Now dean of the University of Southern California (USC)’s Rossier School of Education, Noguera was a keynote speaker Monday at ISTELive 25 in San Antonio, this year’s iteration of a conference organized every year by the nonprofit International Society for Technology in Education. He opened with a warning against naivete, and passivity.
“I know that technology is an enhancer. It’s a tool. I rely on it, all of us do. I also know it comes with drawbacks, and we need to be aware of those as well … How is it changing your approach to teaching and learning? Do you see it making you better?” he said. “My hope lies with you, not with the technology. With the educators. At USC, we are all-in on the technology. We recognize that we have to prepare our students and our faculty to be able to use these tools.”
That said, Noguera didn’t mince words about the risks posed by AI, smartphones and social media. He said he agreed with author Jonathan Haidt about the effects of smartphones on students, having seen much of it firsthand. He cited warnings from other authors like Yuval Noah Harari and Eckhart Tolle about the potential of technology as powerful as AI to amplify dysfunctional aspects of human psychology or, even in small probability, to derail civilization.
On a smaller and more immediate scale, Noguera talked about some of the problems people have already noticed in classrooms and beyond. He said it's an open question whether ed tech will make humans smarter or more dependent. He expressed concern at the fact that kids are reading fewer books and depending more on summaries, because grappling with complex texts benefits them in other areas, because literacy is fundamental to learning — to concentration, to thinking abstractly, to applying what is learned to different settings.
Noguera also said “digital amnesia” is very real, including but not exclusive to students who use AI to cheat on assignments.
“How many of you rely on GPS to travel, and how many of you couldn’t get around now without it? … How many of you used to have the numbers of dozens of people memorized, and now only know yours?” he said. “The argument is that [technology] can free us up to do different things. So my question to you is, what are you going to do differently now that you have access to technology? What are you going to make sure our students do because they have more time than they would have otherwise? It’s a creative challenge. Eckhart Tolle tells us that creativity is one of the things that will be challenged by AI, because we lose our ability to focus the more dependent we are on social media. We get distracted more easily. Creativity requires concentration, and the ability to think and reflect.”
Noguera said the power of these tools necessitates great care and puts onus on educators to train the generations who will be using them, and that’s where great teachers come in.
“We’re seeing that when you harness technology in ways that serve the interests of human beings, you can do great things,” he said. “So I don’t want to frame this as an either/or. I think we can do both — that artificial intelligence can potentially harm and help. I want to focus on the ways in which it can help, even as I’m aware of the risk.”
Along those lines, Noguera pointed to use cases many have heard before: enhancing the personalization of teaching and learning, giving students experiences in virtual realms that they couldn’t have in person, improving gamification, and differentiating support for students with different needs and challenges.
On the subject of educational leadership and helping students with different needs, he pointed to Compton Unified School District in California as a model for breaking the cycle of high-needs students being the lowest-achieving ones, even in a community with persistent poverty.
“While other districts are still grappling with poor attendance since the pandemic and particularly struggling in math, Compton is making huge gains in both areas, largely because they have stable leadership — stable leadership that has been able to focus on teaching and learning and making sure that students get what they need and schools get the resources they need to support their kids,” he said.
Noguera also said that in a world full of AI, emotional intelligence will become increasingly valuable, and he related it to creativity. He cited advice by the late Ken Robinson, who gave the most popular TED Talk ever, that schools should bring back recess, free play and art to stimulate kids.
Noguera further recommended less focus on achievement and more on getting kids excited about learning, and avoiding what he called “the progression of disengagement,” wherein students decide early on, for example, that they don’t like reading. To do that, he recommended that teachers focus on evidence of learning, give students multiple opportunities to revise their work, and remember that the real teaching is in the feedback, not the grading.
“I know from enough experience teaching that we cannot make kids learn. But I have seen teachers who could make kids want to learn. How do we do more of that? I would say that we start by acknowledging that to prepare our kids for an uncertain future, they’re going to have the mindset, the creativity and the imagination to conceive of things differently than they are right now. They’re going to need to be problem-solvers, who ask questions, who are critical thinkers,” he said. “I’m asking you to remember that teaching is creative work. And if we want our children to be creatives, then we’ve got to be creative as well.”
In the end, Noguera stressed the importance of the moment for technology in education, as significant as it is wide open.
“I think, despite the uncertainty of the moment we’re in, education is the key to creating a better future. And if I believe that, then I’ve got to believe that educators are the most important leaders, because you get to be the guides, the mentors, the ones who set the stage and the conditions that support our kids,” he said. “So yes, let’s embrace technology, let’s use it to enhance what we do, but let’s never forget the power that each of us has to reach our students, to open minds, to let them see that they have the power to use education to transform their lives and the world we live in.”
