Kevin Shindel, a high school social studies teacher, discusses the impact of technology and AI in classrooms. He emphasizes the importance of understanding the purpose and potential of AI before fully adopting it. Shindel raises concerns about trust, privacy, and the need for collaboration with AI. He believes AI is not just a tool, but an ecosystem that requires careful consideration.

About Kevin Shindel

Kevin Shindel is a high school social studies teacher with 28 years of experience. He has taken a keen interest in technology and its impact in classrooms. 10 years ago, he created a digital detox program for students, and he runs this experience every year with his kids. He’s very interested in the holistic impact of technology on students when adopted in schools. 

• Begin with purpose.
• What’s the purpose of AI?
• Skeptic by nature.
• Personalization is important.
• Aristotle’s golden
• Virtuous but vices at the extremes.
• How much will taxpayers be willing to pay to have teachers be hand holding and AI.
• What is driving the AI Push right now?
• Money
• Power and status
• Fear
• Hubris
• Can use the technology they create to solve the world’s ills.
• Big tech exploitations.
• Trust is a big issue.
• We need to work with Collaborators, not Service Providers.
• What are the problems in today’s classrooms?
• We don’t know the advice an AI Therapist would give.
• What is the problem and is this the solution?
• It would be difficult to replace me in a classroom right now, but these are the dumbest AI we will ever work with.
• AI’s carbon footprint
• Greatest learning tool ever created by humans. Greatest cheating tool, also.
• AI is not a tool. It’s an ecosystem.
• Unleash learning about AI before we unleash using AI.
• How will this affect Human relationships, privacy, data, Accessibility, hard work vs. meaningful work
• Where do we have the hard work happen?
• Promise of offloading hard work
• See people wanting to get this plane off the ground without knowing everything in there.
• Defining hard work is incredibly challenging.
• The purpose is to help someone find gainful employment.
• 4-month exploratory window before we adopt whole heartedly.
• Ai is not a tool, it’s an ecosystem
• See Jason Fried’s ideas about tools here
• When AI tool is not a user error.