In this post, Kellie C. Ady, Executive Director of Education Strategy & Learning Innovation, shares a practical three-step approach to help education leaders define a clear vision for AI in learning. As AI becomes increasingly present in classrooms, her insights offer a timely guide for ensuring alignment, purpose, and impact across all levels of an organization.
| The Challenge Vision is often the most ambiguous, the least considered, and the most critical ingredient of positive change. | The Approach Define your vision, create a picture of what it looks like in action, and clarify how each stakeholder contributes to the process. | The Result Helping everyone understand the “why” and “how” of a change increases its support, its staying power, and its chance for success. |
Take a moment and think about the times in your life or career when you had to undergo change or learn something new. How many times did you voice the question of “Why?” Why are we doing this? Why am I learning this? Why did we purchase this?
Now think about a time with students or colleagues when they were learning or expected to change. How often did you hear those same questions voiced?
Regardless of the industry, a vital component to getting people to move/adopt/adapt is knowing the why, and that’s where vision comes in.
Why Vision Matters
In Leading Change, John Kotter defines vision as “a picture of the future with some implicit or explicit commentary on why people should strive to create that future.” On the educational side, Rick DuFour explains how vision is “simply an attempt to describe the school we’re hoping to become, the school that we want to look like four years from now or five years from now.”
Critical to the rollout of any initiative, this concept is even more relevant in the age of AI, particularly in education. When implementing something transformative, like using Generative AI tools to support learning, it is critical to establish the vision for using AI. “If you don’t have a common, agreed-on destination, then everyone is left to his or her own devices to imagine one,” explain John G. Gabriel and Paul C. Farmer in How to Help Your School Thrive Without Breaking the Bank. “A common understanding of the destination allows all stakeholders to align their improvement efforts. And the best part of planning for this journey is that it doesn’t cost anything to decide where you want to go.”
In addition to keeping the target front and center, a vision is also critical to the long-term success of any endeavor. As Shirley Hord notes in Reach the Highest Standard in Professional Learning: Implementation, “Many change initiatives fail because implementers do not have clarity about what the new program is or how to use it” . If you want to see success when planning for change, vision should be at the core of the strategy.
How does an organization approach this process? Learning Forward, an organization devoted exclusively to those who work in educator professional development, suggests a helpful tool for vision-setting as part of their toolkit for professional development.
3 Step Protocol for Vision-Setting. Adapted from Learning Forward
Step 1: Define “High Quality” at the Teacher and Organizational Levels
When tasked with implementing a new approach to learning with AI or a new AI tool, the first step is to gather key stakeholders and have them define what is at the heart or center of the initiative (e.g., “What does high quality learning with AI look like in a school? How would we define high quality instruction in the age of AI?”). As the group brainstorms, collect those definitions and publicly share them internally, perhaps using poster boards or a digital tool to collect ideas.
After collecting the definitions, identify key themes or bullet points that surfaced from the different voices in the room and then craft a unified definition that can be shared with stakeholders for further feedback and refinement.
Step 2: Create a Clear Picture of What the Definition Looks Like in Action
Building upon the definition that was collaboratively developed in Step 1, now build out the ideas into a living document that goes into detail about what the definition “looks like” when ideally adopted. This document should address key questions about the definition in action, possibly including a chart that conveys what the vision is and what it is not.
As you refine the document, design key questions that can help structure the narrative. In the case of an AI learning initiative, start by looking at the following:
- How will teachers be supported when first using AI tools as part of instruction?
- How will they receive feedback about their efforts? How will they provide feedback to leadership
- What would an observer see as evidence of a teacher using AI responsibly?
- What changes in student learning and behaviors would be observable as they engage with AI tools?
After creating the draft, share it with key stakeholders for feedback and further refinement. Ultimately, it should be published and shared widely, so the actions described must be in alignment with both the definition and the ultimate strategic vision for using AI within the organization.
Step 3: Clarify How Each Level of the System Contributes
Have your key stakeholder group define the different roles that are part of the system and put them into a graphic organizer that conveys the overall structure. For an AI implementation, it might make sense to start with the levels of classroom, school (or department), and organization. How will each of those contribute the making the vision a reality?
This step ensures that the support needed to implement AI effectively are in alignment and are structured in a way that supports the changes and learning needed to make the vision a reality. Think about how leadership will model AI use, how teachers will experience greater efficiency, how the organization will support ongoing professional learning plans, evaluation measures, and feedback loops. What do each of those need to look like to support the vision?
It’s About the Journey and the Destination
Creating and defining a shared vision will not only help an organization plan for successful adoption, but it can also help address roadblocks that may surface as the vision is carried out at the organization or classroom level. Ultimately, it is that vision that should unify and solidify the efforts of all stakeholders in the process and continue to keep them focused on the path to the destination.
If you want to read other blogs we’ve published about AI, click here. Stay tuned to this Enfoque EducAIción series, our social media channels, and our newsletter to keep up with the conversation. Share your questions, comments, and ideas with us about this ever-evolving reality.