Schools were built for predictability. The future was not.

Rob Dickson reflects on Salim Ismail's Ad Astra Technology Summit keynote and what exponential change means for schools, AI, student agency, and the future of learning.

Transcript

A Summit Warning About Speed

SPEAKER_00 0:07

Last week at the Ad Astra Technology Summit at Wichita State University, I listened to Salem Ismail talk about exponential technologies, AI, and what happens when institutions start moving slower than the world around them. That line has been rattling around in my head ever since. Because if there is one thing schools are really good at, it is predictability. We have built systems around age groups, bell schedules, grade levels, course catalogs, credit hours, seat time, annual budgets, five-year plans, and committee cycles. And to be fair, those structures made sense in a world where change moved slowly enough that predictability was a reasonable goal. But that is not the world our students are walking into. Salim's argument was pretty direct. Once a technology becomes information-based, it starts riding exponential curves, costs fall, capability rises, the time between impossible and normal collapses. AI is the obvious example right now, but it is not the only one. Robotics, biotech, genomics, drones, energy, and other fields are all moving at once. That is the part we keep underestimating. It is not one disruption, it is a stack of them. And schools are still trying to decide whether phones belong in backpacks. The idea from Salim's talk that hit me hardest was this: when the metabolism of an organization becomes slower than the outside world, the organization is in trouble. That is a brutal

When Institutions Fall Behind Reality

SPEAKER_00 1:35

test for education. Our students already live inside systems that update constantly. Their information environment changes by the hour, the tools available to them change by the week. Entire job categories are being rewritten while they are still learning how to ask permission to use the restroom. Meanwhile, education often responds to change by forming a committee, piloting a tool, writing a policy, waiting for the next budget cycle, and hoping the assessment calendar does not notice. That is not a criticism of educators. Teachers are doing heroic work inside systems that were not designed for this speed. It is a criticism of the system design. If the world outside school is accelerating, then our answer cannot be to make schools more rigid. We cannot compliance our way into relevance. One of the best education frames from the day was the difference between supply side schooling and demand side learning. Supply side schooling starts with the system. Here are the courses, here

Demand Side Learning Over Compliance

SPEAKER_00 2:34

is the schedule, here are the requirements, here are the credits, here is the pathway, here is the credential. If you move through it correctly, we hope it connects to a meaningful life on the other side. Demand side learning starts with the learner and the problem. What are you trying to solve? What are you curious about? What do you want to build, repair, improve, understand, or change? What skills do you need next? Who can help you? What tools can extend your reach? What evidence would show that you are getting better? That does not mean abandoning structure. It means putting structure in service of purpose instead of making structure the purpose. This is why I keep coming back to project-based learning, micro schools, career-connected learning, apprenticeships, and student agency. Not because they are trendy, because they are closer to the way learning actually works when people are doing meaningful work. At Creative Minds, we see this every day. Kids do not need school to become easier. They need it to become more real. They need productive struggle, feedback, relationships, and room to chase a question long enough for it to matter. That is not soft. That is rigorous in a way worksheets can only cosplay. There is also a lazy version of the AI conversation in education that treats the whole thing like a procurement problem. Which chatbot should we buy? Which detector should we

AI Is Not A Procurement Problem

SPEAKER_00 3:53

trust? Which policy template keeps us out of trouble? Which tool gives teachers five minutes back? Those are not bad questions. They are just not enough. AI changes what students can do, it changes what teachers can design, it changes what counts as original work, useful feedback, meaningful assessment, and responsible support. It also changes what adults can automate, which means we need to be honest about judgment, privacy, equity, and trust. The goal is not AI everywhere. The goal is better thinking, better learning, and better human work. That distinction matters because schools can absolutely buy modern tools and still preserve old habits. We can put AI on top of compliance culture and call it innovation. We can automate bad workflows and congratulate ourselves for becoming more efficient at the wrong things. That is not transformation. That is a faster treadmill. Another slide from Salem contrasted the traditional firm with an intelligence stack. The old model was a hierarchy. Executives at the top, managers in the middle, workers at the base, information

From Hierarchies To Adaptive Learning Systems

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moved up, decisions moved down. The new model is messier and faster. Talent, agents, orchestration, workflows, monitoring, exception handling. That felt uncomfortably relevant. Education systems are still built like traditional firms, central office designs, schools implement, teachers adapt, students receive. But if learning is becoming more personalized, more project-driven, more tool-rich, and more connected to real problems, then the organization around learning has to become more adaptive to. That means fewer one size fits all rollouts, more small experiments, more visible learning loops, more trust at the edges, more permission for schools to adapt without waiting for a 90-page implementation guide that arrives after the moment has passed. This is where technology leadership in a district gets interesting. The job is not to chase every shiny thing, it is to build the conditions where good ideas can move safely, quickly, and with enough governance that we do not drive the bus into a lake. Speed without judgment is chaos. Judgment without speed is irrelevance. Schools need both. Flagship Kansas brought together industry leaders, entrepreneurs, educators, workforce leaders, and policymakers around a simple truth. Kansas cannot afford

Career Exposure And AI Literacy

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to treat technology as someone else's economy. For K-12, that should be a wake-up call. We do not need every student to become a software engineer. We do need every student to understand that technology is now part of almost every serious field. Agriculture, aviation, healthcare, logistics, construction, finance, education, manufacturing, public service. Pick your lane, the tools are changing. Career exposure has to start earlier. Middle school matters, hands-on learning matters, apprenticeships matter, AI literacy matters, so does the ability to work with people, communicate clearly, solve messy problems, and keep going when the first attempt fails. The future of work is not just technical, it is deeply human. Can school sense change fast enough? Can we adapt without losing our values? Can we help students build purpose before the world hands them a tool powerful enough to fake competence?

The Human Edge And A Better Model

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Can we design learning environments where curiosity, agency, and judgment are not side dishes but the meal? The answer has to be yes. Not because education is naturally good at rapid change. It is not. We all know that. Education can turn a simple decision into a 14-step ritual with a subcommittee and a laminated norm. But schools are also full of people who care deeply, solve problems daily, and understand children in ways no algorithm ever will. That is the advantage. The future of learning will not be built by replacing teachers with tools. It will be built by giving teachers, students, and communities better tools, clearer purpose, and more flexible systems. The disruption is already here. The question is whether we keep trying to protect an old model from the future or whether we build something worthy of the students who are already living in it.