Want to introduce youth to AI? Start with teachers, and play.
This blog post is part of our series sharing learnings from ongoing partnerships such as the one we have with the National Academy Foundation
We are in Birmingham, Alabama. It's a warm fall day, and teachers are gathered around a table, laughing with each other. 'I did it, I did it!' they exclaim. It’s the last teacher from the group to have just signed-in ChatGPT, most of them using it for the first time and are extremely proud to show us how it’s responding to the prompts we have asked them to use.
Our partnership with the National Academy Foundation has brought us to Birmingham, where we're onboarding educators to a Culturally Responsive Curriculum designed to prepare high school seniors for future careers. Central to this curriculum is an exploration of AI.
ChatGPT serves as our entry point. It's a 'low-floors' experience, as we'd say in learning-design speak – easy for learners to grasp and build confidence in exploring further. But as one teacher asks, 'Now what?' the blank canvas of ChatGPT presents a creative challenge, one that requires effort and experimentation to overcome.
Teachers role-playing as part of their introduction to AI during the training
AI in the real world; Introducing a role-playing approach
In one session, teachers step into the shoes of students in a unit titled 'Can AI Use My Face?' Here, they assume the roles of congressional staffers, tasked with briefing a fictional congressperson on AI-based facial recognition software. Divided into teams, they explore the technology's implications from various perspectives: AI Engineering, Ethics, Data Privacy, Public Policy, and Civil Liberties.
This role-playing approach proves transformative. It provides teachers with a specific context to explore AI, empowering them to teach the subject with confidence, proficient enough with the tool to start talking about how they would like to integrate it into their daily teaching practices. As an interesting story from the workshop, one of the participants, who had never used AI before, now leads AI onboarding sessions to help others learn how to use the tool.
Reflecting on our session, here are some key takeaways if you are looking to introduce AI to educators:
1. Incorporate the tool into a unit or lesson plan aligned with teachers' work context.
2. Provide a narrow challenge to spark creativity and idea generation.
3. Model failure as a facilitator, demonstrating that experimentation with the tool is part of the learning process.
4. Embrace a playful mindset – play is a powerful vehicle for learning, easing the pressure of interacting with new technology.
We recently had the opportunity to meet in person with Tara, our talented colleague from NAF who spearheads this initiative. Together, we reflected on the vital role of AI in our discussions on educational equity.
As we continue to iterate on how we approach AI when designing learning programs we invite you to ask these questions with us;
In what ways could you engage children, their teachers, and caregivers in the design of AI tools
How does incorporating play, particularly role-play, help bridge the gap between the abstract concepts of AI tools and their practical applications in various professions?
What strategies can be employed to establish an equitable and culturally responsive framework when introducing AI?
What questions would you ask? Let us know over at hi @ humanswhoplay dot com