When AI Goes to School: What Teachers NEED to Know with Tai Paschall

In this episode, Alex dives into the world of Artificial Intelligence in K-12 education with guest Tai Paschall. Tai, a seasoned educational leader, author of "When AI Goes to School," and a visionary in digital learning strategies, challenges the status quo, questioning if education systems are adapting fast enough. They discuss Tai's vision for integrating AI across administration, teaching, and student levels, the practical steps educators can take, crucial ethical considerations around data and bias, the need for a clear AI literacy framework, and how AI can foster equity and a deeper focus on student creation in the classroom.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Education Lag: Education systems, like governments, are often the slowest sectors to adopt and integrate new technologies compared to industry.

• Integrated Approach: AI implementation should span administrative uses (data analysis), teacher uses (differentiation, planning), and student uses (learning, creation).

• Practical Starting Point: Teachers can begin by utilising AI tools already integrated with their school's existing platforms (e.g., Gemini for Google schools, Copilot for Microsoft schools) to maintain data containment.

• Ethical Foundation: Safeguarding student data and understanding where information goes is paramount. Using platform-aligned tools helps manage this risk.

• Equity Catalyst: AI tools can significantly enhance equity by providing students with diverse needs or starting points the ability to contribute and participate at a higher level through modifications.

• Assessment Evolution: The AI era necessitates a shift from traditional, memory-based assessments towards evaluating creation, project-based learning, and the process of using AI as a tool.

• AI Literacy: Explicitly teaching students how to use AI ethically, effectively, and discerningly (prompting, evaluating outputs) is essential and should be part of the curriculum across subjects.

• Teacher Empowerment: A common misconception is that AI replaces teachers; instead, it can be a powerful tool to enhance their effectiveness and capacity.

• Focus on Creation: AI's greatest potential lies in enabling students to reach the highest level of Bloom's Taxonomy – creation – by automating lower-order tasks and providing tools for rapid prototyping and idea generation.

• Framework Needed: A clear, regional or systemic framework for AI literacy and implementation is needed to guide schools and educators effectively.

BEST MOMENTS

"We're always late. And in education, we're always kind of the step behind in industry."
"I just... smelled what was coming out of the kitchen... and I was just like, we gotta pay attention to this."
"I always approach now, you know, the three strands... administration, the teacher level, and then of course the student level."
"Safeguarding, student information, student data... that's gotta be now something that is a part of our daily routines as 21st century teachers."
"What if we allow a specific level to be used based on a modification?"
"We can't just focus on these same endpoints for assessments anymore... It can't just be exams or quizzes..."
"No, it's going to... make you better. Like you'll gain your superpower from this."
"Remember not just the why... Remember what we're told as educators that we must do. We must take students through that evolution of learning that we call the Bloom's Taxonomy... the highest level of learning is creation."

VALUABLE RESOURCES

Tai Paschall on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tai-paschall/
Website: https://whenaigoestoschool.com/

CONNECT & CONTACT

Instagram: https://instagram.com/theinternationalclassroom
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandergray84/
Website: https://ticproductions.com