| | AUGUST - 20238IN MY OPINION AI DISRUPTING EDUCATION: ONE MORE TECHNOLOGY IN A LONG HISTORYBy Jason Johnston, Ph.D., Director of Online Learning & Course Production, University of Tennessee, KnoxvilleThe Gutenberg press, the radio, the television, the personal computer, the world wide web, and publicly available generative AI (like ChatGPT) are six technologies that have radically disrupted, augmented, and propelled education forward. While the time between the press and the radio spanned centuries, mere decades have witnessed the growing use of audio, video, computers, the internet, and now artificial intelligence in the classroom. I help lead the development of online courses at a large public university. While I'm not old enough to remember the first books being printed, I have studied with wonder the growing use of technology for learning, first as a student, then as a teacher, then as a technician, then as an instructional designer, and now as an administrator. However, I am old enough to have experienced another technology that never made it into the classroom: The CB radio in our green, mid-70s sedan. CB (citizen band) radios, for those born in later generations, were typically used by truckers to communicate over long ranges like a walkie-talkie. In 1980, 's pre-cellphone era, it became popular with the general public as well. My dad enjoyed using it on trips to catch traffic reports and updates on `smoky bears' waiting to catch unsuspecting speeders. I was a CB radio lurker most of the time, rarely entering into this domain of adult public chatter. When I was alone in the car, I would sometimes surf between channels and listen in on adults and their conversations.One day, as a young lad of 11, I heard two people discussing the perils and dangers of computers in the classroom. "Kids today, they're not going to learn anything anymore - the computer is just going to do it for them. Over."
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