Here we are again, on the brink of a new era in education and work generally, there seem to be two competing narratives about AI. One tells us that AI will change the way work is done and help us to be more “productive,” and the second is that AI will take our jobs and create more disruption and uncertainty in an already uncertain world. Both of these perspectives, with a focus on work or production, assume that our jobs, our roles in the world, are fundamentally economic. But we work in education. Our roles are not tied to economics; they’re inspiration, creative problem solving, forecasting, care, and play. With this in mind, why should we look at AI simply through a “jobs for the future” lens? Instead of seeing it  as a looming giant we must approach with trepidation, why not view it as a new playground ripe for exploration? Teachers are the most creative, curious, and playful people on the planet. Why be so serious?

I am not a great singer. I have a tendency to make up my own words and tune when singing along. This is fine in the bathroom and annoying in the car (or possibly endearing  – who’s to say). I am not self-conscious about singing poorly because I’m not an expert singer and people don’t expect perfection. This approach, acknowledging that I’m not the best, frees me to be goofy. And I love that feeling of looseness, being open to what word I can rhyme to fill in a song.  I can’t take myself seriously as a singer if I want to stay loose and intune (literally and figuratively) with those around me and the same goes for learning any new thing. Being goofy works for me in the classroom too. I can be very serious about ensuring that all students learn and very playful in figuring out what works for each person. This is where AI comes into the picture. AI is too new to me to think that I can be a master of it, not to mention that there are, literally, thousands of tools being released every month (30,000 in January alone!), so even if I wanted to, I couldn’t master them all or even the ones targeting education. So I experiment with creating bots and using tools, and talk to other teachers.  I stay loose. I play. I laugh. I fail. I sing. Why not you too?