AI
Representative Image Kohji Asakawa/Pixabay

The emergence of artificial intelligence, particularly generative AI and large language models, has created a huge societal shift, which is being felt today and will be felt more strongly in the future. Naturally, this extends to the realm of education. AI has its advantages, including making the processes of teaching and learning more efficient, but it also introduces some challenges, such as overreliance on technology, decreased social connection, and failure to recognize bias in the algorithms.

The huge changes caused by AI and other advanced technologies necessitate changes in how education is conducted. David E. Goldberg, one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence and machine learning, wrote about this in his 2014 book, A Whole New Engineer, co-authored with Mark Somerville of the Franklin W. Olin College of Engineering. Focusing on reshaping the field of engineering education, the book details how Goldberg co-founded and co-directed the Illinois Foundry for Innovation in Engineering Education (iFoundry) in 2007, a bottom-up incubator for educational change based in the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. It also shows how iFoundry worked with Olin College, which pioneered an innovative way of teaching engineering. Goldberg observed that Olin's first- and second-year students developed more self-confidence and took more ownership in their education, compared to students in traditional programs.

A Whole New Engineer was received positively in the engineering education community, and interest in how such changes could be implemented in higher education, going beyond the discipline of engineering.

In 2023, Goldberg published A Field Manual for a Whole New Education: Rebooting Higher Education for Human Connection and Insight in a Digital World, featuring contributions from Mark Somerville. This is a follow-up book and practical guide on both what and how to change higher education to address three major crises: recovery from the COVID disaster, attracting students as higher ed falls off the enrollment cliff, and giving humans a competitive advantage as AI gets better and better.

"We realized that the things we were talking about didn't just apply to engineering education," Goldberg says. "In many ways, higher education has become soulless and all about theory, not about us as human beings. Furthermore, generative AI is looming in the background, with its potential to take over so many things. This led many people to wonder: What do we teach people now, and how do we engage people in a meaningful education?"

While A Whole New Engineer contains many stories on how Goldberg developed his philosophy, A Field Manual takes a more practical approach, giving educators and institutional leaders specific tips and strategies on how to implement changes in their programs. It builds on its predecessor, containing a chapter titled "A Whole New Engineer" in 4.8 Minutes, which provides a summary of the previous book that is greatly helpful for new readers.

Traditionally, education, particularly engineering, has been seen as dull and coldly rational. These characteristics are also attributed to AI, which could make education redundant. One of the concepts highlighted in "A Field Manual" is that change is rooted in what Goldberg calls "a journey to a good mood", which involves getting in touch with people's emotional sides. All initiatives for change receive some form of pushback from established parties and entrenched interests, but Goldberg believes that igniting change shouldn't start in an adversarial tone.

"The important thing is to not argue with them," he says. "The processes that I'm advocating get people conversing in small groups, which will cause things to start softening up when people feel the emotional good stuff. This is why the journey to a good mood is essential. We don't say 'No, you're wrong. Listen to me.' out the gate. We lead them on a journey of self-discovery and awareness."

Goldberg also puts forward a method known as noticing, listening, and questioning (NLQ), where educators and leaders can find out more about what students, colleagues, and other stakeholders are thinking, enabling them to make the changes that people want. A Field Manual also contains five shifts in skill and mindset to unleash lifelong learners and their educators, helping repair the field of higher education. These are:

  • Schoen's shift: Knowing that great human practice is as conversational and reflective as it is theoretical.
  • Brain-on-a-stick shift: Knowing that human practice combines heart and hand as much as head.
  • Wittgenstein's shift: Knowing that language is generative and creative, as well as descriptive.
  • Little bet's shift: Knowing that little bets and experiments are as important in making change as planning.
  • Co-contraries shift: Knowing that managing opposites that need each other (co-contraries) is as important as solving problems once and for all.

The book also advocates a change process built around the 4 sprints and 4 spirits method (4SSM). According to Goldberg, this method, which borrows from the agile method of software development, disrupts the unproductive cycle of traditional committee dynamics by explicitly breaking the change process into four sprints (the spirit, bright spots, canvases, and negotiation sprints), each with a distinct and well-sequenced objective. In the 4-spirit sprint, the change team is divided into four sub-teams: motivation, culture, student futures, and co-contraries.

"Most of the time, education leaders believe the most important thing in repairing higher education is changing the content of the curriculum and pedagogy. However, I've seen that changing the emotion and culture around education is more important," Goldberg says. "There are many things university education has done well, and we're not trying to undo those. What we are trying to do is to bring it up to date with this technology-dominated world. With the rise of generative AI, we're gonna shift from theory to conversation-in-action. AI programs such as ChatGPT are really good at regurgitating everything that's been scraped off books and the internet. It's really good at theory, and in the future will be hard for any human to beat. However, AI is also really poor at practice and conversation. It can't actually have the kind of deep conversation about practice that human beings can have. It's in these areas where we can strengthen education, making students ready for the world of the future."