Timothy Cook teaches third grade in Amman, Jordan, and has taught in five countries so far. His knowledge of childhood development is grounded in working directly with 9-year-olds in the classroom as well as collecting stories from colleagues who teach children of various ages. In our conversation, Tim shares some of the activities he uses to understand how kids are affected by the various technologies that are at their disposal now. For example, he ran a boat-building experiment with his students in 2013 and again last year, providing real insight into what children do when left to figure something out for themselves. We also talk about cognitive foreclosure — when a child misses the key developmental windows for building skills because AI cuts the learning process short. We also get into whether it matters if harm comes from actual bad actors or is due to a lack of consideration of factors that disrupt young people's development. We talk about cognitive privacy, the surveillance problem in schools, and why the question of what assessment is for has become suddenly urgent. Finally, Tim shares some ways to use AI that keep children thinking and trying. Timothy's book Built to Think is forthcoming from MIT Press, and this conversation is a good early look at why it matters.
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