Campus Technology Insider Podcast November 2024
21:03
With that said, I understand there's a lot of sense of uncertainty, and AI has brought that as well to our, to our lives over the next, over the last few years. Even though some of us in the tech sector, or if you're in IT or in these areas, you've probably been talking about AI for some time. But now I want to ask all of you, right? You're either in our classrooms or in our school districts or in our administrator offices answering those questions about what AI could play, but I want to ask you also, too, what type of uncertainty you have about AI. What scares you about AI? And so I already see some of the similar responses coming. So let's see what we have. All right, so that companies have turned their backs on ethical standards. Very good answer, right? What other, what other things scare you about AI? And it's, and it's interesting — I'll come back to the answers as they keep coming in — just today, in the morning, I was listening to a Perplexity podcast, and I realized one thing. I realized that the podcast is an AI podcast, created by AI, and Perplexity is going out there, basically, you know, curating the information, and they're bringing it in and, and creating a very interesting podcast, right? And so it's an informative podcast, but it's very interesting to see how they have engaged in this. Ethical standards. It's discouraging people from engaging in their own critical thinking. Intentional or unintentional bias. We lose our own voice. Not controlled enough, not enough regulations. Knowing real from fiction. We're getting left behind. Using AI without human agency, fake news, ethical design, anti racist ideologies, ethical standards. I see a lot of ethics in here. Loss of social engagement. Okay, these are great, and I know we'll get many more responses, but let's talk about some of them. Let's talk about where companies are, right? That was the very first answer that came in, right, that they're turning backs on these ethical standards. And I think that's a, that's a fascinating conversation to have. I think when we talk about humanity in these conversations, we need to talk about how we are leading and being empowered by these new technologies that are coming in. Potential for lack of independent and critical thinking. Yeah. And so one of the conversations, one of the things I remember learning when I was working in the tech sector, was that how technology is implemented in different communities matters. And at times we think that, you know, because it works great in Costa Rica, it's going to work great in Ecuador, and therefore it's going to work great in Houston. Or because it works great in San Diego, it's going to work fantastic in New York. And the reality is that that's not how communities, the best deployment of technology is in communities. You know your communities better than anyone else. You know your students better than anyone else. You know the challenges, you know their hopes, you know their dreams, you know where they want to go. And so my, my encouragement to all of you, when we talk about how we navigate these scares of AI, it's we need to be part of this conversation. As leaders in our communities, of leaders in our school districts, as leaders in the education sector, we need to be part of the solution. And I know that's easier said than done, but I also know that, again, these questions are bigger than the answers that we have today, and to be part of those answers will be part of this conversation. I think this conference is an example of that, and it's really having these conversations about technology and education, that's what these conferences are about. But my encouragement too would be, don't shy away from just engaging today, right? The conversation needs to continue tomorrow, needs to continue on Monday, when we go back to our school districts, or what, or whatever you go back right after you come for this conference, that's where the real work starts. Right? Today, we connect, we learn. Tomorrow, we implement, right? But being scared about AI, being scared about technology, is nothing new. You see, just a few years ago, there was this ATM scare. You see, when ATMs were being implemented in the banking sector, there was a sense of fear. They're like, whoa, whoa, wait. Let me get this right. You're going to bring this machine in into my banking branch, and you're going to replace all these employees that I have, a good portion of them, with these two or three machines. And the proposal was, yes, that is exactly what we're going to do. And of course, you could see the sense of fear, the sense of uncertainty, and certain branches did not take it. Certain banking companies said, You know what, thanks, but no thanks. I have 20 employees in my, in my branch. I don't want to disrupt their work, their lives in the community, and what have you, which is a fantastic answer, and rightfully so, that was their approach. And some other banks said, You know what? We'll lean into that and we'll see what we could learn. And what they learned was that the cost of operating a branch went significantly lower. Don't get me wrong, they were right. Out of 20 employees, now they had probably six working in the branch and a handful of ATMs. But the cost of operating a branch was significantly lower, and now they could open up new branches in communities that did not have access to financial services. And today, when we look back at those moments of how they implement technology, the banking sector has more employees today than it did just a few years ago, before the ATMs were implemented. Today, we have access to new financial services and more financial services in communities that were ignored and displaced and probably not even acknowledged because they didn't have access to certain technology tools, and today they do. Now, don't get me wrong, displacement and the future of work and the challenges, I understand it comes with a sense of uncertainty. But what I ask all of you today is ask you, what is that ATM in your work? What is that ATM in your community, that if you just lean in, it gives you an opportunity to unlock what is possible in your students, in your community, in your schools. That could be a piece of technology, that could be a new initiative, that could be a new process. The other thing too, I think that we have been probably normal, we probably normalize as a community, is that we think that technology is simply just something that comes with the screen. And it's not, right? If you work in IT today, if you work in these sectors today, you know that technology is beyond that, right? And so I encourage you to is ask yourself, what is that exponential change that sometimes we have in our community, that we're a little bit hesitant today, we're a little bit scared today to lean into that, but it could unlock what we could, what we could experience. Today when I walk into a banking branch, I have a very different experience than I did just probably 20, 30, 40 years ago, maybe when my parents were doing it. I have a more personalized experience when I walk into a bank, because they have my, they know my needs a little bit differently, they know my community very differently. They probably know my business I'm trying to build a little bit differently. They could be much more intentional, better service. So the question is, what could that look like also in education? What are those certain pieces of technology that if we just implement, it gives us opportunity to be more empathetic, more compassionate, bring those ethical standards to life in the work that we get to do and in our communities. And so that, I wanted to make sure that you all are aware of that ATM approach as well. And that takes me to my next question, right? We're here because we care about our students. We're here because we believe in the next generation, and we believe in the potential the next generation. So if you could help your students with one skill today, what would that be? One skill that you can help your students with? You know, we've talked about the role technology could play, what makes us to be human. What, you know, maybe the fears that we have around technology as well, but what is the potential that we could see also, right? If we have that one skill, what could it be? AI literacy. Effective prompt engineering.