Why AI Hasn’t Transformed Math Instruction (and Probably Won’t) (Opinion)
Why AI Hasn’t Transformed Math Instruction (and Probably Won’t) (Opinion)
Publish Date: 2026-03-03 06:01:00
Source Domain: www.edweek.org
There’s extraordinary interest in AI, fueled by waves of enthusiastic declarations that “everything is about to change.” Dan Meyer, the vice president at Amplify, is skeptical of such claims. Meyer, who’s charged with overseeing how Amplify’s curricular and technology offerings work for students and teachers, was previously the chief academic officer at the learning platform Desmos. A former math teacher, he’s got a doctorate from Stanford in math education and can be found discussing math instruction on CNN, Good Morning America, and TED.com. After a recent AEI debate where he raised big questions about classroom AI, I was curious to hear more. Here’s what he had to say.
—Rick
Rick: You’ve been working at the intersection of math and digital technology for a long time. What have you learned?
Dan: Most digital education tools were designed for two purposes: distributing information and evaluating understanding. Over the last decade, I think we have seen the limits of those tools. Laurence Holt found that they work well for the 5% of kids who use them as intended. But there are other purposes for technology in classrooms. Kids love to be creative and connect socially with each other. Digital tools are great for both purposes. Rather than submitting answers to a machine for judgment, students can use technology to create sketches, explanations, estimates, graphs, and math art and share them with each other to benefit everyone’s engagement and learning. In short, if kids seem disengaged when they’re learning with computers, it is likely because adults have programmed the computers to do boring things. We can program them to do interesting things instead.
Rick: How has AI changed how curriculum providers work with teachers and schools?
Dan: I have a conflict of interest here, but I think the sloppy, incoherent nature of AI-generated lesson materials is a great advertisement for materials developed by teams like Amplify—people who are skillful,…
