SDL Is Going Global
When the silenced minority is actually not
Second Draft Labs: #0020
We publish the best ideas in AI and education, from the people doing the work.
This week was crazy.
I kicked things off on a podcast/roundtable, hosted in Mexico, with a co-panelist in Scotland and attendees across the US and around the world.
Later in the week, I had conversations about publications and other opportunities with folks in Hanoi, South Africa, California, and the mountains of the Western US.
Here’s what I realized through all these conversations:
People see SDL—and, of course, my own content—as doing something extremely important right now.
Of course, we are, in a sense, giving the finger to the establishment. There is a current of that, to be sure.
But the deeper sense is that folks desperately love and believe in the power of education.
They just don’t believe the current “stewards” of the institution share similar commitments. There are all sorts of motivations that could be named to explain the status quo. But regardless of the diagnosis, the symptoms are the same—resistance to change and, even more, a reluctance to inspire education to become what it—and perhaps only it—has the power to be.
What Education Becomes
The folks I interacted with last week, and otherwise, believe in the power of this moment, with AI disrupting the traditional paradigm and powers that be. They don’t all agree about the role of AI in the system—for some, it’s better left out; for others, we need to go all-in; and, of course, there are perspectives everywhere in between.
And they do believe that this is a moment for introspection, no doubt. Deep thought about what we should be doing and what is possible. But, even more, this is a moment for innovation to actually design systems that support human flourishing.
What SDL is Really All About
And, to borrow an AI-ism, I think that is what a lot of people miss about the conversations folks like us are having. They see posts about AI, they see books about AI, they hear ideas about fitting AI into teaching, and they conclude we are antithetical to the core human project.
But the reality is, we look at a system designed to churn out individuals as clones of an undifferentiated economic unit and say, “Surely education is about more than this . . .”
Then we continue
“And, if AI opens the conversation to that, or even helps us realize a better version, then we’re not going to pretend the status quo is sufficient. We’re not going to pretend that prudence is the best course of action just because we haven’t fully solved for every AI eventuality. We’re not going to wait for permission to think, try, and write about new ways of doing things.”
And what is amazing to me is that this is a global movement. Our first volume—What Education Becomes: Teaching and Learning in a Post-AI World—included contributors from across the US, Canada, and Australia. I suppose I didn’t realize how important that was at the time.
But I see it now. I see that what SDL is doing goes beyond publishing great ideas about AI and education.
At its core, SDL is about declaring to the world—at least the “world” of education—that the incumbents, the established powers, and the vocal status quo protectors are a shrinking minority.
We don’t need to go through committees or traditional publishing agreements or put our work behind journal paywalls—we can just think things, try things, and share things.
And apparently, we actually have a responsibility to—because the world is listening!