Design X AI - 05

ACADEMIA TO INDUSTRY GAP

There is a well studied phenomenon sometimes known as the academia-to-industry gap which generally describes the disparities between what students are taught in school, and what industries require or expect from their professional workforce. Because of the dichotomy between these systems and how they function in a rapidly changing world, the gaps seem to be only widening.

In general, academia tends to be slower to adopt new technology and methodology than corporations. The issues that arise from this disparity are especially evident as it pertains to technology. As the digital age requires increasingly developed tech-fluency to keep up and accelerating industries and corporations deal in abstracted strategies based on algorithmic information networks, the difference between what students are taught about “how the world works” and how it really does is becoming more dramatic.

A classic example of this is that while most US students take some form of a math class every year of their education K-12, over half of US adults lack basic financial literacy according to the World Economic Forum. 

Now as the issues of phones in schools and social media among kids and teens has become an ongoing national conversation, Gen Z and younger have been given the misnomer “Digital Natives”. This term refers to the concept that for these generations of youth, they have not known a world without near constant connection to devices and the internet. While this is generally true, the assumption that this makes all young people fluent in the digital tools required to be successful in the professional environment is not. From Zoom to Teams to the countless other softwares and digital tools companies operate with, students (and everyone for that matter) need space to build mental models and deep understanding of this landscape now more than ever. The assumption that it’s easy for them because they’ve had an Instagram since elementary school is flawed, and creates a fundamental misunderstanding of student need.

While the gap is already widening with tools that educators approve of, the issue becomes much worse when observing AI powered tools that academia is generally skeptical of or opposed to.

As corporations and companies continue searching for ways to implement AI in their operations, the need for a fluency and understanding of AI to be successful in the workplace is increasing. Meanwhile, many students are being told AI is bad and plagiarism, because the working mental model for many stakeholders in education is based solely on ChatGPT. More than that, it is an assumption of ChatGPT being prompted to “do my assignment”. 

While ChatGPT written essays are a problem, it is my view that the greater issue is that on either side of this topic, both students and teachers have reduced all of Artificial Intelligence to a corner-cutting website and have thus silenced any open discussion about how it can be applied to further learning, deepen research, or enhance a meaningful process of discovery and creativity.

Many programs and educators, especially in higher education, are embracing AI tools in their teaching - accepting that it is a new paradigm for everyone in the class and navigating obstacles as they come. This should be celebrated, but it is not necessarily the norm. Meanwhile the greatest need still lies in public education and marginalized groups who often lack reliable access to the internet, technology, and mentorship.

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DESIGN X AI is an 8 part blog series written 100% by my fallible human brain. I’m a designer, not an AI expert.