If you're reading this, you might be feeling AI anxiety.
A recent survey conducted by EY found that 71% of AI-savvy employees are concerned about it. Considering how quickly AI has entered the education conversation, teachers and administrators are certainly represented in these statistics.
emotion AI anxiety It is valid for technologies that bring a lot of change and uncertainty. Tools like ChatGPT are quickly destabilizing our ideas about the future of school and work.
One of the roles of schools is to prepare students for the future. But how can teachers and schools meet these obligations when the future is so uncertain?
The answer lies in downsizing.
Instead of teaching specific facts and skills, teach timeless skills that allow your students to adapt and problem-solve any challenge. These capabilities were valuable in the past, are essential today, and will be critical to future success.
Core technologies in the AI era
what technology The next question is obvious.
Power skills including: Creativity, collaboration, resilience, leadership and critical thinking, which makes all other techniques more effective. As anyone with a professional background can attest, these skills have always been valuable. But as AI automates more aspects of the current workforce, learning power skills is more important and powerful than ever.
Teaching your students power skills now will prepare them to succeed and adapt to an uncertain future. But it also provides a strong foundation for academic and personal success today.
Imagine that all students intentionally practiced and improved their critical thinking and team-based problem-solving skills throughout class. No doubt, their performance in other classes, extracurricular activities, and even home life will have great potential to improve.
As the social-emotional learning (SEL) movement shows, it is increasingly important to provide students with flexible, practical skills that are not limited to core subject areas. SEL is a great starting point and is included in the power skills, but it is not enough. Power skills are interpersonally based and go beyond practicality.
Give your students a fun and refreshing time
The biggest advantage of implementing power skills in K-12 education is that they are interesting and engaging for students to learn and practice. By definition, children need to work together, talk to each other, and share unique and sometimes outrageous ideas to solve interesting and challenging problems. This is desperately needed because studies show that students are more bored than ever in school.
Additionally, current teaching methods lack opportunities to practice power skills. When teachers spend 90% of class time talking, there is little room to practice collaboration or leadership. If what Sir Ken Robinson said about the impact of schools on creativity is true, then students need opportunities to learn and practice creative thinking skills.
Power skills are already widely discussed in business and technology circles. However, their presence is sorely lacking in K-12 education. But there has never been a better time to introduce them.
California Schools Embrace Power Skills
Meghan Freeman, CEO of Elite Academy, a California elite school, wholeheartedly agrees.
Freeman says: “There is a lot of change in our world, especially in the age of AI, but we know that skills like leadership, creativity, and decision-making never go out of style.
Importantly, Freeman notes that the introduction of technologies such as AI has made power skills training more timely than ever.
“As technology becomes more part of our work, these types of skills become more important. That’s why we’re excited to see what our students will learn from NXTLVL.”
How NXTLVL Gives Students a Start for Their Future
Freeman notes that Elite Academy students learn and practice power skills through NXTLVL's immersive, team-based problem-solving program. Through real-time, student-led learning games, students learn how to decipher complex problems and collaborate to find optimal solutions.
As a result, students have a unique way to leverage existing skills and knowledge that are often underutilized in school while learning new power skills that will help them now and in the future.
We cannot overlook STEM. We cannot pretend that technological advancements in artificial intelligence and other fields are not happening. But we also can't ignore the adjustments we need to make to help our students thrive in a future that is different from today.
In an uncertain future, teaching students power skills is one surefire way to help them reach the next level.