Right now, we’re asking the wrong questions about AI in education.
The conversation is dominated by the question of what the technology can do: how quickly can it generate content? Personalize the practice? Analyze data? But far less attention is paid to what students need from the K-12 academic experience to develop their critical thinking and analytical skills, and the role human relationships play in that process.
I see this gap clearly as a parent. My daughter – a student at an excellent public charter school – has selective mutism, which means that in many schools she cannot use her voice reliably with adults. And yet, every day, I watch educators work to find (analog!) ways to reach her and help her develop her skills – through patience, consistency, challenge, and attention. They create the conditions that allow him to feel safe enough to try, take risks and grow.
This experience clarified something for me, both as a parent and as the leader of a K-12 organization: learning is not just about access to information or efficiency. It is built through human interaction – through trust, responsiveness, risk-taking and the constant presence of adults who know how to meet students where they are.
Related: There’s a lot going on in classrooms, from kindergarten to high school. Follow our free weekly K-12 education newsletter.
If we don’t ground our decisions about the adoption and integration of AI and educational technology in this reality, we are solving the wrong problem.
In my role at a K-12 education provider specializing in providing educators with high-quality, standards-based math and literacy resources, I often think about which materials promote learning in ways that leverage the benefits of human interaction.
Because the complex work of raising our children is intrinsically human work. When done well, it is the result of collective creation and experiencing the world with one another.
That’s why, as we increasingly adopt artificial intelligence and other technologies in the years to come, we must be careful to select tools, programs, and platforms that allow us to continue to cultivate deep learning experiences that foster our capacity for understanding and community.
Much of the vital human core at the center of education is likely to change with the rapid integration of AI into primary and secondary schools. But should this be the case?
Of course, many things remain unresolved. improve due to emerging digital advancements in education. We can imagine tools that help teachers analyze student work more effectively, platforms that provide multilingual support real-time and adaptive systems that deliver focused practice without requiring hours of manual planning. We can also imagine environments where data is easier to understand, where administrative tasks shrink and where students have more opportunities to get personalized feedback.
But sometimes, in the rush to capitalize on the promise of personalized learning platforms, we’ve already lost sight of what may be most important about what they’re learning in the first place. A classroom full of students working independently with the help of AI chatbots, for example, may be devoid of opportunities to develop essential skills such as collaboration, debate and communication.
Academic development is about more than finding the right answer. Yes, fact-finding and procedural mastery are essential to long-term student success. Conceptual understanding is equally important, as it requires confronting divergent opinions, incorrect answers, and errors. productive cognitive struggle.
That’s why I take an approach to educational technology that emphasizes what works – I call it “technopragmatic.” I don’t want us to slow down: This progress holds great promise for better education outcomes and closing long-standing equity gaps. But we must continue to ask ourselves questions. We cannot introduce AI-based “solutions” just because we are able to generate them. We should think about what we want to do using new technologies on behalf of our children and our own collective future.
We need to ask ourselves: does the technology match our goals?
Related: Schools need more ways to know if AI and edtech tools are working
After years as an educator and principal, I have many questions about what our ideal classrooms will look like in five years. How will large classroom components evolve in this new technological era? And how will we ensure that the end users who will be most affected by these choices – teachers, students, families – have a voice and a hand in shaping the decisions we make?
In a K-12 system in which the fastest growing student population these are the learners of the English language, research has already demonstrated the positive impact of digital tools that facilitate translation and understanding while providing real-time feedback and interactive speaking and writing practice that is not only practical but engaging.
Yet as useful as AI can be in helping multilingual learners, the technology can also introduce bias, particularly for students with disabilities – further evidence that emerging AI tools are most effective when paired with strong guidance from teachers.
Moving forward, we must ensure that AI platforms and digital educational tools remain enhancements rather than replacements for the way we teach and learn.
Otherwise, we will end up creating spaces that are not centered on human flourishing – not just for my child and other students with varying needs, but for all students.
Artificial intelligence and evolving technologies can absolutely improve our ability to collaborate, problem-solve, and think critically. if we do. But we can never forget that it is ultimately the human experiences we share that are the most important part of our learning.
Joy Delizo-Osborne, President and CEO of Student Achievement Partners (SAP). SAP is a nonprofit organization that supports teachers and educational leaders in schools and systems with research- and evidence-based guidance on high-quality, standards-aligned mathematics and literacy instruction.
Contact the opinion editor at opinion@hechingerreport.org.
This story on AI and education was produced by The Hechinger reportan independent, nonprofit news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Register with Hechinger weekly newsletter.
The article OPINION: In the rush to adopt new AI technologies, let’s not forget the human touch appeared first on The Hechinger Report.
