I'm trying to take this all in and I've read hundreds if not thousands of articles including yours. But I still find myself dizzy with all the talk of what is foundational knowledge and skills in an AI world. I'm a high school writing teacher. We are very project learning focused. Students choose their own topics, their own research. They form their own opinions and find sources to negate or agree with their own. Or perhaps to change their minds. When they produce a piece of writing, with or without AI help in revising, they have a metacognitive component, reflecting on their process: what went well, what didn't and why, etc, including AI suggestions they followed or didn't. Much of that seems to fit under critical thinking skills, evaluation, project based learning in an AI world. However, as your article states, AI can narrow and define a research topic, draw on 40 to 50 credible articles, and write, then revise the entire paper, all in the student's voice. I would have thought of that sort of research paper as project based learning with critical evaluation skills, but if AI can do all of it, then why would a student engage in any part of the process other than to initially prompt it and perhaps some interaction, but as you say, AI can write the whole thing in the human voice. So what high school student would have any desire to do anything other than ask it to be written in their voice? I think my struggle is that no one advocating for AI can clearly explain what is foundational knowledge and what are foundational skills and what do they look like in an actual classroom? Because every time I think that is what I'm teaching my students, the next article I read says that AI can do all of that for them so I have to think differently and more creatively because no matter what I ask my students to think about or do, I'm not properly preparing them for the future. Perhaps when they present their TED talks (which AI can write, outline, and prepare them to deliver), and they actually have to speak in front of an audience as a human, I am helping them to become better communicators and presenters, but so far that is about the only thing I can effectively evaluate them on: speaking skills. But really, who will need to be able to speak if a robot can speak for us?
The fact you are concerned shows you care and will continue to evolve as education evolves. I hope the schools can catch up but I do think that my daughters teachers are evolving and I am very happy with their public school education (but they go to a magnet school which emphasizes critical thinking and project based learning).
I am not a teacher I am just a mother who teaches her kids a lot and has an enthusiasm for learning. My lack of expertise take on the situation is that we still need to teach kids to not be afraid of challenge, consolidating thoughts in their head, problem solving. We can only use the means currently available to us so it will not match the future. I think you are doing the absolute correct method. It is up to the kids with their parents help to translate that to a future which is still unknown. It scares me to see people say stop learning this or that because AI can do it. The brain will get stale. Also there is value in confidence. Tackling the challenges you describe builds inner confidence and helps the children find their personal area of interest perhaps future area of expertise. All we can do it use the tools we currently have with a focus more on critical thinking rather than fact memorization.
I'm trying to take this all in and I've read hundreds if not thousands of articles including yours. But I still find myself dizzy with all the talk of what is foundational knowledge and skills in an AI world. I'm a high school writing teacher. We are very project learning focused. Students choose their own topics, their own research. They form their own opinions and find sources to negate or agree with their own. Or perhaps to change their minds. When they produce a piece of writing, with or without AI help in revising, they have a metacognitive component, reflecting on their process: what went well, what didn't and why, etc, including AI suggestions they followed or didn't. Much of that seems to fit under critical thinking skills, evaluation, project based learning in an AI world. However, as your article states, AI can narrow and define a research topic, draw on 40 to 50 credible articles, and write, then revise the entire paper, all in the student's voice. I would have thought of that sort of research paper as project based learning with critical evaluation skills, but if AI can do all of it, then why would a student engage in any part of the process other than to initially prompt it and perhaps some interaction, but as you say, AI can write the whole thing in the human voice. So what high school student would have any desire to do anything other than ask it to be written in their voice? I think my struggle is that no one advocating for AI can clearly explain what is foundational knowledge and what are foundational skills and what do they look like in an actual classroom? Because every time I think that is what I'm teaching my students, the next article I read says that AI can do all of that for them so I have to think differently and more creatively because no matter what I ask my students to think about or do, I'm not properly preparing them for the future. Perhaps when they present their TED talks (which AI can write, outline, and prepare them to deliver), and they actually have to speak in front of an audience as a human, I am helping them to become better communicators and presenters, but so far that is about the only thing I can effectively evaluate them on: speaking skills. But really, who will need to be able to speak if a robot can speak for us?
The fact you are concerned shows you care and will continue to evolve as education evolves. I hope the schools can catch up but I do think that my daughters teachers are evolving and I am very happy with their public school education (but they go to a magnet school which emphasizes critical thinking and project based learning).
I am not a teacher I am just a mother who teaches her kids a lot and has an enthusiasm for learning. My lack of expertise take on the situation is that we still need to teach kids to not be afraid of challenge, consolidating thoughts in their head, problem solving. We can only use the means currently available to us so it will not match the future. I think you are doing the absolute correct method. It is up to the kids with their parents help to translate that to a future which is still unknown. It scares me to see people say stop learning this or that because AI can do it. The brain will get stale. Also there is value in confidence. Tackling the challenges you describe builds inner confidence and helps the children find their personal area of interest perhaps future area of expertise. All we can do it use the tools we currently have with a focus more on critical thinking rather than fact memorization.
Great read! Very insightful.