Technolandy

Day 10 (of 2026/27) AI still can’t fit Saskatchewan into a map of Canada to be coloured! – a Courageous Minority influenced blog

Provocation: The question we must ask: AI reminds us that education’s mission is not to catch up with technology, but to rediscover what it means to learn.

Reminder: Young Zhao is coordinating an international flavour of educators looking at ‘the good parts’ of AI in education…

Everyone uses it, but nobody wants to admit it.

“We” value human labour – until we have to pay for it.

We see that with teaching…. With early childhood education… daycare…. Universal lunches in schools… people love the ideas… just not the bills…

Likewise with workspaces where AI is being explored to change leverages

Change workforces processes

Looking for efficiencies…

Looking for redundancies…

Heck, I think my daughter will be one of the last to have a “Photography Major” on her Bachelors of Fine Arts…

Shift happens…

AI is influencing what we do… and how we do… as well as why we do

That is to say, it’s also changing cognitive load…

Calculators didn’t just “make it easier for kids to cheat at arithmetic” (and graphing…)

It helped shift cognitive load to take on greater challenges in the maths…

AI has further enflamed the deep thoughts: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cy7zygy3rl2o

Now I ponder how long till it cracks Linear A (sorry, my classical studies minor still percolates away in the background)

I pause to remember that we are a courageous minority, not a cynical minority…

AI is influencing education whether we notice it or not… we can’t ban it from impacting our K-3s, so we might as well talk about it…

4-8s are gonna explore… might be good to give some guidance

Cuz The reality is hitting the road… but uncertainty about the ‘harm’

AI does harm when replacing people… or having people use AI rather than cognitive capacity… this is how we need to pivot what schools

Not everyone has to have a masterful way to organize essays if all we’re producing is five paragraph collections… AI does that better than most…

AI is allowing a changing of thinking in the way that calculators once did to assist those who, like Einstein, don’t calculate numbers as quickly or easily as others – no matter how many times they review flashcards…

The way word processors made typing more than just type-writing, and instead allow the emergence of voice and style be worked on and reworked… and edited…

Rewriting whole pages wrecks the rhythm of some fine cut and paste and reworked the digital text….

AI allows us to let go of some… expectations…

…This is going to mostly impact two groups – the 9-12s, and the Graduating Class of 2040 (the upcoming kindys)

The learning experience a circle with headings: —> Action —> Outcome —> Evidence —> Patterns Over Time —> Better Support —> Action

The system should remain open to who the learner is becoming; and not define the learner too learly

Strength

Interest

Passion

Curiosity

AI is Fast

Learning is slow

This can be a great dichotomy of thought.

Sidebar: The SpaceX sponsored school uses extrinsic motivation rewards, toys, games etc. This is not a healthy/sustainable model.

KhanMigo folded as students wanted to jump to the answer and forgo the productive struggle. If we are going to deploy AI tutors, we need teachers to be able to provide the motivation to the students that the struggle is worth the effort

Cheeky question: There is the aspect of the interests shifting or completely changing over the academic career. Can AI be used to monitor this in real time over the student’s time in school?

Cheeky Answer: At a Provincial Online Learning School – this is a key wonder of ours… can AI as a collaborator BOTH help the learner but also call the learner out when they are submitting work (is the 2 second filling in a paragraph copy and pasting from ChatGPT or from Pages, because Apple is by far the superior operating system for word processing… if we still have to rely on responding to learning wonders via the antiquated sequencing of letters…)

Philosophical Paradigm Shift

See the Learner: How do we understand the learner over time – without defining them too early

Support the Learning: How can AI support learning without taking over the learners’ thinking and judgement

Converging and Context: When should the learning space converge >What needs to remain anchored?

System Behaviour: Can educational principles become system behaviour?

Learning from Learning: How can outcomes become evidence for better future support -without turning into labels.

Got to: Keep the learning process open (not just seek answers that close the loop)

Push: What am I contributing? (To myself, to my collaborator, to a group, to a community, to society, to myself)

Reminder: The highlight of the Courageous Minority is that this a global exploration. And the thinking: Fighting the challenges of the present by focusing on the problems of before. A return to the status quo. In a time of discomfort – try to focus on more comfortable challenges. Ban AI (or screens or social media) to punt it down the road for future generations to grasp with… this is not any solution

Dream: Make ourselves valuable by achieving laziness! – The Orville/Star Trek society – push yourself in your passions and provide value by doing what you love to do!

Despite:

Schools being slow to change.

Policies often arrive before evidence.

Technology pivots faster than even Moore thought possible (maybe more tan he thought likely could happen…)

The Courageous Minority is starting to get some attention.

And maybe the biggest question isn’t:

How do schools catch up with AI?

Maybe it’s:

What does it actually mean to learn?

AI is fast.

Learning is slow.

So don’t let AI replace the struggle.

Let it change which struggles are worth having.