A student’s perspective on where the future of learning—with AI—should be headed.  

GUEST COLUMN | by Conrad Ingersoll Dube and William Saulsbery

Education systems, especially K-12, are the foundation of society’s future, meant to equip students with the knowledge and skills that reflect the present, grounded in lessons from the past, to prepare them for tomorrow. Yet, as the world evolves at an unprecedented pace we’re still clinging to outdated teaching methods from decades ago. It’s time to question whether we’re truly preparing the next generation for the challenges and opportunities of the future.

‘It’s time to question whether we’re truly preparing the next generation for the challenges and opportunities of the future.’

Modes of imparting education have improved. Digital, internet and media technologies are frequently employed in classrooms, homework is submitted electronically, classroom discussion and chat groups are formed online. Dissemination has improved, but the content being imparted has remained fairly constant. How can we take this well established, and irreplaceable foundation and evolve it to fully prepare the students of today for the world of tomorrow?

Beyond Fundamental Programming

Students can access courses in AI or in Python programming, but the overwhelming majority of our coursework remains consistent with the curriculum of the past. A large part of education continues to focus on memorization and regurgitation. In days where neuralink technologies are starting to make information available to us from the web at any time, we must focus on evolving education to meet the challenges of modern times. With the fourth industrial revolution upon us, we are entering into an algorithmic economy. For students to succeed in the coming world, they must be taught to think creatively and become experts at problem solving.

For example, take the curriculum around the United States Civil War.  We are commonly teaching students that; there was a Civil War, the North won, Slavery ended, President Lincoln was assassinated. This is an incredible lesson that must be taught, but we are not doing the event, and its participants, justice teaching facts and dates alone. What if instead educators talked through how the war was fought, how it was won. How did General Grant solve terrain, feeding troops, morale, delegation, and how did he grow as a leader throughout the conflict? Then, ask students to tie these learnings to either current personal challenges, or the current geopolitical landscape. Walk them through questions like “how did Lincoln build a coalition to end slavery in the legislature? What was his relationship like with Grant, Sherman, and his other generals?” What is the importance of a great leader to listen to those he has appointed and take their council? The Civil War could be used to give students skills for life and their coming careers. 

Simultaneously, our educators would unleash their creativity to its fullest potential and become excited again about their subject matter. Teachers become teachers because they want to help children learn and flourish. They want to prepare their students for the new world, they want to impart wisdom that was imparted to them, and sometimes wisdom that was not. Release them from “textbook to white board and back again,” quizzing kids on this date and that name. Place 30% of their lesson plans in foundational knowledge of events, and 70% in the hows and whys, and what this can teach their students about solving the challenges facing the world today. 

Free students for Creativity and Problem Solving

The future of work is not person and machine working at odds, or at parallel, but working directly together. We must teach our students to use machines to quickly complete all repetitive tasks, or gathering of common facts and dates. The next generation of careers require humans to act in tandem with machines to form a hybrid society.

Teach students how to leverage artificial intelligence to act as an augmenting agent assisting in tasks. How do we leverage AI to drive better decisions and improve outcomes? What are the prospective threats of AI, and how to protect against them? How do humans introduce ethics into these digital systems? How do humans best combat threats to privacy, safety and human dignity? These are the questions we must grapple with and solve for. Coursework in every dimension should include a hybrid methodology that allows human students to focus on creativity and innovation. 

Who is Leading the Way?

Estonia is emerging as a leader in digital teaching. Their “Tiger Leap” initiative, implemented over 20 years ago to introduce computers to students at an early age, has been a success. For multiple years they have been named as one of the top Programmes for International Student Assessment by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). 

The UK is introducing computers and algorithms to children as early as 5 years old. Research shows that learning new languages is easiest when you are young, and computer languages are no exception. Whether you are programming using logic languages like Prolog, or writing object-oriented code in Java, learning the various dialects to converse with our digital colleagues should be as natural as learning new languages at an early age. 

A Digital Assistant for Every Student

AI shouldn’t be the centerpiece of education, but effective leveraging of a digital AI assistant should be a priority. When learning history, we should not be challenged to recall dates and events, these should be furnished by our digital assistant. 

Geography courses should focus not on the names of various straits and gulfs, but on the geographical challenges of these areas and how to best navigate them based on situational challenges and hypotheticals. Global warming, ecological threats, and biomedical solutions would all be engrossing topics for young minds. Again, use foundational curriculum as a basis for real world creativity and innovation. Walk students through the history of the Suez Canal and how it transformed commerce and the way of life for three continents. Then, ask students “what if a climate catastrophe closed the canal for 6-12 months?” What would the global consequences be? How many people would be adversely affected? Who would profit? Get them to think creatively on possible short, medium, and long term solutions. Educators and those running these institutions will become inspired at the possibilities of what scenarios they could create for their students, gaining ownership of the new educational system.

An Incalculable Impact

The United States is behind many in the industrial world in terms of science and math education. We need top governmental focus to catapult us to the front. We need to draw the brightest brains to teaching by arming them with a rock solid foundation honed over decades of practice, topped with a new problem solving focused end game. We must as a society make the choice to acknowledge and reward our teachers at an exponentially higher grade than today. They are molding the minds of our future society; should we not compensate them at top executive levels?

Strategic impact deserves more attention than the tactical quarterly impact that Wall Street seems to be focused on. Education and its overhaul has to become a central focus, as our future depends on it. Think of the cumulative benefit to the United States on the global stage—if every child is taught how to figure things out, creative problem solve, and be an innovator, the benefit to the nation would be incalculable. 

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Conrad Ingersoll Dube (son of Chetan Dube, renowned futurist and founder of Amelia and Quant), is currently in high school in New York and his thoughts were the genesis of this piece. 

William Saulsbery is a former teacher and tutor who co-wrote the piece with Conrad. Connect with Will on LinkedIn.

The post The Future of Learning: Empowering the Next Generation to Lead the Digital Age appeared first on EdTech Digest.