The AI Gap is widening.... fast

Being at the forefront of AI technology and AI has meant that I have seen the adoption of this technology firsthand over the years, months and days. In my own education career, gaps are always something that I see and try to close - Gender gaps (girls out performing boys in early and middle education), attainment gap analysis between subjects and between schools, gaps between academic success and socio-economic background.... equality is not easy.

What is currently concerning though, is that I am noticing a huge divide start to appear in the use, ideas and implementation of AI in education. Firstly, I am aware I am in my own social media echo chamber however I see a lot of amazing practice and projects every day. Bit I can see that there is a divide that is widening quickly. The early adopters have taken leaps and ideas and developed them so fast and with such an immediate impact that others are already being left in the dust. The interesting part is that the equity is there, everyone can spin up AI projects and access the tools however the speed at which school systems, schools and educators are adopting this technology is night and day.

The wait and seers

"Let's wait and see how this technology matures". While we are waiting, we are also seeing our teachers already purchasing their own subscriptions to ChatGPT and numerous other consumer services and using them in the classroom. We need to lead in this AI era. The divide between those who use generative AI and those that don't are already starting to appear. Some schools are already using new technology such as Microsoft Fabric and previewing the new features and tools. Some don't have a data platform or strategy in place at all. Some haven't even started moving to the cloud where all the goodness happens. So many schools and teachers are missing out on a lot, and lets not even go down the path of student agency. Top tip : pleas stop using AI detectors, they don't work. Let's really use this tech as a truly transformative opportunity to get rid of standardized assessment.

My data isn't ready yet

Having worked in Education all my career, I don't think the data will ever be ready. As Ray Fleming says "Is it better to have impact now with the data at 80% or to wait for 3 years for the data to be organised?". The truth is with Generative AI data doesn't need to be ready and structured. Now is the time to make sure your data platform team are looking at AI and getting up to speed on the new technologies but using growth mindset to step away from their SQL databases and think beyond this architecture. This is a paradigm shift for many so be gentle but also go fast. Business leaders need to take some of the AI use cases to them and start to get use cases spun up. Yes, security and privacy are vitally important there is no doubt but so is the impact that this technology can have quickly.

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How can we close the gap?

We need to bring everyone on the Generative AI journey. We need to share use cases: Lesson planning for Special Education need students, Creating rubrics, discourse with historical characters, essay writing from image prompts. The list goes on. Involve everyone in your school : Teachers, Students, Admin, Senior leaders, Parents. Show them the tech such as Bing Chat for Enterprise and let them loose for an hour.

Be prompt, skilling

AI and specifically prompt engineering is a skill to learn. Make sure you share learning resources with your team. Can you prompt AI well? Remember AI is your sous chef and not a microwave: Chris Goodall shared this analogy and I love it, Bing not ding! Have you played with image generators beyond a Guinea pig eating cereal on a trampoline?

AI for education: Resources and learning

Immerse yourself with these AI Super Heroes to follow and share as many ideas with your network as you can:

Ethan Mollick - (99+) Ethan Mollick | LinkedIn

Chris Goodall: (99+) Chris Goodall | LinkedIn

Dan Fitzpatrick - (99+) Dan (The AI Educator) Fitzpatrick | LinkedIn

Dr Nick Jackson - (99+) Dr Nick Jackson | LinkedIn

Joe Dale: (99+) Joe Dale | LinkedIn

Ray Fleming: (99+) Ray Fleming | LinkedIn

Katie Ford: (99+) Katie Ford | LinkedIn

I will keep sharing my thoughts and ideas about the Digital AI divide and would love to hear yours.

On our own we go quickly but when we go together we go far.