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Preparing for the AI-Driven Future of Education
Many are likening the current education system to a fragile house of cards that risks collapse if not delicately deconstructed and rebuilt to meet the needs of a rapidly evolving society. A tectonic shift is needed to align the education system with today's world, rather than sticking with outdated industrial models.
The AI Projection in Education
Advancements in AI, like the ChatGPT of 2022, have shown its potential not only in personalizing student's educational needs but also in perhaps surpassing traditional teaching methods. However, a significant proportion of educators balk at embracing these technologies due to a combination of ignorance on the one hand, and apathy on the other. This underlines an imperative for robust teacher training and wide-scale teacher adoption.
Fearing AI Technology in Education
New technologies, when poorly integrated into schools, often end up underutilized due to the heavy workload on teachers. Often these technologies, promising though they may be, are viewed with suspicion and apathy. Broad apprehensions and a history of underutilized tech innovations have stoked fears amongst many educators who still view tools like AI chatbots as peripheral, non-transformative, and potentially harmful. To overcome this, the adoption of these technologies needs to be less about replacement and more about complementing traditional education models.
The Potential Solutions
Navigating this labyrinth of systemic challenges requires a compass, a road map, and a vision of the promised land. Here, established institutes might risk obsolescence if they resist integrating AI into their models. In stark contrast, newer institutions embracing AI, like certain online schools, have shown potential in outpacing traditional methodologies.
An increasing trend in homeschooling, both in the UK and the US, driven by dissatisfaction with traditional education has witnessed a significant surge, facilitated in no small part by these online platforms. The current fastest-growing school in the UK is an online institution, signaling a societal shift towards alternative education options.
Beyond work, the influence of AI on homes and children's education is another dimension to reckon with, particularly when we consider preparing children for an AI-dominated future.
Decentralization of Education
This transition can be seen as part of a broader trend of decentralization seen globally, predicting a shift away from government-controlled education systems to ones that are more choice-driven. Such a trend, however, could spell funding troubles for established educational institutions, challenging their very existence.
The Private-Public Divide
Despite this, private institutions, armed with better resources and the competitive need to innovate, might adopt AI faster than their public counterparts that often juggle financial constraints.
And while AI is largely considered a tech issue in schools, with limited teacher training available, the age-old divide between private and public educators may further accentuate the gap among those students with access to AI-driven education and those stuck with traditional models.
The Parents' Role
Beyond the classroom, parents need to monitor their child's interaction with AI, discussing it openly. They should aim to foster an environment where AI tools are used responsibly, collaboratively, and in family activities, a measure that goes a long way in exposing children to AI safely.
Concluding Thoughts
Ultimately, schools are faced with two quandaries. One, how to fill the skill gap among students for future roles in the workforce. And two, how to prevent the potential widening gap between students with access to innovative, often AI-driven, education, and those confined to traditional methods.
While concerns around students' misuse of AI tools abound, there's a growing need for educators to adapt, adopt, and integrate these tools effectively. Schools must teach students how to collaborate with AI rather than rely on it exclusively. Parents must engage with schools about how their child is being prepared to use AI technologies responsibly and effectively.
Rooted in fear of challenging long-standing educational practices is the significant barrier to AI integration. Schools need to ready themselves to meet modern demands. If not, they risk lagging behind innovative educational practices emerging globally.
Topics Covered in This Episode
1. Current Education System
2. Resistance to AI in Education
3. AI's Role and Impact on next-gen
4. Alternative Education Methods
5. Skills Gap and AI Integration
6. Role of Parents in Children's AI Usage
Podcast Transcript
Jordan Wilson [00:00:02]:
Almost every single day on this very show, we talk about what you should be doing to grow your company and your career in the ever changing world of generative AI. Yet, that's not where AI's impact ends. AI is not a 9 to 5 thing. It's probably impacting your home, your kids, how they're learning, and maybe how they're not learning. So, every now and then, I I think it's important, for us on this show to zoom out a little bit and take a step back and look at a little bit more holistic view of how generative AI is probably impacting us all. And today, we're gonna be talking about how we can prepare our children for an AI world. Right? Think of how much time you probably spend, you you know, preparing yourself and and your career, your department, your team. How much time do you spend thinking about maybe your kids? How the future is going to work for them? Their, employability, right, in 5, 10, 15 years.
Jordan Wilson [00:01:10]:
Their school. How they're learning. Should they be learning the same way? It's a topic I'm excited to talk about today on everyday AI. What's going on y'all? My name is Jordan Wilson, and I'm the host of everyday AI, and this thing is for you. It is your daily livestream podcast and free daily newsletter, helping everyday people like you and me not just learn AI, but how we can leverage it to grow our companies and our careers and everything else. So, maybe it's your first time listening. If that sounds like you, welcome to your new home. This is a daily, livestream podcast, free daily newsletter, unedited, unscripted.
Jordan Wilson [00:01:44]:
If you're new here, thank you for joining us. We do this as a livestream, but also as a podcast, and you can go to our website at your everydayai.com. Sign up for our free daily newsletter. Each and every day, we recap our podcast conversation as well as, in that newsletter, all of the updates that you need to stay ahead in the world of AI. No BS. Just what you need to know. Alright. But before we get started on today's conversation, which I'm extremely, excited to talk about how we prepare our kids for an AI world, let's first go over the AI news for today.
Jordan Wilson [00:02:18]:
So first, Russia and China are reportedly collaborating on an AI development amid global competition. So Russian president Vladimir Putin has ordered the Russian government and Sberbank, the country's largest state owned bank, to work with China on AI technology, highlighting the importance of their partnership in technological research and development. So the collaboration comes at a time when both countries aim to enhance their military capabilities, particularly in AI powered weapons, which could impact ongoing conflicts such as the war in Ukraine. China is recognized as a leading global power in AI, ranking second in the global AI index while the US holds the top position. Russia, however, ranks 31st out of 83 countries, indicating a significant gap in AI innovation. So the collaboration between Russia and China may lead to the development of fully autonomous AI powered weapons, raising concerns about the future of warfare and ethical implications of such technologies. Yeah. Not fun news to hear.
Jordan Wilson [00:03:21]:
Right? But, that's the reality. Been talking about that for a long time. AI is being used everywhere. Alright. So next piece of AI news, editors at Elsevier's hopefully, I got that right. Elsevier's Journal of Human Research have resigned in mass over AI concerns in publishing practices. So the editorial board of Elsevier's Journal of Human Evolution has resigned in MASH, reflecting deep seated frustration with the publishing giant's practices, particularly regarding the use of AI. So the mass resignation highlights a critical moment for academic publishing and its implication for researchers.
Jordan Wilson [00:03:59]:
So editors resigned with, quote, unquote, heartfelt sadness and great regret, signaling their commitment to maintaining the integrity of their journal in the face of troubling changes imposed by Elsevier. So this incident marks the 20th mass resignation from a scientific journal since 2023, underscoring a growing movement among academics, against evolving business models in scholarly publishing, which generally involves a lot of large language models and generative AI. Alright. Our last piece of news for the day. NVIDIA has invested now more than $1,000,000,000 in AI startups amid regulatory scrutiny. So NVIDIA's significant investment in AI startups highlights the company's expanding influence in the tech industry and also raises concerns about market power. So this is just a recap of their investments for the year. But in 2024, NVIDIA ramped up its startup investments to $1,000,000,000 across 50 funding rounds, a notable increase from, only 872,000,000 in the previous year.
Jordan Wilson [00:05:13]:
So the semiconductor giant that is literally powering the AI movement is primarily focusing on core AI companies that require substantial computing power, many of which are already NVIDIA customers. So notable investments include Elon Musk's x AI and major players like OpenAI, Cohere, Mistral, and Perplexity. NVIDIA also made its largest acquisition spree in years, purchasing more companies in 2024, than the last 4 years combined, including, Israeli AI workload management platform, Run AI for, 100 of 1,000,000 of dollars. So, meanwhile, major tech companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google are developing their own custom chips to lessen their market reliance on NVIDIA. So no new news. If you've been, tuning in to the show, there's actually one of my AI predictions of last year saying that NVIDIA was actually just going to become a huge VC firm, and there you go. They did more work in 2024 than the 4 previous years combined just like I told y'all was gonna happen. Right? Alright.
Jordan Wilson [00:06:14]:
So enough chitchat. If you want more of the AI news, you can always, tune in to our newsletter. But, I'm excited, to talk today and to bring on our guests and how we can prepare, children for an AI world. So, please help me welcome to the show. We have Dan Fitzpatrick, the founder and co director at the AI educator and author of the book Infinite Education. Dan, thank you so much for joining the Everyday AI Show.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:06:37]:
Jordan, it's great to be with you. I I I watch your podcast, from time to time, so it's great to be with you today.
Jordan Wilson [00:06:43]:
Yeah. This is an exciting one. And, hey, livestream audience. You probably all have kids at home. Right? How much time do you think about this? So, you know, thanks for our, live stream audience for joining us. If you do have questions, you know, Michael, Ernesto, Harvey, Christopher, whoever, Jennifer, get them in now. But, first, before we get started and and talk about this topic, Dan, can you tell everyone a little bit about your background?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:07:06]:
Yeah. Of course. I'm I'm I'm from England as you can probably tell from my accent. I'm from the northeast of England, a place called Newcastle. I'm a trained high school teacher. So I was a high school teacher for a number of years. Moved into high school leadership, and then moved over into college leadership looking after digital and innovation strategy. I then moved out there, started my own business to work with schools around the world, colleges around the world, on integrated artificial intelligence and looking at, what I call nonlinear innovation.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:07:36]:
So, not just making what we're we already do better, but actually how do we recreate education, for these crazy times we're in, I guess. And I and I get to write books on it. I write for Forbes, and kinda living living the dream, really, doing what I love doing.
Jordan Wilson [00:07:53]:
Yeah. No. I I love it. And, you know, Dan, maybe can you tell us a little bit how did you transition from, you you know, the the classroom, right, being an educator, to now educating those in the classroom around AI? How did that come about?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:08:07]:
Absolutely. I think it was when I was going to be a teacher, I even even back then, I started thinking we can do this better. Surely, we can we can it felt like very much like how school was when I was at school, and we were we were a few years later, nothing had really changed. So yeah. So me, a few guys who who I worked with, other fellow teachers, we kinda got this passion for for looking at the future of education. We started a podcast. We started working with companies like Google, and really trying to drive change from the from the grassroots of education, really. And that kinda has been a passion of of everything I've done, yeah, since I since I started being a teacher.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:08:48]:
And and it just felt it got to a point where it felt like a natural transition to then to step outside of a of a school building and and be able to travel around and help help many schools and many teachers.
Jordan Wilson [00:09:01]:
So, you know, what are the what would you say are the biggest problems, we face, right, when we talk about the next generation, whether we're talking about, you know, college students or, you know, middle school kids? What are some of the problems that you think that we're facing when it comes to, right, our our children growing up and and going out into the workforce and, you know, being prepared, you know, in the world? What are the biggest problems that you'd say would that we're facing right now?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:09:28]:
Yeah. I mean, I think top top of my mind at the minute is 2 I think there's 2 main problems. I think the first problem is our our children, the students, or the next generation who are gonna be coming into our our our businesses, not having the the skills to be able to to to to make a change, to make a difference, and to and to really create the future. And secondly, I think we we're in a position now where education could really split off between kind of traditional mainstream education and a lot of innovative projects that are going on at the minute. So we're we're finding, powered by artificial intelligence in many cases, new forms of education starting to starting to appear and develop at a really fast pace. So what worries me there is that we could have a we could have, yeah, I suppose further inequalities between then a select few students who got the key skills needed and the majority of students who are left behind.
Jordan Wilson [00:10:29]:
And, you know, I I I always try to have, you you know, AI educators, former teachers, current teachers on, you know, at least a couple of times a year here on the show because I think it's important. Right? When you send your kids back to school, you know, you gotta kind of know the the the the pulse of what's going on. But, you know, I know it's hard. And and, Dan, you know, you said that you, you know, kind of do work with schools, you know, here in the US and in other parts of the world. Where would you say right now? Right? If if if you give us a zoomed out view, maybe someone's not paying attention to what's happening at their kid's school. How are schools, across the world, which I know is a broad question. Right?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:11:05]:
Yeah.
Jordan Wilson [00:11:05]:
How are they tackling this issue of of AI in the classroom?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:11:09]:
Well, I think one of the biggest issues presented, and it's, I suppose a lot of your audience will will be in businesses that have had to approach this the same way. It's it's it's the stuff that's happening on the ground. So if we go into the average school, the the impact on the ground level likely is if you ask most teachers is while students are using this technology for quote, unquote cheating or using this to do their their assessments. My big my big thing with that is we can no longer blame the student for using the tools available, and ask the student or our children to change, but we must change as educators. We have to be start using a bit more imaginative. For some reason, and you you'll know this from being at school, everyone will have this experience that, for some reason, we got stuck on, well, well, let's teach some children some information. Then they write it down on a piece of paper or whatever, And then we read that, and we're able to tell how much they've learned. And then we move on to the next thing.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:12:10]:
Why is that the case? It lacks in this day and age, it lacks no imagination. It has no links to the to the real world. So we I think the education itself needs to start using its imagination, and I think parents need to put the pressure on as well. I think we need to be asking our our children's schools. Well, how will we teach them? How how are they teaching your children the generative AI? Are they are they giving them the skills to be able to collaborate with AI? Are they giving them the the awareness of how to use this in a safe way? Are they giving them the the skills to be able to use this to benefit them enough for them to just like, I I put in my my first book, the AI classroom. I wrote a chapter called outsource your your doing, not your thinking. And I really think we need to ask our our educators, are we are they doing now? Are we allowing our students to use these tools so that they are using it as a collaborative partner and not a replacement for all of their thinking? And we need to put that pressure on and say, well, what what is happening? Because in many places, it's not happening. I'm still I was in Scotland, which is not too far from where I live.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:13:17]:
I worked with some schools just just a couple of months ago, and I was even hearing reports while I was there of of local governments starting to tell schools that they couldn't use ChatGPT anymore. This is after 2 years of schools using ChatGPT. But then we see the reverse happening. I was recently in New York City working with, the the school state school boards of of New York State, and and probably most notoriously, they in the in the early days of of chatGPT, shut shut it all down and banned it, but now they've opened it up and they're exploring it. So places are in a real liminal space. They're in a space where we kinda the oldest not the old ways of doing things are not making sense anymore, and the new ways of doing things haven't fully been formed or created yet. So there's a there's a there's a lot going on in that space at the moment, and and and places are trying to figure out what to do next.
Jordan Wilson [00:14:12]:
Yeah. And and and and one thing that, you know, I I throw out there every now and then because I know, you know, we have a lot of, AI educators listening, you you know, the podcast and people in traditional education is, I like to say replace the word generative AI or AI or ChatGPT with Internet. Right? Would you ban, your students from using the Internet? Probably not. Right? That is how they learn. Right? And the same thing is is, you you know, in the workforce, you're gonna be required to use generative AI. Right? So banning it is probably not a good idea anymore. But, you know, why are we still seeing this this, you know, this this AI ban culture, Dan. Right? You know, many years after generative AI has been out in the wild.
Jordan Wilson [00:14:55]:
You know, why what what are you hearing, from the schools and the districts that you work with? You know, what are their reasons why, they're still hesitant toward generative AI? Is it an education problem? Is it an access problem? Like, what's the, I guess, what's the issue on why, you know, school districts still aren't fully embracing it?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:15:12]:
Well, it's interesting you you use the the analogy there of the Internet. There's still there's still many, many schools out there who's who don't give children free access to the Internet, who who very, very much control access to the Internet. We've we've seen a a worldwide surge at the moment of schools banning cell phones. Some of those are for good reasons, but my question is, well, what are what we replacing that with? Are we giving them an an an in house device where they can still get the benefits of the technology without the harmful side of it? And a lot of places aren't. So I think I think, we've we've got a long way to go. I've I I think for a long, long time, education has had us almost like a special dispensation from innovation because they haven't had to really innovate, to be to to be fair. And I think that comes down to lockdown the competition. The schools haven't really had any competition.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:16:08]:
So and we know from the business world that that's what drives innovation. And I think that special dispensation is now coming to an end because of new forms of school starting to pop up like we've we've mentioned. And I think a lot of schools are gonna find that they're not just one step behind, they're 20 steps behind. And and there's and there's a lot of catching up to do. And I think I think at the main going back to to your main question there. So the main issue is fear, I think. Because once you start to look at, oh, how do we use this technology, Then suddenly question marks start popping up over age old practices that we that are kinda like, orthodoxy with a within education, like, how we assess students. The the whole idea of we're preparing them for university.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:16:58]:
The the whole, like, the whole kind of system starts. It's like a house of cards. And once you start to remove 1 or 2 cards, the whole thing starts to shake, and that's when things get a bit scary. So you will see schools react quite bluntly and just say, right, band. We're not we're not allowing it. And it it's a very blunt reaction because that house of cards could start to shake and start to fall down. So my mission really is to go, right, well, how do we how do we deconstruct that house of cards in a safe way so that we we don't destroy the education system, but but that we remake, an education system that's fit for for our society. It's fit for our to prepare our children for the actual world they live in, not a not an industrial age of 3, 400 years ago.
Jordan Wilson [00:17:48]:
Mhmm. Yeah. A lot a lot to unpack there, Dan, and I'm gonna I'm gonna go and just put out some some random opinions and hot takes, and I wanna get your get your thoughts on this. Right? You know, from from my perspective here, you you know, I think a lot of early on. Right? November 2022, the ChatGPT moment. Right? I think a lot of AI educators saw this, and they're like, oh, this is gonna go away. And, you know, people are looking at the Gartner hype cycle, and they're like, oh, you know, we're gonna be on the downward trend here soon. And, you know, here we are, you you know, two and a half years later.
Jordan Wilson [00:18:20]:
And now I think you're seeing, you know, oh, it's it's, you know, Khan Academy. You're seeing it on 60 minutes and seeing how good of a job it can do. You know? And it's almost like, wow. This looks like it could do a better job than actual teachers because if if you give all the students access to something, it adapts to their personalized learning style. Right? And you can ask questions in so many different ways. Is there a level maybe of of fear? Right? In in the same way everyone's worried about, oh, will AI take my jobs? Right? Is there maybe that certain element of teachers school districts are like, woah. Hey. This AI thing is actually maybe a little too good at what we are trying to do.
Jordan Wilson [00:18:57]:
Is is there a sense of that at all?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:19:00]:
I think for some people for the for the few who who have glimpsed at what's coming, and I I still don't think and I still don't think our general population has really realized what's what's coming and what's being worked on behind the scenes here. And and I encounter a lot of schools who are creating policies, who are creating strategies around the current understanding of the technology available right now. And and one of the things I do when I go to schools is go, right, well, have you do you know about the advanced robotics side of this? Do you know about the advanced brain technology that's going on here? Because this exists, and we're gonna start seeing it over the next few years start to become available. So I think there is a fear. I think there's also I think there's also a bit of a education. So we get the branch of technology, EdTech, educational technology has promised a lot over the last few decades and and quite regularly under delivered. So teachers are quite used to and I guess I guess all industries are like this, but teachers are quite used to somebody going, get a new tech is gonna change everything. It's it's really gonna help us.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:20:03]:
It's gonna and then it it gets it gets very poorly integrated. I think, like, I've I've worked in businesses where a business will just go right. We're using this system now. Let's transfer over. We've got a few weeks. You've gotta do it or you lose your job. If you if you if you say no. Thank you.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:20:19]:
You can't you're not gonna be staying at that business for much longer. In education, it doesn't really work like that because the system around our schools doesn't really change that much. A school finds it really difficult. The average school find it really difficult to say, right, this is this is what we're doing now in terms of teaching and technology, and everybody has to follow it. Because, actually, you might have some teachers who are really delivering on results and using very old fashioned methods. So you don't wanna disrupt them in that because, actually, they're getting you some great metrics for you for how your school is judged on a national level, let's say. So a lot of tech integration is poorly done because it's like almost like this helps. Use it if you wanna use it.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:21:04]:
And teachers, huge workloads. It just goes to to the back of the the entry. So we've had a lot of, wow. Look at this technology. Look at cloud technology. It's gonna help us so much. Look at this technology. The Internet, it's gonna help us so much, and it just hasn't fully delivered within education.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:21:22]:
And so here you go. You've got another technology, artificial intelligence. People are saying fairly similar things about it. And and especially teachers who aren't don't really know how to use it. You know, you jump on a chat to your team for the first time. You ask it a question. You're like, yeah. It's alright.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:21:37]:
But but it's it's hard to get your it's hard to see how a chatbot is gonna replace you or how a chatbot is gonna revolutionize anything really because the first time you start trying this, it's just like having a conversation with Wikipedia, I guess. That's what it feels like. And that's where a lot of teachers will get to and go, right. Oh, yeah. That's okay. Actually, I could see some of the harmful sides of this in terms of cheating, so maybe we should maybe we should block this because this could be damaging. And that's about as far as the mindset goes, really. So there's there's some fear there, but there's also just some apathy.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:22:11]:
There's also just some, oh, here's another technology that people are promising is gonna change the world, but never really does. Yeah. It's a it's a whole mess. It's a whole mess. And, that's why in my in my new book, Infinite Education, I try to get down to the the nuts and bolts of how can a school really start to change things amongst this this this historic mess, I guess.
Jordan Wilson [00:22:35]:
And and and let's just quickly jump into that. Right? My my hot take has always been, right, some big schools, some big, you know, household names here in the US that have been around for, you know, a 100 of year a 100 years, I'm like, they're probably not gonna be around. Right? If they still have this hard stance on, you know, hey. We're banning every single AI and we're not gonna push generative AI education, right, across our curriculum, I'm like, they're not gonna be around because they're, you know, graduates aren't gonna get jobs. Right? It's it's it's gonna be, like, you know, still learning in a in a book only age when digital's been around for many decades. Do you see that as a potential outcome where maybe just some household institutions just aren't gonna be so household anymore, because there's not gonna be students wanting to go there? Is that is that wild to say that?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:23:27]:
Yeah. It's interesting because I and my instinct is yes, but then I'm like, well, a lot of these places have a lot of power, and it's it's difficult to make power go away. But I I do think we're gonna get into a position where where and I like I alluded to before, we're gonna start getting alternatives. Like, you look at there's there's a school called Synthesis out of California who who that was set up, from SpaceX. And those guys do some amazing online schooling. They've got an AI tutor that teaches maths. And there's lots of different forms of that kind of popping up at the minute. And what are we gonna do when these some students who have just been educated through these these types of new forms of education start to get really top jobs in industry, start to start to be favored over kind of the traditional student who's who's gone through university and so on, then it's good.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:24:24]:
I think that's when parents and and the children themselves or the students themselves will start to think, well, actually, especially the debt that comes with with a traditional education, there's another way to do it here. And and it also has an impact because it will get me a good job. And I think once we reach that point of level of the level of awareness where there could be a tipping point there where actually we start to get and and to be fair, we're starting to see it already. We're starting to see it in the UK, in the US, a huge rise in homeschooling. And, there's many reasons for homeschooling, but a big reason is dissatisfaction with the current system. And and homes a lot of homeschooling parents aren't just taking their students, their children and and and teaching them themselves at home, like in on on a desk in the living room or something like that. What they're doing is they they are putting them onto these online schooling platforms. The the the fastest growing school in the UK at the moment is an online school.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:25:22]:
So I think what I think what we're gonna see is and I kinda call it in my new book the decentralization of education. We've seen we've seen the decentralization phenomena happening around the world, the finance ownership, and so on. I think we're gonna start seeing the decentralization of education. And that for me, that's only a good thing because parents, students are gonna have more of a choice. And I think in that type of new environment, the centralized power of mainstream government controlled education starts to lose its grip. And then, like you say, we could start seeing some of those those household name schools, colleges, universities, start to lose funding, start to start to be in trouble. And I don't think I don't think we realize how how fast we're we're we're we're getting to that point.
Jordan Wilson [00:26:10]:
You know, a good a good question here coming in from, YouTube, big bogey face, saying, are private schools adopting AI quicker, and deeper than public schools? What would you say to that, Ian?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:26:23]:
Yeah. In my experience, most of my work comes from private schools. Two main reasons. They've got the resources. They've got the finance. A lot of state schools, or what we call public schools in the in the UK, which is state schools, won't have money. They're too busy trying to keep the building from crumbling down around them. Never mind.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:26:42]:
Look at AI. Yes. And and I think it comes back to what we what I was saying before, because those schools do have a tiny bit of competition because they're they're competing with the next private school. Now, actually, when you look under the hood, there's not much difference there. Very similar curriculum, very similar styles of teaching. And it's not the same type of competition I'm talking about with with these other other other types of schools. But there is a little bit of competition, and those types of schools need need an edge to attract wealthier parents. So a lot of them, wanna explore AI.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:27:18]:
They wanna do it for the right reasons, but also for the for their website, for their promo material. So, yeah, we're starting to there's there's a lot more interest from from private schools, around the world, I I find.
Jordan Wilson [00:27:34]:
Another another common thing that I see, right, in the in the educational system, and then I wanna ask you one question outside of the classroom, is it seems like educators aren't educating themselves on how generative AI works. Right? Like, I'll ask someone like, hey. Can you explain how ChatGPT works? Right? And no one has a clue. Do you think that, you know, larger institutions are doing due diligence on actually understanding this technology, or is it more of, we we we don't understand it? So instead of learning, we're just gonna, you know, say, hey, kids. Don't use it.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:28:11]:
Yeah. And we have the data for that. I think it was there's there's a recent survey where 7 out of 10 teachers said they they haven't been trained in anything to do with artificial intelligence, which is quite scary, really. But like I say, I'm I've been on leadership teams in schools. There's a lot of competition for training. There's a lot of competition for for professional development, within a school and how you need to keep teachers trained and the tech side of it. And I think that's this is this is where the problem occurs, I think, that AI is just seen as a tech thing. I don't and and that's, again, that's a fundamental misunderstanding of artificial intelligence that this is impacting kind of everything, not it's not just a tech thing.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:28:52]:
And so tech stuff tech stuff again in schools gets gets left to the periphery because it's not essential. It's because you can still do the job with traditional methods. You could still you could still have a teacher with a chalkboard do just as well as a teacher with with Ipads and and generative AI in in the current system. So yeah. So yeah. I think I I think we've got we've we've got a lot of work to do there, but that doesn't stop individual teachers just going off and finding out about the stuff themselves and training themselves. Because let's be honest, in in what you do, Jordan, and what your listeners do, that that they're doing that, aren't they? It's not not every company is training their their workforce and and AI. It's the individual innovators, the the the the the mavericks in the company who are going, you know what? I'm gonna find out about this AI thing.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:29:45]:
And it's the same in education. That's what that's what we're seeing, and we we need more of that, really.
Jordan Wilson [00:29:51]:
Mhmm. You know, out outside of the classroom, what should parents be looking at when it comes to generative AI? Right? Like, I think it took us, you know, a decade or more to understand, you know, as an example, social media's impact on on a younger generation. Right? And in the, you know, the pros and the very obvious cons of that. So when it comes to outside of the classroom, what should parents be, you know, looking at or trying to understand when it comes to generative AI? Because there's there's goods and there's bads.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:30:22]:
Yeah. Two things, I think. The first thing is, monitor your kids. Like, monitor their use. And I think it's interesting because I I I'm still from that age of where the Internet was and being on your phone your cell phone is quite a private thing. It's it's a we we kind of think when it comes to our kids, oh, well, it's their own world. We shouldn't really get involved. But actually, have something on the phone.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:30:47]:
I know just today, one example, Google have some great parents, parent apps where you can see what your your your kids have to ask for permission for apps. And because your your children will be using AI. I mean, the biggest, the most used AI, for teenagers is is the AI that's in Snapchat. So they will be using it. It's already in their apps. So I think monitor it, make sure your children are safe. I think that's probably number 1. I think number 2 is use it with them as well.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:31:18]:
Talk about it. If you're a parent who's new to AI, go on the journey with with your with your children. Get it to do some things like like we sometimes do or even chat we can just have the Santa feature where you could talk to Santa through the through the voice mode. I've got a 4 and a 5 year old at home, and we would chat to Santa together. We would we started using the vision, the new pro vision features within the Chat You BT app as well, and and really just using it together, get it to plan to help you plan days out and and trips and and whatever. And also, one one great way I can work I've got a friend who's did this, and actually, OpenAI have just created a a commercial with him in it. It's amazing. He's he's based in Manchester in the UK.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:32:03]:
And what he did was he couldn't understand his daughter's homework. You know, like, all all parents are like, I've got no idea what's going on here. I can't help my own child with their homework because I I don't know. So he uses Chatu Petit with his daughter to so that they can both understand the homework together and work on the homework together. And I think it can it can help like that just like at work as a as a collaborative partner. It can work as a bit of a collaborative partner at home on on on things you're doing at home as well. So, yeah, I think I think stuff yeah. We'll use it together with with your children.
Jordan Wilson [00:32:38]:
Yeah. That's great. So, Dan, we covered a lot in today's conversation from, you know, problems with traditional, education and their, lack of proper implementation around AI. We've talked about, you know, maybe kind of this competition or threat that AI may pose in the classroom and even outside of the classroom, how parents can maybe best, you you know, be a support system, but also keep things safe for their children. But as we wrap, what is your one most important takeaway, for how we can prepare our children for an AI world?
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:33:11]:
I think give the expose them to it. Now there might be there might be some people who are saying don't do that because of of safety. I'm absolutely with with you on that. There are there are issues with this technology. But if we don't work with them on it, they're gonna use it anyway, and they're not gonna have the guidance from from a responsible adult, especially if they're young children, on how to use this safely. So, yeah, going back to what we were just talking about, use it with them, ask them about it, have conversation. I think probably one of the biggest issues, probably with most things in the world, is lack of communication. Just open up those communication channels with with your children.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:33:49]:
Ask them what they're doing in school. Ask them what they're doing with it, and and see where that leads.
Jordan Wilson [00:33:56]:
Such such a good and important conversation to have. Thank you so much, Dan Fitzpatrick, for joining the Everyday AI Show. We appreciate your time.
Dan Fitzpatrick [00:34:05]:
Thanks, Jordan. Really appreciate it.
Jordan Wilson [00:34:07]:
And, hey, as a reminder to y'all, we covered a lot there. Maybe you were on the treadmill out walking your dog. Whatever you do while you're listening to the show, don't worry. If you missed an important point that Dan talked about there, it's all gonna be in our newsletter. So make sure if you have not already, go to your everydayai.com. Sign up for that free daily newsletter. We'll be recapping today's show, giving you other resources and a whole lot more to keep you up in the world of AI news. Thank you for tuning in, and we'll make sure to see you tomorrow.
Jordan Wilson [00:34:36]:
Not tomorrow. We'll see you next week and every other day on everyday AI. Thanks, y'all.