3 years ago Carlos Davidovich and I got together in anticipation of participating in a webinar with #ISLECISLoft hosted and facilitated by Nancy Lhoest-Squicciarini on “Uncertainty in the time of the COVID19 ” and recorded this conversation. A few weeks ago someone who listened to the conversation of three years ago from the #ISLECISLoft asked if we where going to get together and do a follow up? Inspired by this question and nudge Carlos and I decided to connect again and re-explore some of the themes of our previous conversation in the context of 3 years after COVID 19.
I had the privileged to facilitate this webinar for The Educational Collaborative for International Schools: ECIS and #ISLECISLoft with Nancy Lhoest-Squicciarini titled “AI in Education: 18 Months Later – Learning, Ethics, and Opportunities”. The guest where Kelly Schuster-Paredes co-host of the Teaching Python podcast- educator and KenShelton, presenter, educator and author. Two people who I have immense respect for and who bring a broad depth of knowledge and experience to this topic. Their respective insights generated a rich platform for the breakout room conversations between participants attending the webinar.
The webinar highlighted the significant impact of AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) on teaching approaches, creating opportunities for personalized learning, tailored feedback, and improved workflows for educators. These AI tools creating opportunities to amplify student engagement while also bringing about challenges, such as integrating innovative with traditional teaching methods, ensuring equal access, and re-evaluating assessment practices, to name a few.
Both guests emphasized the importance of addressing ethical concerns like bias, plagiarism, and privacy. More schools are realizing the importance of establishing guidelines for responsible AI use to mitigate biases, address academic integrity, and safeguard the privacy of both students and educators.
Our guest underscored the vital role schools leaders need to take on to ensure transparent communication about the role of AI in education and the critical importance for staff to have professional development in digital and media literacy. Creating professional development that equips educators to effectively integrate the learning opportunities that these tools can bring to the classroom, has to be a non negotiable. Schools need to design inclusive environments where the advantages of AI-enhanced learning are transparent and accessible to the entire school community, including students, educators, and parents.
The accelerated adoption of artificial intelligence, generative AI, and large language models and their widespread implementation across platforms, has grabbed our attention. Reactions to the developments of AI have been diverse, from excitement to disbelief. While some see AI and its tools as an opportunity, others view it as a potential threat to the traditional education system. A mix of interest, worry, and hope seems to fill many of the conversations in schools.
In this context, the question schools should be asking is: “What is the added value of school in a world where AI becomes prominent and accessible to all 24/7?”
A unique aspect of the IB learner profile is that, in many ways, the above question is addressed by the learner profile’s attributes.
These contain dispositions and approaches that support agility, reflection, and curiosity. In turn this creates important connections for learners to develop the skills, knowledge, and values to navigate the accelerated adoption of AI and the unpredictability around its growth.
Challenges and opportunities of AI
AI, generative AI and large language models are challenging many of the approaches of teaching and learning. With these developments come opportunities for access to information, real-world problem-solving, creativity, time-saving tools, and interdisciplinary learning. At the same time, questions arise about ethics, bias, misinformation, manipulation, loss of originality, ownership, and attribution. If many of the AI algorithms independently make complex decisions without people knowing how they arrived at those decisions, this lack of transparency makes it difficult to understand and address potential biases or errors. The concerns around AI’s lack of transparency increases the challenges these tools bring to a school setting.
Developing future-ready students with the IB learner profile
IB World Schools and educators over the years have developed an immense amount of expertise and created learning experiences to support students and guide the teaching and learning with the 10 IB learner profile attributes:
knowledgeable
thinkers
inquirers
communicators
principled
open-minded
caring
risk-taking
balanced
reflective
Linking the IB Learner profiles with AI offers educators an opportunity to integrate and use AI tools with an open mind. This open-mindedness doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be cautious, thoughtful, and reflective. Instead, it allows us to adopt potential opportunities while being mindful of the implications. Exploring the potential of AI, generative AI and large language models with the IB learner profile attributes provides many learning opportunities. The ways in which the IB learner profile attributes of knowledgeable and thinkers can support the responsible and effective adoption of AI are alluded to above. Below I provide a short commentary on how educators can embrace the remaining attributes as they help students navigate the complex world of AI.
Inquirers
As inquirers, educators can explore the complexities of AI, modeling evaluation to highlight the importance of self-directed learning. As educators collaborate in creating activities with colleagues using AI tools, this can help nurture critical thinking and transdisciplinary connections between different subjects.
Communicators
By integrating AI driven scenarios, discussion prompts, real world case studies and role playing exercises, educators can support the growth of their students’ communication skills.
These AI enhanced activities not only grab the students’ attention but also provide them with practical experiences that reflect real life situations, giving them an opportunity to develop a deeper understanding of how to navigate different communications contexts and work in collaborative settings.
By facilitating these approaches, educators mentor their students with important current skills to manage a digitally driven world while creating an environment where learning remains relevant and authentic.
Principled
Educators can facilitate activities to help students understand the significance of integrity, biases and racism through the use of AI tools to delve into matters of ethics, diversity, equity and fairness.
One example would be to analyze text and images from different voices in media outlets to uncover hidden biases. The students use the AI tools to see how hidden biases might be used in the local, national or international media. This activity gives students an opportunity to develop an understanding of the importance of media literacy skills and being critical thinkers of media in their local, national and international context.
Open-minded
With an open-minded approach, educators can build activities that guide students to use AI tools to explore different perspectives and voices. This could involve using AI-generated content to analyze different articles from newspapers and magazines on current events, exposing them to different viewpoints or historical events from different perspectives and cultural lenses. Students are then provided with opportunities to interact with a variety of viewpoints and experiences, enhancing their critical thinking skills.
Caring
As educators, we can model the use of AI tools to emphasize the importance of caring, empathy, compassion, and respect. By leveraging AI tools, activities can be created with simulations and case studies that explore social issues and their impact on local and global communities.
For example, an educator introduces an AI simulation based on real world case studies linked to a social issue connected to the unit or lesson they are focusing on. Through these simulations, supported by teacher generated questions, prompts or activities, students are exposed to the challenges, tensions and complexities of the social issue. This process gives them the experience to read, listen, and watch how individuals and local communities from diverse backgrounds solve this social issue in the lesson.
Risk-taking
Engaging in the learning process, interacting, trying out, and exploring the use of AI tools as educators is an effective way to model risk-taking. Students experiencing this with activities guided by educators will develop confidence when navigating the uncertainties of AI tools.
Balanced
Recognizing the importance of balance and well-being, educators can mentor and help students explore different ways to understand their social, physical, and emotional well-being. This is very important as the use of AI-generated platforms, tools, and experiences become more prominent and are capturing our attention constantly throughout the day.
Reflective
In conclusion, as reflective practitioners, it is essential for school leaders to deliberately carve out the necessary space, allocate time, and provide purposeful professional development to support educators in this journey of AI cohabitation. This ensures that each of us can mentor, model, and guide students of all ages through experiences, activities, and learning pathways. This deliberate integration of AI tools in the learning process is a vital step in cohabiting with AI as equal partners.
There is no doubt that a growing, shared realization exists, however challenging it might be at times, that we are transitioning to an era of “Predictable unpredictability,” as quoted in The Economist. 2023 came with a whirlwind of changes, at a pace and magnitude that feels somewhat overwhelming. The sobering truths of climate change have become too frequent a reality for many. The rapid integration and prevalence of artificial intelligence in our lives comes with a mix of fear and excitement. In addition the ongoing geopolitics conflicts we witness have the realities of war on many peoples doorsteps.
Each of these factors affects us uniquely within our respective contexts, each with its distinctive complexities. These accelerated changes are reshaping the realities we have grown accustomed to using as reference points for our own understanding of the world around us. With these changes come new questions and awareness that at times seem daunting.
Photo John Mikton Bois du Nant Switzeralnd
International Schools in general possess the ability to insulate themselves from a certain degree to the changes surrounding them—I refer to this as a “walled garden.” This process is purposeful and occurs gradually and cautiously, with the intention of providing a caring and age-appropriate set of learning experiences and pathways. The objective and design are centered around supporting students in navigating the multitude of changes from the world they live in both at home and school in a safe and nurturing environment. International Schools curate these learning journeys, choreographing learning pathways that progressively develop, and create connections aligned with a curriculum and educational principles. This process requires patience, is delicate, intricate, and nuanced.
We all agree in principle as educators, and believe that the capacity to adapt to different situations and problems is vital for managing and navigating life’s challenges. Understanding this, it’s important for us to reflect on how we react when confronted with such rapid changes, especially when we lack control or have minimal influence over the timing or consequences. The growing necessity to be in a constant flux of adaptability is challenging and at times exhausting. We are in a new narrative where we have to readjust our established understandings. Change disrupts the routines and habits we find comfort in—routines which provide us with stability, continuity, and familiarity. All important for our sense of purpose.
If “Predictable unpredictability,” creates a break from our routines and becomes the new normal, the capacity to adapt will only be amplified as a critical mindset for International Schools to flourish by. This is where the concept of Adaptability Quotient (AQ) (also often referred to as adaptability intelligence) – becomes important for International Schools and educators to harness .
Robert J. Sternberg, psychology professor at Cornell University, defines adaptive intelligence as “the intelligence one needs to adapt to current problems and to anticipate future problems of real-world environments.” Educ. Sci.2021, 11(12), 823; https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci11120823
The mindsets associated with AQ revolve on identifying what is relevant, and being comfortable forgetting past knowledge, adjusting to change in real time and being comfortable challenging habits and beliefs. With this an agility to adapt at short notice, always learning and listening with empathy to the different viewpoints of others.
When International Schools engage with AQ, a challenge lies in the perception of an underlying culture of resistance to change. Change is often perceived as a threat to current and past methods and habits, destabilizing the status quo and eroding the sense of continuity and comfort.
Changing how schools work, by adjusting and redesigning a curriculum to be flexible and agile to go along with AQ’s ideas, is a big step and a hurdle as we have limited points of reference to address many of the issues and complexities the world is facing mid and long term. The process of these changes require trust and empathy from all involved . This means schools need to design professional development that embraces “unlearning and relearning” and accepts that many of the things we learned and got used to are not always so helpful, even though they brought a sense of stability and continuity.
Engaging with the AQ requires an agility to balance new approaches with current approaches and workload. Ensuring we facilitate an iterative process in all school strategic planning. Finding time to pause – reflect and to internalize the balance between developing new skills and maintaining current skills.
When one thinks of the many mission statements, and learning principles highlighted by International Schools – such as flexibility, curiosity, innovator, resilience, and being a risk-taker – the notion of engaging with the Adaptability Quotient (AQ) makes sense. The shift is to embrace the idea of not teaching to the past, and accepting “predictable unpredictability” as our point of reference.
This academic year let us invite ourselves to:
“Become a student of change, it is the only thing that will remain constant.” Anthony J.D Angelo Founder of Collegiate Empowerment & Author
Over the last weeks ChatGPT and Natural Language Models of Artificial Intelligence have created a real buzz for many in the technology industry and general media. For schools the arrival of these have generated important reflections and introspection on the role of AI, Chatbots and Natural Language Models in schools and the classroom. ChatGPT bringing on important moments to think about the role #AI in a classroom- schools. How does this refocus and challenge educators pedagogy, which can often in schools be focused on teaching content -knowledge with assessments designed around tests and exams.
We as educators and schools need to invite ourselves to ask what then is the value added proposition of learning in a classroom and school in the age of #AI #ChatGPT3. How do schools position themselves for a future with #AI. We all need to create the space, time, and support community voices to engage with this creative tension. To find the time and space, and hear these voices, will only allow us to be better prepared for such cohabitation.
Over the years working in different international schools as an IT Director, Director eLearning, Head of Education and Media Technology and Deputy Principal I have had the opportunity to lead, design and collaborate with Leadership Teams and IT Teams the implementation and adoption of digital ecosystems and environments. These experiences have been an important point of reference in my own learning and understanding on the complexities, challenges and opportunities of leading technology change in a international school setting.
I had the privilege to be able to collaborate and co-write this eGuide with Adam Morris who is Schools Technology & Integrations Director @ FariaOne Group. A special thank you goes out to the Managebac team who provided us with support and guidance throughout the process. As the group worked and collaborated together on the eGuide Adam and I had the opportunity to each reference our own professional experiences working, coaching and supporting schools around the world with leading technology change.
The guide is a a point of reference to support conversations, reflections and how to engage with technology change with a whole school approach. It is there to provide provocations, points of reference on change and the workflows and dispositions to consider as one engages in a technology change process with a whole school approach https://guide.fariaedu.com/leading-technology-
I am here sharing from a series by the IT Library Department colleagues called Digital Life a series for parents. This a concept managed and hosted by colleague Nancy and the Communications team. This session we explore and focus on screen time and some of the dilemmas we all juggle both parents, student and staff. All credit, resources, and inspiration goes to https://tacticaltech.org/#/ and https://datadetoxkit.org/en/home who over the last couple years have been an outstanding resource, and guide for a lot of the work I get to facilitate with colleagues at school. In this session I share what are the different types of screen times and some ideas on exploring strategies to consider.
With the unprecedented experience of COVID19 that we all have juggled over the last months, and the complexities we all are living with today, our days have been intense. As part of the Pearl of Wisdom protocol of the Principal Training Center, I, as a trainer at the PTC reflected on my own experience as an education leader working and facilitating with digital literacy and fluency in an international school setting and navigating the dynamics of the COVID19 pandemic. A 20 minute share out.
As the first days of 2018 arrive, any reflections on last year seem to contain an uncomfortable rawness because of the events continuously populating our devices – the immediacy, brutality and complexity of a world fueled by-“FakeNews?”, each one of us trying to construct a context in the “Filter Bubble” choreographed by algorithms from which we build a sense of the world we live in.
As International School educators, we straddle between the walled garden of “school” and the outside “world”. The reality is that we are surrounded by constant change and ambiguity. But there is a gap between the accelerated rate of change and our capacity to adapt to it. For some, the gap is wide. For others, the gap stays the same, and for a few, the gap is narrowing. How we interpret and engage with the gap and our own capacity to keep up influences many of our feelings and emotions. These in turn fuel the perceptions, opinions and behaviors with which we express ourselves.
International Schools have to juggle the fine line between ensuring students and parents are pleased and ensuring that they feel safe, challenged and cared for. In the unique world of International Schools, a percentage of parents come from a comfortable socio- economic environment. Often times, their education is a contributing factor to their current positions. This education provided the opportunities for their successes and their economic prosperity. Living with this becomes a strong marker in what International School parents believe their children should get from an education and an International School. This pedagogic reference point in many cases 25+ years old. The world was avery verydifferent place then. However we try as schools to innovate, change and adapt, we do this with a level of caution and reservation. At the end of the day, the invisible mandate between parents and international schools, is “provide my child with stability, continuity, what I remember from my school days and more certainty then I have in my life today“.
As educators, we fall into a similar narrative. We have a desire for of stability, continuity, and more certainty than in the outside world we interact with. We do innovate and change in our schools, but the presence of the invisible mandate between our parents and schools influences the level by which we break the status quo.
Today the level of stability, continuity, and certainty that we were once used to has eroded. Uncertainty, ambiguity and volatility are an unavoidable part of the day. The complexity of this change permeates into everyone’s lives, and often not by choice.
2018, is an opportunity to embrace the world’s uncertainty, ambiguity and volatility, not as something eroding our past and challenging our present, but as an opportunity to re-frame the possibilities in front of us as a unique and rich learning journey. We have a responsibility to take this on in our roles as mentors, facilitators and educators. We bring a wisdom, resilience and care that has served us well and can continue to serve us today. Many of our students will one day be International School parents or educators who look back at their education as a point of reference for their own success. The measures will be different. We live in a world where uncertainty, ambiguity and volatility are part of our lives. We should not depend on reference points from our past to give us stability, continuity and certainty. Thegapfor many will still get bigger and more uncomfortable. But hopefully, in 2018, we can work to bridge that gap as well.
Every year has its moments, and 2016 was no exception. Various significant shifts occurred, including changes in the political landscape in the United States, United Kingdom, and other countries around the globe. And the horrors of war, civil strife, terrorism and an underlying global tension have been constantly fed into our digital lives from the comfort of our screens.
As we consume the aggregated algorithmic social network feeds, each customized to ensure we get what we want to digest, we are choreographed into a more divisive world.
Information is power. This year, the pollsters, news agencies, and pundits got caught out with two big votes, and so many predictions seemed off.
Our landscape of information has entered a level of Orwellian curation, and what is news, fact, or reality seems dictated by emotion and perspectives constructed from our own curated news feeds. They are rarely factual. “Post Truth” – Oxford English Dictionary Names ‘Post-Truth’ Word of the Year by Jon Blistein is the word that defines these moments and a shift to a new narrative.
For many of us, this Orwellian curation has us struggling to distinguish fact from fiction. The level of sophistication of not only the algorithms but how these are manipulated to shift thinking is the new power. In schools, we are being told by various studies that our students capacity for media and information literacy is weak. (Students Have ‘Dismaying’ Inability To Tell Fake News From Real, Study Finds by Camila Domonoske ). When you consider we as adults struggle with this landscape, it is no surprise that our students struggle too.
In a world of algorithms where the sophisticated digital curation of social media, news, blogs, and video feeds can be manipulated to match an individual’s perspective, the challenges we face as educators are immense. This manipulation, shared in this sobering article “ Google, democracy and the truth about internet search by Carole Cadwalladr“, highlights the complexity of being truly media literate. The prevalence of third party curation in social media feeds during elections highlighted in this article “Macedonia’s fake news industry sets sights on Europe by: Andrew Byrne” emphasis the challenges we all face in understanding what is “real” news.
To be complacent is short-sighted in a school setting. There is a tendency with school professional development to not explicitly address the digital reality that engulfs our lives as an essential part of our professional learning. Information and Media literacy are what frame our own democratic values: choice, perspective, empathy, resilience, and critical thinking. If we as educators are going to assign students critical thinking tasks and ask them to engage with media and information while juggling screen time in a complex digital landscape, we cannot be passive bystanders.
As school leaders, we need to re-frame our engagement with the role of digital life in professional development. Together, we need to understand the complexity and impact of algorithmic information flows on our devices.
We also need dedicated spaces for this professional learning. We must learn how to mentor information flows, authenticate media, source perspectives, and understand the pedagogic impact of a curated news. We must approach this with patience and empathy, and allow everyone to build an understanding of the digital flows we live by, tapping into the talent of our librarians and digital coaches as guides. We must take advantage of the frameworks available to us (e.g: #1 or #2) and use them ourselves, as a point of reference for a pedagogic consensus on how to mentor our school community.
The paradigm shift asks us to look at Digital Intelligence as a core intelligence. As defined by http://www.projectdq.org: “- the sum of social, emotional, and cognitive abilities essential to digital life.” and shared out in the World Economic Forum article: “8 digital life skills all children need – and a plan for teaching them“.
Digital Intelligence needs to be woven into the curriculum. We do this on a daily basis with all other aspects of the curriculum. Let us do it with Digital Intelligence. Re-structure the focus and content to explicitly encompass screen-time management, privacy management, cyber security management, digital footprints, and digital identity; use these to make authentic connections based on our experiences. Then, reflect on our digital habits, likes, tensions, questions and understandings to create activities to share. In this process, we should hope to find comfort in being honest with our own vulnerabilities. We can then use this life-learning to support our students’ understanding of digital intelligence.
Being explicit about implementing Digital Intelligence in faculty professional learning ensures this is an essential part of our educators professional growth. Working together, as adults learners, we need to harness the complexity of the choreographed digital world. By ensuring this is in our professional learning landscape, we are then empowered to share our digital intelligence to students. It is the only way to counter an Orwellian curation of information in a “post truth” world.
Beyond Digital 
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