students learning at computers

Reading, writing, and AI: How artificial intelligence is making its way into classrooms

'Education is one of the power users of AI right now.”
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To get a sense of how quickly artificial intelligence and generative AI is transforming the education workforce, consider this: 60% of school districts in the U.S. were expected to have trained teachers about the use of AI in the classroom by the end of the 2023-2024 school year, according to a report from RAND.

It comes after teachers had no choice but to learn about AI after November of 2022 when ChatGPT hit the scene, becoming widely popular with students, raising questions and fears about AI’s use.

Roughly one year after that, by the fall of last year, 18% of K-12 teachers reporting using AI to help preparing their lesson plans and 15% saying they’ve tried AI at least once, according to the RAND research.

Among the findings:

  • Middle and high school English and social studies teachers were more likely to be AI users.
  • Most teachers using AI were using virtual learning platforms, adaptive learning systems, and chatbots.
  • The most common ways teachers used AI tools were to adapt lessons to fit student learning levels and generate materials.

“It’s not actually too surprising in the sense that educators are innovators,” says Isabell Hau, executive director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, who spoke with me at SXSW EDU in March. “They want to do the best for their learners, for their classrooms, but definitely the data show that education is one of the power users of AI right now.”

The Stanford Accelerator for Learning describes its work as a “hub for researchers, educators, entrepreneurs and others to collaborate on learning solutions.” One area it’s working on: solutions to address concerns about AI and education. 

“The concerns range from safety, of course, privacy, lots of privacy questions that are raised by AI, lots of ethical questions and then equity questions,” explains Hau. 

She says the Stanford Accelerator for Learning is working on several initiatives to address those concerns and stresses the importance of partnerships between leaders in government, education and school districts to build frameworks for responsible AI use in classrooms. One example of her organization’s work, she says, is advising on a rating system for AI tools, applications, and language models. 

Convincing teachers of the benefits of incorporating AI in the classroom, though, isn’t a slam dunk.

Twenty-five percent of teachers feel that AI tools in grades K-12 do more harm than good, 32% think there is an equal mix of benefit and harm, 6% think AI does more good than harm, and just over one-third (35%) aren’t sure, according to a Pew Research Center survey.

Still, Hau notes that some of the initial fear around using AI in the classroom is easing and she sees potential around using it as a creative tool to help students, including those who are neurodiverse and multilingual learners. 

Frameworks Around AI in Education | WorkingNation Overheard | SXSW EDU

There need to be frameworks addressing ethical and equity questions around the use of AI in education, says Isabelle Hau, executive director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning. WorkingNation sat down with Hau at SXSW EDU 2024 in Austin. When it comes to the use of AI, Hau says, “Education stood out by far as the early adopter.

“I call it actually the AI renaissance. To me, it’s very similar to what I imagine our ancestors lived through in the 14th to 16th century, where I see a lot of human ingenuity going on in a way that I had not seen happen in education for decades,” says Hau. She adds: “I see a lot of creativity right now happening at many levels.”

Using AI to Maximize Efficiency

Along with creativity, there is also an emphasis on using AI to maximize efficiency for teachers, known for being overworked and underpaid.

“We did a recent survey where we found most teachers actually work 50 to 60 hours, which is beyond and above what they’re expected to do,” says McKinsey & Company partner Saurabh Sanghvi, who also sat down with me at SXSW EDU.

“We mapped out where are they spending time? And you find that teachers are spending a lot of time on administrative tasks, on feedback, on grading, and things like that, and not that much time or not as much time as they would like to in one-on-one student interactions or supporting students that they know have a lot of needs,

Sanghvi points to research from McKinsey finding about 30% of activities across all occupations could be impacted by AI and generative AI.

AI’s Impact on Every Job | WorkingNation Overheard | SXSW EDU

AI, including generative AI, will have an impact on all jobs, says Saurabh Sanghvi, partner with McKinsey & Company. But he adds that those impacts will not replace entire job roles. Sanghvi offers an example. “We did a recent survey where we found most teachers actually work 50 to 60 hours, which is beyond and above what they’re expected to do.

Using teaching as an example, he points to how AI can be used to augment jobs rather than replacing them. 

“The idea is how can you actually help a teacher save 30% of their time and redirect that to actually some of the things that they uniquely can do that we think that generative AI or other technologies are still far from doing, which is the compassion to be able to go and help a student. If we can do that, well, then you could either have teachers that are far less overworked and you can see an improvement in student outcomes,” explains Sanghvi. 

You can read the entire McKinsey research report here.
Watch all the WorkingNation Overheard interviews from SXSW EDU 2024 here.

Dana Beth Ardi

Executive Committee

Dana Beth Ardi, PhD, Executive Committee, is a thought leader and expert in the fields of executive search, talent management, organizational design, assessment, leadership and coaching. As an innovator in the human capital movement, Ardi creates enhanced value in companies by matching the most sought after talent with the best opportunities. Ardi coaches boards and investors on the art and science of building high caliber management teams. She provides them with the necessary skills to seek out and attract top-level management, to design the ideal organizational architectures and to deploy people against strategy. Ardi unearths the way a business works and the most effective way for people to work in them.

Ardi is an experienced business executive and senior consultant who leverages business organizational transformation through talent strategies. She uses her knowledge and experience to develop talent strategies to enhance revenue and profit contributions. She has a deep expertise in change management and organizational effectiveness and has designed and built high performance cultures. Ardi has significant experience in mergers, acquisitions, divestitures, IPO’s and turnarounds.

Ardi is an expert on the multi-generational workforce. She understands the four intersecting generations of workers coming together in contemporary companies, each with their own mindsets, leadership and communications styles, values and motivations. Ardi is sought after to assist companies manage and thrive by bringing the generations together. Her book, Fall of the Alphas: How Beta Leaders Win Through Connection, Collaboration and Influence, will be published by St. Martin’s Press. The book reflects Ardi’s deep expertise in understanding organizations and our changing society. It focuses on building a winning culture, how companies must grow and evolve, and how talent influences and shapes communities of work. This is what she has coined “Corporate Anthropology.” It is a playbook on how modern companies must meet challenges – culturally, globally, digitally, across genders and generations.

Ardi is currently the Managing Director and Founder of Corporate Anthropology Advisors, LLC, a consulting company that provides human capital advisory and innovative solutions to companies building value through people. Corporate Anthropology works with organizations, their cultures, the way they grow and develop, and the people who are responsible for forming their communities of work.

Prior to her position at Corporate Anthropology Advisors, Ardi served as a Partner/Managing Director at the private equity firms CCMP Capital and JPMorgan Partners. She was a partner at Flatiron Partners, a venture capital firm working with early state companies where she pioneered the human capital role within an investment portfolio.

Ardi holds a BS from the State University of New York at Buffalo as well as a Masters degree and PhD from Boston College. She started her career as professor at the Graduate Center at Fordham University in New York.