Can GenAI Tutors “Create Something that Actually Has the Potential to Increase Agency for All Inside of the System?”

The Resonance Test 94: Angela Stockman on GenAI in Education

“Can we use generative AI in a way that teaches us something that we might not have known otherwise, and in that learning… create something that actually has the potential to increase agency for all inside of the system?”

Good question, Angela Stockman! It is, in fact, one of many good questions that Stockman, the author of The Writer’s Guide to Pedagogical Documentation, raises as our guest on The Resonance Test.

In this episode, Stockman joins Kristin Heist, Senior Director of Innovation Consulting at EPAM Continuum, and our Brian Imholte to dig deep into Gen AI and education.

Part of that digging involves the art of asking questions. Heist says that while building a tutor with the input of educators, the teachers have been “pushing us to design tools that follow the principles of the Socratic method” and not just giving the answer to students.

Stockman agrees that teachers don’t want to see “learners leaning on AI tools just to generate answers or to produce work in ways that you know undermine their opportunity to sharpen their own saw.”

The hope is that students will become keen enough to create whole new ways of doing things—and teachers as well.

Part of teachers’ craft, says Heist, is “learning what works for their students, learning what their students understand, learning who their students are.” But the reality is that teachers are extremely time-constrained. And this makes personalization a challenge.

Stockman says that for teachers “who are working with sometimes over one hundred students in a single day,” personalization is “kind of unrealistic”—but a GenAI tutor can truly help.

The real focus is on craft and where GenAI tools can, as Heist says, “elevate the teacher's craft” as opposed to replacing what they're currently doing.

And let’s not forget data! Stockman says that AI is “helping us scoop the data out of their lived learning experiences. We don't have to bring learning to a halt in order to assess what's going on and it can help us with the interpretation of massive amounts of qualitative data.”

If you have questions about GenAI and EDU, and you know you do, you’ll listen up. 

Host: Alison Kotin
Engineer: Kyp Pilalas
Producer: Ken Gordon