In the 2000s, when  ICT (Information and Communication Technologies) became widespread, educators gradually started to look for ways to integrate them in teaching and learning. It quickly became obvious that the added value was not so much if ICT were used or not, but rather how they were used. 

Dr. Ruben Puentedura’s SAMR model, helped educators evaluate at what level they integrated ICT into their teaching and learning processes : 

• Substitution: Technology acts as a direct substitute, with no functional change.
• Augmentation: Technology acts as a substitute, but with functional improvements.
• Modification: Technology allows for significant task redesign.
• Redefinition: Technology allows for the creation of new tasks that were previously inconceivable.

Twenty years later, here we are, entering a new disruption era for education with the rise of generative AI chats. 

In Power and Prediction: The Disruptive Economics of Artificial Intelligence, authors Ajay Agrawal, Joshua Gans, and Avi Goldfarb (University of Toronto) define something akin to the SAMR model for AI adoption in organizations and industries. The adoption levels focus on how AI can influence decision-making and the structure of decision-making processes:

• Point Solutions: AI is used to solve a specific problem or improve an existing process without fundamentally changing the way the institution operates.
• Process Redesign: The introduction of AI leads to the redefinition of existing institutional processes to make them more efficient or better aligned with the available technological capabilities. The institution begins to reorganize its practices around AI to maximize its benefits, which continue to grow.
• System-Level Transformation: The integration of AI radically transforms the business model or the entire institutional structure. It is a fundamental transformation of how education is designed, delivered, and experienced.

In education, we are still clearly at the “point solutions” level, with conversations circling around two main themes: How Chat GPT can/should be used by students and faculty for (fill in the blank) ; How Chat GPT should not be used by students to (fill in the blank). 

Process redesign and System-level transformation involve a more radical approach in order to happen : a shift from “what we currently do” to “What AI excels at and how these capabilities can transform teaching and learning in ways that were previously impossible without AI.”

We’ll delve into these various levels of transformation in our next blogs. But in the meantime, reader, let’s hear from you in the comments : what type of conversations are you having about AI  in your institution? Are they about Point solutions, Process redesign or System-level transformation ?