AI: the latest advancement to get a bad rap before it really gets going

Every time education takes a step forward, critics of all kinds declare it to be a bad idea.

A few years ago, it was games as a learning tool, but people have been learning via gaming platforms for more than 50 years. In 1968, the Sumerian Game was launched as a way to understand supply and demand. This breakthrough program, delivered on an IBM 1050 terminal, is now considered to be the first educational video game. To a large extent, games are now accepted as a valuable tool for teaching and learning.

The same reactionary claims were made against the internet, the calculator, the adding machine. Certainly "new math" had to withstand these body blows. The abacus? The chalkboard? Probably suspicious.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the latest potentially important advancement to get caught up in this doomsday prognosticating. AI is prompting real fear and resistance: It's going to replace instructors and instruction, remove academic integrity, and create a world where humanity is no longer needed and valued. There is no escape!

Yes — the same claims we’ve always heard. Yet, the teachers and researchers are still here, still teaching, still learning, and continuing to thirst for innovation. Good educators know that teaching can always be made better.

Regardless of the tenor of the times, education finds a way to advance, to improve. The whiteboard improved on the dusty chalkboard. PowerPoint and other programs like it replaced the clunky overhead projector. The handheld device and laptop can do things that a pencil and paper never could. Finally, the smartphone — arguably the most impactful innovation in education of the last decade — brings shared education resources and apps directly to students, meeting their individualized needs in ways that we could only dream of before.

AI is not just a dream. It's part of our world, today. As these things go, there is some level of panic about it. But if we shift our mindset about the ways people learn, by only a click or two, we can see how AI — as a way to prompt ideas, assist in simple tasks and fill in gaps in our knowledge — may complement and enhance human capabilities.

Let's consider the problem of confirmation bias — the flawed, yet understandable human tendency to give too much credence to the unknown, thus skewing our views of it. It can drive us to overreact or underreact. Sometimes, we’re motivated by things we simply can't grasp. But still, we suspect.

I see this behavior in our conversations and actions regarding AI. The media capitalize on fears and concerns about the demise of education — especially higher education, where critical thinking is introduced and refined. I think we need to ask ourselves: Is this confirmation bias at its finest? How can we be so unwilling to see the upside to such an important development before the research has even begun?

Artificial intelligence is in its infancy. ChatGPT, currently out in front as a kind of emissary for the technology to the general public, has barely left the gate. It can't expand the field of knowledge in our disciplines. It hasn't shown the effectiveness of its integration into the classroom. It's not prompting student success. Most importantly, it doesn't provide compassion and inspiration to students as a way to value the process of learning.

None of that comes from AI. No, that comes from us — teachers, researchers, experts in education. That's not going to change.

I say, let's embrace this new challenge. Let's start having tough conversations about how we teach and how students learn in the 21st century. Let's support students so they become better consumers and active users of knowledge and take the lead in the purely human processes that comprise education. Let's collaborate, connect, co-create, and reflect on our lived experiences, as we develop more tools like AI for the school of the future. These are steps.

A person's capacity to learn, in ways we can scarcely imagine, is constantly evolving. Our work as educators is to master that capacity and maximize its usefulness in every student's life. The tools of education — an iPad, a piece of chalk, a multiplication table, and now, artificial intelligence — must never be seen as a threat to our self-concept and confidence as teachers.

Jessica A. Stansbury ([email protected]) is the director of teaching and learning excellence in the University of Baltimore's Center for Excellence of Learning, Teaching and Technology. Her research focus includes innovative teaching methods, perceptions about teaching and learning, and emerging technologies.