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Why AI Should Scare Some Educators and Not Others

Dwayne Harapnuik —  January 29, 2019 — Leave a comment

The promises or hype of educational technology are an unfortunate central part of our long-standing tradition of attempting to use technology to change education. Will the hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI) be any different than the hype that we have experienced this past century? Should teachers be fearful of being replaced by AI? The answer depends on the type of the teacher. Before, we address who should be wary of AI it is important to set the context.

Schools have had a longstanding immunity against the introduction of new technologies. In 1922 Thomas Edison predicted that movies would replace textbooks. In 1945 one forecaster imagined radios as common as blackboards in classrooms. In the 1960s, B.F. Skinner predicted that teaching machines and programmed instruction would double the amount of information students could learn in a given time. Filmstrips and other audiovisual aids were fads thirty years ago, and the television, now seen as a supplier of brain candy, once had a sterling reputation as an education machine (Seidensticker, 2006, p. 103).

We have seen over a century of predictions and subsequent failures about how technology would radically change education as we know it and yet we still continue to buy into these notions. In The History of Teaching Machines, Audry Waters (2018) shares the progression of our infatuation with the automation teaching. The difference with the 21st century and the digital information age is that we are moving through these hype cycles at a significantly faster pace.


Just consider the hype around MOOCs that exploded in 2012, peeked in 2103, by 2014 many were reporting the problems with MOOCs (Friedman, 2014), and were declared complete failures by 2017 (Shahzad, 2017). I have been on the cutting edge of educational technology use and started teaching completely online in 1995 but knew from several decades of experience of using technology to enhance learning that the MOOCs would fail because of its emphasis on the information delivery and regurgitation model of instruction and that MOOCs ignore the fundamental presupposition that teaching and learning is uniquely human relational activity.

Another reason we fail in recognizing and using the potential of educational technology is that we ignore the challenges of our current information age. My colleagues Bill Rankin and George Saltsman (2010) offered the following summary of the challenges of the information age and how we as teachers should respond to the challenge of the digital information age:
Even though our educational system is still mired in the print information age, if we assume that we are currently in the digital information age then consider the following:

If I imagine my primary job as a teacher is to serve information, am I helping solve the current informational problem or make it worse?

And given the vast complexity of the informational network, if I insist on my centrality, does that establish or harm my credibility as a teacher?

If assessing information – and the wisdom & experience that requires – is the central challenge of the current informational age, are teachers more or less necessary?

Considering the overwhelming amount of information that that average 21st-century learner has at their disposal there is no denying that assessing information is one of our biggest challenges and subsequently teachers are more important than ever.

This brings me back to the initial question – Should teachers be fearful of being replaced by AI?

If you are a teacher that is currently operating in the 19th and 20th-century information transfer model of education focused on delivering content and then checking that delivery through a standardized testing model established in 1914, then you should be afraid of AI. Any standardized rules-based system can be automated. With the advances in AI that we have seen in the past several decades, we are only a short time away from the development of algorithms that can automate this information transfer model and eliminate the need for teachers who are using this information transfer model.

OR

If you are a teacher who believes that learning is the making of meaningful connections and your role is to create a significant learning environment in which you give our learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities to help them make those meaningful connections than you will have no fear of being replaced. You are preparing your learners for a life filled with innovation and exploration.

Is your teaching future in jeopardy?

A more important question may be: Are you jeopardizing your students future by conditioning or preparing them to be replaced by a more efficient and automated information regurgitation algorithm?

References

Friedman, D. (2014) The MOOC revolution that wasn’t. Techcruch. Retrieved from https://techcrunch.com/2014/09/11/the-mooc-revolution-that-wasnt/

Rankin, W., & Saltsman, G. (February 2010). Teaching and learning in a mobile world: Engaging a new informational model. Presentation for the Teaching and Learning Initiative Conference. Houston, Texas.

Seidensticker, B. (2006). Future hype: The myths of technology change. San Fransico. CA: Berrett-Koehler Publishers

Shahzad, S. (2017) The traditional MOOCs model has failed. What next? Educational Technology. Retrieved from https://edtechnology.co.uk/Article/the-traditional-moocs-model-has-failed-what-next

Watters, A. (2018). The history of teaching machines. A Hack Education Project. Retrieved from http://teachingmachin.es/timeline.html

In 21st century learning, Learning , , , , , , ,
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How to Enhance Information Retention vs How to Learn

Dwayne Harapnuik —  December 6, 2018 — 2 Comments


Source: https://www.edsurge.com/news/2018-12-03-8-great-ways-to-enhance-retention-infographic

There was a time that I would simply repost this infographic, point to the source, and quiet those voices in my head screaming “this is not about learning this is just about information retrieval and retention”. But this is a different time.

Ebbinghaus’ classic forgetting curve shows how quickly we forget information and unless we utilize one of the many tips or tricks to repeat our exposure to information we are hoping to retain then we will indeed forget the information. In several places in the infographic the authors incorrectly equate the notion of information transfer to learning in statements like:

First conceived in by the 19th-century psychologist Hermann Ebbeinghaus, the forgetting curve models the exponential rate at which humans forget the information we’ve learned.

Students forget the most right after they have learned something, with the rate of forgetting declining as time goes on.

In other places the authors more accurately convey that what is happening is information transfer and not learning:

How can teachers equip their students to retain more of the information they are given?

The more students are asked to recall information, the more they strengthen their memory.

What makes these types of infograhpics so frustrating and perhaps even dangerous is that they often embed elements of truth within the misinformation. The five factors that affect our ability to retain information: relevance, difficulty, context, stress, and sleep are accurate but the first three also hold the key to a more accurate way in which we actually learn. Before I go any further, I need to clarify that I am using the constructivist definition of learning which can be summarized as the learner coming to know by making meaningful connections rather than the behaviorist or information transfer definition of learning which can be summarized as the process of acquiring new knowledge, skills or behaviors. If you hold to the information transfer understanding of learning then you need to continually repeat the information input, test the retrieval, use visual or other mnemonic tricks, and use a host of other methods detailed in the infographic to improve the information retention and retrieval.

Or, you can simply use authentic learning opportunities to provide the relevance and context for the learner to take ownership of what they are learning and make those meaningful connections that will not be forgotten. When a learner is exposed to new information or values within the context of working on real-world problems they will be able to develop useful skills and modify existing understanding which ultimately leads to the making of meaningful connections. When you add the significance that comes from a solving and ultimately owning a real challenging problem, the learner will not only retain what they have learned they will have a foundation to make additional meaningful connections and apply their understanding to new situations. This is learning.

We have a choice.

Continue to give students information and then equip them to use a wide assortment of information retention methods or tricks to effectively regurgitate the information.

OR

Create a significant learning environment in which we give our learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities and help them to learn how to learn.

This leads me to the final question that we need to ask. Are you preparing your learner for the test or for life?

In Infographic, Learning , , , , , , ,
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Are You Asking Enough of the Right Questions?

Dwayne Harapnuik —  November 20, 2018 — Leave a comment


A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend some time with my boys and their friends at a biking industry party at a local bike shop that sponsors my boys and other professional racers. I took advantage of this time to ask a racer who my older son raced with earlier in the year in the Enduro World Series (EWS) races in Chile, Columbia and Whistler… what was the biggest lesson he learned this year on the EWS circuit? He stated that he the noticed that fastest racers didn’t always take the fastest line down the mountain—they seemed to take the most fun line or the line that allowed them to flow down the mountain. Instead of hitting the hardest and fastest lines they seamed to be having the most fun and were simply flowing down the course. He also stated that it took him the full season to finally accept this and it wasn’t until this last race that he stopped trying to go the fastest and simply went out to have some fun and enjoy the day. When you race for 6-7 hours each day its is foolish to try and run at 100%. You not only destroy your bike you destroy your body. He argued that when he stopped looking for the fastest line and simply went out to find the most efficient or most fun way to come down the mountain he ended up being much faster at the end of the day and posted his best results. It wasn’t until he started looking at the bigger picture and started asking different questions that enabled him to look at his racing different that finally led to his best results. His major regret was that he didn’t come to this realization and start asking a different questions until his final race of the season. He also wished that he would have learned this lesson many years earlier.

Asking enough of the right questions isn’t only a challenge in professional EWS racing it is a challenge in our educational system and more specifically in our learning environments. In the words of Ken Robinson, our educational systems are all too often focused on finding the right answer, which is usually at the back of book, and that we shouldn’t look at. Robinson is using humor to lesson the devastating foolishness of our practice and to spur us onto to acknowledging that we have a serious problem. If we just go along with the status quo and accept that our systems of education are primarily focused on conditioning students to find the right answers for the exam then we are missing the fact that our students are not learning because learning is not about finding the right answers it is about asking questions. Learning is the process of making meaningful connections and we can’t make those connections without asking questions— lots of questions from different perspectives. If we only focus on finding the right answers Clayton Christensen argues we will trap ourselves into marginal thinking because someone can’t be taught until they are ready to learn. Asking questions is how we open ourselves up to learning. Christensen argues that:

Questions are places in your mind where answers fit. If you haven’t asked the question, the answer has nowhere to go. It hits your mind and bounces right off. You have to ask the question — you have to want to know — in order to open up the space for the answer to fit.

Unfortunately, as I have stated above and pointed out in the post Foster Inquisitiveness Rather than Rebuild It our educational system focuses on right answers as opposed to starting with the pursuit of questions. I am not along in my assertions. In his book, A More Beautiful Question Warren Berger points to fact that our education systems reward rote answers over challenging inquiry. Berger uses research data to that shows that our children are filled with curiosity prior to going to school and by the time they are in their teens they have little curiosity for anything to do with the curriculum. He points to the correlation between the ages that children lose their curiosity and a number of questions that they ask.

Why have we created an educational system that quenches our learners curiosity and creativity? While the answer to this question is much more nuanced than I can deal with in this post but it is fair to suggest that our current system of education addresses the question of how we prepare large numbers of students to meet the needs of the industrial age. The problem we face is that we have moved beyond the industrial age into the digital information age and we are still operating on a educational system that asks questions related to problems from an earlier era. We have to start pushing educators to start questioning conventional or industrial age thinking about teaching and learning, the educational system, their schools and classes, and their process and methods so that their minds are opened up enough to the point that they want to know how to do things differently. To explore these idea further check out the video or podcast in the post Are You Preparing Your Learners for Life or for the Test?

We need to create significant learning environments that will help to open up spaces in our educators minds for new ideas to fit. If we don’t purposely design our learning environments to address the questions and problems of the digital information age we can easily remain mired in marginal thinking and the status quo. It is very easy to maintain the focus on standardized testing, on covering the content, on checklists masquerading as rubrics, and the need to regurgitate the right answer. Maintaining the status quo is much easier then creating a significant environment where giving learners choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities will lead to making learners struggle with the anxiousness that comes with facing the challenges of deeper learning. We have to remember that authentic learning has never fundamentally been about spouting off the right answer; it has always been about making meaningful connections and to make those meaningful connections you have to start with the questions. The type of questions that open up the spaces in our thinking and motivate us to want to know and to make those meaningful connections—only to have the whole process start over. This is learning—this is life.

Perhaps we need to start asking:
Are You Preparing Them for Real Life or Just the Test?

References
Berger, W. (2014). A more beautiful question: The power of inquiry to spark breakthrough ideas. New York, NY: Bloomsbury USA.

Fried, J. (2012, September 25). A Conversation with Innovation Guru Clayton Christensen. Retrieved September 7, 2016, from http://www.inc.com/magazine/201210/jason-fried/a-conversation-with-innovation-guru-clayton-christensen.html

Robinson, K. (2010, Oct 14). RSA ANIMATE: Changing education paradigms. Retrieved from: https://youtu.be/zDZFcDGpL4U

In 21st century learning, Authentic Learning, Learning , , , , , ,
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Learner Voice – Learner’s Mindset Discussions

Dwayne Harapnuik —  October 3, 2018 — Leave a comment

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Many companies no longer use degrees as employment prerequisites

Dwayne Harapnuik —  September 13, 2018 — Leave a comment

“One of the ingredients in Shopify’s success has been to completely ignore academic credentials in hiring.” — Tobi Lutke

In an Ottawa Citizen story, Shopify’s CEO Tobi Lütke also states “The company values people who have built something of their own, volunteered their time and pursued new learning opportunities. Shopify isn’t the only company that is looking beyond a degree credential to see what people are able to actually do. According to a CNBC Careers article Apple, Google, IBM, Ernst & Young and many other top teir companies hire people who don’t have a four-year degree.

The ability to create or build something of their own, to contribute to a hand’s on project, to undertake innovative opportunities, or to volunteer one’s time toward a bigger purpose are some of the most important traits that employers are looking for in the new digital world. Why? If you are able to create, build, innovate on your own then you are able to show that you have the drive to learn on your own and make a difference. The ever changing nature of our digital future demands this level of self-directed learning and adaptation.

One of the best ways to students to learn how to become digital innovators who are future ready is an signifanct learning environment in which they are given choice, ownership, and voice through authentic learning opportunities.

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