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Our publishing company, Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, is proud to announce the release of a remarkable new book, The Learner’s Apprentice: AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity, by Dr. Ken Kahn. The book is available in softcover, hardcover, and Kindle editions.
Setting a new standard
About a year ago, amid the noise, hoopla, and confusion surrounding the widespread availability of generative AI software environments, I saw my old friend and colleague Ken Kahn posting truly fascinating ways in which he was using chatbots to amplify human potential. I suggested that Ken turn his powerful ideas into a book. After a year of effort by Ken and editor Sylvia Martinez, The Learner’s Apprentice… is finally here!
We hope this new book will be indispensable to teachers and students alike.
Were you thinking about AI and kids learning in 1973?
No? Well, Ken Kahn was! In 1973, he began his doctoral work with Seymour Papert and Marvin Minsky in the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory’s Logo Group. Ken’s long and fruitful career included eight years as a research scientist at the renowned Xerox Palo Alto Research Center, home of pioneering research on AI, computer science, and education, as well as a Senior Researcher at Oxford University. (Learn more about Ken here)
This is a not-so subtle way of saying that Ken has been working at the intersection of AI, children, and learning for a very long time. His book reflects a half-century of commitment to the principle that computers are for children and that the best use of computers is to make things.
“What sets Ken Kahn’s book apart from most of the other books on artificial intelligence in education is depth. This is not a sprint through current tools, or shallow coverage of important concerns, or an empty exhortation that AI is here to stay. As we would expect from Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, this book is an extremely thoughtful examination of the ways that we might use AI to complement and enhance humans’ analytical and creative work. Kahn includes numerous practical examples and scenarios that are deeply rooted in research and historical constructivist understandings of how learners and technology can partner with each other. I can’t recommend this book highly enough.”
Dr. Scott McLeod; Professor, Educational Leadership; Founding Director, CASTLE
Hundreds of Project Ideas and Detailed Examples
In The Learner’s Apprentice: AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity, Ken Kahn introduces a fresh perspective of using generative Artificial Intelligence, known as chatbots, to co-create educationally rich experiences and interactive software. Kahn shows how teachers can guide students—from elementary school to college—through the process of creating powerful software applications (apps), illustrated stories, conversations with notable figures, interactive games and adventures, and more.
In The Learner’s Apprentice, you’ll learn how to use AI to:
- Make software – without learning to code: Learn to make playable interactive games, scientific simulations, augmented reality games, and mobile apps. Make AI-enhanced software apps and train your own machine learning tasks.
- Create history, science, and literature adventures: Build historically accurate interactive adventures, debate with notable figures, or create immersive science fiction stories in any language.
- Design mathematically rich representations: Create charts, graphs, and apps that explore mathematics from proofs to data science.
- Enhance creativity and storytelling: Write and illustrate stories across different styles, time periods, and subjects, and connect creative writing to various disciplines.
Learning by co-creating with a chatbot
The book’s ideas democratize and reimagine a variety of disciplines. There is something here for everyone—affording learners of all ages opportunities to be historians, mathematicians, scientists, and authors, rather than being taught math, science, language, or history.
Making the case for creative AI in education
This is not a book about fantasies of replacing teachers with machines. Rather, The Learner’s Apprentice models generative AI as an apprentice, colleague, co-thinker, proofreader, pair coder, brainstorming buddy, and illustrator—an intellectual ally that amplifies human potential.
The book’s hundreds of examples will challenge you to rethink everything you thought you knew about AI in education while demonstrating that AI can be used creatively and constructively.
A novel approach to programming
The Learner’s Apprentice advocates that everyone can co-create software applications that can run in a browser (known as web apps). Students may partner with a chatbot to create remarkable web apps without spending months or years learning to code. The book shares hundreds of detailed examples of how to make interactive web apps that are useful, fun, school-friendly, and support learning across the curriculum.
A real AI expert
Ken Kahn brings a wealth of experience and expertise to this work. After getting his doctorate at the MIT Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Ken has been an advocate for creative computing as a computer scientist, researcher at the renowned Xerox PARC, software developer, and professor of learning and computing. The book’s examples document a thoughtful exploration of the untapped potential of AI chatbots and are shared with lively anecdotes and practical lessons for readers to try themselves.
“The Learner’s Apprentice: AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity masterfully blends the practical and the visionary. Drawing on Seymour Papert’s groundbreaking ideas, Dr. Kahn paints an inspiring picture of how AI can transform learning into a process of co-creation. With over 100 real-world examples, this book offers teachers and administrators both the tools and the confidence to spark creativity and foster deep reflection in the classroom. It’s a must-read for anyone passionate about unleashing the full potential of learners in the age of AI.”
Keith Krueger CEO, CoSN – Consortium for School Networking
Resources
- Learn more about The Learner’s Apprentice: AI and the Amplification of Human Creativity
- Download the book’s press release and reviews
- Read the Table of Contents and book’s Foreword by clicking READ SAMPLE on the book’s Amazon page
Veteran educator Gary Stager, Ph.D. is the author of Twenty Things to Do with a Computer – Forward 50, co-author of Invent To Learn — Making, Tinkering, and Engineering in the Classroom, publisher at Constructing Modern Knowledge Press, and the founder of the Constructing Modern Knowledge summer institute. He led professional development in the world’s first 1:1 laptop schools thirty years ago and designed one of the oldest online graduate school programs. Gary is also the curator of The Seymour Papert archives at DailyPapert.com. Learn more about Gary here.