Human?

As generative AI reshapes education, it brings both promise and unintended consequences. What would it look like for educators to navigate this moment with a deeper vision of what it means to be human?

The rate of technological change is beyond comprehension. Each time we create technology to help us in one area, it creates new and often more complex problems that need to be solved in other areas. The creation of plastic has improved the quality of life for thousands of people who have received superior medical care; yet we are dealing with unprecedented plastic pollution because of this amazing technology.

As educators, we look to use or develop technological solutions to provide support in some of the trickiest or most administratively demanding areas of our work. We do this work using our guiding principles to discern where we should invest our efforts, while continuing to ask: “What problem or problems are we trying to fix?” and “What problems might we be creating by creating the solution we chose?” Every time we solve a problem, we inevitably create a new, often more complex problem that needs to be solved.

The development of generative AI brings this reality to the forefront. In an evening, a teacher can develop a student’s individualized learning plan that allows the student to work at their own pace, on their own time, while providing the teacher with feedback on the student’s progress. This is amazing progress with great learning potential, and yet . . .

The potential problems this scenario creates are:

1. Embedded Individualism: We are created to live in community. Part of living well in community is putting others before yourself. A completely custom, individualized learning program erodes community, further emphasizing the “it’s all about me” narrative that drives the market.
2. Instant Gratification and Self-regulation: Students and increasingly their parents are unable or unwilling to self-regulate when something does not go their way immediately. Tools of instant gratification have and will continue to make the rich yet challenging aspects of healthy relationships impossible, because the perseverance, patience, and forgiveness necessary to form healthy, enduring relationships are difficult to sustain.
3. More Screen Time: Children need more time outside, being physical, falling and scraping their knees. On a recent trip, I had the opportunity to visit “the log walk” at a park. It was a collection of fallen logs, some raw, some with cut steps and holds, placed at various angles, that invited participants to walk the logs. It was too inviting to pass up, and before long, I was falling off the log walk into the wood chips below, skinning my shins in the process. “Dying” from a fall in a video game or learning simulation does little for my understanding of balance, of risk, and of real life. Providing more screen time for learning without an increase in physical learning has consequences and helps others create more problems than it solves.

As Christian schools, we need to develop and maintain a robust understanding of the theology of being human if we are to make discerning choices at the intersection of technology and learning. If we can answer what it means to be human, we can then evaluate tools and applications for their ability to support healthy human development.

How would you answer the question, “What does it mean to be human?”

Often, even in Christian schools, a definition of being human quickly devolves into a productivity list that includes the ability to create, produce, and some might try to be more Christian by adding the ability to worship. When we begin to define our uniqueness as humans in terms of what we can, we have missed the point. Not only does such a list exclude the developing embryo and the student with diverse needs who is fully dependent and non-verbal, but this list also forgets who is.

The answer to what it means to be human rests in God. God creates us and invites us into a relationship with Him. Our ability to create, worship, and produce is a part of what it means to be human, but only within the context of a God who loves us beyond measure, to the point of death. Our acts can and should be an act of gratitude and worship to the God who gives of Himself and sustains all things. Our productivity does not increase our humanity. What makes humans unique is the reality that before they have done anything, both in their lives and each morning, they are enough in God’s eyes, and it is through a relationship with Him that their full humanity can come alive.

Darren Spyksma
SCSBC Associate Executive Director