The A.I. Readiness Gap

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Welcome to Instruction Discussion, our weekly look at the latest
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topics and trends in education affecting schools here on Long
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Island and schools around the world. Whether you're a teacher, parent,
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or student, listen for tips and strategies to help you
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navigate the educational landscape.
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There's a bell.
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It's time to start today's Instruction Discussion on the voice
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of Nassau Community College 90.3 WHPC.
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Hello, I'm Kevin Boston Hill and welcome to Instruction Discussion,
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where each week we will examine a recent trend or
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development in education and its impact on Long Island. Since
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its inception, artificial intelligence, AI, has become more and more
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of an integral and routine part of teaching and learning
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in education. While there continues to be great concern about
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how AI is regulated, Research shows that systems supporting responsible
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AI use is catching up, a trend that points to
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the gap between AI entering classrooms and how prepared schools
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are to manage it. Many schools and districts have recently
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instituted bans or other restrictions to AI use in classrooms
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until its efficacy can be properly determined. To help support
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the responsible use of AI, IBM has announced the IBM
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K-12 Leaders Fellowship, a new professional learning initiative designed for
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K-12 superintendents, education leaders, and educators. The fellowship will equip
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school leaders with practical knowledge and tools to guide responsible
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AI adoption, support educators, and strengthen engagement with parents. To
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provide more insight into this program and its potential, we
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welcome to the classroom Lydia Logan, IBM Vice President for
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Education and Workforce Development.
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Ms.
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Logan, welcome to Instruction Discussion on 90.3 WHPC.
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Thank you for having me.
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Thank you for agreeing to be here and have this
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wonderful conversation. I've had representatives from IBM in the past
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to discuss about some of the other programs that are
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available for upskilling, and so forth. And so I'm glad
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to be able to have you here to talk about
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how we can incorporate AI into the conversation as well.
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Yeah, it's the hot topic of the day.
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It seems to be, especially when we start thinking about
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K-12 situations. So let's go ahead and jump right into it,
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talking about the Leadership Fellows Program. So we know that
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IBM is launching this K-12 AI Leaders Fellowship to help
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education leaders navigate the whole artificial intelligence adoption. So, what
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does successful AI integration look like and how should schools
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kind of measure their progress?
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Yeah, absolutely. You know, we were hearing from education leaders
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that they wanted a little more clarity and to understand
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what was happening in the world. So, we commissioned a
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national survey with Morning Consult to understand just how AI
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is being used in K-12 education. And what we learned
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from that survey is that 76% of middle school educators
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and 73% of high school educators report that AI is
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already being used in their classrooms at least weekly, yet
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only 20% of K-12 educators say they've received extensive training.
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So we thought this is a huge mismatch Let's do
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something about it. And we put together our new K-12
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AI Leaders Fellowship. We're launching it this fall. It's bringing
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together superintendents, education leaders, and educators so they can build
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the practical knowledge they need and confidence to guide responsible
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AI adoption in schools.
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So I'm wondering, because we know that when AI first
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came onto the scene, it seemed like it was the
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Wild West in technology and anything can go, right? Anything
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you could think of, all things were possible. But now
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there are several schools and districts changing. across the country
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that are trying to now rein in those loose horses,
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as they say, the horses out of the barn. They're
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trying to rein those horses in now by either an
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outright ban on AI in the classroom or severely limiting
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the use of AI in the classroom. So how would
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this fellowship program kind of fit into all of that?
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And so we have to go from the extreme of,
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everything goes to an outright ban in the classroom. Where
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does this fellowship program fall into play?
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Well, knowledge is power. And I think what happens is
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the pendulum swings, just as you said, to like, you know,
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the free for all to, Oh, maybe we need to
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take a pause, figure out how to do this the
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right way and then start again. And so our viewpoint
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is let's offer up some best practices that, work with
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education leaders, give them the guidelines that we use. We're
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practicing what we preach. We have governance structures in place
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at IBM. We focus on safe and responsible use for
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our own employees, many of whom are parents, right? And
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we know that that is with training and policy and guidance,
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that's the best way to move forward. And so that's
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how we're approaching this fellowship. We're making sure that participants
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will have the access to AI learning, the credentials to
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expert facilitators and capstone projects through our IBM Skills Build program.
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Successful AI integration always starts with educators, the people who
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are going to use it, making sure they have training
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and clear guidance. and making sure we're supporting them in
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their teaching goals, right? The technology needs to serve the
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people who are doing the work, not the other way around.
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And I think, you know, we started out in this,
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as you said, free-for-all where everyone was just using the
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technology for technology's sake and not necessarily to improve teaching
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or learning or instructional practice. And so, we're taking a
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step back. We're working with educators to make sure that
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they're learning AI literacy, which is about the technology and
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how it's created, and then AI fluency, which is applying
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it in context. How can they use it in their
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everyday practice to either become more efficient? So, that may
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be from lesson planning. They are the subject matter experts,
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but they may be taking a lot of administrative time
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to write their lesson plans. You can use generative AI
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to do that and free up time to actually spend
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with your teachers, spend with your peers, planning, spend with
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your students, and to learn more. And then figuring out
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new and interesting ways to present the material to your
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subject or personalizing instruction for students who may need a
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little more support or instruction in different ways. So, this
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is about helping teachers become great teachers. This is not about,
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you know, a free-for-all and experimentation.
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Now, you mentioned that AI can be used, the geniture
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of AI can be used to help with lesson planning
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and things of that nature. Because it pretty much creates
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a system to create those plans. But I find that,
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or I understand that a lot of teachers, and this
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may have even come out of the survey, that a
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lot of teachers spend a great deal of time using
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generative AI to come up with that plan because their
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first attempt may not necessarily be what they're looking for.
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And then it may take six, seven, eight different tries
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before they actually get the product that they're looking for.
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So what specific skills and knowledge do teachers need in
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order to use AI effectively and responsibly in the classroom?
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Sure.
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Well, it starts with the simple skills, right? Like a
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good prompt. So the more you practice, the better you
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are at writing the prompts that help you get what
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you want out of the tool. And people need to remember, right,
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that these are trained on data sets. And so the
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information that they have is what has been put into them.
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So you want to make sure that you're asking very
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specific questions or prompting it to give you something very specific.
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And that way you can get a better answer faster. Now,
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you know, my approach is always trust but verify. So, yes,
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you are putting in these specific prompts and you are
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getting something back. But you have to have the knowledge
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and the judgment to say, is this what I need? Now,
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as you mentioned, people may make seven or eight attempts.
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And it sounds like they are not just taking what
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they get the first time. They are actually being discerning
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about what they're getting, which is what we want. We
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want people to challenge the technology and not just take
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the first answer as the right and final answer. It's
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the same way you would write an essay and you'd
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write a draft. You do an outline. and then you
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write a draft and several revisions. This is no different, right?
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We want people to have that skill and that understanding.
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Even with seven or eight attempts, it may still save
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you hours and hours of administrative time that you would
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have sat down and done this on your own.
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Now, when it comes to, again, utilizing AI in the classroom,
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and in this case, not just from a teacher's perspective,
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but from a student perspective, I think it becomes really
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important now for the teachers, for the educators, to show
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students that last point you just raised, that it's just
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like writing any good essay. You have a draft, then
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you have revision, then you have editing, then you have
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another revision, then you have another draft, and so forth.
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Before you have the final copy.
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And so it's important to explain that process, that editing
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process to students so that they know when creating a
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prompt for themselves, it's not just going to be the
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first thing that comes to mind that's going to be
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the best use of that product or the best presentation
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of that product. They may have to go through several
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iterations of and be really discerning with their analysis in
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order to come up with the product that is appropriate.
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That's right. I mean, look, one of our challenges is
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ensuring that AI readiness keeps pace with adoption. Schools still
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need to invest in educator training. We need to provide
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clear guidance on when and how it should be used.
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And we need to protect the foundational skills students will
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need throughout their lives, like the ones we were just
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talking about. It's understanding how to make a plan, how
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to execute it, what improvement looks like, these skills that
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you need to develop regardless of what industry you may
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choose to go into. That process improvement and continuous improvement
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cycle is no different with this technology than it is
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for anything else. So, you know, in our survey, we
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found 52% of classroom teachers cited students becoming overly dependent
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as a leading concern. And students progress to high school
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and beyond working with these tools. They need to learn
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how to question AI generated information, recognize the inaccuracies and
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exercise their own judgment. And so I, this is where
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I think, The bans that we're seeing are not necessarily helpful,
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especially when you're talking about middle and high school students
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where they need to start developing these skills that will
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prepare them for life after high school. This is not
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about an all or nothing situation. I mean, I can
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give you an example. I have a son who's 10.
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He had a writing assignment. It was take two animals,
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create three. a new superhero and all of the powers
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that that, that new superhero would have and how, uh,
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you know, write a story about it.
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So he did.
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And I said, let me show you something. Would you
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like your superhero to have its own comic book? And
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he said, I would love that. So I've worked with him.
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We entered it into a generative AI tool and, And
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I said to him, now tell it to make this
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story that you wrote with your own ideas into a
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comic book. And he did it, and he was thrilled.
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And I said, now, is this how you imagined your
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characters to look? And he said, no. And I said,
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tell it. It was shark dogs who had laser vision,
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and he could swim and fight crime. And he said,
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he's not muscular enough. And I said, great. Tell this
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to remake these images and make them more muscular.
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Right.
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And he did it. And he said, is this how
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his friends look? No, his superhero friends look, you know, anyway,
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we went through successive prompts. And I said to him now,
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every time you are giving this a new prompt, it's
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fixing what you're asking it to fix, but it's also
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changing other things you didn't ask it to change. And
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that's a very important lesson. And so he understood the
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technology is not perfect. You need to be in control.
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You need to be very observant and diligent about what's
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changing that you want to change and what's changing that
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you don't want to change. So you can make those corrections.
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And I said, this is your idea. It's your story.
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You're the author. You're the editor. And now you are
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a co-illustrator with a generative AI tool. Now that's, a
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very powerful way to introduce AI into the classroom. It
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doesn't take anything away from creative writing, creativity, and furthering
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your ideas, using technology to advance or build upon something
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that you've learned. All of those skills are still there
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in that lesson, but it's a way to add the
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technology to do something creative and to teach about the
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technology as well as its applications.
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You are listening to Instruction Discussion on the voice of
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Nassau Community College 90.3 WHPC. My name is Kevin Boston
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Hill and our guest today is IBM Vice President for
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Education and Workforce Development, Lydia Logan, to discuss IBM's new
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K-12 AI Leaders Fellowship. Now, That last example, it was perfect.
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It was a perfect example of how to use AI
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in the classroom because it walks you through all the processes.
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It shows you the editing process that people should go through,
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not just with writing, but whenever they're utilizing AI for
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prompts and to create products and things of that nature.
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And I get it, and I agree with all of that.
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Now, I guess.
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My question is, how do we juxtapose that example to,
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and I'll just use New York as the example here,
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because New York City has implemented restrictions as far as
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time restrictions on screen time that students can have in
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the classroom. So how do we juxtapose it? Because the
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process you just laid out, is an extensive one. So
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because you're going through trial and error, you're going back
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and you're revising this and that. So how do we
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reconcile that lengthy process with the time restrictions, the screen
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time restrictions that are being placed in a lot of
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these classrooms?
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Sure. First, let's start with the adults. We need to
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make sure that there are governance structures in place, that
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we are making sure that everyone understands the rules of
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the road. The concern has been around what's been termed
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cognitive decline or most recently in the MIT paper, cognitive surrender.
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And the concern that students are not going to have
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that healthy educational friction with material, that it makes everything
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too easy and that they take the first answer and
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as the right answer and they move on to the
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next thing. They're not actually internalizing the lessons and the material.
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We need to make sure that we are supporting educators
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to do what they know how to do best, which
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is to teach and then figure out the best ways
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to integrate the technology into the learning process. And we
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are working with educators to do that. We're working with
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different schools of education. We want to make sure we're
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not losing the benefit of learning science. So, look, New
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York taking a pause and saying we need to make
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sure we get this right is absolutely fine. We want
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to make sure that adults are responsible, that children are safe,
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and that teachers are supported. We know that parents want
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more of a say. 77% of parents want input based
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on our survey on how AI is used in their
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child's classroom, yet only 20% said they clearly understand the
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AI guidance their child receives at school. They say that
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clearer guidelines on appropriate AI use and greater transparency about
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classroom use, and that's 48%, would most increase their confidence.
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So it's clear that parents want to say and feel
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like they don't understand what's happening, as a superintendent, I
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can understand why the choice was, let me make sure
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that my parents and my educators are catching up with
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what's happening. So a pause can be a healthy thing.
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You've heard other stories recently about Let's make sure we're
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getting this right. So only 24% of educators and 16%
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of parents believe our U.S. education system is adapting well
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to advances in AI. This is not unusual. Technology often
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outpaces policy or preparation. And so IBM has launched this
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fellowship to do our part to close the gap.
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And who is the fellowship actually open to? Is it
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just superintendents, or is it open to pretty much anybody
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who is in education, who wants to learn more and
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better equip themselves?
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So we have courses that are open to anyone on
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our IBM SkillsBuild program, and that's at skillsbuild.org. We have
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many courses and learning experiences specifically for educators The fellowship
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will have a first cohort starting in New York and
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then expanding to other cities in the future. And our
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goal is to start with around 100 educators, superintendents and
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administrators who are grappling with these challenges together. We know
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that learning in cohorts and sharing best practices and sharing
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challenges and solving them together is a way to make
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the best decisions in the end. Every district is different.
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Every school system is different. Every school is different. And
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we are not trying to tell schools what to do.
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We're trying to help them how to figure out how
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to do it in the context that's best for them.
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And we're doing that based on the experiences that we've had,
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not only internally at IBM as a company, but along
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with the clients we serve who are doing the same thing.
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They are upskilling their own employees and trying to figure
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out how to take advantage of this moment and use
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AI in context by giving their employees AI literacy and
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AI fluency. And that's the same thing we know educators need.
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We did the survey. We know that this is what's needed.
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And we can't do it alone. We want to do
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it collaboratively along with the experts in education. And that
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is why we're moving forward with the fellowship and the
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courses that we offer for free.
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And how long is the fellowship and about how many
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people are you looking to cap the cohort at?
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So the fellowship will be about a year long, and
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the first cohort will be around 100 people. And we're
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working to just close that confidence gap, starting by supporting educators.
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We know that getting familiar with the technology and how
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it's used, and then starting to look at how you
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apply it in context so that it's real, it's not
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just abstract, is the way that will make the most sense.
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We've had high school programs for decades at IBM, and
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we include our IBM mentors for support. We include the
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subject matter experts from our technology teams. This is not
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about IBM selling anything to districts. This is really about
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us making sure that we meet this critical moment in
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America and bring our educators and our school systems along
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with this trend and close this gap of both knowledge
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and confidence. Parents and teachers and administrators need the support
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to do their jobs well, and we're here to help them.
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And how can these school leaders get involved with the program?
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Is it too late for them to sign up for it?
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Is there an application process? And so when and if so,
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when is it when's the cutoff date for that? And
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are there plans to have a similar type of program
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for regular classroom teachers? Because I know this is probably
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more like a train the trainer model. You give the
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information to teachers. the superintendents and the building principals with
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the hope that they transfer it on to their teachers.
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But we know it doesn't always work out that way.
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So are there plans to have a similar type of
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cohort model for classroom teachers?
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We're absolutely bringing educators into this mix. And honestly, the
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best case scenario is when you have leaders and classroom
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educators together in a cohort to think through what it
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looks like in their building. So, you know, if you look,
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if you think about change management and school culture, when
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you're adopting something new, you've got to have both the
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policy makers, the leaders in the building and the users,
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those educators working together and applying things. It may be
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in small groups at first, And then moving forward with
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expanding to other teachers.
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So whether that's.
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Through Train the Trainer or other kinds of models in
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your building, having a cohort learning together and advocating for
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what's best in your building and with your school culture
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is the way that will work best. The applications are
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open now. You can learn more on our skillsbuild.org website.
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And whether or not you are... In this inaugural cohort,
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there's plenty of learning that we offer for free and
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welcome educators and others to take advantage of that.
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Excellent. Excellent.
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So just to kind of put a little bow on
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this segment here. And so it's possible, therefore, and probably
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even more advisable, therefore, for a like a building principal.
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and maybe three or four teachers from the building to
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come to apply as like a little mini cohort to
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this program?
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Or is it only, would it only be the one?
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That'd be right. Okay. So I think that would definitely.
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Absolutely.
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So that would be beneficial to the school building itself
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to again, then you expand out from there. So I
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really thank you for that. So what, what principles therefore
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should really help guide the, school leaders, building administrators, to
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guide them in the responsible adoption of AI as they're
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developing their own particular guide rails?
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Sure. At IBM, we have a responsible technology board, and
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they govern how we use different technologies, AI included. what
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is considered acceptable use. They work collaboratively with our internal
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learning and development team for IBMers. And it's the same thing, right?
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You may want to have a committee, a governance committee
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that thinks through how AI adoption is going to happen
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from the beginning. Schools should have clear policies around which
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tools are appropriate for classroom use. how student information is protected,
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and where human oversight is required. So, for instance, high-risk
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decisions around employment or whether a student has high-stakes decisions
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that will put them down one path or the other,
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humans must absolutely always be in control of the final decision.
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You may use Technology may use AI for indicators that
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will help inform those decisions, but making those decisions is
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something that, you know, we wouldn't do. So educators need
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practical training and guidance from their schools and districts. Teachers
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should understand what information is appropriate to share with the tools.
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You know, there's personally identifiable information. You don't want to
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put your bank account or your home address or any
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of those things into an open source generative AI model,
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you're just not sure where that may end up. It's
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important for educators to know that and for students and
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parents as well. So some of this is about basic
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online safety along with how you're going to use it
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in a school context. So understanding, you know, what are
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you buying? How is it being used across the building
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are things that should be considered. Ultimately, school leaders need
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to establish clear expectations and give educators support to follow them.
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Building trust is really key, and it requires ongoing communication
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with families and a commitment to the policies. So, you know,
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this whole cheating narrative is something that's around mistrust.
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Right.
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And if students know and parents know and educators are equipped,
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then ideally it makes it easier to make those decisions
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and determinations about what's happening and how to deal with it.
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Excellent.
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Well, thank you.
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I definitely want to thank our guest today, IBM Vice
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President for Education and Workforce Development, Lydia Logan, for coming
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on to our show.
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Thank you so much for having me. It's been a pleasure.
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Thank you.
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Once again, my name is Kevin Boston Hill, and thank
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you all for listening to Instruction Discussion, right here on
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the voice of Nassau Community College, 90.3 WHPC.