First, it was the basic calculator completing simple math expressions. Then came the scientific calculator capable of figuring logarithms, exponential functions, and graphing. Next up the computer brought with it advances in spelling corrections, sentence structure, and access to others' content. Apps evolved that could suggest revisions, complete citations, check for plagiarism, and answer complex math problems while showing the steps. Now, we have the GTP3-AI. Artificial intelligence can now produce human-like text with very little input from a human.
What does this mean for education and for learning? Teachers are facing an ongoing battle with technology, and it is not one they are going to win nor is there an end to it in sight. Advancements in technology and things like AI will simply become the greyhound chasing the rabbit around the racetrack. Education will never catch that rabbit.
How do we embrace changes in technology while preserving the integrity of learning when it is increasingly difficult to differentiate between what is machine-generated or human-created? This leads one to think: Teach the kids right from wrong. Instill in them a moral compass that will make them WANT to learn rather than take the easy road of having a machine generate the learning outcomes for them. Students should want to be valued for what they know and how they know it; not by how quickly they found and used an application to demonstrate content. Whose responsibility is this? Education has long fought a war with many battles over whose responsibility moral behavior instruction is; much less by which moral compass should that instruction should be centered.
So, here we are. Beyond the cusp of another technological breakthrough that will create crater-size impacts in our educational system. And, quite frankly, the education system is not ready to address this. From the devasting drops in reading and math achievement evidenced in NAEP scores this year, to the continuing uphill climb to recover from the pandemic which thrust schools, parents, and students into a virtual learning environment unprepared and ill-equipped, it seems as though as a country we have shrugged our shoulders and turned a blind eye to education and have left our teachers unsupported and our students floundering.
What will it take for us to come together, to collaborate, to brainstorm, to embrace our challenges and our failures, find a path forward, and most importantly take action? How are we going to find an integration for things like AI instead of fighting against it? When will we realize that education is more than just a stat?
When I first entered education as a teacher twenty-plus years ago, education was a valued and treasured asset that no one could take from you. You could use education to improve your opportunities and open doors. And for me as a first-generation college graduate that is exactly what education did. There was an innate emphasis from teachers and their instruction on bettering oneself by learning more and therein developing an intrinsic desire to learn. A decade or so ago though, we seemed to have a shift in the purpose of education. We pushed students, teachers, and education systems to achieve a number; to get kids into college; that education equals better income.
And, now where are we? Businesses are training their employees on what they need and not relying on education to do it, much less requiring a degree. Teachers are exiting education in droves. Our system is broken. Our teachers are disengaged. Our students and parents are becoming more and more disenfranchised.
We must restore the value of education. We must rebuild the system and re-envision it. Education needs a reformation. We need to tell the truth, to keep our promises, to help those in need, to make decisions with positive impacts, to turn away from unjust outcomes—we need ethics in education.
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