Rebecca Quintana publishes op-ed in Inside Higher Ed calling for partnership between educators and ed-tech companies
As ed-tech leans away from educator expertise and into an AI-first approach, Quintana cautions of disruption to a field the industry does not understand.
“The ed-tech landscape is experiencing a dangerous shift away from educator expertise toward an AI-driven, technology-first approach to digital innovation, ignoring designs for learning that are based on what we know about how people learn,” writes Clinical Associate Professor Rebecca Quintana in an op-ed for Inside Higher Ed.
Duolingo’s CEO, Luis von Ahn, recently said that AI is better at teaching than humans. OpenAI announced its goal of making ChatGPT an integrated part of every college student’s campus experience. Quintana points to these examples and expresses deep concern that Big Tech is building solutions for learning problems that the industry does not fully understand.
“Big Tech approaches education like any other market—to disrupt. Too often, however, they do so without sufficient regard for educator expertise and experience,” writes Quintana. She recommends a partnership model in which ed-tech companies and educators build alliances based on mutual respect for each other’s expertise and strengths to build effective, quality tools.
“We can either accept this shift toward big industry dominance and its disregard for expertise and classroom experience, or we can demand that educational tools be built in true partnership with teachers and educational researchers.”
