I have been thinking of pencils lately.

Pencils in the context of AI.

What if pencils were the latest technological change to hit our world? How would we as educators respond? Would we worry about children using them ethically? What about cheating: erasing answers and writing in new ones? How would we deal with that? What new forms of assessments would we create? How would we ensure its ethical, equitable use?

And the most important question of all: Would we respond by creating pencil literacy frameworks?

Of course, we would… and most probably it would look something like this.  

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Pencil Literacy*

A Framework for the ethical, equitable
& meaningful integration of
transformative graphite technology

* Note: The satire below was crafted with help from Claude AI. I input a variety of existing AI literacy frameworks and asked it to modify them as if pencils were the latest technology in our world. I did this multiple times, with different prompts, and then collated/combined /edited them to the version below.

[ Download a PDF version of the Pencil Literacy Framework ]

From its ability to leave erasable marks on various surfaces to its potential for creating both art and knowledge, the pencil represents a cornerstone of human innovation. However, with great power comes great responsibility, and it is our duty to ensure that future generations can harness this technology without falling victim to its pointy perils.

It is amazing to realize that pencil technology burst into the scene less than two years ago—from the fecund minds of the superior beings who reside in the Valley of the Graphite. And pencils are ready to take over the world. The future of work and society depends on knowing how to use this technology effectively. That said, we must not lose sight of important ethical concerns surrounding this technology.

It is thus imperative, as pencils become increasingly prevalent in our daily lives, to equip learners, educators, and leaders with the necessary skills and knowledge to navigate this revolutionary technology responsibly, in safe, equitable and meaningful ways. Thus, pencil literacy has emerged as a critical skill set for everyone to safely and effectively use these groundbreaking innovations.

It is in this context that we at Pencil Revolution offers the GAS framework for Pencil Literacy. In short:

Pencil literacy includes the knowledge and skills that enable people to critically GAS, i.e. Grasp, Appraise, and Strut pencil-based systems and tools to safely and effectively participate in our increasingly graphite driven world.

©Pencil revolution

The Pencil Literacy Framework * AKA the “GAS” Framework

1. Grasp: Grasp the basics of pencil operations without grasping the point.
2. Appraise: Apply human judgment to consider the benefits and costs of pencils to society and oral traditions.
3. Strut: Confidently interact, create, and problem-solve with pencils in our increasingly graphite driven world.

Key Ideas

• Pencil literacy empowers humans to critically understand, evaluate, and use pencil systems without poking themselves or others.
• Our groundbreaking framework revolutionizes PK-12 education for the pointy era, providing practices and strategies for learners and leaders to integrate this groundbreaking technology for lifelong learning.
• We call on school leaders and policymakers to build on existing initiatives to champion pencil literacy for all learners, educators, and community members to ensure safe and responsible use of this disruptive technology.

Remember: The “Don’t Poke Your Neighbor” commandment is the cornerstone of responsible pencil usage!

©PENCIL REVOLUTION

Core Components

• Pencil Literacy Practices: Graphite Density & Data Storage, Sharpening & Information Processing
• Core Values: Human Judgment, Preserving Clean Hands
• Types of Use: Scribble, Doodle, Erase Frantically

Essential Pencil Literacy Practices

1. Linear Thinking & Re-writing: Train hands to process pointy objects and break pencils into less dangerous units.
2. Graphite Analysis: Assess mark quality without licking the pencil tip.
3. Pencil Privacy: Protect personal doodling habits from Big Graphite.
4. Graphite Communication: Create content responsibly, citing sources and respecting cool erasers.
5. Ethics & Impact: Consider how pencils alter power dynamics (pencil-haves vs. pencil-have-nots). Consider the risks involved in having poky-pointy things in the hands of children.
6. Mis-graphitation Prevention: Distinguish between accidental smudges and nefarious manipulation attempts.

Strategies for PK-12 Pencil Integration

Public schools have a critical role to integrate pencil literacy throughout PK–12 education so that our current and future communities are aware and able to critically evaluate pencil systems. Our approach provides outlines five strategies to promote pencil literacy in PK–12 education, with examples and guidance for implementing each strategy.

1. Provide guidance for adoption of pencil technologies.
2. Integrate pencil literacy across grades and subjects.
3. Facilitate just-in-time professional learning on pencil innovations.
4. Design powerful learning experiences leveraging pencil technologies.
5. Promote awareness and agency in the pencil era to Leaders, Teachers, Learners, Caregivers, and Community Members

It is crucial to note that in the realm of pencil ethics, students must be taught the paramount importance of not utilizing the sharpened end for unauthorized data extraction or non-consensual mark-making. This fundamental principle of pencil safety cannot be overstated and forms the cornerstone of responsible pencil usage in educational settings.

Informed users are essential for the safe and effective use of pencils in our rapidly evolving world. We call on school leaders and policymakers to champion pencil literacy for all learners, educators, and community members.

Join us as we explore the cutting-edge world of pencil literacy, where we’ll sharpen minds, erase misconceptions, and draw a brighter future for all.

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Join us in ushering in a new era of analog innovation. Together, we’ll write the future—one graphite mark at a time.

© 2024 Pencil Revolution | @Pencil Revolution| PencilRevolution.com/PencilLiteracy

WARNING: May contain graphic graphite content

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End notes:

I would be remiss if I didn’t point out that using pencils as a metaphor is not new. Two examples popped in recently and I should acknowledge them both here.

First: Many years ago, when the web was young, and blogs were the rage, there was this website called Pencil Integration. Clearly written by an educator, this blog was a hilarious take on technology integration as if it were happening in the 1700’s. All the conversations we were having back in those days (about the web, the advent of online learning, and the use of other digital/networking technologies) were rewritten as if it were about the humble pencil. It was fantastic satire and I loved it. I went looking for it recently, as I was thinking of this post, and I half assumed that it had disappeared, as has much of the good old web. Imagine my pleasure and surprise to find that the website was still around (blogspot technology still going strong), though it had not been updated since 2012. It was lovely going back and looking through some of the old posts…

Second: My amazing colleague, Sherman Dorn, did something similar back in 2007. He spoke of standardized tests (those bubble sheets that students had to fill out) as Pencil-Art Magic. The website it seems is now gone, though some fragments remain, stored in the Internet Archive. For instance, speaking of how home values are driven by test scores he wrote

“The Naidirolf believe highly in Pencil-Art Magic and its local nature. One presumed magical effect of pencil-art concerns the transference of the pencil-art’s magic to the ground of the contest (and, in fact, the ground of an irregularly-bounded territory around the contest site). Many Naidirolf parents choose where to establish a domicile based on the pencil-art contests of nearby children, and they are often willing to engage in high-value trading in order to have their children live on the same ground where the pencil-art’s magic has been reputedly working for many years.

“The observer of the Nacirema must pay particular attention to a parallel here with the other main superstition of Naidirolf parents about their domiciles, the growing of monocot rhizome masses despite the fact that the rhizomes are inedible, exhaust resources, and provoke many Naidirolf to pour poisons on the ground. Both rhizomes and pencil-art rituals are, to the Naidirolf, practices for creating magic in the ground. That parents believe that this ground-magic requires that their and other children enter pencil-art contests illustrates the Naidirolf tendency to use children to create magic for adults. Figlio and Lucas found proof in this belief in the higher value of homes near training centers that produce the most prize-winning pencil-art trialists each year.”

Incidentally, I learned from Sherman that Nacirema is essentially “America” spelled backwards and has its own wikipedia page and they describe it as:

… a term used in anthropology and sociology in relation to aspects of the behavior and society of citizens of the United States of America. The neologism attempts to create a deliberate sense of self-distancing in order that American anthropologists might look at their own culture more objectively.