As I read the question,
“How do we balance the need to protect young learners from the adverse effects of technology while also teaching digital literacy?”
Mariel Miller
…I’m overwhelmed with the ethical dilemma of this situation. It’s a hypocrisy I query with daily; How do I get students to connect with others socially and practice skills off screen, while still balancing the necessity of teaching them invaluable digital literacy skills that will help them acquire a job, succeed and excel at that career, and save themselves valuable time and resources along the way?
My blog today will outline three perspectives:
- Human Connection.
- Necessity of Digital Literacy Skills –> The Workforce
- Soft Skills are Paramount
Digging Into Human Connection
“There are 800,000 suicides per year. That’s one suicide every 40 seconds.”
“20% of kids ages 12-15 have had suicidal ideations. That means out of your class of 20 students, 4 have a plan. They have a plan.”
Carrington
Yesterday I read to my students from one of my favourite books, “Kids These Days” by Jodi Carrington. I always preface the conversation with my students about how sobering the words will be and that there might be some triggers about suicide. I only read a portion of the book, the part that really hit home for me and I think is most relevant to share with our students today. As the author speaks of her experience in helping students with their mental health, she outlines the staggering growing statistical rate of suicides. The three pages I read to my students start by saying, there is a problem, our babies are killing themselves. Grandparents have always said, “kids these days…” as though there was something wrong with the next generation, but we’ve never had rates like this before. So what’s so different about this generation?
“PROXIMITY.“
Our grandparents grew up in less square footage. They didn’t have a television distracting them from one another. They had shared space, and were forced to resolve conflicts as a result of this small, shared space. This created ease of connection within family dynamics. It created support, communication, resolution of conflicts. Now, we have big houses, and we hide in our bedrooms on our devices, and get a text that dinner is ready.
We NEED connection, and our kids are missing it.
As always, I end the conversation with my students by letting them know they have support at our school. They can talk to me, our counsellors, another teacher they connect with. I also implore them to be more mindful of their device usage over the weekend and explore conversations, eye contact, and connection with their family members and friends.
So why do I think this is important to talk about? I strive to develop the importance of my students to have a balance; a balance of social skills while developing the digital skills necessary to succeed into today’s workforce.
The Necessity of Digital Literacy Skills including Ai in the Workforce
Whenever I have a need for clarity on educational technology, I lean towards Jeff Utecht and his “Shifting Schools” Podcast for direction. One of his more recent podcasts dives into the topic of Ai, asking “How might Chat GPT help us reflect on human-centric skills?” Jeff and his guest, Tricia, share their insights on Ai suggesting that we are still using writing skills with our students while using generative programs. Jeff says:
“Every single AI, you have to write the prompt. If you want it to create an image for you, you write the prompt, if you want it to create text for it, you write the prompt. Writing is not going anywhere. Writing is changing. And how much writing we do, and what that writing is, and the format of that writing is changing, but it has been for a long time. It has been for a long time. And that is part of it.”
Jeff Utecht
Jeff also shares, ““I honestly feel like it’s malpractice NOT to use it.” His guest also shares that we could have done more to prevent the cataclysms that followed social media usage – that we should have done more to prepare our youth to use it wisely. They suggest we need to do a better job with Ai integration.
The podcast also shares a report pulled from one billion professionals and 67 million companies on the platform, Linkedin, pulls some interesting statistics and perspectives on Ai and its current and future impact on the workforce. By examining global data, the report highlights the enormity of the wave of conversations around Ai, which has increased by 70%. This, compared to other seminal tech moments, like cryptocurrency at 19% increase.
The report outlines the increase of member interests in Ai-related jobs. As highlighted in the graphic below, the number of job postings with AI-related skills has increased by 12% across seven major economies. In the USA, it’s increased by 21%.
There’s no doubt that technology is moving rapidly, in particular this report outlines the specific impact of AI on jobs. Interestingly, GenZ stands to be most impacted by this rapid evolution because those jobs that they would normally step into to begin their profession: note-taking, scheduling, meeting organization, are the jobs that can be easily tasked to Ai. I would personally agree that Ai has the potential to rebuild systems of education and workplace. I agree that it will profoundly change the landscape of economy and that we need students with skills on how to navigate Ai. Our students will be more prepared for the workforce with those skills in hand. However, what else do they NEED?
Soft Skills NEED to be prioritized.
As I expressed in previous semesters, the need for our students to have soft skill development is paramount. We watched a documentary called, “Most Likely To Succeed” that outlined how the school system was created 135 years ago, during the Industrial Revolution. During this time, we needed workers that had the same general knowledge and could retain information. The school system structure created good workers for assembly lines in factories, and was sufficient at a time when jobs were structured: you became a firefighter, an engineer, a lawyer, or a trades person. But since that time, the rapid integration of technology in the workforce has demanded a structural change in the WAY we teach our students because the workforce is evolving so rapidly. As we enter into what Jeff Utecht calls the “information-era” and the “fourth-industrial revolution” we need to shift our way of teaching from knowledge-retention to more skill-acquisition. Most Likely to Succeed shared a perspective from one of the most renowned educational organizations, Khan Academy:
Khan Academy gave the following skills as their guide for hiring:
- “giving and receiving feedback
- what are their logical and critical thinking skills
- what’s their ability to communicate
- how curious is this person
- how self aware is this person”
More excerpts below continue to highlight the importance of good social skills in the workforce:
“The need for people skills to complement AI skills indicates that while professionals need to learn AI skills, continuing to hone people skills should also be a priority. As jobs change with the incorporation of AI and become a collection of skills and tasks, workers will be more productive and spend less time on repetitive tasks, making unique people skills like leadership and creativity even more valuable. If professionals combine AI skills with people skills, they will stay competitive in a job market that will increasingly value skills that AI cannot reproduce.” (10)
future of work ai report
“Skills like communication and flexibility will become even more valuable as AI becomes more embedded in our workflows. A recent survey found that 92% of US professionals agree that people skills are more important than ever.“
Future of work Ai report
Overall, I see the initial question of, “How do we balance the need to protect young learners from the adverse effects of technology while also teaching digital literacy?” as an incredibly complex question that doesn’t have an easy answer. My perspective is that we as educators, have a duty to prepare our students for the world. This includes being aware of the negative impacts of technology and social media, while giving them the requisite skills they need to acquire jobs. It’s a teeter-totter balance and I hope to continue to teach my students how to use progressive technologies such as ChatGPT and other Ai tools, while also placing a high value on their social-skills, critical and creative thinking and collaboration with others.
References:
Carrington, J. (2019). Kids these days: A game plan for (re)connecting with those we teach, lead, & love. FriesenPress.
Dintersmith, Ted, W., Greg. (2015). Most Likely to Succeed. https://webapp.library.uvic.ca/videos/view.php?vfn=Most-Likely-To-Succeed-(2015).mp4
Jeff Utecht (Director). (2023, October 11). 300: How might ChatGPT help us reflect on human-centric skills? [Video recording]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6gCLEucraKE
LinkedIn. (2023, November). Future of work report: AI at work. LinkedIn Economic Graph Research Institute. https://economicgraph.linkedin.com/content/dam/me/economicgraph/en-us/PDF/future-of-work-report-ai-august-2023.pdf
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