Recently, The Atlantic published an article highlighting the destabilising effects of AI on white-collar jobs, lamenting that AI 'creates content out of what is already out there, with no authority, no understanding, no ability to correct itself, no way to identify genuinely new or interesting ideas”. It reminded me of the benefits of an innovation team at a tech-facing school like Halcyon, which tries to do the opposite – to teach tech-savvy students to grapple with challenges like climate change and inequality, to take action rooted in human empathy and to use their resources to do something different.
At Halcyon, we embrace technology to amplify and enhance humanity’s capabilities, rather than replace them. We employ a digital learning coach to help students and staff embrace tech tools to reduce workloads and advance research, we converse about the many ethical storms surrounding AI from ChatGPT to deepfake technology, and we preach paperless classrooms.
Last week, the team (composed of Martyn Steiner, Dr Sabahat Lodhi, Faye Ellis and myself) delivered a two-day workshop on international mindedness and service.
The days included conceptual understandings of international mindedness and effective service, along with workshops leading on strategies to make this work in our classrooms. In response to Faye, who introduced a number of technological tools – such as building digital museums to explore students’ intercultural heritages and using data to create support systems for vulnerable communities – I decided my workshop on inquiry learning would offer a complementary set of skills; ones that could be built tech-free.
The first section of my workshop had staff compete in gamified tasks in order to answer simple, ‘factual’ inquiry questions like 'What are students’ interests right now?' and 'What global issues does your subject tackle?' There is an obvious benefit to gamification in the classroom, as one staff member said: 'I was scared when you told me I’d have to think hard in this workshop, but it didn’t feel like I was working at all!'