“”I no longer accept anything that is not perfectly written at this stage. Why Bother?” Like Mollock, Fuentes and Hick, Educators are finding that these Generative AI tools make our students far more skilled and efficient writers. They are also finding that, where producing essays were once seen as essential to helping students gain mastery in critical thinking and analytical and writing skills, the AI provides students equal and even better opportunities to engage with a topic, gather and analyse information and express their own ideas and arguments. The future of writing in schools will evolve into a more diverse set of activites, depending on the goals and comfort level of the teacher.” (Khan, 1:34:21)

With a play on Huxley’s Brave New World, Sal Khan’s “Brave New Words” provides a strong history, context and then futures of what learning and education can be with the integration of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI). He begins the book referencing three science fiction pieces: “The Diamond Age”, “Enders Game”, and “The Fun They Had” by Asimov. All three of these books prophecy that digital and social technology, when meaningfully, and seamlessly integrated into education, results in highly personalized, effective and hands-on learning. These, says Khan, have inspired people to bring science fiction to life. And we are seeing this in real time today.

 

“What connects these science fiction narratives, is that they all imagined
that computers might eventually emulate what we call intelligence…” (Khan)

I highly recommend this book if…
(1) You are interested in the history and context of technology integration into education
(2) You want to imagine a future of GenAI that might amplify the role of educators in the classroom context, while delivering a more personalized learning experience
(3) You are interested in Khan Academy’s “Khanmigo” and its development and testing data from school board implementation
(4) You have questions about the role of educators in the future of GenAI

Machines Mimicking Humans

The imitation game, otherwise known as the Turing Test. This test is used to determine how human-like a machine might be, or becoming. From Wikipedia, “Turing proposed that a human evaluator would judge natural language conversations between a human and a machine designed to generate human-like responses… the result would not depend on the machine’s ability to render words as speech.[3] If the evaluator could not reliably tell the machine from the human, the machine would be said to have passed the test.” (Wikipedia, June 25th) This text-based interaction is critical to understanding our interactions today. Because the internet is so text-based, machines now have access to trillions upon trillions of text-based data, and therefore can now use this data to be trained. “Chat GPT can seem to write about and reason about almost anything anywhere.” (Khan, 24:55) And these text-based large language models are getting us closer and closer to the science fiction described above.

How might we as educators, use Large Language Models (LLM) to enhance education? This is the question that Khan attempts to answer throughout the rest of the book. He does this by using the design and development of “Khanmigo”. Not only is Chat GPT 4 able to answer questions, it can explain its reasoning, take on different personas, voices and even different tones and styles. (Khan, 26:20)

Students of the Future

When we think of our students, we have to think of not only the world we inhabit, but the possible futures that they will live, lead and thrive in. Our students will be growing up in a world that employs GenAI in a myriad of ways.

“You won’t be replaced by an AI, but you might be replaced by someone using AI”

This internet meme has a truth to it. “The most successful students will be those who use AI to help make conceptual connections for developing ideas…using AI ethically and productively may learn not only at an exponentially higher rate than other, but also in a way that allows them to remain competitive throughout their years… because they will know how to get their questions answered… Their curiousity muscles will get strengthened.” (Khan, 48:20)

Throughout this book, Khan emphasizes the role of a curious-mindset.

I think that the key words here are “ethically” and “productively”. And this is where the role of the educator starts to shift to being on that is so pivotal in the life and lived experiences of our students.

The Role of the Educator in the Era of GenAI

Khan offers several ways that GenAI, when effectively integrated into education, can enhance student learning and the role of the educator. Notably, it is all in the how of the integration, the comfort of the educator, and the access to technology.

Throughout the book, Khan talks about Khanmigo, the AI Tutoring platform. He uses this as an example of how to effectively and intentionally integrate this tech’ into education as we know it, in order to provide a more personalized approach. “…a new kind of AI tutor that works alongside learners…”, or what is now being coined as a “Co-pilot” approach. This, as the opening quotation above states, can result in an evolution of education, where the educator now plays a different role. With AI, students can ask questions from the GenAI tutor without feeling publicly on display, sometimes feeling shame with exposing where they are. It allows students to work at their own pace, and reinforce learning where necessary and where to extend their learning when possible. There is also a more intangible impact.

The school district of Holden, India. After they employed the AI, the biggest form they saw in their students was in the sphere of self-confidence… Student achievement has to start with building confidence in themselves…The AI is a game-changer here.” (Khan, 3:10:33)

There is also the impact that Khanmigo testing had on student wellbeing and wellbeing practices. So in many ways, the AI can help students come to class mentally and emotionally ready. GenAI has a long history, back to the 1960s, of working in mental health. Now, GenAI, with a ‘history’ of chats with students can act as a mental health coach. It is not outsourcing habits of mind that we want our students to internalize; rather, it is about having a mental health coach that is on-demand.

Also, there is a new concept of education, where the AI can show students that distinctions between subjects no longer matter. Students can also see how math and writing work together, and how history works with economics, for example. GenAI can weave together concepts from different disciplines, and help students see the connections and thereby strengthening the learning.

On top of this, GenAI allows students to become more creative in their non-linear understanding of learning. Students can now generate different ways of demonstrating their learning, and how they interact with the world (both in and out of the classroom). (Khan 4:57)

So, if this is what AI is capable of showing our students, what about the educator? Evolving away from the very traditional role of educators in the current system, GenAI can expand human interaction within the classroom. This could be through collaborative structure groups, and teacher-focussed 1-on-1 interventions. When used well, and within a teaching and learning plan (like a flipped lesson and other Blended Learning approaches), the GenAi can increase the support, and personalization of education for students and enliven the role of the teacher with deeper human-to-human interaction. (Khan, 3:15:44)

So much more…

There is so much more within this book about what a classroom might look like, and it is for this reason that I can highly recommend this book. It makes a teacher rethink how they can create a less static classroom, where everyone works in lock-step with one another. There are examples and ideas from the testing that Khan Academy has done throughout the U.S. and around the world.

As GenAI continues to evolve, and as students start to use it more and more, this book suggests ways that educators can meet students and technology at this crucial intersection.