The BIGGEST Threat to AI in Education
While much of the dialogue on AI in education has evolved from cheating and AI detectors (somewhat) to conversations around AI Ethics and student privacy concerns, Winston Roberts, aka the Teacher in a Suit, is focused on the BIGGEST threat to AI in Education.
As a financial literacy teacher educating middle school students in New Jersey and an AI Consultant, Winston shares a compelling perspective on how we might be losing sight of our biggest threat due to short term concerns about ethics and privacy.
Winston believes our focus needs to be on…equitable access to AI in Education. In other words, preventing AI haves and have nots.
Winston and I go on quite the journey, from examining the workforce landscape, talking about our children, why AI access should be our single biggest concern, and rightsizing where his line is on who should and should not be using AI.
Here’s my top takeaways from our conversation:
Teaching Generation Alpha requires practicality and authenticity
Gone are the days of conceptual math sessions if you want kids to actually care. Winston shares a compelling narrative for why practicality in lessons, such as teaching mathematics in the context of financial literacy and using real life examples is critical for engagement and preparing our students for life after high school
AI is going to continue disrupting jobs, like technology advancements have done to jobs historically
While prior generations could leverage a pathway of graduating from high school and entering a profitable manufacturing job, like Winston shares of his family’s prior experience working in the auto plants in Michigan, these realities have become disrupted. The future for this generation and how they should be positioning themselves is murky but one thing appears certain — it will likely include AI.
Access should be our highest priority on AI in education
While we debate issues around AI ethics or privacy, Winston and I both came to a shared alignment that a chasm between affluent communities and underserved communities around AI usage is continuing to grow. Will we allow a world of AI haves and have nots to be created? Will AI become a new level of educational inequity?
Students at most levels should be using AI, not just talking about it
While so many educator spaces continue to fixate on cheating concerns and privacy, AI creates a real opportunity to create conversations and activities with students that empower them to dream big — do they want to solve global warming? Become a NY times bestseller? Many students are already highly proficient at leveraging AI and as such, Winston believes students should be using AI in all grades, minus k-5 where the focus should be reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Massive thank you to Winston Roberts for sharing his expertise. Subscribe to Winston’s channel: Teacher in a Suit on youtube.
Check out our full conversation here.
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