"Students should be taught to use AI as a companion"

Sylvia Libow Martinez is an American engineer whose book Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom is known as the classroom maker movement bible and seeks to facilitate learning by integrating different fields of knowledge in projects. Libow Martinez will be a keynote speaker at the EdMedia 2025 conference, which will be hosted by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) from 19 to 23 May and will bring together experts from more than 70 countries. In this interview, this visionary of the world of education shared her opinion on one of the most controversial topics of the day in this field: how to integrate AI in learning. Her outlook is refreshingly positive and open, a far cry from the distrust that prevails in much of the sector.

How did you go from being an aerospace engineer to a leader in innovative learning through technology?

It wasn’t a grand plan. I loved engineering, but when I had small children it became more difficult to work the long hours. Just for fun, I started working with a friend on small educational programs for the new Apple computer. I found the work fascinating. After a while I went to work at Davidson & Associates, the makers of Math Blaster. But it seemed to me that the programs we were making were more about testing than learning. I went back to school and got a masters in educational technology and discovered that there were theories of learning, like constructionism, that made more sense to me – that knowledge is constructed inside the head of the learner, not delivered to the learner.

I then became president of Generation YES, a non-profit that worked with schools to empower students to improve technology use in their own schools and communities. Students are often overlooked as drivers of innovation, yet nothing can happen without them.

Where did the idea to write the book that made you famous come from?

When the maker movement came along, my husband Gary Stager and I noticed that these new technologies were inexpensive and would be easy to adapt to student use. So we wrote Invent to Learn: Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom. This book because known as the 'bible' of the classroom maker movement and we have been privileged to be invited around the world to speak and help schools incorporate hands-on, minds-on learning with modern tools and technology. We also started a publishing company, Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, to publish books by educators in the areas of STEAM, making, digital fabrication, project-based-learning, leadership and constructionism.

We just published our 16th education book, The Learner’s Apprentice: AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity by Ken Kahn, which advocates for creative, constructive uses of AI in learning.

You advocate for a STEAM educational model. What are the benefits of this type of learning?

I find the addition of the A into STEM to be an important recognition that scientists, mathematicians, and engineers are very aware of the arts, meaning aesthetics and design. The process of design is a powerful metaphor for how ideas start from inside a person and become real in the world. This is a historically accurate way to view these topics as well – not divided from other subjects and the real world nor ignorant of human creativity.

Can you tell us about your work in the FabLearn Fellows? What are the goals of this research group?

The FabLearn Fellows program is part of a larger FabLearn initiative at Columbia University Teacher’s College, led by Dr. Paulo Blikstein. FabLearn disseminates ideas, best practices and resources to support an international community of educators, researchers and policy makers committed to integrating the principles of educational makerspaces and constructionist learning into formal and informal K-12 education. For over a decade, FabLearn has been a leader in the constructionism community, introducing educators worldwide to this powerful educational idea through events, research, professional development and publishing.

I am principal advisor for the FabLearn Fellows, cadres of educators chosen to participate in a two-year fellowship exploring the intersection of constructionism and makerspaces. We meet and host events to promote these ideas, and publish a volume of writings at the conclusion of each cadre. My goal is to help teachers share their good ideas with the world, and help them develop advocacy tools so they can become leaders in their schools and communities.

"The EdMedia Conference brings together people who are not satisfied with the status quo of education"

What are your expectations for the EdMedia conference that the UOC's hosting this month?

I know that the audience is composed of people who are not satisfied with the status quo of education, so I expect a lively interchange of ideas and experiences.

What are you aiming to achieve?

As I travel around the world, I see many examples of what works in education. I think people don’t hear enough about the successes, because many teachers are too busy doing their excellent work and not promoting it! I think I also can share some of the latest ideas about combining the tried and true models of project-based-learning with newer models of incorporating computational technology, fabrication and generative AI.

How can generative AI support learning?

I think many people are stuck with the concept that AI will only help teachers do administrative work, and on the student side, AI will be used by students to cheat. 

I think both of these are shortsighted. If administrative tasks can be done by a computer, the question is: are they really needed? Isn’t that just the teacher cheating the system? AI offers us an opportunity to rethink what we do and how we do it.

Students should be taught to use AI as a companion, to help complete work just like using a word processor or a spellchecker. These tools are here to stay, banning them is not an option; it simply delays the inevitable and creates an adversarial relationship in a learning community. If teachers and students work together to use AI as an assistant, they can do more creative, complex tasks not possible without the help of AI.

"Students can learn to write more and write better with AI assistance"

Can you give us a couple of practical examples?

AI can be a tireless editor for writing tasks. But it can also create interactive writing, like historical text adventures or choose-your-own-adventure stories. Students can learn to write more and write better with AI assistance in any genre in any subject.

AI can also create interactive software. In many courses, there should be opportunities for students to learn a subject through simulations and models, but using specialized simulation software packages can be expensive and difficult to learn. Generative AI can easily create web-based simulations, with interactive elements like charts, graphs, and real-time graphics. AI chatbots know how to make games too, including educational games. You can ask the AI to make stories, interactive adventures or games that are grounded in any subject, and ranging from very simple to complex. You can ask it to make these experiences in any language, or have it speak.

I’ve been an advocate for students learning to code for decades. It teaches logic, computational thinking and debugging. Now, with generative AI, students have the opportunity to get the benefit of making computational objects without learning to code. Even better, if they do want to learn to code, the chatbot can be a tutor and mentor.

Its potential is unimaginable…

We have just gotten started, it’s early days yet. I’m suspicious of neat and tidy infographics and packaged curriculum purporting to teach AI literacy. We barely know what we can do with AI yet. And teaching students 'about' AI is not enough. We have to trust students (and teachers) to mess about with these new tools and find out what the opportunities and benefits are.

Do we risk losing skills like critical thinking and cognitive abilities in general?

Yes. Educational systems aren't prepared for the new AI revolution that is coming.

How can they prepare?

We need to be encouraging a research mindset as we explore these new horizons. We need to trust teachers and students to do the right things, and empower them to be communities that focus on learning, not testing.

What is your advice to education professionals who don't know how to approach this new scenario?

Try things. Ask students to explore and discuss. Add students to your AI task force. Don’t buy someone else’s vision.

And what is your advice to students on how to use AI to help them in their learning path?

It’s your learning – this is a new tool for you to explore. Find out what it does, and then decide for yourself what’s the best way to use it.