The future is now; education is the past.

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Educating for the Past

Have you ever thought that the children entering the school system today are being educated for a world that will soon no longer exist? It’s obvious, you might say, since the world changes every day. Yet, the change we’re talking about may be more radical than the industrial revolution, which transformed the work landscape by making many jobs obsolete and creating new needs.

And what is this change? Artificial intelligence (AI), which until a few years ago many considered an element of futuristic movies; and which is going to develop so rapidly that it’s hard to imagine.

Just compare the huge differences between an image created by AI “Dall-e 1” and “Dall-e 2,” which, with only a year between them, shows an abyssal improvement. Or the much-discussed “Chat GPT,” which has radically changed the way we access information and produce texts.

I even have a friend who regularly talks with “Tess,” an AI that responds to him as if it were a psychologist (it’s worth noting that this person had never seen a therapist before because they were ashamed to face that situation, and now they write almost every day, saying it helps them a lot).

I myself use a “virtual assistant” that, during my last train trip, sent me the link to the cheapest tickets, which would have taken me several minutes if I had done it myself.

Difference between DALL-E 1 and DALL-E 2

And the educational system?

Will it make sense to teach calligraphy to children who, in a few years, will ask their virtual assistant to send an email? Or to make them struggle with writing text summaries, when Microsoft Office, as of March this year, has already launched suites capable, for example, of recording a virtual meeting, summarizing key points, listing agreements, indicating topics without concrete actions, and even scheduling follow-ups?

In 2008, I was very proud because I taught my 12-13-year-old students to create statistical tables in Excel from a database, then asked them to write descriptions and conclusions. It was a beautiful combination of mathematics, reading comprehension, and writing, all while engaging higher cognitive levels. But today, Microsoft can handle these spreadsheets and much more, all by itself.

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How will AI change the world?

Click on the image if you want to learn more.

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Based on my experience, the rational-academic model, where the “expert” stands before laypeople, no longer makes sense. Access to information will no longer be a problem thanks to the Internet, and now neither will processing that information. It is time to truly refresh constructivist and cognitivist models so that, once and for all, the teacher is no longer a “transmitter” who knows everything and stands at the front to “fill” brains. It should be noted that these models have existed for over 50 years in psycho-educational theory and educational reforms, yet they are still not applied in practice.

But will these models be sufficient when the 5-year-olds of 2023 enter university around 2035 and retire around 2080? What kind of world will they live in?

I believe that in education, we need to stop debating how to prevent students from using ChatGPT or other AI. The problem is not about stopping cheating in exams, nor detecting the use of AI for a drawing, video, or essay. We need to raise the discussion to imagine the world in which our children will live and how we should prepare them.

I don’t have the answer, nor do I think anyone does. There are fundamental aspects of the curriculum that need to be debated: the type of society and individual, values, worldview. Today, we are facing the central issues of the meaning life will have for adults in a few decades, when work will be done by AI and many jobs will have disappeared, leaving us with a high welfare system, lots of free time, and a fragile moral line between public and private.

For now, technology allows us to discuss and debate with educational stakeholders around the world. Why not start rethinking together?

PS: I asked ChatGPT to proofread this essay. It agreed and emphasized repeatedly that technology still cannot replace the teacher, because education is not only about teaching techniques but also values like empathy and compassion, which only a human being can transmit.

By Felipe Arancibia Labraña

Teacher

Master in Educational Psychology