technology

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First up, apologies for the missing August round up. Holidays got in the way! The good news is that we’re back and have a bumper issue for you covering the news over the last few weeks! So grab a cuppa and dive in…

In this month’s post:

  • Teen wellbeing is still declining, with the cost of living crisis and post pandemic fall-out likely to blame. 
  • School absences are on the rise – perhaps it’s time to listen to young people?
  • Being human – why we’re really looking forward to the Brighton Summit

How are our teens?

We’ve spent the last couple of weeks talking to young people for our upcoming series of Raising Teens (broadcast on BBC Radio Sussex and Surrey this autumn). Every conversation we have with a young person gives us a better understanding of their needs and issues. It means we can work together to find ways to help. We’ll have more details in next month’s post.

As I was putting the finishing touches to this post, the Education Secretary announced that they’re planning to ban mobile phones in schools in England. They say it’s to address behavioural and mental health concerns. Much of the news about children and young people in the last couple of months has centred around a drop in happiness and wellbeing. The effects of the pandemic and cost of living crisis has been huge. The BBC published a poll last month that highlighted many of their concerns. It made for fascinating reading. 44% of girls and 24% of boys said they feel unsafe on the streets, over a quarter said they feel anxious most or all of the time – exams, school and peer pressure were the top 3 reasons. On the plus side, 66% said they felt positive about the future. 

We covered some of these issues in previous episodes of Raising Teens – and young people and professionals shared some great advice. Listen here: Raising Teens: Personal safety and Raising Teens: Anxiety.

School absences are on the rise

There were plenty of news articles about the rise in persistent school absences. 

“22.5% of pupils were recorded as ‘persistently absent’ (defined by the Department for Education as missing 10% or more of possible school sessions). This equates to around 1.6 million pupils.” (House of Commons Research Briefing, 29 September 2023) 

When looking for reasons why, some point to a change in parental attitudes since the pandemic. Schools Week reported today that there’s been a rise in home schooled children that perhaps points to disaffection with the school system. Whatever the reason, many families are struggling to cope and it’s hitting the poorest hardest – “37.2% of free school meal eligible pupils were persistently absent compared with 17.5% of pupils that were not eligible” – with a knock-on effect of lower attainment for those absent pupils. A recent IPPR paper looked at the need for wholesale changes in education to make it fit for 21st Century needs. In particular, they argue that a shift is needed in our school system – one that moves from “a system that disempowers young people” to one that “gives young people voice and agency.” We agree that it’s time to listen to young people. Their feedback is vital to inform the future of education. 

If you’re worried about your child’s school attendance and need help, take a look at Not Fine in School. It’s a great resource for parents and carers worried about their children’s school attendance. It was set up by parents who have experienced these issues. 

Human: Looking forward to the Brighton Summit

It’s been 5 years since we started Make (Good) Trouble (five years! Time flies). It started from an idea Daisy (my sister and co-founder of MGT) put to an audience at The Brighton Summit. We had an overwhelming response. Five years on, and we’re back at the Summit with Daisy as MC! It’s a great event and we’re really excited about this year’s theme: Human. The focus is on human resilience, courage and kindness, on human centred businesses. This is at the heart of MGT, building human connections between young people and parents, carers, families and the professionals who are trusted with their care. We’ll cover some of the debates, issues and ideas in next month’s round up.

Help and advice

We’ve been adding to our Help & Advice pages over the summer, so if you need somewhere or someone to turn to, take a look. The pages are full of great resources and organisations, many of whom we’ve worked with over the past 5 years. If you have any great resources you think we should add, let us know.

Till next month! Keep well. x

P.S. The image at the top of this page is from our August summer club – participants had been helping with pruning and conservation in the South Downs National Park. The SDNP team, MGT and participants showing the fruits of their labour. ♥️

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Artificial intelligence (AI) has dominated the news this month and, as a parent and employer of young people, I’ve been wondering about what it means for their future – in education, employment, in terms of ethics and equality, and innovation. 

Researching the subject for this blog post – and as an interested parent – took me down plenty of rabbit holes. Opinions about the technology range from wildly optimistic: AI is our saviour! It will solve climate breakdown; provide better, faster solutions to healthcare, education, the economy… On the pessimistic side: there are deep fakes, worries about inaccuracies and plagiarism, and fears that AI will put many of us out of a job. There are also concerns that AI tools, which are trained on and learn from existing information, may amplify gender, racial, or cultural biases in society. 

What does this mean for parents and employers?

As someone who grew up in an analogue world, it’s hard to imagine how things will change over the next decade or so. But as parents and employers, we need to help prepare our young people (and ourselves) for this new world, to make sure they have the opportunity to collaborate and compete in a workplace that is changing beyond our imagination. It’s certainly something we’re beginning to think about at Make (Good) Trouble. 

It’s clear that we need to educate our young people to better understand what AI is, what it can do, and what its foundations are because a) regulation can’t keep up and b) we can’t shield our young people from what comes next. This learning needs to start in schools but will no doubt need to be lifelong. We should give them the tools and knowledge to be resilient and to deal with and work with whatever the future brings. 

What role should AI have in education?

ChatGPT and DALL-E 2 can help with writing, creating images, and generating ideas but there are worries that students will start to lose their cognitive skills if they rely on AI tools to do the heavy lifting for them.

A group of school leaders recently announced that they have come together to create a new body to protect students from “very real and present hazards and dangers” of AI. They state that “AI is moving far too quickly for the government or parliament alone to provide the real-time advice schools need” (The Guardian, 20 May 2023). The question is, should our children be taught to understand and use AI in schools? And how can we expect already overloaded teachers to keep up? 

Teachers and lecturers are already having to deal with students using ChatGPT to write essays and exams. Teachers are now using plagiarism and AI detection tools to root out cheats. My daughter also uses these tools to check her work. She’s a fan of ChatGPT. She says it helps with her grammar and research and makes her more confident about it.  

Rather than trying to keep up, some experts advise we take a long-term approach when it comes to AI and education. “Our approach to teaching should be guided not by one recent product but by reflection on the lives our students are likely to lead in the 2030s,” argues Professor Ted Underwood, University of Illinois. “What will the writing process look like for them? Will they use models as research assistants? As editors?

“No crystal ball can answer those questions yet. But the uncertainty itself is a reminder that our goal is not to train students for specific tasks but to give them resilience founded on broad understanding.” (Inside Higher Ed, 11 Jan 2023) 

I like that thinking, and hope that it is embedded in everyone’s education. Our schools, our curriculum, should be designed to value problem-solving skills, to help young people to be creative and critical in their thinking, to be agile and flexible in their approach to their future and to work.

What does this mean for the future of work?

Many think Artificial Intelligence will reduce the workforce in many areas, and in particular in entry level jobs. This thoughtful piece in The Conversation looks at how AI might affect artists and knowledge workers. The writers argue that whilst technology can be problematic, it can lead to better accessibility, new skills and jobs.

In a recent Guardian discussion, Professor Stuart Russell, founder of the Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, argued that human interpersonal skills will be the key to many future careers “where you’re interacting directly with other humans on a one-to-one basis to make people’s lives better” (doing what technology can’t), citing as examples of new job titles: “life architects” and “professional lunchers” (someone who is a paid lunch date offering interesting conversation and company!). 

I hope that AI represents an “advance” in technology. I hope it gives all our young people more opportunities to thrive. We just need to make sure they’re equipped with the skills and knowledge to do that. 

Further reading

Internet Matters: A parent’s guide to using AI with kids

AI Magazine: The impact of artificial intelligence on kids and teens

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