Storage of Knowledge and Other Materials
“The California Department of Education (CDE) considers human relationships crucial in education, particularly when incorporating generative AI tools such as ChatGPT into…”
In “The Matrix” Neo prepares for training in the martial arts with Morpheus by getting a primitive UCB connector plugged into the back of his neck. Neo is human; in order to do battle with Mr. Smith, I think (nobody knows) Neo has a supplementary hard drive implanted in his skull somewhere which stores martial arts applications fed through the plug—a quarter-inch guitar plug. This was before Wi-Fi and AirDrop. Morpheus gets the stuffing kicked out of him as Neo upgrades the algorithms and takes heed of the Morpheus mantra: “Don’t believe you can do it; know you can do it.”
In 1991 the movie “Matrix” depicted a future of human enslavement under the thumb of AI, who uses humans to power its batteries. The image of the plug snapping into Neo’s neck, giving him access to the nourishment of knowledge, seemed a fitting metaphor for the stance the California State Department of Education has taken up in its a 19-page guidelines for AI circulated as a memo. Yes, AI can help with the knowledge problem. Opening the possibility that the CDE might not consider human relations as crucial to education under different circumstances is frightening.
The Oregon State Department of Education published a 5-page pamphlet recently offering guidelines for its schools. Because the department, like California’s department, evidently wanted the distinction of being the first State DOEs to publish guidelines, this pamphlet follows the predictable line. Privacy is uppermost. Hallucinations are significant. Above all, however, is the general unwillingness among educational leaders to step forward. Witness the defense of Oregon:
“As K-12 schools and districts spend more time learning about the use of generative AI in classrooms, policies continue to change at a rapid pace with districts that initially banned platforms such as ChatGPT shifting toward embracing its potential in the classroom.”
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The field of education seems to be past denial and into bargaining. ChatGPT is forcing teachers and administrators to rethink the nature and functions of knowledge as the primary outcome of the official curriculum. Perhaps the best strategy is to duck and cover, keep your head down, at least for the moment. Ignore it—for now. A reckoning with the school as the purveyor of knowledge is coming.
According to a recent EdWeek article, an alternate current of reform thinking has been emerging which seems very likely to encounter AI soon. Of course, it’s a bit ridiculous to think that “knowledge building” is at all reformative, but linking knowledge building to the Science of Reading (SoR ©️) seems novel. It appears to me as if more sane thought leaders in the field produced it. Witness:
The Common Core State Standards by design carved out a space for the English-Language Arts curriculum to focus laser-like on literature, going so far as to name William Shakespeare as required reading throughout the land, dealing a blow to those who would prefer John Milton. When the commercial publishers get involved, that’s ample proof that a buzzword like KB linked to SoR ©️ signals action:
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KnowledgeMattersCampaign.org produced this tool to assist schools in refining their ELA curriculum. It could be a fruitful tool for publishers, who might begin to develop templates for ways to integrate AI. From the publication itself:
“The tool is designed to be used as a plug-in for other evaluation instruments and rubrics, many of which mention knowledge-building but none of which have effectively illuminated in detail how this is accomplished in ELA curricula. We hope publishers will use this tool to guide improvements in their products as well.”
Undoubtedly, Knowledge Matters created this tool long before the AI revolution. But its open-ended design suggests multiple places for AI-infused pedagogy and could bridge the gap between the traditional curriculum aimed at knowledge and an AI-integrated curriculum building more knowledge more quickly, leaving more time for poetry. Rather than looking to guidance from State DOEs, teachers and administrators might take a look at Knowledge Matters to stimulate conversation about the nature and functions of knowledge in reading pedagogy and across the curriculum. Here’s a sample:
