Here Be Dragons: AI and Other Wicked EdTech Creatures
There comes a point when I can’t stay silent and need to shout: Beware, here be dragons! And by that, I don’t mean the uncharted lands of medieval maps. I’m referring to the uncritical adoption of AI and other digital tools in education. I’m also talking about the platformization, depersonalization, datafication, appification, and chatbotification of teaching and learning. The obsession with efficiency and speed. The fixation on rapid results over meaningful learning processes. The overall “pigeonification” of education (click, click, click) that Audrey Watters has cautioned us about time and again. The pressure I am feeling as a teacher is suffocating. I am open to learning about new tools, including AI, but with lots of criticality. Just heard in a webinar: teachers must use AI, or they won’t be hired in the future. Such a sweeping statement (or even a threat!) isn’t just misleading; it’s a forceful way of pushing artificial intelligence on educators, as if it’s the only skill that
