Park, C. S.-Y., Kim, H., & Lee, S. (2021). Do less teaching, more coaching: Toward critical thinking for ethical applications of artificial intelligence. Journal of Learning and Teaching in Digital Age, 6(2), 97-100.
Park et al. (2021) present a cleaned up version of a series of academic discussions held over the period of the pandemic as these educators attempted to meet their student learning needs where they were in emergent conditions. The authors provided an overview of four areas where educators should work to coach students as their education intersects with AI usage in the classroom. The first is that using virtual learning spaces could make it harder for students to think about what they want or what their peers want in favor of what AI is presenting. They oddly move to a discussion of AI in healthcare, that is not really related to their students. Park et al. (2021) argued that health care professionals should not be reliant on, but rather critical of it, because there are many variables AI is unable to take into account at this time. Park et al. argued AI should not replace humans, but should work along side it, especially in healthcare. Finally, Park et al. (2021) argued humans should prioritize their own intellectual curiosity to create their own knowledge.
While slightly outdated, the notion that we should be thinking critically about how AI is used in educational spaces is very much at the forefront of thinking about AI. This was an interesting way to display some different facets of thinking about AI in education. However, the article title was misleading and there was not much discussion about coaching students in how to use AI. Many ethical concerns were raised, but none were grounded in research or specific examples. The article was also extremely repetitive in terms of the underlying assumption that AI would usurp human thinking. While there are some uses of previous research to underpin the thinking, this is really a thought exercise to contribute lines of thinking to the discussion rather than to answer questions.
As a researcher and doctoral student, I think it’s good to be aware of these types of conversations, especially to think about the ethical considerations of novel technology. Though, I find it interesting that each new technology seems to be heralded in with the same amount of trepidation of the previous. As a Millennial, one thing that has been constant in my life is technological change. So I tend to embrace all the new things that come out and then think about the ethical implications later. And that is not the best approach to take. So, I really liked that this article enshrines a years’ long conversation about the ethical considerations of a new technology. It’s a good note and remind to slow down and think past the shiny new thing to what happens next.
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