The Case for an Innovation Academy (IA) in Every School by September 2024

System-wide change in education is hard, but not when you start with a limited but scaleable approaches.

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TLDR

*The IA is based on the urgent need to integrate AI into the curriculum but attempts to do so in a way that is practical given the constraints schools operate under.
*System-wide change in education is hard and will struggle, at best, to account for major changes that are coming in society, such as AI agents that can make their own autonomous decisions and take autonomous actions that are being rolled out in 2024.
*”Pilot-style” approaches such as the one identified here can be implemented and developed in a way that infuses relevant instruction in AI across the entire curricula, laying the foundations for scaling across entire districts in 2025.
*We need to start moving from talk to action. Educators, policymakers, and everyone with an interest in the future of work has a decision to make: They can either continue supporting an education system that teaches students to think in ways that AI can do better, or they can decide to reform education to prepare students for the not-to-distant world of the future.” A NYC high school student.
*An Innovation Academy will improve as it goes, just as AI will improve its spelling in photos :).

Making Changes in Education is Hard

Brian Rosenberg wrote a book about this at the university level. Tim Dasey wrote a LinkedIn post about it that includes K-12, pointing out that “often there are years spent thinking about how to change.” Recently, I read an article that explained how changes a NY State Commission agreed on (which are awesome, BTW) would take three years to implement and that implementation may fail because the people who drew them up may first retire, leaving us with the status quo.

On the other hand, Andrew Ng recently said AI founders are moving as fast as possible, and in some instances, faster than anyone previously thought possible. Until now, it didn’t matter that much: the world changed a lot, education changed a little, and we all got by. But now, this AI-driven change impacts all of our assessments and presents an alternative way for students to be taught, so even if we want to ignore how we need to help students prepare for this world (students need more durable skills, students need AI skills, AI skills help level the playing field), we can’t just keep ignoring it.

Of course, there are still some schools that won’t change. Some don’t like AI, some feel it’s hopeless to try to keep up (I don’t recommend approaching things that way), and others don’t realize the significance of AI-related technologies. I spoke to a teacher today whose headmaster told him the school had other priorities now and that maybe they’d work on AI in a few years….

But what can schools that want to change do? 

Their hands are tied to some degree, with requirements that students do well on some standardized tests that may assess things that no longer have relevance when everyone has access to cheap (super) intelligence 24/7.

And the reality is that some districts are so large that instituting meaningful change in a short period comes up against a lot of structural realities, from funding to resistance to training to just existing norms regarding the pace of change.

To help move the ball forward a bit, I've been kicking around this idea of an "AI Innovation Academy" that could be housed within a school district or a school. It’s premised on realism about the fact that unless schools began aggressive efforts in the fall of 2023, system-wide change isn’t coming in the fall of 2024.  But this could get things started in the fall of 2024, even in a world where systemic, district- or school-wide change doesn’t seem possible, and lay the foundation for possibly real change by the fall of 2025. 

Why Change Needs to Start Now

At a minimum, by the fall of 2025 (most say by the end of 2024), our computers and networks will be filled with very intelligent AI agents that can act autonomously, including making their own decisions to act and do a lot of knowledge work. We’ll likely see the use of robots in constrained environments (warehouses, manufacturing plants), and we’ll have augmented-reality tutors that don’t hallucinate. Of course, these abilities will be combined, so we’ll have both robotic agents and immersive AR agent tutors that can act on their own. The large language models we see in our current AIs are just the beginning.

If schools don’t change by then, things will get strange. I’d prefer a world where human teachers work with AIs and students to prepare, not where the students start to rely on the AIs exclusively. If we want human-led education in an AI-world, we have to lead it. This Microsoft Superbowl commercial demonstrates the emerging role of AI in providing support to our learners "anywhere, at any time, on any device.” Think of the current AIs as toy trucks that you push with your feet as a kid. Think of our first agents as Tesla Level 2+ cars and Microsoft Copilos+ that can do a lot on their own with some human guidance.

Schools cannot wait forever, or even three years. AI is already having major impacts on jobs and society, which students need to be prepared for. Countries like Estonia and city-states such as Singapore are acting quickly to update curriculums and skill up students early with immersive AI education. If US schools do not follow suit, students will lag behind their global peers in technological fluency. Implementing real-world AI projects allows students to gain practical experience while sparking additional innovation and interest.

The Mechanics

This is basically how I conceive it.

The Innovation Academy (IA) is, at a minimum, a year-long elective but functions in a unique way.

1. Standard curriculum integration. A single large lesson/project should be developed for each major course in the regular curriculum. Examples include lessons on deflation and job transitions (economics), human-AI interaction (psychology), societal transformations during the Industrial Revolution and how those compare to AI (history), AI surveillance and totalitarianism while reading 1984 (English), and deep fakes (politics).  All of these lessons integrate knowledge from the standard curriculum students have to learn, but tie learning about AI into that.  AI will transform every part of society, so this should be easy to do. If teachers wanted to, they could teach said lesson to their whole class, but everyone wouldn’t be supportive of that, so the idea would be to allow students in the AI innovation academy to substitute one lesson in their core courses with one of these lessons.

If some teachers resist too much, you could ask the teachers to allow it for extra credit.

These lessons would have to be very well developed and contain extensive guides for teachers on how to implement them, but the IA starts with a limited number of lessons, so this is possible.

Where will you get these projects? You could develop them with your curriculum and instruction development teams, or teachers who are interested, and/or you could have them developed for you by outside consultants.

2. Students develop AI literacy. Students would learn about the history of AI, how it is and will change society, how they are starting to use it, whether they realize it or not, and how it is impacting what they need to learn to thrive. 

Where will you get this curriculum? Some literacy curricula are starting to emerge. The one I’m working on with some amazing folks is the best :) and it will be out in May. Minimal training will be needed as it (at least the one I’m working on) is designed for collaborative teaching and learning between students, teachers, and AI assistants. Individuals can learn as they go and make their unique contributions to the learning environment.

3. Students use a certain number of AI tools to complete a certain number of projects. I’m thinking of basic text, image, and video generation-style projects that solve problems. Students could pick any problem, but they might be encouraged to use AI to address social issues, like designing AI tools for accessibility for the disabled, creating predictive models for community health, or developing apps to support mental health,

4. Students build a bot that will tackle a problem they have and make them better. The focus of the instruction will be on building a bot they can use to make themselves better, not replacing work that they already do. They should be able to build this as an agent.

5.  Students teach other students about what they learned.

6.  Students teach some other teachers about AI.

7.  The IA learning and assignments are infused with authentic learning approaches: debate, simulations, project-based learning, entrepreneurship, etc. A New York City high school student recently nailed the significance of these approaches:  

"(S)tudents are told to act like robots and simply spit back information on exams...Ironically, AI is, of course, much better at being a robot than a typical student is; systems like ChatGPT can access and spit back large swaths of information better than any person. Thus, it is no surprise that GPT-4 clocks high scores on the bar exam, SAT and multiple AP exams, including a 5 (the highest possible score) on AP Psychology. These results show that the modern student is susceptible to AI takeover. If educators wish to effectively prevent AI from entering classrooms, they must reimagine the way students are taught...While project-based learning may help lift standardized test scores, its real power lies in improving problem-solving and critical-thinking skills. These skills are vital for current students who are preparing for a world with AI. According to one report, AI could eventually replace 300 million full-time jobs worldwide. The jobs that AI is currently unlikely to be able to replace are the ones that require problem-solving and critical thinking, as well as those that require complex communication, decision-making, creativity and emotional intelligence."

Educators, policymakers and everyone with an interest in the future of work has a decision to make: They can either continue supporting an education system that teaches students to think in ways that AI can clearly do better, or they can decide to reform education to prepare students for the not-to-distant world of the future.

8.  The 5Cs should drive the instruction and how students are assessed [this can be done by people and AIs]

In our report, we focus on how students can be supported with AI to develop and extend these practical skills.

9. Students could do field study where they have an assigned business they collaborate with, perhaps as a part of a cohort of students to design their AI transformation.

10. Students end with amazing portfolios of their work.  Students could present their work in different forums: school boards (internal and external); education conferences; local employers; and community events. This would help build awareness of the district’s efforts, raise awareness of AI in the community, and inspire others.

Again, I strongly believe that any teacher who is willing to learn could collaboratively teach this course with a bot companion. Districts could, perhaps, provide a training stipend to teachers who teach the course, and they would be incentivized to participate as their skill set grows.

The Practical Benefits

1. It’s achievable. Even a very large district could implement something like this on a limited scale.  And, in fact, implementing it on a limited scale may produce a higher quality product both in the short-term and the long-term.

2. Districts would learn a lot from the participants while getting the program started.

3. Teachers teaching “core courses” will be exposed to AI without having to worry about teaching about or with it.

4. Awareness about AI will grow throughout the district.

5. More and more teachers will want their classes to be toggled “21C” (see below). This will encourage them to make adaptations over the 24-5 school year.  Once all courses are toggled "21C," you could make the case that your district is AI-ready.

6. It introduces a new model for teaching. While optional, it introduces the model of teachers working alongside students and AIs to learn and teach. 

7. It provides a way for the district to scale up AI literacy instruction for students and teachers over time. It seeds knowledge in the district.

8. It creates the foundations for some type of badging or certificate system.

Could the Innovation Academy be more than one course?

Yes, I think you could include other related courses, such as any computer science course, a VR course, robotics club participation, etc. If students completed a certain number of credits from courses that are toggled “21C” or something, then perhaps they could receive a certificate at graduation.

Does it have to be limited to technology courses?

No, it can include debate, entrepreneurship, etc.

What are the skills most in demand by employers? Critical thinking, communication, and (generative) AI. All of these fit into the IA.  

Once administrators determine that certain courses are “AI-ready,” then they get toggle 21C, and students have more options. This could put a little more pressure on teachers to up their AI game.   

Just the Beginning

I’m sure some will criticize this for not being enough. They may have issues with my photo, arguing that we shouldn’t put AI in an old school house and that all courses should be tagged 21C.

Sure, but that just isn’t going to happen. What will most likely happen if we don’t start small in most instances is this –

But with appropriate efforts, you can think of the first photo as a bridge to the future.

And its first launch will not be perfect. While refinements may be needed, our students cannot afford to wait until all details are perfected. The speed of progress demands quick, proactive efforts like the framework laid out here that provide students with advanced exposure now when it matters most. With thoughtful implementation, it can put your district out front in terms of hands-on AI readiness.

Conclusion

The Innovation Academy (IA) concept presents a multifaceted approach to integrating AI into the educational curriculum, aiming to prepare students for a future where AI plays a significant role in various aspects of society. This initiative encompasses curriculum integration, AI literacy, practical application through AI tools and projects, bot building, teacher training, authentic learning approaches, and practical benefits. Each component contributes to a comprehensive educational experience designed to enhance students' understanding and application of AI. 

Implementing the Innovation Academy on a limited scale also offers numerous practical benefits. It provides a model for how AI can be integrated into education in a meaningful way, fostering a culture of innovation and continuous learning among students and educators alike. As awareness and understanding of AI grow within the school district, more teachers and students are likely to embrace AI-enhanced learning, leading to a more technologically adept and prepared workforce and providing the foundations for scaling.

I think it’s something incredible that schools could actually do.