Since ChatGPT launched in November 2022 and exploded into public discourse, the emergence of generative ai tools has been met with excitement and concern across virtually every industry, ideology, and age group.
Today, the use of this technology in educational settings is underway and states are even beginning to ai-policies-released-inconsistency-and-fragmentation/” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>release guide on how to navigate ai in schools. Over the past year, the tone of that guidance has shifted from skepticism and resistance to acceptance and optimism, according to an analysis by the Center for Reinventing Public Education.
The fervor around ai was on full display at the SXSW EDU conference held in Austin, Texas, during the first week of March. At least 20 sessions had the term “ai” in their title.
While the vast majority of conversations about ai in education have focused on K-12 education and higher education, few have considered the potential of this innovation in early care and education settings.
At the conference, a panel of early education leaders came together to do just that, in a session exploring the potential of ai to support and empower adults helping our nation's youngest children, titled “ChatECE: How ai Could Help the Early Educator Workforce.” .”
Below is a summary of the discussion. For the full conversation, listen here.
At a time when early childhood educators are experiencing a multitude of challenges – of exhaustionto low wagesto understaffed programs – panelists discussed ways ai can safely and effectively free up educators' time and provide them with more support.
Michelle Kang, executive director of the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), a professional membership organization that promotes high-quality early learning for all children, said ai can save educators time by helping them write weekly newsletters for families.
This practice is already happening in K-12 settings, said Isabelle Hau, executive director of the Stanford Accelerator for Learning.
Hau shared that K-12 educators are using technology to improve efficiency in a variety of ways, including to write individualized educational programs (IEPs), create templates for communicating with parents and administrators, and, in some cases, to support the creation of lesson plans.
(Hau, a non-native English speaker, shared that she has used ChatGPT to improve her own written communication and that her friends and colleagues have noticed and praised her for it.)
“I would love to see that happen a little more in the early years, because if we could save some of our early childhood educators time (to spend even more time with our little ones), I think we would all benefit,” Hau said.
Kang also noted that generative ai can be used to overcome language barriers, for example by providing live translation services during a meeting or translating a written communication into a language spoken by a child's family before sending it. This, she noted, is important in early learning because many educators serve families who speak multiple languages.
This technology can also help educators support families, Kang added, by scanning publicly available community resources and identifying relevant library events, food banks, free clinics and the like. Or if a child is fascinated by, say, dinosaurs or trees, ai can provide parents and educators with prompts to continue learning or perhaps connect them to the nearest natural history museum or arborist.
Celia Stokes, president of product at Teaching Strategies, shared that her company, which offers early childhood curriculum, assessment, professional learning, and family engagement solutions, is focused on practical applications of ai so that early childhood educators have more time to focus on building strong relationships. with children, which no technology can begin to replace.
Still, with so many other pressing concerns in this field, few early childhood educators are eager for ai, the panelists admitted.
“It's a little like before the iPhone was created, asking people if they wanted to have all their songs in their pocket,” Stokes said. “It's hard to imagine what's possible until you create some very specific victories that move the needle.”
“It's not a priority for many educators,” Kang acknowledged. “There's curiosity and fear at the same time: 'Is this something else I now need to understand?' We're all still trying to figure that out, and that's where a lot of educators are wondering, 'How can this really affect my daily experience right now?'”
Hau believes that could very well change.
“I think educators are generally innovative,” Hau said. “They want to do what is best for their children. “They’re looking at how they could improve their practices, how they could improve their craft.”
So if an early childhood educator sees that ai can save them significant amounts of time (time they can then channel into direct, quality interactions with the children in their care), then they are likely to become interested in it.
Panelists agreed that even if there are opportunities for ai to help early childhood educators, each step to integrate it must be measured, intentional and appropriate.
Stokes shared that his company is already guided by a slow and thoughtful approach.
“We could do a lot of things much faster,” he explained. “What we're doing is (taking) things slowly and carefully and implementing them internally and then with pilot testers to make sure that when a teacher asks a question (to a chatbot), they get the right answer.”
Panelists also raised concerns: What are the ethical guidelines? What data source is being used? What are the privacy and safety implications for adults and children? When so many other technologies (and so many existing systems in the United States) are already inherently unfair, will ai only exacerbate that situation?
Despite their concerns, Kang, Hau and Stokes acknowledged that ai is not going away. And there are already simple and harmless applications available for early childhood education staff.
“It doesn't have to be scary if we just talk about the real possibilities, the things that are not controversial,” Stokes said. “It's not about putting a robot in front of your child and losing control of everything. “These are very practical ways to help adults do difficult things better, faster and easier.”
