What do Educators Need from AI? A lot more than we think

Amanda recently spoke at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI) 2024 AI+Education Summit on a panel focused on "What do Educators Need from AI."

Her answer was: It’s a lot more than we think.

Here’s the reality: among our early adopter communities, we are in a GenAI bubble. For most teachers and school leaders, that is not the case. The truth is we are still in the early stages of GenAI adoption.

Per a recent Edweek survey:

• 2/3rds of K12 educators have NOT used AI tools yet
• Only 2% have used them “a lot”

That compounded with a current climate that is marked by a wide range of emotions:

• Fear and uncertainty are common - nearly half of teachers say they’re uncomfortable with GenAI (Edweek)
• Teachers are afraid of AI cheating (72%) and a negative impact to learning (60%)(Imagine Learning)
• But there is also enthusiasm about GenAI’s potential - half of surveyed educators said they were “excited or optimistic” (Quizlet)

We are lucky and get to go beyond the data points. As part of our work at AI for Education, we have trained over 50k teachers and leaders, and we see this play out up close every day.

Here our our 5 Keys for Adoption, which I speak about in the session:

⭐ Comprehensive AI Literacy training for all stakeholders
⭐ Job-embedded GenAI applications
⭐ Strong guidance on responsible use
⭐ The development of safe and reliable GenAI tools for students
⭐ Dedicated resources and time for educator-led innovation

We believe that teachers should be able to stay experts on teaching with the augmented capabilities of GenAI. We should not expect them to keep up with a rapidly changing technology. K12 education has not made meaningful advances in a long time, and this is the opportunity to do that almost immediately.