In this Acceleration Economy Digital CIO Summit Moment, excerpted from the “Generative AI and the Future” session, “Intelligent Automation” co-author Ian Barkin answers John Siefert’s question on the future of education. Ian says that generative AI means that, instead of writing papers, students of the future will have dialogues with chatbot-generated historical figures, a much more collaborative way of learning than the ones we’ve had so far.
Highlights
00:05 — John asks Ian what he thinks the future of education will look like.
00:10 — Ian believes that education needs to become more oriented towards collaboration, such as team projects, and that teaching and learning have already been moving in this direction anyway.
00:28 — Ian brainstorms: If your child has an assignment to write about history, instead of assigning an essay, ask them to have discussions with historical characters in the story using a generative AI chatbot like ChatGPT. For example, have them chat with Ben Franklin and ask for his points of view; ask him to share the words from his journals and almanacs on how he feels about various topics.
00:51 — Ian says this approach is more collaborative and engaging for the student than simply instructing students to write about, say, the drafting of the U.S. Constitution, which would likely be farmed out to a generative AI writing tool by the student, who wouldn’t retain any of the information.
01:14 — To make it more engaging, the task can be mapped out in the form of a theatrical play for the class, with students asking questions about “what would happen if scenario A occurred instead of B,” Ian says.
01:26 — Because of this technology, Ian says, the act of finding and compiling facts is no longer relevant. Therefore, educators need to be much more engaging.
