We must educate ourselves, and our children, to be in a position to be rationally sceptical of technological hype. As a society, we need some inoculation against magical technological thinking. But where do teachers and schools start? Without a background in Artificial Intelligence, how can we expect teachers to inoculate our kids against the hype? How do we teach them to be more savvy and compassionate consumers and makers of technology? That’s where we come in. Laura Summers from Debias AI and Dr Linda McIver from the Australian Data Science Education Institute are putting together a teacher’s guide to AI, but we need your help to make sure the guide is exactly what you need. To that end we’ve put together a survey. We would love it if you could fill it out and share it with all of your teacher friends.
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Learning to be wrong
When you penalise wrong answers, you build in a sense of shame and failure to being wrong that most people never get over. It leads to cheating, to covering up of mistakes, and to avoiding doing things where being wrong is a possibility. How about, instead, we make it the default that you assume that you will be wrong in numerous ways. We make it a fundamental part of the process to figure out those ways, and even reward the finding of those mistakes. In doing so, we give people the freedom to explore, to try new things, and, above all, to learn without fear.
Rule me out
I get that we can't go questioning all the rules all of the time, because we'd never get anything done. But if there is something that would make your life easier, healthier, or more fun, and it wouldn't harm anyone, but it's "not the done thing", maybe ask yourself whether you could make it the done thing, simply by doing it!
What really matters
When I founded the Australian Data Science Education Institute in 2018, I was really excited about using authentic datasets and meaningful problems to engage kids with STEM skills, particularly programming. The deeper I go into this work, though, the more I realise that the value of meaningful problems and real datasets is not that it… Continue reading What really matters
How rank are rankings?
Which students would you choose to have with you in a crisis? Students with a high ATAR, or students who showed compassion, creativity, and problem solving skills? Students who are good at sitting exams, or students who show determination, persistence, and integrity? Some of the best people I know never finished school at all.