For many years, educators have envisioned personalized learning as a way to tailor education to each student’s unique needs. With advances in artificial intelligence, this vision is becoming a reality. ai has the potential to transform classrooms by delivering personalized learning experiences that align with individual strengths, interests, and learning needs.
At the same time, there is a growing emphasis on fostering creativity and authenticity in student work. ai can play a critical role in supporting the creative process, from generating ideas to refining projects. By making the creative process more explicit and accessible, ai enables students to overcome obstacles and express their unique perspectives. This approach not only increases engagement, but also prepares students for a future where creative thinking and problem-solving are indispensable skills.
Recently, EdSurge spoke with Brian JohnsrudDirector of Education, Learning and Promotion of Adobeabout using educational tools that not only harness the power of ai, but also uphold the creative integrity of students and teachers. It highlights how ai can help personalize learning by allowing students to present their understanding and ideas in diverse and individualized ways. This shift from standardized assignments to personalized projects can make learning more engaging and relevant for each student.
EdSurge: How can educators safely and responsibly leverage ai to achieve more personalized learning?
Johnsrud: The dream of learning personalization has been around for decades. The first phase was about getting the right content to the right student at the right time. Now, with ai, we are in the second phase, which is not just about personalizing content, but also about how students present their understanding and share their knowledge. Because a hallmark of creativity is uniqueness. So, if we want students to think creatively, then 30 assignments performed by 30 different students should all look different.
When it comes to safe and responsible ai deployment, schools are paying attention to a number of aspects right now. The first step is to check whether the ai tool is specifically designed for education. If it wasn’t designed for the classroom, it probably wasn’t designed to enhance learning. It won’t necessarily have the pedagogical pieces built in or the accessibility and other edtech integrations that you need.
Part of being designed for security and accountability includes ensuring that tools do not train their models on student or teacher projects, because the creative work you develop as a teacher or student in the classroom should be respected and protected. If you are using a tool that profits from or is inspired by your creative masterpiece, it is not truly aligned with core creative values and academic integrity.
How does ai help foster creativity while ensuring student work remains authentic?
ai can help with any part of the creative process. If a student gets stuck in a brainstorm, ai can help them generate multiple ideas. If another student is good at brainstorming but needs help refining their work, ai can act as a thinking partner and offer critique. This is what’s exciting about ai designed for creativity! It makes the steps of the creative process explicit and helps students overcome obstacles. It takes away the fear of the blank canvas.
I hope ai will help shift the focus from teachers, who are the content creators, to students, who take on that role. As an example inspired by my time as a social studies teacher, instead of asking students to write a paragraph about continuity and change in a historical era, they could be asked to choose an era, select a topic that showed continuity, and design an imaginary propaganda poster from that period. The benefits of this creative assignment are clear to any educator, but with rigid standards and a packed curriculum, it’s difficult to dedicate two weeks to it. The good news is that, with ai, this assignment could be completed in just 30 minutes during class.
Interestingly, in the age of ai, we crave authenticity more than ever. ai tools are moving beyond the basic “grab and go” approach of getting results and getting to work. They are being integrated into our creative workflows, allowing us to bring our best ideas to life and express ourselves more genuinely. The goal is not to have ai do the work for us, but to help us create more authentic and meaningful content so we can be impactful storytellers. As a teacher, you should be able to see each student’s unique voice in the work they produce.
How does ai literacy and creative thinking prepare students for future job market demands?
In just a few years, ai skills have become essential. The 2024 Workforce Trends Index Report found that ai-at-work-is-here-now-comes-the-hard-part” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>66 percent of industry leaders wouldn't hire someone without ai skillsIt’s surprising how quickly this has become a deciding factor when hiring. In that same report, 71 percent of leaders said they are more likely to hire a candidate with less experience and ai skills than a more experienced candidate without them. For students, this means that having ai skills can level the playing field with more experienced professionals.
At the same time, creativity and creative thinking are also in high demand. The World Economic Forum's Future of Jobs Report 2023 highlighted Creative thinking as a key skill for the futureThe creator economy is booming: 200,000 new creative jobs will be created in the United States in 2023 alone. Students who can combine ai skills with creative problem-solving can take advantage of incredible opportunities.
Research has shown that the more students are able to create, the more they thrive. And ai opens up more opportunities for student creation. A 2019 Gallup report concluded that technology-gallup-report-2019.aspx” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener nofollow”>Educators who focus on creativity and use technology in transformative ways see significant gains —Students are more engaged, demonstrate better critical thinking, retain more, make connections across subjects, and achieve deeper learning. For educators, seeing students excited and proud of their work is incredibly rewarding, especially in an era when teachers are increasingly burned out.
How can educators easily incorporate creative thinking into their classes?
Start by identifying areas of your curriculum where students need to dig deeper into a concept or fully demonstrate their understanding. These are the times when creative activities can replace traditional methods, such as note-taking or multiple-choice questions, and generate a much broader and deeper set of learning outcomes.