“Explain it so a ten-year-old would understand!” A hundred-year-old pedagogical model combined with a theory about language models has helped me think about how to best use ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini as sounding boards and for learning new things – without losing the ability to “fly by the seat of my pants.”

https://anders.thoresson.se/post/2025/10/a-hundred-year-old-pedagogical-theory-that-elevates-ai-as-a-thinking-partner/

#llm #learning #zpd #vygotsky #mollick

La Kogna Evoluo per Sociaj Rilatoj laŭ Vygotsky
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=egs6_jTx8_I

#Esperanto #Sprouts #Vygotsky

I was trying to post this on my blog, but it seems to be not cooperating these days… So here comes a long thread on #Pedagogy, #FineArtsEducation, #4ECognition, #Phenomenology, #Dewey, and #Vygotsky…
_______________________________________

I have a feeling there will be several of these…

This fall term I will be on a research leave. I am temporarily (and voluntarily!) relieved of all my regular duties in order to spend time doing research — the research I would normally do in my free time, in the moments between meetings, on the weekends… Suddenly that is my main job; I’m not quite sure how I’ll respond once the term starts again, but I’ll do my best to manage.

And what will I be researching? A couple of things: (1/5)

The educator panic over AI is real, and rational.
I've been there myself. The difference is I moved past denial to a more pragmatic question: since AI regulation seems unlikely (with both camps refusing to engage), how do we actually work with these systems?

The "AI will kill critical thinking" crowd has a point, but they're missing context.
Critical reasoning wasn't exactly thriving before AI arrived: just look around. The real question isn't whether AI threatens thinking skills, but whether we can leverage it the same way we leverage other cognitive tools.

We don't hunt our own food or walk everywhere anymore.
We use supermarkets and cars. Most of us Google instead of visiting libraries. Each tool trade-off changed how we think and what skills matter. AI is the next step in this progression, if we're smart about it.

The key is learning to think with AI rather than being replaced by it.
That means understanding both its capabilities and our irreplaceable human advantages.

1/3

#AI #Education #FutureOfEducation #AIinEducation #LLM #ChatGPT #Claude #EdAI #CriticalThinking #CognitiveScience #Metacognition #HigherOrderThinking #Reasoning #Vygotsky #Hutchins #Sweller #LearningScience #EducationalPsychology #SocialLearning #TechforGood #EticalAI #AILiteracy #PromptEngineering #AISkills #DigitalLiteracy #FutureSkills #LRM #AIResearch #AILimitations #SystemsThinking #AIEvaluation #MentalModels #LifelongLearning #AIEthics #HumanCenteredAI #DigitalTransformation #AIRegulation #ResponsibleAI #Philosophy

AI isn't going anywhere. Time to get strategic:
Instead of mourning lost critical thinking skills, let's build on them through cognitive delegation—using AI as a thinking partner, not a replacement.

This isn't some Silicon Valley fantasy:
Three decades of cognitive research already mapped out how this works:

Cognitive Load Theory:
Our brains can only juggle so much at once. Let AI handle the grunt work while you focus on making meaningful connections.

Distributed Cognition:
Naval crews don't navigate with individual genius—they spread thinking across people, instruments, and procedures. AI becomes another crew member in your cognitive system.

Zone of Proximal Development
We learn best with expert guidance bridging what we can't quite do alone. AI can serve as that "more knowledgeable other" (though it's still early days).
The table below shows what this looks like in practice:

2/3

#AI #Education #FutureOfEducation #AIinEducation #LLM #ChatGPT #Claude #EdAI #CriticalThinking #CognitiveScience #Metacognition #HigherOrderThinking #Reasoning #Vygotsky #Hutchins #Sweller #LearningScience #EducationalPsychology #SocialLearning #TechforGood #EticalAI #AILiteracy #PromptEngineering #AISkills #DigitalLiteracy #FutureSkills #LRM #AIResearch #AILimitations #SystemsThinking #AIEvaluation #MentalModels #LifelongLearning #AIEthics #HumanCenteredAI #DigitalTransformation #AIRegulation #ResponsibleAI #Philosophy

Critical reasoning vs Cognitive Delegation

Old School Focus:

Building internal cognitive capabilities and managing cognitive load independently.

Cognitive Delegation Focus:

Orchestrating distributed cognitive systems while maintaining quality control over AI-augmented processes.

We can still go for a jog or go hunt our own deer, but for reaching the stars we, the Apes do what Apes do best: Use tools to build on our cognitive abilities. AI is a tool.

3/3

#AI #Education #FutureOfEducation #AIinEducation #LLM #ChatGPT #Claude #EdAI #CriticalThinking #CognitiveScience #Metacognition #HigherOrderThinking #Reasoning #Vygotsky #Hutchins #Sweller #LearningScience #EducationalPsychology #SocialLearning #TechforGood #EticalAI #AILiteracy #PromptEngineering #AISkills #DigitalLiteracy #FutureSkills #LRM #AIResearch #AILimitations #SystemsThinking #AIEvaluation #MentalModels #LifelongLearning #AIEthics #HumanCenteredAI #DigitalTransformation #AIRegulation #ResponsibleAI #Philosophy

What we philosophize about when we philosophize about love https://open.substack.com/pub/bryankam/p/love-abstractedly?r=447n8&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web

#philosophy #Nietzsche #Plato #Durkheim #Vygotsky #Platonism