I visited a classroom for a theatre workshop last week and the teacher had prepared a short script for the students using AI. It was a fragment of the Odyssey story and they were getting ready for a presentation at a school assembly. I brought in to play some games and help them break out of their shells.
What I appreciated most about this teacher’s approach was that they used AI as a bridge to get the students to an experience. Kids had read the story, they had talked about the story, but writing a play version would be a whole different kind of lesson.
Instead of learning about playwriting, AI was used to quickly generate a script, the teacher tweaked it a bit, shaped the story, and they had a working blueprint for their performance.
As an artist and educator, I’m using AI in two main ways: to encourage me to work with various canvases (tools), and to move my students closer to experiences (making and doing).
I was inspired by this conversation between Satya Nadella and Dwarkesh Patel where the Mircosoft CEO asked “Can the LLM help me do my knowledge work using all of these tools or canvases more effectively?” (0:55:46 – Getting AGI right). And from that concept, I started thinking that it was really experiences I want my students to move towards. Not populating documents but standing in front of other people doing something that no AI can do – being face to face, looking in each other’s eyes, activating our own imaginations.
Thank you for the invite. Bravo students! Good luck with the show.