Education As An Incubator For Innovation
You may be thinking this is yet another posting about innovation in education. There are plenty, too many, things written about innovation in education. Most of them, quite frankly, are out of context at best or irrelevant at worst. So this posting is not what you think it is. Before I get started, I want to provide a contextual definition of innovation related to this post. I am defining innovation as: A creative thought process used to generate new ideas and solutions to problems or challenges that is divergent from traditional or existing thought patterns AND practices. Then operationalizing those ideas into tangible action, which yields a definitive AND different result/experience. To simplify, an experience that is new and different, not simply new.
To further share this in context, many people would think the iPhone was innovative. It actually was, but it was not the first mobile phone, therefore not “new.” It did provide a completely new and different experience. So how does this connect to the purpose of this posting and the title? Education, sadly, tends to remain stagnant when it comes to things like innovation in this context. If you really consider how we are taught, the ways we are taught, and how we are assessed, how much has really changed over the past 50 years? For me, the additional and sometimes essential question is, why is there such a definitive intent to “do things the way we have always done them” at the expense of meaningful, relevant learning and true innovation? I can recall quite easily how often I was told in my math classes “No” when I asked if I could use a calculator. Remember long division? In fact, what I was often told was the following, “No, you may not use a calculator in class. Are you going to have a calculator with you at all times when you grow up?” (See iPhone above). I can also recall during my classroom teaching days when I would hear comments about not letting students look up things on Google. I can even hear it clearly now, “Why would I let the students use Google since all they will do is look up the answers!!”
This leads me to the fervor and zeitgeist around Artificial Intelligence. By now, you have likely heard of Chat GPT by Open AI, the artificial intelligence writing assistant. I find it ironically called a “writing assistant.” It has become such a popular topic to discuss you now have people staking claim to a position on it. You have some that believe it is the End of High School English. You also have others that believe it is Not The End of High School English, and it won’t make Writing Instruction Obselete. You have entire Twitter threads devoted to all the cool ways it can be used, and so on. I have even seen an article that says ChatGPT will be the calculator for writing. The good thing here is the increase in dialogue around this platform. The bad thing is that many school districts are defaulting to blocking it rather than looking at how it may actually be helpful, see Google (research and information) reference above. I bring this up because the talk really should be more focused on what is happening in school that is leading to the development of these platforms, or at least their applicational uses in school. Are learning environments that predictable, rote, automated, algorithmic, and repetitious that somebody or some entity would be able to develop a mechanism to do that automation for us? I am looking at you the infamous but often used 5 Paragraph essay (Idea, Supporting Details, conclusion, write and repeat). See that math reference above, there is a reason apps like Photomath exist, and they even accounted for the always popular demand of “show your work/steps in how you derived the answer.” By the way, I should include that artificial intelligence platforms are doing more copywriting, blog posting, social media posting, lesson planning, job applications and much much more than most even know. Looking at CNET, as Exhibit 1 of many. But then CNET responds.
Here’s my thing, the conversations around platforms like Chat GPT need to take place. Artificial Intelligence is not going away, and it has been around for longer than people think. How do you think Google Translate works? Practice language skills with Duolingo? Ever used Wolfram Alpha? The list is quite extensive. The conversations that should be taking place are examining the positives and negatives. Is it ethical to use a platform like Lensa to replicate an artistic version of ourselves in different representations? Is computer-generated art “real art?” What large data sets are being used (there are already concerns and potential litigation) along with the coded algorithms to determine the results? Who is doing the coding? What is being prioritized in the code (check out this Tik Tok)? As Cathy O’Neil brilliantly puts it, “algorithms are opinions embedded in code; they automate the status quo.” Think about that quote and now apply that as your thought basis when considering the platforms developed and the impact on education. Another area to consider is data privacy. What are you giving up in order to get that result? I find this part interesting since one of my favorite oxymorons is “internet privacy.” Hmm, I wonder if one of the AI platforms could write that figurative text?
My concluding point and thinking prompt here is that it’s not going away; in fact, it is expanding, so maybe we need to be asking different questions. Do technology companies have strong ethics policies around the use of artificial intelligence? Is there any oversight at all? Is there a demand, or are they creating demand? Would using something like Chat GPT in school be cheating, or is it similar to a cheat code in a video game? I still need to know how to play the actual game despite using a code that gives me some type of advantage.
Note: this post was not generated by or copied from Chat GPT or any other Artificial Intelligence writing platform. Although I did initially consider it as a potential starting point. H/T Finding Forrester
