≈≈ How to Have Your C “AI” K 🍰 and Eat It Too ≈≈
∞ Teaching Kids to Think in an AI World ∞
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy, not on fighting the old, but on building the new.” Dan Millman.
Back in December, just before the holidays, we posted a couple of blogs about AI and children’s development, specifically the risks presented by AI toys. We talked about privacy, safety, and the slightly unsettling possibility that a stuffed animal might start offering life advice before the child has even learned to say “Mama.”
This time I’d like to talk about the
other side of the coin: the benefits of AI, the reality of it, and, most
importantly, the management of it.
Today’s kids will grow up in a world where AI is as ubiquitous as a key fob. So instead of asking whether children should use it, the better question might be how.
AI is an extraordinary learning tool.
It can explain complicated subjects, help kids explore ideas, and break down
information faster than any web search ever could. Like every major
technological shift before it, AI will be transformative and occasionally a
little alarming.
So the real question isn’t whether AI
is good or bad. It’s similar to mobile phones and social media apps, they have
downsides, but they’re not going away. The goal is to help kids use AI in a way
that enhances learning instead of simply handing over the answer.
(And by the way, those of us who are
long past the parental-influence age might consider following the same rule
ourselves, use AI to enhance thinking, not replace it.)
The World Has Always Been Changing
If you’ve been around for a while, or
even if you’re of the generation after “a while”, you’ve already lived through
several technologies that were supposed to, and did, change the world.
There were televisions with rabbit-ear
antennas wrapped in aluminum foil that somehow pulled moving pictures out of
the air and displayed them in a box in your living room. Through that box we
saw the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam, watched Apollo 11 land on the moon,
and enjoyed the endless tactical battles between Wile E. Coyote and the Road
Runner—where Coyote consistently managed to drop an anvil strategically aimed
at Road Runner on Himself.
Here’s about 150 years of basic communication
and technology history in one sentence. Telegraphs, telephones, radio,
television, computers, the internet, cell towers, satellites, and now the small
glowing rectangles in our pockets that deliver basically every piece of
information or entertainment we could possibly want. Quantum leap has become a
regular occurrence.
If those leaps were “quantum” we may
not yet have a word for the leap AI represents.
The Thinking Problem
Of course, AI brings concerns. Privacy
probably sits near the top of the list. But when it comes to kids, the bigger
issue may be something simpler yet more complex - thinking.
When AI simply provides the answer, it
becomes the modern version of writing answers on the palm of your hand before a
test. You may get the question right, but you didn’t actually learn anything
about how you got there.
Learning involves more than answers. It involves the process of gathering information, connecting ideas, and figuring out how the pieces fit together. There’s already a term for letting machines handle our thinking, it’s called cognitive offloading.
You live it every day with smartphones. Just say, “Call Don,” and the phone handles the rest. What’s Don’s number? No clue. Yet those of us who grew up with house phones and rotary dials can still remember those numbers from decades ago. Our brains had to think and store them because we couldn’t offload the task. Today, the backup plan fits in your pocket.
The Positive
But here’s the encouraging part. AI
also creates a new opportunity for parents and kids to learn together. Instead
of fearing it, families can explore how it works, when it helps, and when it
doesn’t. AI can explain concepts, trigger curiosity, and help dig deeper into
topics you’re interested in.
The trick is making sure AI supports curiosity rather than replacing it. Think of it as a tool, not a shortcut. Used properly, AI can help kids ask better questions, explore ideas faster, and see connections they might otherwise miss. And along the way, parents get something valuable as well, time spent learning alongside their kids.
Which, historically speaking, has
always been one of the best educational technologies available.
The Bottom Line
AI is part of the future. That much is
certain. But every generation of parents has faced a new technology that
required guidance, boundaries, and a little patience. This time it’s AI. So
embrace the technology. Work with the power of AI to accomplish the things that matter
most: thinking, learning, embedding relationships, and spending time together.
"The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance.” Alan Watts
Please let us know what you think - thoughts@amtify.com
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Here are some thoughts on products that can help younger kids all the way through older children use reason and thought. One old technology, one with AI as a component, both encourage collective problem solving through the artful skills of thinking, visualization and cooperation. They also provide shared family time and encourage these forever skill sets. We’re affiliates of these companies whose products we're showing, so if you buy anything through the links we may earn a commission. But the real goal isn’t the products themselves, it’s simply to spark ideas about ways to help kids learn how to think, not just what buttons to press.
JIGSAW PUZZLES - The forgotten art of family time
CHESS - The forgotten art of strategy and family bragging rights, now with AI.
Play Solo, Family & Friends, with AI help
Again, please share your thoughts at thoughts@amtify.com
If you click on a product link in any of our Blogs and make a purchase you’ll be buying directly from that store and we may receive a commission on any products purchased. The purchase price isn't affected and the store will be responsible for all things involved in that order.
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