Today’s insights are brought to you by my colleague and founder of the Future Smart Parent club, Jude Foulston.

 

Imagine a world where every student has access to their own personal tutor. A tutor that guides the students’ learning at their own pace, based on their own unique interests and according to their individual learning styles. Imagine one of these tutors for every student.

And then imagine every teacher has their very own teacher’s assistant. An assistant who can reply to emails, help with assessing assignments, assist with lesson plans… The list is endless.

Well… we don’t have to imagine too hard… THIS is fast becoming our reality. This is the future of education.

As I see it, we have two choices. We can either fear it and try to ignore it, or we can embrace it, be curious about it and, I’d like to suggest after watching the video below, start jumping up and down, with ‘butterflies in your tummy’ levels of excitement, as we consider the possibilities such technology starts to offer our education systems, and of course, the actual humans entering our workforces.

Take a look at this 3-minute summary of Sal Khan’s (Founder of Khan Academy) Ted Talk from last year – How AI could save (not destroy) education, where you’ll see the AI tool that the team at Khan Academy have been working on – Khanmigo… (You can access the full 15-minute TED talk here).

And yes, it really should blow your mind – whether you’re a parent or the CEO of a global organisation. Because THIS is what lies ahead of us… for our students, our future workforce, our entrepreneurs, and our world changers.

And this is just the very tip of the iceberg in the education revolution – but it is already here…

It’s here just like ‘dial-up internet’ blew us away or here as the 144kb Floppy discs we all loved and used as we embraced using computers for the first time. (If you don’t know what I’m talking about you’re just not old enough!).

But for those who do know – consider how far we’ve come from dial-up and those floppy discs and then try and imagine what the future holds for education with A.I. involved.

I know what many of you are thinking… But will this replace teachers?

Absolutely not… In fact, I’d say it’ll be the absolute converse, where the tools that AI bring to education will rather empower teachers to be the learning guides so many of them originally signed up to be, without the admin, overwhelm and having to tick too many boxes to make sure curriculum is covered.

A tool that will empower teachers to facilitate deep learning, to engage with their students, to work on those critical human skills that we know are going to be so crucial for our students in this world where technology is so prevalent.

Do we need to change the way our education system works? I am convinced we do.

Do I think we are brave enough to do this? I’m not sure… 

Do I think it’s possible? Absolutely YES

Fun fact, when we took our kids out of mainstream school over COVID and unschooled them, the question we were most often asked was whether we weren’t worried that we were experimenting with our kids, and how did we know this was the right thing to do? That’s another story that I wrote about here, but for me… not trying something different, for a different world felt like a far bigger and scarier experiment for our family.

This world requires us to be brave, it requires us to embrace change, to make mistakes, to change our course when necessary. It requires us to imagine the future and to prepare ourselves for it… today.

This approach isn’t just reserved for corporates around the world – you know… experimenting with 4-day work weeks or hybrid offices, making sure we’re hiring prompt engineers, and holding global conferences for our staff to develop their 21st-century skills.

This approach is required by educators who are willing to experiment, it’s required by governments who are willing to try new approaches, it’s required by parents who are willing to unlearn a lot of what we think we should be focusing on when it comes to raising citizens of the future. It also requires corporates to rethink their hiring processes, skill development and investments in education…

Maybe that looks like inviting ChatGPT into your grade 10 biology classroom or letting your kid choose to study via a MOOC rather than go to university, or even finish school. (Did you know that the founder of Minecraft didn’t finish high school?)

Perhaps it’s as basic as starting to look outside of university graduates when your organisation is hiring, or empowering the parents in your team to unlearn and upskill themselves for parenting in the 21st Century…

The future is here and it keeps coming at us fast and furiously. What a time to be alive!

P.S…. Jude’s workshop ‘A.I. Made Easy for Teachers’ is a great starting point for schools wanting to introduce their teachers to AI. The workshop is filled with practical and positive demonstrations for bringing ChatGPT into your learning environments to enhance both teaching and learning and can be customised to suit your school’s requirements.

The Future Smart Parent club is another great resource from TomorrowToday for parents who are parenting a little differently, yet very much intentionally, for a changing world. You’re welcome to email Jude directly for any questions or comments you may have.

 

As the founder of the Future Smart Parent club, Jude Foulston has dedicated herself to creating a supportive community that embraces the challenges and joys of raising empowered and happy children with an eye towards the future.

Through this unique platform, she brings together parents and teachers from all walks of life, fostering a nurturing environment where knowledge, experiences, and innovative ideas are shared, enabling families to embrace the challenges of the digital age and prepare for the uncharted territories of tomorrow.

Join the Future Smart Parent Club.