August 24. 2023

Earlier this week, I had the opportunity to speak to school superintendents, instructional superintendents, principals, CTOs, and other school leaders about generative AI and education.

When introducing myself, I discussed my life-long commitment to speech and debate and pointed out that while some are arguing that education is facing some sort of “apocalypse,” in many instances, we simply need to place more emphasis on the things we’ve been doing well in schools for over 100 years, such as supporting speech and debate programs.

Why? Because as AI continues to develop, it’s going to diminish (not replace) the value of learning content relative to developing skills. And as it begins to replace some jobs and job functions while also creating new jobs (Goldman Sachs), humans need to focus on those essential skills that will help them adapt to a world where many tasks that require advanced knowledge can be delegated to AI, and where constantly changing job needs will require life-long learning and adaptability.

These essential skills include curiosity, motivation, continuous learning, interpersonal communication, teamwork, persuasion, resilience, time management, media literacy, analytic thinking, complex information processing and interpretation, and critical thinking and decision-making. These essential skills are called…