Dropping AI: Seeking our Pencil Moment for AI in education

aiEducation?

aiLearning?

aiLesson?

aiTool?

aiSchool?

What will it take for AI to become so fully adopted that it is an unnamed part of our routine? Will AI have its Pencil Moment?

At some point over 100 years ago teachers were saying “Today we are going to learn math with our pencils.” Math WITH our pencils? Would we have it any other way today? 

It is fascinating to think of a classical school tool, the pencil, as being an innovation and spoken about as independent of the normal learning process: learning with a pencil. But at some point we dropped the “with a pencil” part of the statement and now we simply say “Today we are going to learn math” (so to speak)… we do not need to include naming the pencil, the innovation, which became part of our routine in learning. Each innovation, if meaningfully adopted, is destined to have a Pencil Moment.

Think about it: the real power in an innovation is not in naming it, rather, it is in not having to name it at all! OR that it becomes the Kleenex-brand, a brand originating product name (for facial tissues). How can this be the case? A Pencil Moment occurs when an innovation not only solves a problem (the WHAT) but it does so effectively because it is powered by its relation to the WHY (a question of practice).

The post-pandemic education prefix of choice is AI. As they say “There is nothing new under the sun” decades ago, with the advent of the Internet, we were excited to add an “i” in front of product names or solutions seeking to attach our efforts to the latest and greatest tech. Now, with the ubiquity of the Internet the power of that little “i” is fleeting. This is an excellent example of the adoption of innovation as it relates to our popular naming conventions.

There are 5 steps to the adoption of innovation in education:

1. First we discover the innovation and try it within our existing learning efforts
2. If we see value in enhancing our practice we use it more regularly and with more users
3. When we have decided the innovation is worthy of widespread use we integrate the innovation in order to Learn WITH it.
4. To achieve full adoption we then establish best practices and coach/train others to leverage a new best practice where the innovation is integral.
5. Full adoption is achieved when we stop naming the innovation as an integrated tool and it becomes a critical part of our teaching routine.

(for more see the Fusion Model) Note: An innovation can include, but is not solely equated to, technology. An innovation can be a shift in practice as well.

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Sources

Engeström, Y. (1987). Learning by Expanding: An activity-theoretical approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta-Konsultit. Retrieved from http://lchc.ucsd.edu/mca/Paper/Engestrom/Learning-by-Expanding.pdf

Rogers, E.M. (2003). Diffusion of innovations (5^th ed.). New York: Free Press.

Shippee, Micah (2016) “mLearning in the organizational innovation process.” Dissertation. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/452. Note: In this original work, The Fusion Model is generically titled “Activity in the organizational innovation process.” 

Shippee, M. (2019) WanderlustEDU: An Educator’s Guide to Innovation, Change, and Adventure. San Diego: Dave Burgess Consulting, Inc.

The Fusion Model for Organizational Adoption of Innovation