In a world of AI, what should schools be teaching students?

I asked this question early on in my AI learning journey.

Almost seven months ago, I used ChatGPT for the first time and my experience doing so left me in awe. After ten hours deeply entrenched in exploration and ‘prompt engineering’, I decided to embark on a learning journey by starting a podcast, where I would invite folks on across the AI and education spectrum to explore the risks, opportunities, and benefits of AI in education.

Early on this journey, I shared my initial thoughts regarding how the educational experience should transform in a world of AI — and my views have largely remained the same.

So…how should schools be teaching students in a world of AI?

In our rapidly evolving world, the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized the way we access and process information. While most of the 20th century was about creation, the 21st century appears to be about curation.

With this unprecedented access to knowledge, here’s what schools should prioritize in a world of AI:

Foundational Knowledge and Essential Skills

While AI provides instant access to vast amounts of information, it is crucial not to overlook the importance of foundational knowledge. Elementary education should continue to prioritize basic reading, writing, comprehension, and arithmetic skills, including percentages and fractions. These skills provide a solid base for further learning and development.

Middle and high school are the tipping points where students often question the practical relevance of their education and likely the biggest opportunity to transform the educational experience.

What do we emphasize in middle + high school?

Often overlooked because they do not fall into a ‘core curriculum’ or standardized exam, critical life skills need to be prioritized like never before in a world with AI.

By critical life skills I mean:

• Critical thinking
• problem solving
• collaboration
• intellectual curiosity — love of learning
• communication/debate across lines of difference
• navigating failure + imposture syndrome
• developing a growth mindset
• self discovery, reflection, and vulnerability

These skills have been critical ingredients for some of the most successful individuals of the pre-AI era and in a post-pandemic, AI world, our students need opportunities to develop these skills.

The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on this generation of students, extending beyond knowledge gaps. Many students have experienced social anxiety and have been deprived of in-person collaboration with their peers during their formative years. Some students transitioned from virtual experiences in middle school to suddenly entering high school, missing critical moments of social and emotional growth.

If you talk with any school leader + educator, they will no doubt talk about how hard it has been to serve students for this reason during the last four years — I know because I talk to them daily.

We need to stop treating the educational experience as business as usual because students/teachers are hurting. By focusing on the life skills I mentioned, it allows schools to address the most critical challenges students are experiencing.

Preparing for an Ever-Changing World

Though knowledge and information is not profilerated at the fastest rate in human history — not all knowledge is good knowledge. Students must also acquire digital responsibility and verification skills, as the proliferation of AI and social media can disseminate false information. Teaching students to critically evaluate sources, question assumptions, and not take things at face value will empower them to navigate the AI-infused world.

So, in a world with AI, how can schools teach these life skills?

It starts with innovation and exposure.

If AI tools allow you to have conversations on certain core subject topics in three hours a day versus six. What could you tackle with the other three hours?

Interdisciplinary, real-life projects which encourage students to look at real problems across our society and leverage AI tools + information to solve them provides an opportunity for students to exercise all of these skills in a self-driven way.

Beyond project based learning, let’s lean into community partnerships and those in our community that want to help and have something to teach — why should learning only happen in the classroom/school building when life is complex and dynamic?

Doubling down on postsecondary planning

I cannot emphasize this enough. Too many students do not have the opportunity in twelve years of education to try new things, think about what they are good at, care about, and are curious about. Too many students know little about the nuanced career landscape that awaits them after high school.

Every single school should provide spaces during instructional time, such as the OneGoal, for students to tackle these questions, so they enter senior year of high school excited about the future, and not apprehensive that someone is going to ask them what they want to major in for the 50th time when they are uncertain.

One thing is for certain

The pandemic did not bring about the type of systematic change that public education needs to undergo to transform the education experience in a rapidly evolving society undergoing the biggest technological revolution of our lifetime.

Schools and districts will need to make the decision on whether they want to prepare students for the world as it was 20 years ago or the world with Artificial Intelligence.

Share your reactions @TheAIEdConvo on twitter