Artificial Intelligence as Teaching Aid: Polyphonic Lessons From the “Great Calculator Debate” in Mathematics Education

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 12:40 pm
  In Roundtable Session: Access and Advancement: Funding, Technology Integration, and Pedagogical Innovation in Education (Table 2)

Abstract

Technological conservatists worry that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in teaching and learning will develop a generation of individuals reliant upon AI tools. By combining a systems approach to teaching, I recast AI, not as a threat but as an instructional aid: an object to be used to enhance learning. I apply the Foucauldian method of using historical mirrors as contemporary levers to use research from the wake of the The Great Calculator Debate to disrupt the present anti-AI panic. Through this retelling, I argue for an AI-infused education: an education that uses AI—in its various forms—to the fullest extent possible in service of accomplishing the educator’s other simultaneous goals (e.g., social justice, cultural relevance, content, etc.).

Author

• Christopher Dubbs, East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania