Ideas: Teachers are ‘canary in coal mine’ in new AI age

Educators from academic settings ranging from a middle school to post-graduate institutions discussed how to ethically integrate artificial intelligence into their classrooms during an Aspen Ideas Festival panel on Friday.

Joining University of Pennsylvania psychology professor Angela Duckworth were Al Rabanera, an educator and facilitator at Fullerton Joint Union High School in California; and Emily Kaye, assistant principal of humanities in the KIPP Public Schools in northern California. They discussed how they use AI to assist their students and how they work with students to use AI purposefully. Duckworth said the most successful students are the ones who use AI as an extension of their work.

“I will say that the best students, I think, are not using it as a substitute but I think they’re using it as an extension,” she said. “But how do we make that mode the common outcome, as opposed to what I fear as someone who studies human nature might become the common modal outcome, which is, as a substitute?”

Kevin Roose, who writes about tech for The New York Times and was one of the panel’s moderators, said education was “ground zero of AI” since OpenAI launched ChatGPT in late 2022. Schools throughout the country are grappling with how to monitor students’ AI use and ensure they are still learning despite the efficiency of ChatGPT to complete homework, summarize texts and more.

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