Key Points
Back to top- Rather than framing AI and educational technology as either a savior or a threat, school leaders should use social and emotional learning (SEL) to navigate uncertainty and bring communities together around shared values.
- The CASEL framework provides leaders with essential SEL competencies—including self-awareness, social awareness, relationship skills, self-management, and responsible decision-making—to engage diverse perspectives and make thoughtful, transparent decisions about AI in schools.
- As AI and technology become increasingly embedded in students’ lives, educators must model the SEL skills needed to navigate complexity, embrace new technologies thoughtfully, and determine how they can best serve their school communities.
When it comes to AI in schools, the jury is still out. We simply don’t know the long-term effect of its use on students. This hasn’t stopped the marketplace, evangelists, and educators from selling, pushing and adopting AI-infused tools on educators. Whether for purposes of instruction, communication, or management, AI is everywhere.
And with it has come significant resistance from parents, advocates, educators, and students. The debate seems to be following the typical polemics that plague public education discourse. Use AI to improve interventions, lighten teacher workloads, and cut costs. Get kids off screens and have them read real books. Give students access to personalized companions that will help them navigate adolescence. Ensure that students develop real relationships with peers and adults. I could go on, but you get the point.
What if we’re having the wrong conversation? Rather than assert a position on AI, Ed Tech, social media, and screens as either the savior or the destroyer of public education and young people, maybe we should be asking different questions. I’ve started to think that much of the resistance to AI and Ed Tech may just be fear of the unknown. Put simply, we just don’t know how things will go. What we need to do is both recognize this and organize collective effort. And that’s where social and emotional learning comes in.
SEL is not only a proven strategy that results in improved academic performance and better emotional regulation, it can also be a frame to use when managing unknown territory. When it comes to working with others who may have divergent opinions, adult SEL skills become that much more important.
In school systems, teachers, school leaders, central office leaders, support professionals, students, parents, elected officials, the media, and community members all have distinct perspectives on what should be done, and how. Managing this complexity has always been a leadership challenge, which the recent pandemic made abundantly clear. The current debates about Ed Tech and AI are rife with polar perspectives that expose these dynamics, and leaders must bring people together to make decisions about how much, when, and who. The CASEL wheel should ground that conversation.
Not knowing what the future may hold can be stressful. Managing emotions in order to successfully navigate your circumstances is what SEL is all about. Applying the CASEL wheel to the question of how to use AI in schools will enable leaders to serve their communities so that common ground and shared values are the underpinnings of any decisions.
Responsible decision-making is the core of any leader’s job. When it comes to AI and its potential effect on students, the stakes just feel higher. Given the lack of evidence that exists, mixed with vociferous assertions of its potential, the challenge increases. We don’t have a science of Ed Tech like we do for reading. So, leaders need to ask whether they had a transparent process for making decisions. Did they engage stakeholders in determining the right usage for their schools? Are they clear about how AI-infused Ed Tech will be used, when, and by whom? And, are the intended results clear, along with the monitoring and adjustment processes?
To make responsible decisions, leaders must have relationship skills. Leaders need to ask whether they have honest relationships with enough people of varied perspectives that give true insight into the issues. Can different ideas be tested with folks to see how preliminary thoughts might land? Will people give honest feedback and share what needs to be said, not just what they think the leader wants to hear? And what will happen if a mistake is made?
Social awareness is essential when leading a conversation about AI-infused Ed Tech because every community is made up of varied perspectives. Relationships with folks matters, and understanding the culture of the context is essential. Leaders need to ask whether they truly have a pulse on the multitude of opinions that students, educators, and family members have as they organize collective effort.
Leaders must also be self-aware and understand their own views on AI and technology. What is exciting about the possibilities and what causes anxiety? Perhaps more importantly, acknowledging the unknowns when everyone wants answers can feel risky and cause stress. Leaders absorb their community’s anxiety when answers to a pressing issue aren’t clear.
Leading collective effort when there’s enormous pressure to act and there are so many unknowns requires significant self-management skills. Knowing that people will have different views and opinions, and many will be eager to aggressively assert them, managing one’s emotions in pursuit of common ground is essential.
Artificial Intelligence is in our schools. Everyone uses social media and sits behind screens. We’re in a tech-infused world that will only increase. Our young people must learn to navigate that complexity and embrace it on their own terms. Adults debating the promises or perils of AI-infused Ed Tech with conviction won’t help young people—or themselves for that matter—figure out how to properly infuse it into daily life or the school day. An SEL frame for the conversation will enable leaders to engage their communities to figure out what’s right for them. And that seems to be the purpose of education to begin with.
Related Posts
- AI, Technology, and SEL: How Can We Support Digital Awareness?
- Co-Authoring School Policy for AI: How to Use SEL to Navigate Digital Citizenship
- AI + SEL & The Mental Health Crisis: How Can We Leverage New Tech to Meet the Moment? (and What Are the Risks?)
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