Riley Park Farmers' Market Popup
Yesterday we hosted our first in-person popup event! After communicating mostly online and through posters, it was wonderful to get to talk to so many people. We spoke to parents, students, teachers and other members of the community.
The vast majority were supportive of a pause and were concerned about AI's effect on students.
They raised many concerns, including students becoming reliant on AI, becoming isolated from their peers and teachers, and falling for false information.
We told people about the Vancouver School Board's plans to make Microsoft Copilot available in classrooms. Only a single person out of the 50+ people we talked to had heard about the plans. Even students who go to a VSB school and parents who have children that go to a VSB school were unaware.
Some of the older students we talked to recounted stories of peers who used ChatGPT to answer even simple questions at university. "How did you feel about this assignment?"-type questions that were not for any marks, were delegate to ChatGPT.
Highschool students told us how some teachers would recommend that students use AI to get ideas, while other teachers would recommend against its use.
A lot of people helped out writing postcards expressing their concerns about AI. We later mailed them to their local politicians.
Results of the Sticker Board
We asked people if they wanted to put sticker-dots on aspects of AI and education that concerned them the most. Most people said "everything" but then put a few dots on particular categories.
| Category | Stickers |
|---|---|
| Harm to brain development / loss of critical thinking | 74 |
| Environmental impacts | 50 |
| Chatbot addiction and over-reliance/loss of agency | 45 |
| Devaluation of creativity | 45 |
| Reduced peer interations/weakened teacher relationships | 43 |
| Misinformation, disinformation and biases | 40 |
| Surveillance and lack of data privacy | 39 |
| Mental health impacts | 37 |
| Big tech control | 31 |
| Impact on systems, what do we lose funding for? | 13 |
Future events
We will definitely be doing this kind of pop-up again. If you are interested in dropping by, check out our events page. Or if you would like to help out, contact us!