A quick note

A parent asked me recently how I felt about teens using AI to help with schoolwork. I don’t think they were expecting my answer.

A quick caveat: I like to think of myself as open-minded, especially when it comes to learning new things. In no small part because teaching people how to learn and being open to learning things is literally my job.

That said - and I’m not proud to admit - I’ve been pretty close-minded to AI. In the education in field in particular, AI is everywhere. And overall, I’ve been deeply skeptical.

I’ve seen a lot of companies making big promises about what their AI will deliver…without good data to back up their claims.

I’ve seen how some students use things like ChatGPT, basically relying on it to do their work for them…which is a recipe for disaster.

Other students have told me they don’t need to get better at time management because AI will schedule their lives for them…imagine purposefully not building core life skills!? Horrifying.

No matter my personal feelings and reservations, I realize that AI is here to stay. While it’s possible you’re already using AI tools in your own line of work or personal life, it’s guaranteed that your kids will be using it, at the very least for school and work.

And so I need to learn the landscape.

And that’s the gist of what I told this parent; at the moment, I don’t have a list of vetted AI tools I would recommend for students. But I’m educating myself and encouraging all parents with teens to do the same.

Personally, I don’t want to spend a lot of time or energy doing this. After sifting through resources, I subscribed to a newsletter called The Rundown. I like that it’s easy to read and that even spending 1-2 minutes reading through each morning is helping me learn the AI landscape.

If you’re similarly not immersed in the AI hype or don’t particularly care to be, but also recognize the importance of understanding the basics around something that is changing how your teen studies and learns, it’s worth checking out. Details below, you can subscribe with one click.

Happy Tuesday,

Kelsey

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