Science fiction or reality?
Just may be Al Gore is a prophet.
Not the ‘dressed in sackcloth carrying a placard’ kind of prophet, but a well-researched, connected and experienced author.
In 2013 Gore uttered these words, “There is no prior period of change that remotely resembles what humanity is about to experience. We have gone through revolutionary periods before, but not as the one beginning to unfold now.”
He was right. It is here.
The AI Era is upon us, and it is transforming every facet of life, including education. If you think I am just referring to the release of ChatGPT and the risk of students cheating, think again. Watch this clip.
If that doesn’t blow your mind, then watch this clip.
All this has happened in the last 18months since the release of ChatGPT 3.0. What will AI look like next year when ChatGPT 5.0 is released?
We are living in the Age of Accelerations, a term coined by Thomas Friedman in his book, "Thank you for Being Late". He suggests that the changes occurring are now accelerating at such a rate that we can’t keep up.
After watching those two YouTube clips it isn’t a stretch to imagine that in the next few years teachers will be redundant.
The OECD is well aware of the race between technology and education.
The following diagram produced by the OECD illustrates what has happened between the intersection of technology and education during previous revolutions, the industrial revolution and the more recent digital revolution. It took education several decades to catch up to the disruption technological advances made, and during that time there was social pain.
The OECD knows that education is a very slow moving beast and incremental changes are never going to bring us a period of prosperity unless something radical occurs.
But what is that radical thing? And does it need to be radical?
The World Economic Forum has been on the ball as well as Al Gore and the OECD. They state that 50% of all employees will need reskilling by 2025—that’s by next year! The top five skills on the rise are:
1.??????? Creative thinking
2.??????? Analyical thinking
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3.??????? Technological thinking
4.??????? Curiousity and life-long learning
5.??????? Resilience, flexibility and agility.
The OECD supports this assertion. They state that:
“Creativity and critical thinking are needed to find solutions to complex problems”
The OCED says, "Technology influences how we think about human intelligence and the demand for the types and level of skills needed for the future. Over recent decades, computer-controlled equipment has replaced workers in a wide range of jobs that consist of routine tasks – tasks that follow well-defined procedures that can easily be expressed in computer code. Most routine work, such as repetitive calculating, typing or sorting, and production tasks that revolve around performing repetitive motions, have been automated since the early 1980s. At around the same time, the demand for non-routine interpersonal and analytical skills increased dramatically. The explanation is straightforward: as computer technologies have displaced labour in routine tasks, they have also created new employment opportunities for workers with non-routine cognitive skills, such as creativity, and social and emotional skills. Non-routine manual jobs at first declined in number then plateaued at a baseline level, an indication that there remains some demand for the products and services these jobs provide."
Alarmed yet? I hope so.
But wait, there’s more worrying news.
Creativity is the top skill needed, but as Sir Ken Robinson stated back in 2007, “schools kill creativity”.
The term creaticide has been coined by other researchers and academics to describe, “The murder of creativity in the American education system comes from dogmatic adherence to accountability initiatives drive by widespread, high-stakes measurement of superficial, narrow abilities through standardized testing” (Beliner, 2012).
I might be sounding like a doomsday prophet myself right now, and in a real sense I do want you to be worried. But there is good news. The educational shift needed is available and it isn't radical.
I do believe schools will exist in the future, as will teachers. But what will change is the role of the teacher and what is taught to ensure a young person is equipped with the skills and dispositions to thrive in the AI era. That education has to be holistic, about the development of character and the teaching of the skills needed for the jobs of next year (as the World Economic Forum predicts).
All these skills and dispositions can be found in our current curriculum documents, but as you can see from the below figure, there currently exists no pedagogies and no assessment of them. And that's the problem.
But good people are working to solve this problem.
The work of Professor Sandra Milligan and the team at the New Metrics Program at the University of Melbourne will transform assessment and reporting in the next few years. Learner Profiles are coming and will replace ATAR.
Is your school ready?
ViVEDUS is doing just the same. We are about supporting schools with the pedagogies and assessment tools (created in partnership with the University of Melbourne) to change the learning focus and fill the gap. What we offer isn’t a seismic shift. It is a teaching and learning framework, professional growth and progression tool and learner profile that closes the gap between technology and education.
The Vivedus AI enabled platform makes the journey to an education worth having simple.
Beliner, D.C. (2012) Narrowing curriculum, assessment and conceptions of what it means to be smart in the US schools: Creaticide by design.
Assistant Principal with a passion for helping students develop self-efficacy, purpose, creativity & identity, and engaging staff in individual and collective professional learning, wellbeing & sustainability.
5 个月The joy of working in a school is knowing that each day we are privileged to lead a community of young people who are filled with the most amazing potential. We have opportunities to nurture these young lives, helping them foster a growth mindset, whilst developing skills, talents and a strong sense of purpose and identity. Teachers don’t ever underestimate your value and the difference you make. We often don’t see the fruits of our labour, but know that the seeds you water last a lifetime, because somewhere in this world are thriving, purpose-driven adults who were once those young people in your classroom/learning space, who you taught, who remembers the kind words of encouragement you gave, who inspired them to grow. AI is a wonderful tool in my opinion, but it is just that, a tool that can not replace the importance of human connection. As school leaders we just need to ensure we are continually equipping ourselves in this fast paced world and providing relevant training for our staff to equip students for a future that is in a state of continual change. Embracing change is exciting and not something to fear.
FACE, FACELQ
5 个月I too was going to comment on relationship and relationships and what schools are? They are relationship and community centres almost as much as they are places of learning. Unprecedented change is coming but I am very wary of calamitous thinking at the moment. Thoughtful and agile flexibility yes but feeding into the rhetoric of big AI makes me very concerned.
Organisational Leadership and Strategy Development and Service Excellence especially as a confidential probono person
5 个月Of course we all will need to continue to learn Skilled learning facilitators are needed Process is important as well as content
RETIRED Senior Lecturer
5 个月You lost me at Ken Robinson’s throwaway line. Simply, the vast, vast majority of the most creative people … went to school. In a more reasoned approach, in his book, The Element, Robinson recognised that individual teachers sometimes don’t recognise the talent that students have. But he never said that the creativity of these people were killed. One of the most powerful examples in the book is Paul McCartney. Was his creativity killed? No way! I’d love to read an educational leader who actually recognises the great work schools do.
Director of Knowledge Services / Head of Creative Industries at St Andrew's Anglican College
5 个月Absolutely, but teachers will need to embody the qualities that make our most admired and influential educators memorable. The ability to form powerful and deeply caring relationships with students, to truly understand and advocate for their learners, is paramount. While my own children are enhancing their content knowledge with custom-built GPT tutors, their true learning and enjoyment come from those exceptional teachers who genuinely care. These teachers provide personalised feedback, notice their students beyond the classroom, and foster a sense of belonging. These enduring skills have always defined great teaching, and in this era of rapid change, they should be more prominent than ever.