What 200 Students Taught Me About AI In Schools

Source Domain: www.civilbeat.org

In December, I sat in a crowded ballroom in Houston with over 200 students from 39 schools across 19 states. We had been brought together by the Close Up Foundation and Stanford University’s Deliberative Democracy Lab to do something different: discuss, as peers, about the future of artificial intelligence in schools and society.

I was interested in this program because I am someone who values the human voice, history, ethics, and the humanities. We heard from experts in education, technology, ethics, and public policy.

Through this process, we talked and disagreed, though ultimately, we worked toward a consensus.

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I walked in thinking AI was mostly used for academic dishonesty and students shortcutting the education process. I walked out understanding it as something far more complex. It was a question about cognitive development, educational equity, and what we actually want schools to accomplish.

Perhaps the most surprising thing is that the students in that room, from various different schools and states, all arrived at surprisingly similar conclusions. The consensus was not that AI should be banned forever or embraced unilaterally. It was the realization that most schools are skipping an important step.

They are handing students powerful AI tools, like ChatGPT and Gemini, before those students have built the foundational critical thinking skills that make AI an accelerant to learning rather than a hindrance.

(Wikimedia/Dall-e 3/2024)