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
Cybersecurity is a multifaceted and complex issue, particularly in today’s world where a significant portion of our time, information, and lives are tied to digital devices, both for personal and professional purposes. It is increasingly crucial to possess a basic understanding and knowledge of securing one’s devices and managing digital security. For schools, the stakes are particularly high, and developing a solid cybersecurity plan is a critical aspect of managing the risks associated with digital devices in this day and age.
Recently, Dan Taylor, the host of the #internationalschoolpodcast, and I, the co-host, had an opportunity to discuss cybersecurity in schools, with a particular emphasis on international schools. Both of us have a keen interest in this subject, and Dan has been actively supporting international schools with Google Education Workspace’s robust security tools and processes. He has a genuine passion for this topic and has been doing a lot of work in this area. Meanwhile, I have facilitated workshops for parents, created videos and educator sessions, and worked with groups that provide one-on-one support and workshops to seniors focused on navigating digital ecosystems and devices.
In our discussion, Dan prepared an excellent slide presentation for the ECIS Leadership Conference, which he used to facilitate workshops for school leaders. We took the opportunity to share our perspectives and experiences, offering tips and strategies for school leaders to consider. Podcast version also available here
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.
Glaucia Rosas co-founder and Director of the https://edutecalliance.com/ invited me to sit down and share some reflections on her podcast about Educational Technology, Online Learning and juggling General Data Protection in a School setting.
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.
Disruption for many people generates discomfort, shakes the status quo and breaks routines. We all have an emotional response to this process: for some hesitation, doubt, confusion, fear, anger, bewilderment, and for others excitement, rejuvenation, inspiration, motivation and energizing or a combination of the above.
The Digital Disruption Has Already Happened” image on twitter challenged my own thinking, and as I unpacked this with a group of students we all had to take time to unravel what this meant to us. After a healthy discussion we came to a common understanding that each of these companies generated a “disruption” armed with ideas and models that completely reshape the economic contract of the business world. The disruption challenged a set of expectations, routines and structures, thus redefining what it means to provide a particular service. In the process, the relationship between worker, employer, customer and their social contracts was also redefined. As these models of disruption become part of our economic ecosystem, a whole new paradigm faces us. A good example of this process is featured in this article “The Last Kodak Moment?” (Economist)
As the students and I further discussed what this means to us here in the classroom, we started realizing a distinct disconnect between the objectives and outcomes of our learning in school and the reality that this image represents. There are two worlds working in very different realms with no clear bridge creating a meaningful authentic connection between them. As one student shared after seeing this video in class, “mmm I find it odd that we are not learning how to make these things in school, or understand how they work or maybe fix them.”
Yes, the world around us is changing rapidly, very rapidly, we know this, we are aware of this, we state this, and are impacted by this daily. However, our role is often that of the passive consumer, unconsciously sucked in by the addictive seamless convenience of the services these disruptions deliver. In our passivity and growing dependence we seem willing to sideline a more critical reflection of what this disruption is doing to us. The engines of this disruption: creativity, machine learning, algorithms, and innovation are driving the ecosystems which are quickly becoming non negotiables with our work and social flows. These disruptions are inevitable and not bad or good, they are part of today’s economic narrative that impacts us all locally and globally.
But in the bubble of “school” there is a sense that it is okay not to engage with this concretely, giving ourselves permission to continue focusing on learning objectives and outcomes tied to a past. As Michael Wesch shares in this TedTalk: From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able, what we teach, what we engage as “musts” as part of the learning contract are disconnected from the pressing realities surrounding us. This lack of authentic connection and scaffolding which should provide the skills and cognitive capacity to critically engage with the rapidly changing world are watered down to suit our own educational comfort zone and established routines, which have worked so well for us in the past.
Schools are keen to talk about teaching to students’ future and as George Couros share in his book ” Innovators Mindset”, its all our future and all of us need to understand and engage with it concretely, not just the kids. Education rhetoric is rich with 21 century skills terminology and on the surface we are okay to dabble with some ideas and changes, but not at the level where we truly have taken on a deep understanding as educators about what this disruption is doing to our world and how we can act as concierges of learning. We need to ensure our students are not simply consumers of the disruption but empowered creators and active participants of the disruption.
A disruption needs to occur in schools with professional development. In a video by Frank Barrett in the Harvard Business Review “To Innovate, Disrupt Your Routine” he highlights the importance of leaders ability to engage in a process where routines are disrupted to generate opportunities for creativity. As an example he uses the wonderful analogy of Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue album and the disruption he facilitated, disrupting routines which had the group enter a discomfort and then supporting them to create something new that changed the face of Jazz.
It is often the case, and I am generalizing here, that professional development in schools is focused on pedagogy framed by comfort zones that generate no disruption, learning framed with limited clear connections to the real world, lecture style delivery, and bulleted PowerPoints squeezed at the end of a long day of work. This dynamic can generate a level of disconnect, cynicism and passivity by participants, and dilutes the connection between what we teach and how we tie learning to be authentic and connected to the pressing realities surrounding us.
School leaders need to first disrupt their own professional development. They also need to be bold and challenge their own comfort zones. Through this act, we then experience first hand the process described by Frank Barrett in the Harvard Business Review, and will be willing to mentor leadership teams and faculty to go through a similar process with explicit support and care. If we are going to lead and disrupt our routines to engage in a process where we innovate and create then educators need time, space, support, empathy, and meaningful scaffolding. With this we build the capacity to disrupt their own thinking and internalize how they can take ownership with the process. We need to disrupt professional development learning outcomes, so as to be able to craft a learning narrative connected to a world driven by a new economic reality; one framed by creativity, algorithms, machine learning and innovation. Through this process we can then facilitate a culture where educators become active participants of the pressing realities surrounding us and lead and mentor learning with authentic and meaningful connections to the world of disruptions we are living in.
We cannot expect to authentically connect our students’ learning environments with the rich tapestry of the world of economic disruptions without giving ourselves permission to disrupt ourselves first and shift our professional learning discourse to unpack, synthesis, connect and craft learning outcomes that explicitly provide meaningful opportunities for us to make sense of constant disruptive change, and from there as concierges of learning, choreograph an authentic learning landscape for students. “Disrupt me!”
There is a belief that children nowadays are natural, “Digital Natives”, and that we adults on the sidelines are “Digital Immigrants”. The dexterity and comfort many children demonstrate when interacting with digital devices and social media tools generates this image of them being “naturals”. This in turn contributes to the sense of disconnect between the so called “Digital Natives” and “Digital Immigrants”.
In reaction to this sense of disconnect and divide, educators often restrict access to technology, keep the screens out of the classroom, or tightly dictate the parameters of its use on their own terms. This is often done in an effort to dampen the disconnect we feel when trying to understand the students’ perspectives.
Often, parents and teachers express a sense of having to “catch up” or “keep up” with children’s adeptness at using digital tools and environments. There is a feeling that a race is on, and somehow as adults we have the odds stacked against us.
Children are not born digital natives, they are born digital consumers. A child’s first encounter with digital devices and environments will be framed by their parent’s digital use: a mom walking with the stroller whilst talking on her phone, listening to her music player, or checking a social media post; a father texting while giving his child a bath; parents watching a video on their tablet, searching on their phones as they feed their child, checking email or wall posts while their kid watches from the stroller at a restaurant. These daily routines are part of our growing fractured attention – being here but actually somewhere else. This behaviour quickly frames the context and role of the devices in our relationships, as well as their role in communication and day to day actions. Children from a very early age are the audience to our digital behaviors. Children start constructing their own understanding of digital devices and their role in response to our actions. They use this experience as a guide, most often subconsciously at a young age, and ultimately frame their own interactions based on what they have seen.
As children start interacting with the digital devices, be it on their own or with ones shared by a sibling or parent, they are in consumption mode. This consumption often becomes the source of their relationship with these digital devices and ecosystems – playing a game, watching a video, chatting, posting, and searching. Often the experience can be a solitary one, disconnected from physical reality. The device becomes a babysitter, a tool to give parents a break, or an opportunity to allow us to have a split attention.
Yes, so-called digital natives are very adept at using devices and quickly working out the tools they provide. The strategy is one of press, try, press, click, try again. They have a sandbox mentality when it comes to exploring technology. Anything is okay, as long as the child is making progress. It is this blind capacity to forge ahead, try, and try again with a fail forward philosophy that throws us off as adults. For many of us, the point of reference is a more linear approach to problem solving, working sequentially and sometimes with more hesitation than blind confidence.
This difference should not be our exit card from the need to engage with children and digital device use. We as adults have a responsibility to be active participants in the digital device journey of children, both at home and at school. We have a responsibility to choreograph concrete strategies where we become active participants and guides. This starts with us understanding and being mindful of our own use, and how digital devices are tethered to our day to day workflows. We need to consciously reflect on how our own behaviors frame the context of digital device usage for our children.
The social media and digital ecosystems we have are the environment of our age. Throughout time there have been repeated instances where new technologies come into play, and a generation gravitates to these. This divide between the current generation of users and adults is one that has occurred time and time again – with the telephone, the radio, and television, just to name a few. The process of learning and adapting to these new cognitive interactions is part of being human. We frame our use of technology on human emotions, understandings and aspirations. Our role as mentors, educators and parents is to nurture these human emotions, as well as the aspirations of our children, as active partners.
As adults, being a proactive partner in learning with a child creates a rich opportunity for both to understand the shared experience. The partnership provides language development through the conversations between the adult and child. Unpacking the context together and developing an ability for questions and comprehension is part of the process we use to construct new understanding. For adults these are precious moments. With our own development of this relationship, we scaffold a vital critical thinking experience for the child. This gives us a unique opportunity to understand the child’s experience. Throughout the ages, the sharing of knowledge and experience between adult and child has been an essential part of the building blocks of relationships between different generations.
Moving kids away from a consumer model with digital devices requires guidance and inspiration. What they are doing and how is more important than what digital device they are using. As adults, we can curate these experiences and provide inspiration by modeling less of a swipe and point consumption philosophy. By doing so, we would encourage children to engage with critical thinking skills through creative content and inspire them to get excited about creative problem solving.
With our society’s nearly ubiquitous access to digital devices, why have we as adults disengaged with the changes? Is our own digital consumption numbing our ability to find inspiration? Parenting is still parenting, be it in an online or offline environment. Children are still children. It boils down to our willingness to carve out the time. The world does not need a growing population of digital devices consumers. The world we live in is hungry for critical thinkers who are engaged in creative problem solving and in leveraging digital devices and ecosystems in a way that might create a more connected society.
Beyond Digital 
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