AI Tutors? Outdoor Classrooms? The Future of Learning in Pittsburgh {SPONSORED}

Today on CityCast Pittsburgh, we have a special bonus episode sponsored by the Grable

Foundation.

When you think about what school and learning will look like in Pittsburgh in 10 years,

does that fill you with excitement or does it fill you with a little dread?

Like are you imagining scary robot teachers or do you picture cool outdoor classrooms where

kids build solar powered backpacks?

I am with a couple of guests who just published this forecast about what learning could

look like in Pittsburgh a decade from now.

They're here to talk about the forecast and why you should care even if you don't have

a school kid.

I am here with Jason Swanson and Tyler Samstag.

Jason you have a very cool sounding job title senior director of strategic foresight

at knowledge works.

You lead work there exploring the future of learning so you are a futurist.

I cannot wait to hear about that.

Thanks for joining me.

Wow, it's a pleasure to be here.

Tyler you lead remake learning which is a Pittsburgh based network that's doing very

cool stuff in places like schools, libraries and museums.

Thanks for being here.

I'm excited to be air Mallory, thank you.

So your organizations together just released this report about the future of learning in

Pittsburgh.

It is a 10 year forecast about what learning could look like in 2036.

Full disclosure here, I have a toddler so I am both very interested in and kind of anxious

about the future of learning in Pittsburgh.

Like when I imagine my daughter's future in school, my nightmare scenario is one where

she spends her whole day on a tablet being taught by an AI tutor.

Could you just start off by telling me like is that my child's future and the future of

all Pittsburgh children?

I have a nine month old at home myself and so I'm thinking by the time he enters school

will be about halfway through this forecast.

You describe it as a nightmare scenario.

I would concur that that would be a nightmare scenario.

I think a lot of parents are worrying about this at the moment.

I think what I loved about this process going through this process with Jason and his

team of knowledge works is creating a forecast is not a prediction rather it's a process

of looking at all the different forces at play and presenting possible futures and what

I love about that framing is it's really up to us to determine the future that we want

and start to design now so that we can end up in the place we want to be in 10 years.

It certainly I think the future of teaching and learning will be grounded in technology.

It's inevitable.

We're experiencing a period of change.

Tech is integrated in all aspects of our lives so I think it's fair to say that it will

be integrated into teaching and learning but I certainly I don't want a future where

tech defines that experience.

I think also more hopeful that presented in this forecast is learning that is joyful.

Learning that spans many places like schools, libraries, museums, all the places where

learning can occur in a community.

I'm more excited about that than the nightmare scenario presented.

We do this work right not from the standpoint of accuracy or prediction or prophecy right

is we want to depict a wide range of possible futures, some of which you know probably

evoke an emotional reaction right, a nightmare scenario a future perhaps I want to mitigate

against some might be more pleasing or give us insights to say like hey I've never thought

about that but perhaps this is now part of my own aspiration for my daughter's future.

But I think we have to recognize that nobody knows the future right that uncertainty really

isn't a bug something to mitigate against but it's a feature right it allows us to kind

of probe the unknown and be expansive and our thinking.

So the future you outlined it could be a scenario that could come to fruition and I think

that there's certainly trends in her trajectories that point in that direction.

But like I said this is really about depiction rather than prophecy right it's about widening

that lens on what could happen as a way to get it what should happen i.e. our vision

what we want to happen.

So that we can exercise our own agency to work to create the futures in the way that

Tyler described.

How do you go about trying to forecast 10 years into the future?

All right so here's how we would do it kind of at a high level right so first we want

to fall on or land on a topic that we want to know more about in the futures context for

us what might futures for learning a Southwest Pennsylvania be.

We would map the system to say okay fewer we have learning what are all the other little

subdomains that might impact the system right.

So technology, demographics, environment for instance just to name a few.

So once we have our map of the system down we want to start to figure out what's changing

right so that's how we kind of arrive at the trends and inside the forecast.

Through all that research we carry our own personal biases into this it's impossible

to get rid of them.

So what we did is we took all of those outputs and we convened two working sessions.

We brought together community members, educators, organizational leads, parents, you name it

together and we went through all of that research and said how does this resonate, how might

you be experiencing these trends, what did we forget right what else is out there.

So they helped us kind of surface these trends and think about what they might mean in tandem

with lots and lots and lots of research on our part.

We are firm believers that foresight and futures thinking and products like this are

a team sport.

So we were really really lucky and privileged to work with a wide range of educators and

leaders in parents and community members on this forecast.

Then my team and I with the help of Tyler and the Grable team put it together.

We started to kind of frame the future, tell the story about change and tell the story

about possibilities of where things could be headed or not.

And then we wanted to button it up right that if then so peace right.

So what are the big learnings and considerations?

Did we fall on as a group by looking at these range of futures?

So we talked a little bit about tech.

I know it's not just tech or not just artificial intelligence that's changing the way young

people learn and will continue to change it over the next decade.

What are some of the other trends that you identified in your report?

The first was one we called unstable education staffing.

And this really looked at both regional and national trends around schools and other education

programs that are currently experiencing persistent staffing shortages across all roles

from central office leader all the way to facilities maintenance.

So at every level of education we're seeing staffing challenges.

On the positive side we saw an influx of opportunities across the region in terms of

a surge in new programs, partnerships and educational initiatives.

Our third big driver here was one around shifting demographics.

So we saw a lot of data that the region's population is aging, it's decreasing in size

and it's becoming increasingly diverse.

Our fourth big driver was this idea of just increased disruptions.

We both at the small scale and at the large scale so this could range from environmental

factors to tech hiccups and that certainly the region and nationally we're experiencing

this kind of new normal in terms of an operating environment.

We highlighted a trend or a driver rather called delicate trust which looks at this idea

that nationally we're seeing public confidence and satisfaction in education and other public

institutions is becoming more brittle.

It's being influenced by economic pressures and political and civic polarization.

So whether this is imagined that these institutions can't meet our needs or in fact reality the

idea that we're seeing this in that dip in confidence and trust happening at the national

level is something that we really couldn't ignore.

And then as you highlighted AI, this idea of digital reliance.

So we're seeing trends where AI and other forms of digital technology are really reshaping

the way young people learn and connect with each other.

And when you think about these trends do you feel personally excited, scared a little

bit of both like how much are these trends making you nervous about the future and how

much are they energizing you?

For me personally, I don't see it as one or the other, I think going through this process

something that becomes really clear is that change is inevitable and it always has been

in the space of education.

And remake learning actually started at a moment of rapid change.

And so remake learning we're approaching our 20th year.

We were formed in 2007 when the first iPhone hit the market.

And so you can imagine for generations, math teachers were saying things along the lines

of well, you're not always going to have a calculator in your pocket.

And now young people did, I was an English teacher myself.

And so you can imagine the massive amounts of data that students had at their fingertips

in their pocket.

And so it was a period of just rapid, rapid uncertainty.

Educators really wrestling with in what way with this technology impact the way I teach

and what way would impact the way that young people learn.

remake learning was created to address rapid change really head on in a way that's hopeful

in a way that's supportive across educational organizations across sector lines.

And so we see things like community-powered learning and approaching education through

an ecosystemic lens looking at all of the places where young people learn within a community

and figuring out how can that be integrated into the larger learning journey.

So that gives me hope.

And it's I think hope that districts and educational organizations currently are tapping into designing

around to build and to move in that future that they envision.

Your report, you know, it's not just about kind of identifying these changes to learning,

but inviting people to reimagine what learning could look like and shape that future that

we want for young people and for Pittsburgh to lean into what's exciting.

One provocation that I was struck by in the report was this idea of creating a tax credit

program so that retirees can serve as micro educators or mentors like a way of involving

the larger community in the learning process.

When we're facing things like staffing shortages, what are some of the other ideas in the forecast

that could provoke something bold?

So I love that one as well.

And I think it's so timely because just a few days ago, I was talking with educators

from the Trinity Area School District in Washington County.

And they received a grant from Remake Learning called the Moonshot Grants.

And Moonshot Grants are designed to be an exercise in future.

And so the grant application process starts by asking an applicant to design a future ten

years down the line that you want to see.

And what is something bold and experimental you can do today to try to catalyze movement

in that direction?

And it's interesting because Trinity Area, they chose to focus exactly on this.

And so districts across the region, across the country are really struggling with staff

shortages, especially for substitute teachers.

And so when a teacher calls out, currently it's not uncommon for a teacher to leave a hand

out when they have somebody to come in, who basically sits there and it's a lost chunk

of time.

Trinity Area, what they decided to do is they look to their community and recognize there

is untapped expertise right here in our own backyard.

And so they created a program where they invited community members in during these periods

when a teacher results.

And the goal was share your expertise with students.

And so they've been remarkably successful in this initial pilot, which has taken place

this school year.

And they've had doctors and engineers, they've had police officers and real estate agents

come in and use that time to share their expertise with students.

It wasn't the pay obviously that was motivating these community members to come into the school.

It was a deep desire to contribute to their community.

I think that is a perfect example of a district who is actively working towards and integrating

something bold today under the kind of larger umbrella of the forces that knowledge works

point to in this forecast.

And there were two for me that I often think about.

So one of which dealt with this idea of AI for autonomy and the idea of having a digital

twin of yourself that could interact with AI-based agents.

So they could kind of go behind the scenes and start to personalize content for you.

So we see evidence of this happening in the entertainment sector.

It's starting to happen on dating apps like the AI virtual you can go on all these dates

and then it can say here are the couple folks we think maybe you should talk to.

I think in a future in which we have more and more and more learning experiences at our

fingertips, that could go a long way to starting to make sense and coherence of where to start

your journey.

I think that the role of all and wonder and discovery and learning is really, really important.

So I don't know if I would want those features to drive all of your learning experience.

But to get you started, right, it's sort of like asking that question that it's going,

well, what do you want and we go, where do I begin?

And then the other, what if, or provocative idea from the forecast is the idea of learning

transit network, thinking boldly about what it means first to formalize learning between

sectors, you know, formal and informal learning.

So the types of community-powered learning experiences that we talk about in the forecast

and that I think are a hallmark of this region usually comes with the next question of,

well, how do I get my learner there?

And so we started to riff on those ideas of last mile transportation, whether it is,

you know, buses, trains as we would think of them, a scooter network, bicycles, walking

trails, even thinking about an elder transportation network.

Could our retirees, right, play a key role in getting students from point A to point B?

I mean, and while you're both mentioning these bold ideas, I feel like it's worth

pointing out this whole conversation is happening in a region that's known as a real leader

when it comes to innovation and learning.

Talk a little bit about that history and how you see it informing our future here.

Yes, so for those who are not in the education space, they might, they might not realize that

Pittsburgh is known globally for this concept of a learning ecosystem.

The report starts out by outlining, you know, our long history of innovation, whether

that's Jonas Salk, development of the polio vaccine, the creation of the Freedom House

Ambulance Service, it's the birthplace of the Ferris Wheel and the Jeep, the first commercial

radio station, and now, you know, the cradle of AI.

For our work with Remake Learning, we day in and day out lean into some of Pittsburgh's

most promising, prominent legacies, the first being we are the steel city, we're a city

of makers, we're a city of people who roll up their sleeves when they encounter problems

or challenges or opportunities, but we're also Mr. Rogers neighborhood and you opened

up today talking about the role of technology and education and Mr. Rogers leveraged a new

technology in his time to support learning and he did so by very closely collaborating

with learning scientists at the University of Pittsburgh and so we have these truly incredible

legacies and so in 2007 Remake Learning started as a very organic bringing together organizations

who were interested in exploring the role of technology and as we experience another

period of rapid technological change 20 years later with the introduction of generative AI

into learning, we're going to continue leaning into the incredible legacies that exist here

in Southwestern Pennsylvania and Pittsburgh.

Tyler and I have the extreme privilege of going around the world to talk about the future

of learning and the good work in Pittsburgh, but doing this work again was a solid reminder

that this region represents what other learning communities in the country signal to us

as elements of their vision for the future of learning, right?

This idea of a density of connections across sectors and community, a real recognition

that learning happens everywhere, just not just when you're in the classroom.

That was I think fantastic and I think an ode to Pittsburgh's leadership and learning

innovation that what goes on here for a lot of others feels magical and it is magical

and then to take it one step further so that in that most of the folks that we spoke

to in this forecast process, the first question we would ask them is, well, what do you want

for the future?

You've lived in this region and for them it's to say, how do we build on all of this

great work, two decades of Remake Learning, two decades of sewing the seeds of a collaborative

learning culture and how do we begin to push this forward so that it actually represents

the new organizing principles of a system in which no matter where you go in terms of

your learning, it counts that every young person has the opportunity to go to the children's

museum, to go to the history center, to go to a maker space and it's all part of their

learning journey.

You know, obviously you both cared deeply about the future of learning in Pittsburgh.

I'm invested because my own child is going to be starting school soon, but why should

people who don't have a kid in school right now care about this?

Like how will they be affected by the kind of trends we're discussing?

So from my point of view, education and the future of learning, this conversation represents

our collective big bet or one of our collective big bets on the future, right?

So I think from that angle, everybody should care.

It's called public education for a reason, right?

It is the public system.

So one, it's that idea of a collective bet on the future.

And then two, it's just this idea that no society or community gets worse because it's

inhabitants and its citizens are better educated and can recognize their own agency to make

change.

So to me, that's why I think people should care, right?

It's taking the long view, recognizing the learners in which we serve as a community

and the learners that we hope to position at the core of this forecast.

One day be our leaders, our decision makers, our caretakers, our neighbors, right?

Whether you have children or not, we're all responsible for the future of which they

will move into and it will also live in at least for a part of that time.

I think there's a really practical element to the function of K-12 education.

It does serve a purpose on building young people who can be successful once they graduate

high school, successful in their careers and change is not obviously isolated to what's

happening in schools.

The workplace is changing rapidly and drastically in order to prepare young people to be successful

after they graduate, it forces us to constantly rethink what happens in those really critical

years between preschool and their senior year of high school.

So what's next?

What do you hope people do with this report and how can they get involved?

So remake learning, as I shared, we're a network, really a network of individuals who

care about education and we use that term very loosely.

We encourage folks to go out, read the forecast and they can go to remake learnings website,

remakelearning.org, and there's lots of ways to engage with the network.

You can do so like touch just by following what's happening in education in the region.

There's opportunity to actually go into places of learning and during things like remake

learning days, a big, huge festival of over 300 events that happens every May.

You can see how education is transformed in actual sites of learning and then we host events

throughout the year.

We offer grant opportunities to support educators and thinking about education for the future.

My hopes in what people do with the reporter twofold.

So number one, I hope they read it and then enjoy it, but I hope the end result is that

it can help them clarify their own visions for the future of learning.

It's a lot of times being asked again what we want is kind of the hardest question.

We typically fall on what we don't want.

Then I think the second point here, my second wish, is that this helps inform in some

way their ability to ask better questions about the future.

So perhaps maybe more new wants to take a wider lens on change, but ultimately our

wishes that they read it and they find it useful in whatever context they approach to work

in.

Jason Tyler, thank you so much.

Thank you, Miller.

Thank you.

If you enjoyed this sponsored bonus episode and want to read that 10-year forecast for

yourself, head on over to remakelearning.org where you can download a copy.

It's called nurturing what's next and it is definitely worth a read.

Again, you can find that at remakelearning.org.