There is an eternal struggle between young people’s exuberance to explore and the schools’ wish for order and ordered progress toward measurable outcomes. In most cases the schools win and face the dilemma that the price of winning is literally losing students and teachers.
Before the personal computer some schools addressed and solved this dilemma in the following ways: 1) They embraced the research that showed that student focused explorations, collaborative learning, and lots of student cognitive and affective expression led to more learning (& better test scores); 2) They involved students in formative assessments; 3) They integrated parallel concepts across disciplines and merged SEL into STEAM and project based learning.
To do this rote learning and worksheets took back seats since memorization is the opposite of exploration to develop thinking skills. On the contrary, it deadens the heart of the student and the teacher, and an uninspired teacher can’t inspire learning.
With the personal computer came expressive and modeling possibilities (and more efficient standardized high stakes testing). Students could use logo to learn to program; writing teachers could model the stages of the writing process and publish the results in beautiful anthologies. The computer became a trojan horse for workshopping.
Now AI has arrived! How will we use this tool to further relax the bondage of textbooks, worksheets and tests? How will AI help us workshop activities to develop the balanced skills we all crave, skills that deepen our focus, respiration, and inspiration. How will we link AI enhanced computer science to the arts and sciences of human development to move learning into an age of inquiry, problem solving, and purpose?