This is the final (?) blog on the series of how technologies like AI and ChatGPT are fueling a fundamental transformation of our educational systems and institutions. We need a plan – and quickly – to update our educational systems and institutions in an age where AI and Big Data are asserting a more significant role in our daily professional and personal lives.
In part 1 and part 2 of the “Future of Education” series, I introduced five (5) critical educational requirements:
(1) Transformational Education Must Nurture Empowerment
(2) Transformational Education Must Challenge Thinking…Critical Thinking!
(3) Transformational Education Must Encourage and Exploit Conflict
(4) Transformational Education Must Fuel Curiosity-Creativity-Innovation Cycle!
(5) Transformational Education Must Be Grounded in Ethics!
In Part 3, I’ll introduce the final requirements for transforming our educational systems and institutions. And I am sure that a few more will surface as we continue to learn more about the economic, business, and societal impact of AI and Big Data.
(6) Transformational Education Must Excel at Envisioning
Identifying and validating what our key customers and stakeholders are trying to accomplish (their intent) is critical to developing meaningful, relevant, and ethical AI models. Design thinking tools and techniques such as personas, empathy maps, and journey maps are indispensable in identifying and validating stakeholders’ desired outcomes, the critical decisions they need to make to support their desired outcomes, and KPIs and metrics against which they will measure outcomes’ effectiveness.
But there are other tools that can fuel stakeholders’ ideation on the realm of what might be possible with AI. Some of the best ways to envision the realm of what’s possible are through storytelling and prototyping.
The Storybrand Framework introduced by Donald Miller is simply brilliant at putting the customer at the center of the customer journey (see Figure 1).
Figure 1: Storytelling Simplified by Donald Miller
The Storybrand Framework provides a simple script for envisioning a successful stakeholder experience. The Storybrand Framework helps the stakeholder to envision their journey to identify and understand the keys to a successful journey.
Other power envisioning and validation tools are prototypes and mockups. And these mockups do not need to be fancy. I create most of my mockups in PowerPoint (Yes, I code in PowerPoint). Figure 2 shows a mockup I built (using PowerPoint) for a Grocery Chain client a few years ago.
Figure 2: Retail Store Management Actionable Dashboard
The essential points of using journey maps, storytelling, and prototypes are identifying and validating your stakeholders’ intent, objectives, and desired outcomes and rapidly envisioning what else “might” be needed to ensure a successful stakeholder experience.
Remember, if you don’t have enough “might” moments, you’ll never have any breakthrough moments.
(7) Transformational Education Must Be Founded on AI & Data Literacy!
AI & Data Literacy is the holistic understanding of the data, analytic, and behavioral concepts that influence how we consume, process, and act based upon how data and analytical assessments are presented to us.
In a world where your personal data, and your preferences and biases buried in that data, are being used to influence your behaviors, beliefs, and decisions, AI & data literacy become an indispensable human capability. We must educate EVERYONE on how their personal data is being collected, analyzed, and used, so as not to be duped into actions, behaviors, and beliefs by organizations and people who understand how to manipulate your personal data to their benefit.
What are the educational requirements that comprise an AI & data literacy curriculum? To facilitate that data literacy education for my students, I’ve created the AI & Data Literacy Education Framework that provides a holistic synopsis of the data and analytic training necessary for everyone to become a “Citizen of Data Science” (Figure 3).
Figure 3: AI & Data Literacy Educational Framework
Everyone must understand where and how organizations capture and exploit your personal data (using AI and advanced analytic techniques) for their own purposes. Everyone needs to be aware of the personal data that they are sharing via the apps on their smartphone, the customer loyalty programs to which they belong, their telephone calls and text messages to friends and families, their credit card usage online and in stores, and your comments that you make on websites and social media. Everyone must understand that questionable organizations will skirt privacy laws to capture more of your personal data (using spam, phishing, identity theft, ransomware, and more) for their nefarious intentions.
AI & Data Literacy is a fundamental skill in a world where AI will impact every part of our professional and personal life. We must educate everyone on AI & data literacy, including understanding the realm of what’s possible with AI and data, the importance of critical thinking to overcome natural human decision-making biases, and ethical AI to ensure that the AI models are treating everyone equally and without gender, race, religious, or age biases. Everyone must be prepared to think critically about the application of AI across a range of business, educational, environmental, and societal issues and the potential ethical ramifications of the AI model’s false positives and false negatives.
Future of Education – Part III Summary
“Whereas the printing press caused a profusion of modern human thought, the new technology achieves its distillation and elaboration. In the process, it creates a gap between human knowledge and human understanding.” – Henry Kissinger, Eric Schmidt, and Daniel Huttenlocher[1]
Our educational systems and institutions must transform to meet the challenges and opportunities presented by AI and Big Data. But the old-fashioned way of measuring student preparedness through rote memorization and passing written tests is insufficient in an age where AI can access, integrate, and recite knowledge billions, if not trillions of times faster than the human mind. Our students and citizens need the skills, capabilities, and hands-on experience to prosper in an age where personal and professional success will be based on the application, not the memorization and regurgitation, of knowledge.
In summary, here are seven skills, capabilities, and behaviors that our educational systems and institutions need to instill and nurture to prepare our students and citizens for a lifetime of learning and to become “Citizens of Data Science”:
(1) Transformational Education Must Nurture Empowerment
(2) Transformational Education Must Challenge Thinking…Critical Thinking!
(3) Transformational Education Must Encourage and Exploit Conflict
(4) Transformational Education Must Fuel Curiosity-Creativity-Innovation Cycle!
(5) Transformational Education Must Be Grounded in Ethics!
(6) Transformational Education Must Excel at Envisioning!
(7) Transformational Education Must Be Founded on AI & Data Literacy!
I’m hopeful that this conversation is just starting because we’ve got a long way to go!
[1] Wall Street Journal Editorial “ChatGPT Heralds an Intellectual Revolution”, February 24, 2023
