AI REV
Information Reloaded
Why AI is the Classroom
Disruptor
You Can’t Afford to Ignore
Information ‘in Formation’
Remember that old saying, “Once your mind is stretched by a new idea, it never returns to its original dimensions”?
Well, consider your mind about to be stretched like Mr. Fantastic from the Fantastic Four.
Dan Koe's someone I follow and in his book called “The Art of Focus” he shares the notion that “information is always in formation.” What he means is that the way we receive, share, and shape knowledge is in a constant state of flux.
AI is the new catalyst for that flux—transforming everything from how we lesson-plan to how we connect with our students’ evolving needs.
AI isn’t just another piece of ed-tech.
It's a radical shift that alters our relationship to information—like going from horse-drawn carriages straight to hyperloop travel.
“Once your mind is stretched by a new idea, it never returns to its original dimensions”
In this era, the formation of information never stops; what was cutting-edge yesterday feels outdated by breakfast.
And that means our teaching methods need to keep up or risk crashing like a dial-up modem in a high-speed world.
We’re at a crossroads
Textbooks, photocopied readings, notes on the board—these were once mainstays of classroom instruction.
But they’re about as relevant to Gen Z as floppy disks are to your smartphone.
The moment we started trusting the internet for everything from lesson plans to personal therapy (“Hello, Google?”), the way we delivered and received information was forever changed.
Now AI steps onto the stage, re-forming that relationship yet again, turning our teaching strategies inside out.
The old ways don’t align with our students’ digital reality anymore.
Worse still, some of us are too comfortable in what we’ve always done.
But ignoring AI’s presence is like ignoring a T-Rex looming outside your classroom window—pretty impossible to disregard without paying a steep price.
Remember your local video store? It was practically a weekend ritual to stroll those aisles looking for what you were gonna rent for the evening.
Then Netflix happened.
Suddenly, the video store’s “current” inventory looked like ancient artifacts.
Here’s the connection: if we continue handing out the same cookie-cutter assignments (essays, worksheets, slideshows) without reevaluating how AI disrupts and displaces traditional tasks, we’re basically Blockbuster hoping Netflix will go away.
Spoiler Alert! Netflix didn’t go away. Neither will AI.
Our problem intensifies because AI “comes for our minds.”
In the past, new inventions automated physical tasks. But AI challenges that intangible space where we educators have always felt secure—our knowledge, intellect, and creative faculties.
It’s like stepping into a Marvel movie: we’re face-to-face with an unstoppable force (AI), and we’ve got to find our superpowers or get left on the cutting-room floor.
The “I’ll just keep doing what I’m doing” approach ends like Season 1 of your favorite canceled TV show—unfinished and quickly forgotten.
Practical, Actionable Solutions
So how do we adapt and thrive instead of fade into irrelevance?
Let’s break it down:
Revise Assessments for AI Reality
Project-Based Learning (PBL): Let students use AI as a brainstorming partner but push them to apply that knowledge in a real-world context—like designing a sustainable garden or running a mock social justice campaign online.
Media Creation Over Essays: Instead of the classic five-paragraph essay, encourage podcasts, video essays, or digital storytelling. Let them wield AI tools for edits or script drafts, but hold them accountable for originality.
Choice Boards & Personalized Learning
AI-Integrated Options: Offer assignment options that incorporate AI chatbots for research or analysis. For instance, in English class, students might co-construct a character dialogue using a chatbot but then transform it into a live performance.
Traditional Options: Keep some old-school vibes for those who need them (e.g., handwritten journals or sketchnotes), but highlight that AI is there for scaffolding, not as a crutch.
Reflect on the Process, Not Just the Product
Metacognitive Check-Ins: Since AI can produce outlines or draft responses, have students reflect weekly on how it shaped their thinking. For instance, a math class might have students illustrate how a chatbot guided them through problem-solving, then discuss what they learned about patterns in geometry or algebra.
Peer Feedback Loops: AI can summarize text, but can it summarize their peers’ real-time feedback in group projects? Incorporate short reflection sessions where students share how AI altered their approach to the assignment.
Tech Buffet for All Subjects
Math & Science: Use AI for quick data analysis, generating hypothesis templates, or designing experiments with immediate feedback.
Social Studies: Challenge AI to create timelines of historical events and then have students verify or debate any questionable info.
Art & Language: From AI-assisted storyboards to character-creation prompts, let students harness generative tools to spark deeper creativity.
Our relationship with information—always in formation—is undergoing its biggest shake-up since the dawn of the internet.
Right now, we’re basically living in a crossover episode of The Twilight Zone and The Jetsons: everything is surreal yet brimming with possibility.
The key insight? If we want students to be prepared for tomorrow, we have to stop using yesterday’s tactics.
The Questions We Need To Ask:
What’s truly irreplaceable about the human touch in teaching?
How can we balance AI's speed with the deliberation necessary for deep learning?
In what ways can “fear” of the unknown become a motivator rather than a barrier?
Don’t wait to be left behind like a MySpace page. See, some of you are asking “What the hell is that?” For God’s sake don’t click the link.
Challenge your colleagues, your administrators, and yourself.
Dive into AI with a spirit of curiosity, not dread. Start small—incorporate a single AI-assisted project, tweak an old assignment to reflect a new reality, or just begin by asking your students how they’d like to use AI in class.
Take the first step toward recoding your mindset.
Because once that mind is stretched, there’s no going back.
Newsletter Sign-Up
“Shifting Our AI Mindset: A Reflective Guide For Educators” (Editable Google Doc)
This editable guide includes:
Prompts for Reflecting On, and Facilitating Discussions about how AI impacts your practice.
Sign up to receive your regular newsletter and instantly grab this resource, ensuring you stay on top of the wild, wonderful shifts in how we shape and are shaped by information.
Information is always in formation—time to shape it, before it shapes us.
P.S. AI Collaboration Notice: This newsletter’s ideas and insights are all mine. I did enlist an AI “co-writer” to help structure and polish things. Think of it like having a virtual teaching assistant on standby. The human creativity and passion is the Mind of Manlow; the AI just helps me package it nicely!
