From equity to AI: Experts share ideas on making learning more effective this school year

Welcome to a special edition of the College, Careers & You newsletter, featuring timely ideas from LinkedIn's newest Top Voices in education.

By Josh M. Carney and George Anders

Back-to-school this year means back to the drawing board for education professionals. With educators facing a unique set of challenges following the Supreme Court overturning affirmative action and the rapid adoption of generative chatbots, leaders across the industry are rethinking paths to a quality education and sizing up ways for emerging technology to make learning more approachable.

We spoke with Top Voices across the education sector about how technological disruption can empower students, help teachers streamline their work and prepare the next generation of workers for technical careers.?

Below are their takeaways. Share your own in the comments.

Generative AI chatbots can become personalized tutors

In an April TED Talk, former Wall Street analyst Sal Khan championed the idea of giving every student access to an AI-based tutor. As the founder of a virtual tutoring company, he’s been at the forefront of scaling one-to-one learning for years. Now his company is developing a generative AI chatbot, Khanmigo, which he says can answer questions in a broader and richer way than tech tools have historically been able to do.

“You can ask [Khanmigo], ‘why do I need to learn this?’ or ‘how does this connect to that concept that we learned last week?’ to fine tune and make sure you understand it conceptually,” he says. His team’s preliminary user research indicates that generative AI tools may keep kids more engaged as they learn. Some students prefer asking the AI a question, he says, “because they feel less stigma, less embarrassment and they also don’t feel like they’re wasting someone’s time.”

Yet for all the promise surrounding the rapid adoption of generative tools in the learning space, potential risks to students can’t be ignored. Ensuring these tools are safe is paramount, Khan notes. There’s even a second layer of AI within Khanmigo that moderates conversations, and “if anything seems shady,” he says, it can alert teachers and parents for students under the age of 18.

Despite all the ways that generative AI tools can make personalized learning more accessible and efficient, Khan believes that “teaching is actually one of the safest jobs” as new technology disrupts many industries. These types of tools will “magnify the importance of the human element” in teaching, he says, because educators will have more time to dedicate to hands-on instruction, experiential learning and relationship building with their students.?

?? Check out more of Sal Khan's insights on how generative AI will impact learning.

AI can help reduce teachers' administrative burden

Teachers’ weeks start on Sunday, not Monday, due to the time required to prepare for class, says Amanda Bickerstaff. As a former teacher herself, she knows first-hand how that administrative burden can cause fatigue — which is why she turned to a generative AI chatbot to brainstorm ways to be more efficient outside the classroom. “My first ever prompt was ‘write me a rubric,’” she says, “and it changed my life.”

Bickerstaff quickly realized that this technology could help teachers reduce the time spent preparing for class and re-apply it to working directly with their students, which led her to found a company focused on making AI more accessible for educators. “There’s a real opportunity” to make teachers’ roles more efficient, she says, so they “can focus on what matters, which is the classroom.” With quality lesson plans and detailed rubrics becoming “table stakes” as generative AI chatbots become widely accessible, Bickerstaff believes teachers will be able to better respond to student needs and ensure they’re getting the most out of their time in the classroom.

Bickerstaff taught 125 students when she was an educator in the Bronx, where oversized classes made it hard to deliver personalized feedback. Students want to be “seen and heard,” she says, and building that trust “can be really hard to do, especially with students who have special needs or for marginalized communities.” If AI can save time on administrative tasks, teachers will have more hours to develop those relationships.??

But the technology is also being used by students outside the classroom, forcing educators to rethink their approach to teaching. With chatbots producing essays in a matter of seconds, “you can’t have business as usual,” Bickerstaff says, which means teachers will have to develop “AI-resistant” ways of assessing students in the classroom. “This is not just a step change, but a magnitude change,” Bickerstaff says. “Being ready to be flexible, to listen and learn, and be comfortable with discomfort is going to be very important.”

?? Check out more of Amanda Bickerstaff's insights on how educators can best utilize generative AI tools.

Expanding technical training opens doors to advanced roles

Marnie Hazelton, the superintendent of Englewood, New Jersey's public schools, is entering her first year at the helm of a district with approximately 2,900 students. Her district’s high school does double-duty – offering both a typical curriculum and a preparatory academy with specialized courses. “Depending on who you talk to, some people feel that we have two separate high schools — separate but unequal,” she says. “I have been charged with leveling out that equity” so all students receive a high-quality education.

Just as Hazelton took over leading the district in June, education professionals across the U.S. began facing a similar dilemma when the Supreme Court overturned affirmative action, which prevented colleges and universities from factoring race into their admissions processes: How can you ensure equitable access to a quality education?

Hazelton, who says she directly benefited from affirmative action, emphasizes the value of preparing students for today’s high-paying, tech-driven careers. “As educators, we are charged with preparing our students to be able to enter the [technology] field,” which is why she says preparing for these roles begins with exposing students to these skills early: “I believe in experiential learning.”

She wants to expand her high school’s computer science offerings, bring in a drone operation program and more — but she can’t find qualified teachers. To that end, Hazelton says it's critical for schools and companies to partner with teacher preparation programs so the next generation of educators can train students for emerging roles. Without investing in the professional development of teachers, and involving them in the strategy for their own professional development, Hazelton says marginalized students will continue to be at a disadvantage in the job market.

?? Check out more of Marnie Hazelton’s insights on expanding equitable access to education.

How experiential learning can strengthen higher education

The value proposition for higher education is at a crossroads, says Kaplan executive Brandon Busteed, whose job at the education services firm focuses on the relationship between learning and working. “The biggest issue with higher ed is the lack of work readiness of college graduates,” he says. With costs continuing to climb, institutions must build what he calls the “services infrastructure” — which integrates real-world scenarios into curriculums, helps connect students to potential career paths and prioritizes internship programs to prepare them for today’s careers.

He believes a combination of applied learning and investments in advising will be the connective tissue that helps students realize the value of higher education. Busteed points to companies such as Riipen, an online marketplace for coursework that embeds real-world scenarios in lesson plans, as an example of organizations that are emerging to help expose students to potential career paths of interest. “We need to give [students] more exposure to what happens in different jobs,” he says.

In the age of AI chatbots, he believes human advising on campuses will be even more critical. “We still need a lot of old-fashioned advising for students around understanding different careers, jobs and industries,” says Busteed, who claims he’s never had more business demand for human advising than he does right now. Chatbots can help get career conversations rolling by answering basic initial questions — and therefore free up time to strategize and reason with an adviser.?

Applied coursework and consistent advising are the building blocks for what Busteed believes is the main catalyst for experiential learning: Internships. When a small private university’s board asked him for his advice on mandating internships for graduating students, he recommended that it be a requirement — supported by either academic credit or a stipend from a fund raised by the school. While about 40% of current college students in the U.S. have participated in an internship, he thinks making it a part of the curriculum is how institutions can scale workforce preparedness. “The number one reason why Americans value higher education is to get a good or better job,” Busteed says.

?? Check out more of Brandon Busteed’s insights on preparing students for the workforce.

About this article

This article features education experts from LinkedIn's Top Voices program sharing their best advice for managing the unique opportunities and challenges facing industry professionals at the start of this academic year. Top Voices is an invitation-only program featuring a global group of experts on LinkedIn covering a range of topics across the professional world, helping members uncover valuable knowledge relevant to them. You can learn more here.

Who is eligible to be a Top Voice

LinkedIn members who meet high trust standards, are consistently active on the platform and share valuable expertise are eligible to be a Top Voice, with the exception of LinkedIn and Microsoft employees, members who have violated LinkedIn’s User Agreement — including our Professional Community Policies — or individuals currently running in a political election for an executive, legislative or judicial position.

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