building the humanities for the AI age discussion-based learning @parlayideas @parlayseminars
Toronto, Ontario
Joined August 2021
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What happens when students get an open AND structured space to explore ideas?
They become more articulate, confident & willing to engage with even more challenging questions.
This @parlayseminars group has tackled:
- Government shutdowns
- Solutions to the Israel-Palestine conflict
- Indigenous land claims
- Religion in the modern world
This is what happens when students are trusted with real ideas & expected to engage seriously.
Thiel mentions two ways humans differ from AI: we consciously experience the world (watching sunsets) and we’re relational (to our families, communities, societies, history).
This raises two questions for education:
1) How do we prepare students to grapple with humanity’s identity crisis? “What does it mean to be human?” and “How do you live a good life?” will only grow in emphasis over their lifetimes.
2) How do you design learning experiences that seriously prioritize conscious experience and relationships?
Peter Thiel on the AI Doomsday Scenario Everyone Is Getting Wrong and his “Antichrist vs. Armageddon” analogy @PeterThiel
Listen to the full episode of The Builders with @WalterIsaacson here: swap.fm/l/4CXD6Tpz37WBUqk8Xg…
I got to visit Montessorium this morning. I think it might be the ideal working model of how high-powered tech can be integrated into classrooms with intention and obsessive focus on each individual child.
After seeing what they do, these results are not at all surprising.
I have so much respect for @annamorgsmiley, @miss_hannahmc & @mbateman for what they've built.
Taste is downstream from good judgement
Good judgement is downstream from competence
Competence is downstream from reps of learning/doing the thing
My teenage self would be so annoyed at my current self for opening the possibility that religion class might be good after all...
yeah personal agents are cool but have you ever felt the warmth and dignity of a crossing guard that smiles as they help you cross a quiet residential street?
Random side quests influence your future in ways that you cannot imagine.
In middle school my parents would drop me and my brother off at some random trail on Friday nights, about 25 min drive out of town. They had heard of some people teaching mountain biking & figured we should try it out.
It turned out to be so fun, so we did it for years. We even ended up doing kid triathlons. At that age it was a great challenge to get comfortable at the edge of our limits and knowing when to push.
And thanks to my parents entertaining that random side quest, 20 years later I can go mountain biking on a random Tuesday in the don valley and have an epic time.
Tldr: embrace more side quests?
Offloading cognition gets easier = the more essential the humanities become because they cultivate idea formation and independent judgement
This part of the new Ontario education attendance and participation policy is impressively forward thinking.
“The Level 4 student participates in class discussions and contributes ideas, asks relevant questions, respects the contributions of others and demonstrates positive leadership, while contributing to fostering a positive classroom culture.”
Students’ time in class should be active and productive. Passive learning experiences invite absenteeism and apathy.
As teachers adapt their instruction and assessments in response to AI, this is a thoughtful province-wide stance.
Back to class discussion….
Ontario education changes are coming this fall. Here’s everything you need to know. cp24.com/local/toronto/2026/…
