Course Overview

This module first examines how digital technologies can be used to engage learners in Montessori classrooms without compromising their core principles. It also looks at issues posed by the emergence of artificial intelligence in workplaces, and how AI is beginning to be used in education more widely. The module concludes by asking what these developments might mean for the role of Montessorians as child advocates at the dawn of what could potentially become the Imagination Age.

  • Part 1: The Memory Box

    Whatever form they take, digital devices have become a “memory box” of our daily experience. We live in a world that has become more and more dependent on smarter machines that do our thinking and remembering for us. We live in exponential times, awash with digital information. The accessibility of these devices has changed the old feudal relationship of producers of information (the “experts”) vs consumers of information (the rest of us). The challenge is no longer finding information, or learning to speak the language of the educated elite, but knowing which information is valuable! Digital devices are interactive, pervasive, scalable, customisable, extensible, and community friendly, and these characteristics make them inherently appealing. Because of these characteristics, digital devices offer opportunities not otherwise available with books and other static sources of information…including Montessori materials!

  • Part 2: Digital Motivations

    Dr Montessori embraced innovation and she understood importance of technology to human progress. However she also understood that learning is not served just by putting devices in front of children; what’s important is their relationship to those devices and to each other. This part looks at how the characteristics of digital technologies intersect with the needs of young learners for autonomy, authenticity, connection and inquiry. Examples are given to show how digital devices can complement the Montessori curriculum without compromising its core.

  • Part 3: The Disruptor

    Google has been the reigning search engine for decades, but the search engine now faces competition from a new disruptor that processes information differently. Generative large language AI models like ChatGPT are “word calculators” capable of engaging in two-way conversations, answering questions, admitting its mistakes, rating a piece of work, but also rejecting inappropriate requests. Robots have been doing repetitive and mind-numbing jobs on factory assembly lines for decades because they do these repetitive tasks better than people… and without needing weekends, benefits or time off to care for sick children! Humanoid robots powered by generative language AI are capable of interacting with humans in ways that feel human, and this may habituate all of us to the presence of AI-powered robots in our daily lives. Such robots have the potential to usher in an Imagination Age that leaves the jobs that are more meaningful and satisfying to us humans, freeing humans to explore leisure activities, experiment with whims, ruminate on our inner lives, and engage in other interesting activities that require creativity and imagination.

 

 

  • Part 4: AI and Education

    Part Four focuses on what these developments in digital technology mean for education. AI is now being used as a way to make teachers more productive and "optimise" instruction in many schools around the world. Rather than giving more choice and agency to students, AI-powered instruction more often removes choice and control from students in the name of efficiently targeting the delivery of content that the AI determines that a student needs to focus on. This model is contrasted with Montessori education, where the three-year classroom design allows students to optimise their own learning through interdependence and authentic human connection. The most important element of Montessori education is a deep understanding of how the world works, which Dr Montessori called “Cosmic Education”. Once the child begins to see the "Cosmic Plan" in the world around them, they begin to wonder what their own Cosmic Purpose might be. This question is equally important for Montessori educators to ask themselves. Our Cosmic Task must be to come together as Montessorians, with other child- centred educators, to make the case to the world that education must remain a human process that leaves children as the drivers of their own learning.

Course curriculum

    1. Part 1: The Memory Box

    2. Part 2: Digital Motivations

    3. Part 3: The Disruptor

    4. Part 4: AI and Education

About this course

  • $134.00
  • 6 Hours
  • 4 Parts

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