answer key— to all information. They distributed it in the way, and on the timeline, they saw fit.
Who needs a “Teacher’s Edition” textbook anymore? No one, that’s who. Information is there, at students’ fingertips. Again, literally. Students can use their fingers to type in a search bar and find what they need.
Okay, then. So what do we adults have, then, that students don’t?
Two things: Extensive training and maturity, otherwise known as “experience” and “wisdom.”
Here’s some things I learned this weekend about using our experiences and wisdom—a few tips, if you will, as you navigate the uncertain AI landscape.
“We use AI” is not the same as “We use good AI.” Many ed tech companies are crazed to make money “on AI.” My email inbox is sagging with sales mail from AI vendors. But we should be cautious about buying any “AI Products” unless they are based in strong infrastructure (Google, Microsoft, Amazon come to mind). Many small "AI" startups are actually just "wrappers" (thin layers of software) sitting on top of OpenAI or Google’s tech. If the big company changes its rules, the small one disappears! Let’s buy smart.
We need to be prepared for some “AI deaths.” Companies are going to fold. Mergers will happen. Have you seen the fussing some companies have been doing regarding content scraping? Legal and ethical concerns aside, the AI space is experiencing some aggression and greed and competition. In a competition, someone always loses.
“A.I” doesn’t mean accurate. Chat GPT is confident. Let’s not confuse “confident” with “correct.”
Teacher grading practices are going to need to change. As a teacher, I was skilled at skimming a short answer paragraph for key words. Then I’d mark it as accurate. That’s not an option anymore. We are going to have to do close reads on student answers.
Let’s be aware that AI manipulates us. I listened to a session from the creators of Fortnite who discussed the keys to keeping students engaged— autonomy, competence, and relatedness. AI knows this. It works because it works. On us.
The future is hazy. Who knows where this is all going?
Okay, so there’s one more thing I learned at the conference, and I’d like to dig deeper into it next week. It’s about a mindset shift we—leaders— really need to make as we forge our way into the future. Stay tuned next week and I’ll dive into it.
In the meantime… stay warm if you’re cold, stay cool if you’re warm, and come back next week! And tell your principal friends about this newsletter!
Let’s stay curious,
Jen
P.S. As always, no AI was used in writing this newsletter!
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