AI And Little Thinkers?

AI like ChatGPT is on everyone’s minds and everyone’s lips these days. You’ve probably played around with it yourself and it may have already become part of your work or daily routine. If you’ve got older kids, they’ve probably tried it too. They may be using it (hopefully with permission) for their school work.

It’s a big deal, and it’s kind of come in fast and furious, so it’s natural (and advisable) for parents to ask “How is this going to affect my kid as a learner?”

Well, while it’s hard to say for certain how far and how fast this will ripple out into our lives, it’s probably safe to say:

·      it’s going to change the way they’re taught at school

·      it’s going to change future career paths

·      it may even change the way we parent

But this doesn’t mean it’s time to panic. It’s just time to be informed, and to plan ahead. There’s one crucial thing AI can’t do, one aspect of your child’s learning and development that it won’t change. It’s something that should be taught, regardless of how much AI plays a role in our lives.

Kids (and adults too, really) can be critical thinkers, while AI falls short on this. There are an awful lot of human activities that machines, computers, robots, AI are capable of, and are pretty good at. They can automate, collate, look up, and copy, but they don’t think. We need to keep reminding ourselves of this. It’s important for two reasons:

First, in teaching our kids to think critically, we kind of AI-proof them, in their studies, their hobbies, and their future careers. They can use critical thinking to understand themselves as humans, to connect with others, and to find their place in the world around them. They can create, communicate, innovate, collaborate and celebrate. It has always been important to little thinkers to learn to see beyond surface details, to avoid copying, pasting and learning by rote. The memorization and recollection of mere facts have never been adequate for effective learning. Maybe it’s not such a bad thing to make these things a much smaller part of learning.

Second, kids can use their critical thinking skills to evaluate and decide how best to use AI as a tool and a support, to be discerning users and consumers of both information and technology. A kid with thinking skills will find ways to use AI to help them, as opposed to being overwhelmed or afraid of it taking over. This is true for pretty much any piece of technology, past, present and future. It’s pretty safe to say that ChatGPT won’t be the last piece of disruptive tech our kids will see in their lifetimes, and they need to be able to decide what’s worth using, and how it should be used.

Long story short, a kid who loves big questions and new ideas isn’t going to stop for any new technological development. As parents, we should definitely be watching with a cautious eye, but we should also be looking for ways to use AI to enhance our children’s learning, to help them be the amazing humans that AI just isn’t capable of being on their behalf. Above all, we should be helping them build critical thinking skills, which never go obsolete.