PREPARED FOR THE FUTURE

By TOM BOASBERG Superintendent

The End of High School English. A Threat to Education. AI, Do My Homework.

These are just a few of the headlines that have surfaced over the last six months. Artificial intelligence (AI). Several decades ago, the term was used more in science fiction movies than in news articles. Today, it has become one of the most common search terms on the Internet.

While the rapid spread of AI has led some educators and school leaders to restrict technology and express frustration regarding the perceived negative impact on learning, I am excited – and a little bit intimidated

I am excited about the potential for AI to help our students learn and grow. I am also excited because AI will help push us all to a higher level of learning. If AI can effectively do many of the tasks we as adults do or have traditionally asked our students to do, how do we change our learning approach to emphasize the types of capabilities that our students need to master in an age of AI?

I am grateful that many of the changes we have made as a school over the last decade to focus on deeper learning have prepared us to address how we must adapt education in the face of this technological revolution. We are lucky to have a team of educators at Singapore American School who are not only excited but also very qualified to help move us forward.

As a school, we emphasize that we value not only content knowledge but also foundational skills like critical thinking, creativity, and communication. Our seven learning aspirations are:

With artificial intelligence (AI) increasingly able to produce content knowledge, that will only highlight the value of our learning aspirations.

At the same time, I am a little bit intimidated because the changes to longstanding practices will not be easy. While we have already made many changes to promote our learning aspirations, we will have to significantly change a number of the ways that we have traditionally assigned work and asked students to demonstrate their learning. If we are giving students an assignment that AI can do for them, the answer is not to blame AI for doing it for them but to change our assignments in ways that call upon deeper learning skills.

AI ultimately is a tool we want to teach our children to master—including discerning false or illfounded information. Prohibiting its use may win some short-term battles but would cause us to lose sight of our long-term goals.

A great example of these long-term goals are predictions for how AI will change the range of economic opportunities that will be available for our students. The World Economic Forum has predicted that close to 85 million jobs will be disrupted by automation, technology, and artificial intelligence. At the same time, they believe almost 100 million new roles and jobs will be created in the process. University Professor and Maxwell Dean Emeritus at Syracuse University Shelly Palmer recently shared that it’s not artificial intelligence that is going to take jobs from people— it’s the people who know how to effectively use AI who will claim these jobs.

To adapt in this new world, we have a lot of learning to do. I am looking forward to that—it is something we do very well as a school! We look forward to learning from other schools and universities as well as from leading private sector companies as we explore new and innovative ways to utilize AI and best teach our students. Our vision—“to cultivate exceptional thinkers prepared for the future”—does not change, but our means to accomplish that vision must change.

So, what are some examples of changes we have made or are making to help move us forward?

• In our early learning center, students are taught to ask questions, to explore where answers come from, and how to effectively collaborate across diverse peer groups.

• Beginning in elementary school, students are taught to go beyond reciting answers. In math, science, and other classes, students are asked to explain their thinking, which teaches them to see problems from a variety of angles.

• In middle school, each student participates in TRi Time where they have the chance to select a personal interest project that requires them to expand their content knowledge, creatively approach their topic, and communicate their findings to their peers and parents.

• In high school, we have courses like Quest and Catalyst that were designed specifically to help students develop our learning aspirations.

We can see other great examples in the work of our students. This past spring, twelfth grade student Pranay Trivedi created Eagle Assist, an AI-powered chatbot that can answer questions community members might have about school events, school policies, and more. In order to develop the chatbot, Pranay utilized IBM Watson, one of the thousands of rising AI platforms.

Pranay Trivedi, Class of 2023

"Given the recent and rapid growth in AI technologies, AI will play an important role in solving community problems such as the ones I attempted to tackle, but also on a larger global scale. The applications for AI in both those areas are practically infinite. I think in the next few years, once this technology gets more developed, we will begin to see more and more unique uses of AI, both on a micro and macro scale.

I have always been interested in computer science (CS), and I have taken a few CS courses here at SAS. The aspect of CS that calls out to me the most is how it is a malleable tool that can be used for a variety of different applications and scenarios.

As I was researching different areas of CS, I became increasingly intrigued by the recent rise of AI and machine learning technologies, such as OpenAI's ChatGPT. I wanted to learn more about how AI software such as ChatGPT worked and how it could be applied to different real-world contexts. After the initial research, it came time for me to try and apply my knowledge and create a chatbot myself.

I wanted to design and create something that would benefit the SAS community and allow me to give back to my school. With these goals in mind, I decided to create an AI-powered chatbot that utilizes AI to improve the way SAS students and parents interact with information."

We believe our focus on these learning aspirations will continue to empower our students to navigate the artificial intelligence movement along with other large-scale technological advancements they will inevitably see in their lifetime. This is why AI tools, much like Google and the calculator, will continue to come and go, but it is up to us to help students develop the types of skills needed to use the tools effectively now and in the future.

So what does this mean for us as parents? It means we need to make sure our conversations cover more than grades and test scores. Consider asking your child something in addition to the traditional, “how did you do on your last test?”.

Here are a few questions you might consider:

• Tell me about a group project you’re working on—what are you learning about working with other people?

• When you use ChatGPT or other AI tools, how are they most helpful to you, what are their biggest limitations, and where do you think they might get things wrong?

• What do you wish AI could do for you that it doesn’t do for you today?

• If they’ve got a presentation coming up, you might ask them if they want to practice with you and then ask them to reflect on how it feels to present and what they’ve learned about their personal presentation style.

• Who have you helped today? And just as importantly, who helped you? (It’s healthy to develop an understanding that sometimes we help and sometimes we need help)

We’re excited to see our Eagles grow as learners and cultivate the skills needed to be prepared for whatever the future holds.

Reflecting on the Service of Elementary

Deputy Principal Ken Schunk

By DIDI HARI KRISHNAN Communications Writer