Social-Emotional Competencies and Character are at the Foundation of Education Regardless of Technology

Maurice J Elias^*

• Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Brunswick, United States

Innovative technologies like AI need to be brought into education in ways that will support best pedagogical practices. Examining the history of adoption of innovations shows that their impact often is hard to predict. Future use of AI must be accompanied by clarity about the educational purposes that AI is intended to enhance. Key to ensuring that AI's impact is positive is recognizing that AI is operator dependent, and the social-emotional and character competencies of those implementing and using AI innovations -along with the prosocial value structure of their schools, particularly around academic integrity-will determine the impact of AI. This is illustrated with examples of cyberbullying and the presence of Chromebooks in classrooms.Policy and practice recommendations are provided, centered around the prioritization of collaborative and experiential pedagogy and systematic, intentional social-emotional and character development for all children in all schools.Contribution to the Field AI has the potential to short-circuit the learning process for many students by giving them a tool that will do much of their work for them. To avoid this, schools must adopt clear value statements about learning and academic integrity and ensure that students have the socialemotional competencies to use the technology in prosocial ways "even when no one is looking."Neither the requisite value statements nor emphasis on students' social-emotional competencies are the norm in schools at present. As we bring AI into schools, we also must make investments in the awareness of our educators about the use of AI in support of collaborative and experiential pedagogies and in the skills and moral compass our students need to manage the educational, practical, and interpersonal uses of AI. Research has generated the knowledge needed to accomplish this, but the infrastructure to bring these understandings and practices into schools is lacking. What is present in some states in American needs to be mandatory in all states in America. This article is meant to be a call to action toward those objectives.