“What our values are as educators and how we might envisage these values as operative aspects of online education as a sociotechnical practice. We need to ask not only what technologies can do, but where they fail in relation to our expectations of education. (16)” (Bayne, 2015)
When I think of cyberculture in terms of education it is natural for me to think about early education and the cyberculture that they experience. Which is through their parents, their homes, television, tablet games that they are given. I observe how AI is coming into their lives, into their education, the impressions that they are forming with AI. AI in their homes and cars, having varying control of their homes. It has been mentioned on Twitter that older generations don’t trust AI because of our first impressions of it through media and pop culture. What about this next generation? How will they feel towards AI, what have their first impressions of it been? Do they think that AI is trustworthy, even a natural part of their homes like electric lights or wifi?
I work with a few children in their homes and have seen that they are very comfortable with technology in their lives. Not necessarily in using it, sometimes they need help, but the very presence of the technology. Of having Google to talk to, telling it to turn off the lights, turn down the volume of the TV, etc. Next time I see them I’m going to make a mental note to ask them how they feel having Google in their home. Does it make them feel safe? Do they think that Google is a person with feelings?
On my Livestream, I have been trying not to depress myself with all the worry I see around technology. Fears of being watched all the time, no privacy, fear of AI taking all our jobs and leaving much of the world impoverished. I’m trying to refocus on all the amazing things AI is doing in the world, how it’s being used in education to help students who face different challenges developmentally, or emotionally. Technology has one thing that I as a teacher don’t, a bottomless pit of patience. And if you have all the patience in the world you can achieve a lot.
‘I observe how AI is coming into their lives, into their education, the impressions that they are forming with AI.’
Yes, it is important to make these observations. However, I think one should also separate the everyday reality of experiencing AI with the hyperbole and promotion. The critical question is, how much of the AI we hear about in the media is actually filtering down into classrooms, and everyday lives? probably not as much as is often claimed.
‘What about this next generation? How will they feel towards AI, what have their first impressions of it been?’
So perhaps this is where education has a responsibility. Rather than experiencing AI in the way that a commercial company designs it (for profit, rather than social good perhaps), shouldn’t public education be the place to teach young people to approach this technology critically?