I was in Phoenix last week, leading several sessions with Lutheran educators. While I was there, I also heard a keynote address from Dr. Vanessa Seifert. In this presentation, she shared something that resonated with me — the distinction between technical challenges and adaptive challenges.

Technical challenges are problems we face where there is a well-defined issue and clear steps to solving the problem, whereas adaptive challenges have no clear solution and will require new learning and ways of thinking. Adaptive challenges often call into question one’s beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. Individuals and organizations face difficulties when they treat adaptive challenges as technical challenges.

The framing of this concept led me to think about its application to artificial intelligence (AI) and education. From my perspective, many treat AI as a technical problem to be solved by using AI detection software and stricter control of assignments and activities. However, I believe these approaches will never fully address the educational issues with AI use since there is no clear “solution” to if/how AI should be utilized, and new learning and ways of thinking are required.

An example of an adaptive approach was shared by Jen Roberts, an educator who writes about the intersection of literature and technology. In a recent blog post, Roberts shares an adaptive strategy for AI and student writing. She created an essay using AI and then assigned students to edit 50-90% of the essay, adding their voices and opinions. This is an excellent example of an adaptive approach where a new way of thinking is applied where a practice is altered.

In the coming weeks, I will share some adaptive strategies I have already used with my students or am experimenting with. In the meantime, how what adaptive strategies are you exploring with AI, either in education or in life in general? Feel free to share these strategies as a comment to this post. I look forward to hearing from you.