Are we all just Pirates adrift when it comes to AI in education?

I recently watched a talk by Mo Gawdat that got me thinking about the pirates I serve. His comparison was to frogs (although I thought the original analogy was lobsters) in a pot of water that begins to boil, but by the time they realize it what trouble they are in, it’s too late to jump out.

As I sit outside on an actual “feels like fall” day in Texas, I started to think about how timely this video to my world. I had the opportunity to deliver the keynote to our regional service center, and their ed tech conference a week or so ago. It was a room filled with people who generally think like me, since they voluntarily attended in Ed Tech conference, but there were still hesitancies when it came to sharing how or why they were ( or weren’t!) using AI in their lines of work.

Taking Mo’s talk and aligning it with my role… our educators are like pirates on a ship, drifting in calm seas, not realizing the storm that’s approaching.  Yes, there are a number of issues in public education that we are all aware of… I don’t know if we realize how very disruptive this technology could be to how and what we do. We’re so used to the gentle waves of regular stress that we don’t see the potential

The seas are getting rougher (AI is here), and many of us are either too comfortable on deck or too afraid to take the wheel and steer toward change.

Truthfully, we’re already facing the storm, but we can still navigate through it and adjust our course. To emphasize this, I came up with an acronym to introduce to our leadership team, and then eventually staff: PIRATES.

•   P: Pause, allow for innovative possibilities in your teaching
•   I: Ignoring new approaches and thinking is dangerous
•   R: Rely on flexibility, rather than static teaching
•   A: Anchor to WHAT we teach, not how
•   T: Teach while adapting to future needs
•   E: Encourage engagement that is future focused
•   S: Stop settling for stagnant student preparation

We can’t just sit on deck and hope we’ll sail through the storm untouched. AI is like the wind in our sails—it’s not here to replace us, but to propel us forward. One of my favorite George Couros quotes is that innovation isn’t doing something different, it’s doing something different and better. AI can allow that in so many ways! But if we don’t take the helm and steer our way to the “new” and potentially scary, we’re at risk of losing our direction, letting down both our students and ourselves.

What do you think? How do we take the helm and steer toward a future that keeps us ahead of the storm? Is this something that we try to address after it becomes mainstream, or do we need to hijack this ship even sooner?

Pirately &