Summer (at least for a teacher) is over. Students return to the building today with our New Student Orientation. Regular classes begin for me on Friday. That means that it time to transition from my summer study and reading to classroom application.

I have a list of between 30 to 40 popular articles (I haven’t actually counted) that I have read this summer about artificial intelligence (AI) and education. In addition, I have consumed several pieces of peer-reviewed research on the topic. After reading all of these publications, I still feel it will be a while before we have a clear sense of the best approach in education towards AI. Some of that may be due to the fact that, at least in a high school setting, we teach different academic disciplines with different needs and thought processes. In addition, it is nearly impossible to fully make sense of everything that is happening and to establish best practices when living in the midst of a revolution.

As I look to best lead my students, one post stood out to me. This was written by John Bergmann, a flipped classroom leader, and he entitled the post An Open Letter to My Students About AI. This post resonated with me since it captures many of the themes which I have pondered upon, sets out the history of revolutionary times, balances concerns about student AI use with benefits, and provides encouragement for students to think about AI usage with both their learning and future in mind. I section I most appreciates was his call for students to “lean into learning”. After all, schools are institutions of learning, not merely places where tasks are completed. Here Mr. Bergmann makes a compelling case for doing the hard work of reading and learning in the age of AI.

I will be sharing something similar with my students at the start of the year. Together we will discuss the call from Mr. Bergmann and break that down together. Who knows — maybe I will receive some pushback from students. That’s fine — I welcome them to be a part of the conversation. It is their learning and future we are discussing. In addition, as a teacher at a Christian school, I will be added a faith element to this, recognizing the gifts that God has given each of us and the responsibility has has given us to use these gifts for His greatest glory in His Kingdom.

But there is another step I plan to take. I want to share the letter with parents as well. As much as possible, I want all of us to be on the same team in engaging students in conversation about learning and AI. Sometimes they may see different usage patterns or shortcuts to learning at home that I don’t pick up on in the classroom. We ALL need to be engaged in guiding students in this revolutionary era.

Throughout this school year I will continue to document my thoughts and processes surrounding AI and education, and I pray that this will be a blessing to all of us as we continue to analyze how best to help 21st century learners. You can be a part of this conversation by following this blog and by adding comments to this posts. We need each other to figure out best practices with AI and education as we move forward. Won’t you please be a part of this?