I write about the things I'm thinking about because writing helps me understand them… In fact, that's what I am doing right now. This piece is connected to ideas I'm developing for my current book project, Teacher Smart: How to Teach Like a Human in the Age of A.I. I don't yet have all the ideas fully arranged in my mind. It's a process. Writing gives me a way to work through that process. I can examine what I think I understand, notice where the connections are less clear, search for...

This summer, I read an old book about the future. Alvin Toffler’s Future Shock was published more than half a century ago. But much of what he describes feels a lot like the present. Toffler was interested in the psychological and social effects of a rapidly changing society. He knew that the world is always changing. His concern was that the rate of change was accelerating beyond our capacity to adapt to it. He called the resulting disorientation “future shock,” describing it as the...

All across the country, school districts are creating policies regarding artificial intelligence. The big shots in the central offices seem to enjoy making policies. And I’m not opposed to policies per se. But any policies on the use of AI are going to be mostly pointless unless the systems seek first a classroom-level understanding of what AI is changing about teaching and learning. To traditional schooling, AI is Frankenstein’s monster. It threatens to tear to shreds the memory-based...