🤖 The future of reading in the AI age

🗳 Poll: Reading in an AI world

This week’s question: Which AI tool do you use the most?

The poll results: Most said an LLM like ChatGPT, followed by MagicSchool/SchoolAI, followed by another 3rd party platform.

The best part, as always, were the comments!

Some of your responses:

• Voted “MagicSchool/SchoolAI”: This platform has sooo many tools that make educators' lives easier. I am more free to create new strategies and content because many of the tedious tasks are quicker and easier.

• Voted “Other”: Notebook LM has been a huge time saver for me to get an audio version of dozens of articles I've been meaning to read and can now listen during my commute!

• Voted “An LLM Like ChatGPT”: I often use Gemini to do brainstorming and for translation. Sometimes I would use the same prompt with different LLMs (Gemini, ChatGPT, Poe) to compare their answers.

• Voted “An LLM Like ChatGPT”: I appreciate Gemini's interoperability with Google Docs. Opening a lengthy Doc and prompting Gemini to generate all sorts of helpful things is amazingly convenient.

🗳 This week’s poll

Today’s big idea (below) is about the future of reading in an AI world.

Remember … there’s only so much nuance in multiple-choice polls, so use the comment feature afterward to tell us how you really feel!

Instructions:

1. Please vote on this week’s poll. It just takes a click!

2. Optional: Explain your vote / provide context / add details in a comment afterward.

3. Optional: Include your name in your comment so I can credit you if I use your response.

📚 Defining “reading” in an AI age

Last week, I went to the “Learning in the AI Era” event at Google HQ in Mountain View, Calif. (Read about it in last week’s newsletter.)

As you can see in the photo, I took notes by hand. (There’s still something very satisfying about filling a fresh, new notebook up with notes!)

I’m still processing all of the conversations and presentations.

One in particular caused me to jot down two pages of internal commentary … a bit of an aside that I wanted to think through later.

Ben Gomes, Google’s Senior VP of Learning and Sustainability, mentioned the “modality of reading.” He may have meant the next line to be a quick throwaway comment, but it gnawed at me for several minutes afterward …

“What is reading?”

I know … sort of philosophical, but it’s an important question to ponder as AI impacts how we teach and learn.

So … let’s try to define it. What is reading?

• Sitting with a print book in an armchair in a quiet spot, thumbing through every page until the end?

• Swiping through an ebook on a device like a Kindle, noticing the computer-generated “most highlighted by others” segments?

• Reading the Spark Notes (remember those?) of a book so you know the common themes — even if you haven’t read every word?

• Asking an AI assistant for the main points and answers to questions you have?

• Reading a comic book? Listening to an audio book? Listening to a podcast? Reading a long thread on social media?

I think that’s maybe what Ben meant when he said “the modality of reading.”

The “modality of writing” has changed a lot throughout time — from scribes to the printing press to newspapers to paperback books to the internet to emojis, etc. And as much as we might love the way it is now, it will most certainly change in the coming years. (Months?)

For ages, we have held “the reading of paper books” as sacred, and rightfully so.

Reading has been a central, vital part of teaching and learning for centuries. It still is.

But we’re at a crucial point where even the act of reading is going to be under scrutiny. (Hence the question above, “What is reading?” So, let’s scrutinize it.

Why do we read? Consider your answer. Here’s mine …

• For entertainment and inspiration.

• To understand other people’s perspectives.

• To consider opinions different than mine.

• To learn.

• To confirm — or interrogate — what I’ve learned before.

• To gather facts, research, expressions I can lean on in future discussions and writing.

• To experience the artistry of another human being (in writing form).

Here’s the hard question I’m wrestling with in all of this …

Can we get all of that from non-book sources — like online reading, like social media, like artificial intelligence?

Should we?

What should we hold sacred — and why are we holding it sacred — and is it worth being held sacred?

Here’s another side to all of this …

What WE hold sacred isn’t always held sacred by our students (for good or for bad).

• Their values and priorities might be different than ours.

• Sometimes, we want to impose what we value on them — which might be for their benefit, but we have to expect resistance.

• Sometimes, we might adjust our values and priorities to theirs — but we have to consider what we lose when we do that.

Teachers make these judgment calls all day every day. It’s part of the job “in the trenches” of classroom teaching.

But having conversations about it organizationally (as a department, as a staff) can help everyone better understand why they’re doing what they’re doing. It can also help everyone understand that it IS, indeed, an issue — an issue driven by their actions (or inactions).

So, let’s weigh out all the pro’s and con’s and do our best by our students when it comes to reading. What’s best for their future?

Let’s look at reading through our “tomorrow glasses” (a concept in my AI book and my AI keynote speeches) to prepare students for THEIR future, not today.

Let’s ask …

• What do students get out of reading in this particular way?

• What would they lose — or gain — if they read in a different way?

• Is there benefit in combining a few modalities?

• What resistance or barriers would cause students not to read in a certain modality?

• If that modality is important, are there ways we can break down those barriers so they feel empowered to actually read in that way?

• Is this reading activity preparing students for THEIR future — and if so, how?

• Is this reading relevant to their life, to their future, to their interests — and if not, are there connections we can make?

Did you notice that these are similar questions we were asking BEFORE AI?

Many of the core, foundational models that make up today’s education system will be under scrutiny as AI changes how we live and work.

Just because it’s new doesn’t mean that it’s best.

But just because we’ve always done it a certain way doesn’t mean that it will equip students for THEIR future.

📺 Free online edu conference: Ditch Summit

On December 16, one of my favorite online events begins …

The Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit (aka “Ditch Summit”). This is our 9th year!

It features ~100 online, on-demand presentations that teachers actually WANT to watch. (Plus, they earn free certificates of completion for PD credit when they watch!)

Speakers are educators, authors, keynote speakers, published researchers, teachers of the year, etc.

Topics are wide and varied, from technology to classroom creativity to inquiry to student engagement and more.

And yes, we have plenty of sessions about AI. This year’s new sessions include:

• AI cautions and dangers to be aware of (with Ken Shelton and Dee Lanier)

• AI, balance, and wellness (with Ed Campos Jr.)

• AI literacies to cultivate with students and teachers (with me and Holly Clark)

• Student perspectives on AI today and in their future (with Students for Innovation)

• PLUS: Last year’s AI sessions are still available, too.

Want to join? Head to DitchSummit.com to register.

Want to encourage your staff to join? Just copy/paste this text and send it to them via email.

📚 New AI resources this week

1️⃣ LearnLM: Google’s new series of AI learning models (via Google): You can test drive Google’s new LearnLM AI model in AI studio to see how it performs.

2️⃣ Free course: ChatGPT Foundations for K-12 Educators: This short course, developed by Common Sense and OpenAI, gives educators the basics on AI, ChatGPT and education.

3️⃣ Free course: Generative AI for Educators: This online course, developed by Grow with Google, shows educators how to use generative AI tools to help you save time on everyday tasks, personalize instruction, enhance lessons and activities in creative ways, and more.