If there’s one thing I’ve become certain of, it’s that expert opinion of how schools and education need to change to best account for an AI saturated world is still very… uncertain.

But leaders and schools are certainly trying.

You may have seen this week that NYC announced a bold new (anti?) AI policy for it’s public schools - banning student AI use for K-8, with 9-12 limited to a narrow set of approved tools coupled with 2x/year AI literacy training. 

I think this will be an interesting one to watch. I like the emphasis on AI literacy training for high schoolers and a reduction of tech/screens use in class. (Fwiw, I continue to think that, at least for the short term, any testing and assessing of students should focus on in-class, device-free work). 

But I worry that a blanket ban might risk a growth in cheating and inequity (I’m only suspecting, but from last week’s newsletter we saw that already over half of kids will just resort to using personal devices when AI tools are blocked). 

And, I believe that the AI literacy trainings should start happening much sooner (age-appropriately of course) - from at least mid-elementary on up. And, also for teachers/staff and ideally(!) parents.

MIT just released a report about AI implications on the current educational environment and found that AI is causing quite a commotion on campus:

From office hours, study groups and even in-class attendance tanking, to upending problem sets and take-home exams and even the overall grading system. Students say the rules are inconsistent and unclear. 70% also say that AI proficiency really matters for their career yet only 25% think MIT prepares them.

The report’s recommendations were some of the first I’ve read that felt somewhat ambitious, doable, and promising… you can read the full report here, but some of the recommendations include: 

What I like about this is that while doable, it also isn’t just trying to put a bandaid on the problem, and it emphasizes what I think makes university so sacred: the shared learning and social experience. 

But if I can opine (because, caveat, I am not an education expert)…. I don’t think we’re thinking nearly big enough yet.

AI introduces the opportunity to teach and learn in immersive and creative ways that we could only dream about. And even non-technical people can now build practically anything they think up. That opens up endless possibilities…

Flying out for a girls weekend this week, I ended up in two conversations with people I am never going to see again: one with the woman sitting next to me on the airplane because she had these awesome BEATs Mickey headphones (I am obsessed with Disney) and another with Taylor, the flight attendant, when I went to the back of the plane to get some water.

Neither conversation was about anything of substance, but both made the day better.

One of my favorite studies is exactly this situation. Researchers told some Chicago commuters to strike up a conversation on the train and told others to keep to themselves and enjoy the quiet. Beforehand, people predicted the conversation would be the worse ride. But they were wrong, and not even by a little.

Even better: another study showed that one week of deliberately talking to strangers measurably lowers our fear of being rejected and makes us better at conversation. Oh, and, happier and with a greater sense of belonging.

Which also brings me to our kids. We spend years teaching them don't talk to strangers, then drop them off at a dorm room and expect them to walk down the hall and make lots of friends. (The rule I think we actually mean is don't go anywhere with strangers.)

Try this: on your next errand say something to the person in line or in the elevator (what are you cooking up with all that cilantro? That’s a really neat tattoo, etc.). Even better, do this with your kids around so they can see that it’s not so scary after all.

Back-to-school can make it feel like every AI study use requires putting another screen in front of our kids, but actually, it doesn’t.

Yesterday, my 5th grader brought home a two-page math study guide before a test that was happening today. The study guide was comprised of problems he had already completed and so the answers were sitting right there. Hmm… at least for my kid, staring at an already completed math work page wasn’t really working to help him get ready for the test.

So I took pictures of the pages, uploaded them to Claude, and simply asked:

It gave us a clean practice round I could print out with no answers staring back at him, with confidence he was studying/practicing the exact concepts he would be tested on.

Then I asked it to “turn the same concepts into a football-themed quiz” (his passion) for an extra boost of motivation.

AI did the prep work but didn’t require my kid using a screen to study - he solved the new problems on paper, and I didn’t have to reverse-engineer 5th-grade math (embarrassing side note… I am RUSTY at basic math LOL).