When I was asked to give a keynote on AI in education at the CIO Forum in Arizona recently, it made me reflect on how—or if—AI is really transforming the way we teach our children, not only in method but also in content, preparing them for a future shaped by AI in the workforce. This led me to survey around a dozen K-12 educators, and I found that while students are frequently using tools like ChatGPT to complete assignments, there’s been surprisingly little shift in curriculums.
In this cat and mouse game, it’s the students that speeds ahead in enveloping AI into their work while it’s the teachers who are less acquainted with these tools, and yet they decide what the students spend time learning. A little ironic, don’t you think?
Should we allow our kids to use ChatGPT in school?
On one side of the argument, you have educators arguing that it’s simply the same as using a calculator to complete math homework instead of calculating everything by hand. The calculator exists to speed up the process, but it’s the student who needs to know which buttons to press. Similarly, in the ChatGPT world, it’s the student who needs to know how to prompt, and then take those results to massage into the final piece of work.
Others, however, argue that banning tools like ChatGPT is essential. They believe students need foundational skills in coherent thinking and doing math by hand, which then serve as the building blocks of more advanced thought. After all, even though we use calculators in high school, we all start out learning arithmetic by hand.
Educators lack training on AI
It might also be the case that the anti-AI educators don’t really understand the technology themselves. The entire education ecosystem, from superintendents to teachers to administrators lack official AI training. A lot of them also fear AI. According to the Edweek Research Center, 75% have never used it. 7% use it at work and can teach about applications, bias, and basic technical aspects. With that type of context, how can we expect them to teach our kids and prepare them for an AI-proof future?
We put children through twelve years of schooling and then send them off to a four-year college, hoping they’ll emerge prepared for independence. The real goal is for them to be equipped for meaningful work after all those years of learning. Yet, if today’s work landscape is already shifting dramatically—with millions of white-collar workers racing to adapt—how can we justify putting our kids through the same type of schooling we experienced? Should their education evolve just as fast as the world they’re about to enter?
The more I think about it, the more it strikes me that while we’re pouring so much energy into transforming finance, healthcare, and retail with AI—enhancing customer experiences and reducing labor costs—maybe the first industry we should truly reimagine is education. After all, that’s where it all begins.
Alas, I’m not the US government, so I can only contribute what I can with my thoughts in this article.
Personalization, From Ecommerce to Education
If you’ve caught one of my recent keynotes in AI, you might recall that I start off with this ecommerce delivery example where one day, we will be delivered goods that we never ordered. We won’t even want to return them because the company that sent us those items knew exactly what we wanted. From the personalized home pages of every time we open Amazon.com to an array of new movies and TV shows that Netflix predicts will hook me to its app for hours, we haven’t applied the same type of engagement or stickiness to education.
One company that has borrowed similar principles, though, is Khan Academy. In the realm of AI in Education, you might have seen their founder make the biggest splash, sharing with the world their latest app, Khanmigo, that they are testing in thousands of schools across the country. Built with ChatGPT, Khanmigo is a personalized learning chatbot that aims to democratize the education experience, be 24/7 available to kids and provide personalized learning. Teachers on the backend can use it to lesson plan as well as see what students have prompted to know which types of problems kids are stuck on.
Squirrel AI
In China, there is another company that’s quite similar. When students come to Squirrel AI tutor centers, there are no standard teachers in a classroom. Students come and each get an iPad, answering questions, getting diagnosed for what they know and what they don’t know within a subject area. A dashboard is then formed of all of the knowledge gaps that the student has, and the system will proceed to teach the student specifically on those points. Teachers are there to supervise and come in to help the student only when the student needs extra human help.
A few years ago, their founder also evangelized his idea purporting that no two students should be placed in one classroom because no two students know the same amount of things.
It does make sense when you think about it more deeply. Some students learn quickly and some are slower. Personalized education allows for students to go at their own pace. Those who are accelerated within a concept can race ahead. Those who need more examples of a certain problem can prompt a tireless chatbot to repeat this concept over and over again.
From Remembering to Creating
Bloom's Taxonomy is a framework for understanding and categorizing different levels of learning. Created by educational psychologist Benjamin Bloom in 1956, it was designed to help educators set clear, structured goals and foster more effective learning experiences. The taxonomy is often visualized as a pyramid, with six levels arranged hierarchically from basic to complex cognitive processes. At each level, students engage in different types of mental tasks, building on each stage to ultimately achieve mastery.
Why “Create” Is at the Top
The placement of “Create” at the pinnacle reflects Bloom’s view that generating new ideas and solutions is the most sophisticated cognitive process. It requires mastering all preceding levels: students must remember foundational knowledge, understand its context, apply it, analyze its elements, evaluate its strengths and weaknesses, and finally synthesize this understanding to produce something unique. The skills associated with “Create” are essential for problem-solving, innovation, and adaptability, which are increasingly valuable in a complex, AI-driven world.
In today’s educational landscape, Bloom’s taxonomy serves not only as a roadmap for curriculum development but also as a guide for teaching critical thinking. It emphasizes the importance of progressing beyond rote learning to develop adaptable, creative, and critical thinkers—individuals who are prepared to thrive in fast-evolving fields shaped by AI and technology. Bloom’s taxonomy, particularly with “Create” at its apex, aligns perfectly with the skills needed in the modern world, where creativity and the ability to approach problems from new angles are essential for both personal and professional success.
From knowing the answer to asking the right question
I remember when I had to write a research paper on ancient Mesopotamia in Social Studies class. I was taught the Dewy decimal system at the library, thumbed through encyclopedias, and conducted online research in JSTOR when libraries began digitizing their information. I learned the MPA and MLA way to create bibliographies. In these short years, we’ve transitioned from such an archaic way of researching information to using online sources to complete the same task. I can’t imagine a kid today needing go through such a roundabout and turtle-speed way of finishing a piece of homework.
Our children have the world’s information at their fingertips, but the education industry has not kept up in revamping its curriculum to keep in line what technology can provide. The brain of a child undergoes its most pivotal development during those precious years of schooling. We don’t need to teach kids all the answers, but we must teach them how to ask the right questions. After all, that skill alone may be the most valuable preparation we can offer for a future shaped by AI.
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