Keep Teachers in the Driver’s Seat

Dr. Patricia Dickenson (00:00): I do believe that we need to have a balanced approach to how we use AI. Yes, I believe technology has a place in the classroom. No, I don’t think students should be on the computers all day.

Vicki Davis (00:14): Happy Tech Tool Tuesday. This is episode 1002, and we’re talking to Dr. Patricia Dickenson about smart teaching in the age of AI, where the teacher remains in the driver’s seat. AI is a tool, but you as a teacher, you should rule. The craftsmanship and artistry of teaching, plus the relationship with our students, is vital to teaching.

Announcer (00:39): This is the 10 Minute Teacher Podcast with your host, Vicki Davis.

Vicki Davis (00:43): Today, we’re talking to Dr. Patricia Dickenson, an Associate Professor of Teacher Education at National University and a former LAUSD classroom teacher and math coach. Dr. Dickenson is the author of Technology-Infused Math Instruction and has a brand new book, Smart Teaching in the Age of AI. Hi. Patricia, one thing you always focus on is all this should be teacher-driven.

Dr. Patricia Dickenson (01:11): Absolutely. Teacher-driven instruction. As teachers, how do we enter the classroom? How do we show up to work with our students? Everything matters. So when it comes to designing instruction, I believe that teachers’ heart, their energy, their gifts need to be a part of the conversation. I remember my teacher in fourth grade played the guitar. That’s how she made connections with the students. And my belief is that teachers need to know themselves, know their skills, and bring that into the classroom. I tend to lean on that side when it comes to designing instruction. Too often, teachers show up for the first day of the class and they’re given a textbook and told what to teach and how to teach. And that doesn’t really honor the teacher and who they are, what their path is, and why they chose this profession. In my work with teachers over the past 20 years, the foci is how we design instruction, not just on students’ assets and students’ funds of knowledge and students’ interests, but on the teachers’ assets, their lived experiences, identity, gifts, and talents. And really, that’s the mark of a good teacher, to make an impact on a child that’s going to last a lifetime. Just like Miss Santa Maria made an impact on me in fourth grade. I will never forget her.

Vicki Davis (02:31): Tell us who she was.

Dr. Patricia Dickenson (02:32): She was an amazing teacher. When she showed up, you just felt like you were seen. She made learning fun and engaging, and she was authentic. I always encourage the teachers that I work with, bring your authentic voice into the classroom. Beyond all the noise, the buzz, the gadgets, the tools, it’s those connections that we make with the students that really make a lifetime difference. Back to Miss Santa Maria, that year she was actually diagnosed with breast cancer. Even saying that now, I still get chills because she was just a warrior. I was, what, 9, 10 years old, and I remember still coming to school, and she was going through chemo, and she had a wig, and she still showed up for us. And that made such a huge impact because I’ll tell you, Vicki, there was times in my life where I was tested and I wanted to give up. But I remembered Miss Santa Maria and I remembered how much she was a warrior, how she fought through all of those challenges. And she still came to school and she was still there for us. Those values, those things that she brought into the classroom are things that I carry with me throughout my life.

Vicki Davis (03:43): As we say, more is caught than taught. There have been seasons. I went through a season where I had to learn to walk again, came back to school on a scooter. And in many ways… I ended up closer to those kids than almost any other kids because of going through that season, still fighting and moving ahead. And I think that’s just such a powerful example. Now, the title of your book is Smart Teaching in the Age of AI. So how can we get to smart teaching in the age of AI? And can AI even help us?

Dr. Patricia Dickenson (04:15): If you haven’t started using AI, I definitely encourage all the teachers, start checking it out, start playing with it. But start getting to know whether it’s Gemini or ChatGPT and exploring some of the functionalities. It sends me updates every day. It tells me what the weather is going to be like. It tells me how my stocks are doing. It’s just like my personal assistant. But beyond that, I’ve actually programmed ChatGPT to support the student teachers that I work with. Whether it’s knowing how to unpack a content standard. And know what do students need to know? What do students need to be able to do? What are the concepts that they have to understand? And then I’m a fourth grade teacher. I don’t know what they should have already learned by the time they get into fourth grade, but I programmed this ChatGPT. So given a content standard, that new teacher that has very limited experiences with the standards can see that entire progression of the standard. That way, when they walk into the classroom and they see a student struggle, they understand what gaps they may have, what foundational knowledge they might need. Then they’re able to then design a pre-assessment to figure out what should my student already know before I even start using this standard. Let’s say I have a whole classroom of English language learners. Well, what kind of scaffolds should I provide? What is the academic language in this content standard that I’ll need to explicitly teach? What are some Spanish translations that I can use to support my students that might have limited English proficiency? And what about my student? Maybe they have auditory processing disorder, which I have limited experience working with. How can I best support that? And we can harness the power of AI in a way to support us in designing instruction, supporting differentiated instruction for diverse student learners. We can have AI analyze our data. Where are the biggest gaps? Where are students struggling? What skills do they need to work on? What do they know? And what can I do with them? There’s so much functionality there that AI can help us with. And you don’t need a subscription to all these different resources. I mean, it’s out there. ChatGPT is free. Google Gemini, it’s embedded in a lot of your web-based browsing tools. And it’s all accessible for you. Now, some teachers might say, well, I’m not going to use it. I don’t want my students to use it. Well, guess what? They’re already using it. We know from reports that I believe it’s Common Sense that 80% of students are already accessing AI. If you are a secondary teacher, you’ve got to prepare them for college and careers. They need to know how to harness and use the tools of AI.

Vicki Davis (07:01): AI, if you use it the right way, it’s an amplifier. If you use AI the wrong way, it’s actually a diminisher. If you’re offloading your thinking. But if you actually understand how to use it, it can amplify your voice. It can help you to do more. So what do you tell teachers who say, OK, I’m just really overwhelmed by all the AI options. So I’m just thinking about just like getting rid of all technology and go old school. Because a lot of schools are talking that way. We had old school in the 80s and a lot of times old school was not the greatest. What do you say to those teachers?

Dr. Patricia Dickenson (07:31): John Dewey believed that our schools should be a reflection of the societies that they live in, learning by doing, Democracy and Education. So yes, if you decide not to bring it into the classroom, does that mean they’re never going to use it? And what happens when they do use it and they don’t have the understanding of how it works and how it functions, and they don’t have the literacy or the understanding of AI? What then happens? So I’m a believer that if our goal in education, our vision and mission is to prepare students for the future, for the future of jobs, for the future of workplace, and we know, check out the World Economic Forum report on the future of jobs, that is what are the types of jobs that students are going to be coming into the workforce, whether they’re a carpenter or an engineer. AI is everywhere, right? It’s not a fad. These are culturally relevant tools. Think of Vygotsky, cultural tools that are part of our society that students need to know how to use. Personally speaking, I have three kids. I want my kids to learn how to do something when they’re in my house so that I can guide them. There’s that whole phenomenon of giving guardrails. AI is definitely here to stay. And so if you decide not to incorporate it, then they’re going to learn it from somewhere else. I say, let’s incorporate it because then we’re going to have more time to do the things that we really want to do. Maybe we want to support our students more social, emotional. Maybe we want to have more time to really develop those soft skills with them. Well, if we offset some of the load of that cognitive skills, then we can have more time for that social-emotional support. My dissertation examined those types of engagement, and the best predictor of students’ engagement was their emotional connection with their teacher. If the students are feeling like, this is my world and you don’t see the value in my world, you don’t identify with my world. This is the world that they are growing up in. I say, let us teach them how to use the tool. Let us harness the tools that they’re already using. They’re walking around with these tools in their pockets.

Vicki Davis (09:53): What is the one thing in the book that you think will surprise educators the most?

Dr. Patricia Dickenson (09:57): Probably that I do believe that we need to have a balanced approach to how we use AI. Yes, I believe technology has a place in the classroom. No, I don’t think students should be on the computers all day. And so when you’re reading the text, you’re going to see, wow, I’m really excited about being a teacher because like my first publication, Technology-Infused Math Instruction, I’m giving you the tools, like we talked about in the beginning, to unlock your potential and take a more creative and innovative approach to using AI and to incorporating it in your classroom.

Vicki Davis (10:40): We’ve been talking with Dr. Patricia Dickenson. She’s the author of Smart Teaching in the Age of AI. Thanks for coming on the show, Patricia.

Announcer (10:50): Thank you for tuning in to 10 Minute Teacher Podcast. Join us here every weekday and subscribe to the Classroom Matters newsletter. See you later, educator.