Mastering the human-machine connection allows students and teachers to use AI most effectively, says one expert. Here’s some advice for harnessing the technology to its fullest potential.听
A need for AI guidance
was started by a group of former and current teachers who aim to help partnering organizations understand the “how” and “why” behind AI. Leaders听know听“AI is here.” But what do we do with it? That’s a question Ryan Findley and his team at Evergreen AI hope to help leaders answer.听
They’ve put together a robust AI framework, a set of nearly 60 鈥AI-related competencies that they believe students should be able to master by 12th grade.听
“You need a foundation and understanding about AI and what it does, as well as what it’s good for and what it isn’t good for,” he says. “But also, the framework helps people understand how to collaborate with AI and make sense of all the 鈥synthetic content we鈥檙e now inundated with.鈥鈥听
However, most people struggle to听comprehend听those topics and create a sensible AI policy for their schools and organizations. For instance, how should an educator approach teaching AI literacy to a kindergarten class? Findley says Evergreen’s resources are to address those questions.听
鈥鈥“We’ve created about 250 age-appropriate examples of how you could start to teach AI literacy or AI fluency,” he explains. Educators don’t need to find additional instruction time to introduce AI, he adds. They can bake it into the curriculum.鈥鈥鈥听
鈥鈥For example, an early elementary teacher might finish a unit on 鈥淥ur Community鈥 by opening ChatGPT and asking it, 鈥淒escribe the [insert school district] community,鈥 noticing differences (or even inaccuracies) in the AI鈥檚 understanding of their world. 听
鈥A middle school teacher covering the American Revolution might have students create an AI Bill of Rights to govern its usage in school, drawing parallels between establishing rules for a new nation and new technology. 听
鈥High school chemistry students could use a teacher-created 鈥淐ompound Creator鈥 to simulate chemical reactions, helping them safely explore element reactivity and predict outcomes in ways that would be too dangerous or expensive to demonstrate in a typical classroom.鈥听
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Embracing uncertainty听
鈥鈥In late April, the Trump Administration issued an to advance AI education in younger students, underscoring the need for education leaders to strengthen their understanding of large language models (LLMs) and generative AI.听
鈥鈥The first step leaders must take to unlock AI’s potential is to break down their skepticism about AI, Findley says. 鈥鈥鈥Findley compares the introduction of AI and ChatGPT to the release of the calculator. Both were rather transformational and quickly became an essential good.听
“I wasn’t around when the calculator came out, but I鈥鈥檝e read that there was a lot of anti-technology鈥 rhetoric then,” he says. “People听argued it was 鈥鈥鈥giving kids the answers,鈥鈥听but that’s not the case. What鈥鈥鈥 it鈥 allowed听them to do was, when appropriate, 鈥skip the rote work and offer them the challenge and opportunity鈥 to do higher-level work.”听
AI has the potential to do the same. Users simply need to obtain the knowledge and skills to use it correctly. But the human-machine collaboration is arguably the most important skill to master, Findley says.听
“It’s about building a skill that comes with working with these things [AI tools], similar to how you’d work with a human,” he says. “You start to understand their quirks and their capabilities over time.”听
