What’s the most important factor in learning? 

Question for you: what’s the most important factor in learning? 🧐

I’ve got a new Ways We Learn Podcast episode dropping tomorrow, and a bonus episode in a week, featuring Amin Shaykho of Kadama. Kadama is a tutoring app for the gig economy. It’s an awesome conversation about how Amin built the company and how he leveraged social media for its success. But it got me thinking about something else entirely.

Kadama’s success, in part, is due to the emotional connection between students and their tutors. Amin said his active students average 14 hours of communication per quarter with their tutors, and much of that time is socializing rather than just talking about homework. They keep coming back to learn more — not just because they’re learning, but because they’ve made a friend. 👯

That got me thinking about learning from AI. I built a ChatGPT prompt a while back that could help evaluate learning opportunities. It worked brilliantly! 🎊 And it also made my daughter cry. 😭 What was missing? The human touch.

Then I got to thinking about my recent post for Teacher Appreciation Week, about my Latin teacher in 7th and 8th grade. He was fresh out of college, yet one of my best and most motivational teachers ever. What made him great? His connection to his students. 👨‍🏫

For all our worries about AI disruption and the potential of job losses, we humans have a massive advantage over AI: our ability to connect with other humans on an emotional level. In learning, that connection makes an enormous difference in outcomes.

Does AI have a place? Certainly, as it does in many other areas. But let’s really lean into the human factors that only we can provide, and let AI supplement rather than replace.

How are YOU leaning into your human factor and letting AI supplement your superpower?