Who Does the Thinking: The Role of Generative AI in Higher Education — from youtube.com by Trine Jensen, Chris Dede, Frank Tsiwah, and Kate Thompson

Description:

Generative AI has taken the world by storm since OpenAI launched ChatGPT-3 in November 2022. Generative AI is characterized by its capacity to generate human-like content based on deep learning models in response to prompts. There is a wealth of opinions about how this will impact higher education spanning from the need to limit the use in the protection of higher education to embracing the tool as a means to improve higher education. In this webinar session, speakers from different regions shared their views and perspectives and discuss how Generative AI will transform higher education. What are the challenges to be addressed and which opportunities can be pursued to improve the quality of higher education? Watch the webinar and learn about the uncertainties, tensions, and opportunities triggered by Generative AI.

 


Trust and Transparency Are Key Factors When Using AI in Academia — from by Dr. Andrew Lang
Much can be learned from embracing artificial intelligence in the teaching and learning process. Here, two professors share their experiences using ChatGPT freely in the classroom.


A Professor Encouraged Students to Use ChatGPT. OpenAI Asked Her What She Learned — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
Dr. Francine Berman permitted her students at UMass to use ChatGPT to help them write. Despite limitations, she found there were ways it could help edit student work.


Artificial intelligence glossary: 60+ terms to know — from techtarget.com by Ben Lutkevich
AI is moving fast and can be hard to keep up in real time. Use this glossary as a reference for AI terms. 


 

The AI-Education Divide — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Philippa Hardman
How the rise of AI has reinforced inequity in education (and what we need to do to reverse it)
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Coursera’s Global Skills Report for 2023 — from coursera.org
Benchmark talent and transform your workforce with skill development and career readiness insights drawn from 124M+ learners.

Excerpt:

Uncover global skill trends
See how millions of registered learners in 100 countries are strengthening critical business, technology, and data science skills.

 

101 creative ideas to use AI in education, A crowdsourced collection — from zenodo.org by Chrissi Nerantzi, Sandra Abegglen, Marianna Karatsiori, & Antonio Martínez-Arboleda (Eds.); with thanks to George Veletsianos for this resource

101 creative ideas to use AI in education, A crowdsourced collection

As an example, here’s one of the ideas from the crowdsourced collection:

Chat with anyone in the past

Chatting with Napoleon Bonaparte

 


On a somewhat related note, also see:

Merlyn Mind launches education-focused LLMs for classroom integration of generative AI — from venturebeat.com by Victor Dey

Excerpt:

Merlyn Mind, an AI-powered digital assistant platform, announced the launch of a suite of large language models (LLMs) specifically tailored for the education sector under an open-source license.

Designing courses in an age of AI — from teachinginhighered.com by Maria Andersen
Maria Andersen shares about designing courses in an age of artificial intelligence (AI) on episode 469 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.

With generative AI, we have an incredible acceleration of change happening.

Maria Andersen

 
 

AI21 Labs concludes largest Turing Test experiment to date — from ai21.com
As part of an ongoing social and educational research project, AI21 Labs is thrilled to share the initial results of what has now become the largest Turing Test in history by scale.
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People found it easier to identify a fellow human. When talking to humans, participants guessed right in 73% of the cases. When talking to bots, participants guessed right in just 60% of the cases.

 


Webinars from Tom Barrett regarding AI for Education — a free webinar series

  • Webinar 6 replay
    • Miriam Scott – Head of Digital Education at Hillbrook Anglican School, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
    • Laura Bain – Head of Emerging Technologies and Innovation, Matthew Flinders Anglican College, Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia.
    • Nicole Dyson – Founder & CEO, Future Anything, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
  • Webinar 5 replay
    • In the fifth free webinar on AI for Education, I am joined by Dean Pearman, Head of Education at Beaconhills College and Tom Oliphant, Head of Technology and Enterprise at St John’s Grammar School. We explore questions about creativity, design and the new skills that are emerging. Join us to invest in your AI Literacy. Expand your toolset, broaden your understanding, and challenge your thinking.
  • Webinar 4 replay
    • You are watching the fourth free webinar, a dialogue about AI for education with Sophie Fenton, Steve Brophy and hosted by Tom Barrett Building Blocks – key AI concepts to learn. Practical frameworks for navigating the challenges of AI for education. Be part of a dialogue on provocations about AI and human centred education, truth and identity.
  • Webinar 3 replay – Claire Amos and Philly Wintle
  • Webinar 2 replay – Gemma Rainger and Dr Nick Jackson
  • Webinar 1 replay – Chantelle Love, Pip Cleaves and Steve Brophy

Using ChatGPT in Math Lesson Planning — from edutopia.org by Kristen Moore
Artificial intelligence tools are useful beyond language arts classes. Math teachers can use them to save time and create interesting lessons.


Democratic Inputs to AI — from openai.com
Our nonprofit organization, OpenAI, Inc., is launching a program to award ten $100,000 grants to fund experiments in setting up a democratic process for deciding what rules AI systems should follow, within the bounds defined by the law.


AI Canon — from a16z.com (Andreessen Horowitz) by Derrick Harris, Matt Bornstein, and Guido Appenzeller; via The Neuron newsletter

Excerpts:

Research in artificial intelligence is increasing at an exponential rate. It’s difficult for AI experts to keep up with everything new being published, and even harder for beginners to know where to start. So, in this post, we’re sharing a curated list of resources we’ve relied on to get smarter about modern AI. We call it the “AI Canon” because these papers, blog posts, courses, and guides have had an outsized impact on the field over the past several years.

Table of contents

  • A gentle introduction
  • Foundational learning
  • Tech deep dive
  • Practical guides to building with LLMs
  • Market analysis
  • Landmark research results

Generative AI hits Adobe Photoshop!

Generative AI hits Adobe Photoshop!

 

Below comments/notes are from DSC (with thanks to Roberto Ferraro for this resource):
according to Dan Pink, intrinsic motivation is very powerful — much more powerful for many types of “messy/unclear” cognitive work (vs. clear, more mechanical types of work). What’s involved here according to Pink? Autonomy, mastery, and purpose. 

Dan Pink makes his case in the video below. My question is:

  • If this is true, how might this be applied to education/training/lifelong learning?

From DSC (cont’d):

As Dan mentions, we each know this to be true. For example, for each of our kids, my wife and I introduced them to a variety of things — music, sports, art, etc. We kept waiting for them to discover which thing(s) that THEY wanted to pursue. Perhaps we’ll find out that this was the wrong thing to do. but according to Pink, it’s aligned with the type of energy and productivity that gets released when we pursue something that we want to pursue. Plus creativity flows in this type of setting. 

Again, my thanks to Roberto Ferraro for resurfacing this item as his “One ‘must read’ for this week” item of his newsletter.


Learners need: More voice. More choice. More control. -- this image was created by Daniel Christian

 

The 2023 Global Sentiment Survey — from donaldhtaylor.co.uk by Don Taylor

Excerpt:

This year’s Global Sentiment Survey – the tenth – paints a picture that is both familiar and unusual. In our 2020 survey report, we noted that ‘Data dominates this year’s survey’. It does so again this year, with the near 4,000 respondents showing a strong interest in AI, Skills-based talent management and Learning analytics (in positions #2, #3 and #4), all of which rely on data. The table is topped by Reskilling/upskilling, in the #1 spot for the third year running.
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Donald Taylor's GSS 2023

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Also see Don’s report here >>

 

 
 

Canva’s New AI Wonder Tools — from wondertools.substack.com  by Jeremy Caplan
A magic eraser, a branding kit, AI presentations, and more new features

Excerpt:

Canva launched a bunch of new features at a live event viewed by 1.5 million people globally. The Australian company is no longer an upstart. 125 million people use it monthly, including 13 million paid subscribers yielding $1.4 billion in revenue. Canva’s increasingly competing with Adobe to help people create eye-catching visuals. Here are its most useful new tricks.

 

Fostering sustainable learning ecosystems — from linkedin.com by Patrick Blessinger

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Learning ecosystems
As today’s global knowledge society becomes increasingly interconnected and begins to morph into a global learning society, it is likely that formal, nonformal, and informal learning will become increasingly interconnected. For instance, there has been an explosion of new self-directed e-learning platforms such as Khan Academy, Open Courseware, and YouTube, among others, that help educate billions of people around the world.

A learning ecosystem includes all the elements that contribute to a learner’s overall learning experience. The components of a learning ecosystem are numerous, including people, technology platforms, knowledge bases, culture, governance, strategy, and other internal and external elements that have an impact on learning. Therefore, moving forward, it is crucial to integrate learning across formal, nonformal, and informal learning processes and activities in a more strategic way.

Learning ecosystems -- formal, informal, and nonformal sources of learning will become more tightly integrated in the future

 

These 20 jobs are the most “exposed” to AI, ChatGPT, researchers say — from cbsnews-com.cdn.ampproject.org

Excerpt:

New research examining the effects of language modeling AI like ChatGPT on different occupations and industries finds that certain jobs, like telemarketers and teachers, are more “exposed” to the technology than others, such as psychologists and counselors.

Also relevant/see:

Must read: the 100 most cited AI papers in 2022  — from zeta-alpha.com by Sergi Castella i Sapé; with titles, citation counts, and affiliations.

How will Language Modelers like ChatGPT Affect Occupations and Industries? — from papers.ssrn.com by Edward W. Felten, Manav Raj, and  Robert Seamans

 
 

ChatGPT sets record for fastest-growing user base – analyst note — from reuters.com by Krystal Hu

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Feb 1 (Reuters) – ChatGPT, the popular chatbot from OpenAI, is estimated to have reached 100 million monthly active users in January, just two months after launch, making it the fastest-growing consumer application in history, according to a UBS study on Wednesday.

The report, citing data from analytics firm Similarweb, said an average of about 13 million unique visitors had used ChatGPT per day in January, more than double the levels of December.

“In 20 years following the internet space, we cannot recall a faster ramp in a consumer internet app,” UBS analysts wrote in the note.


From DSC:
This reminds me of the current exponential pace of change that we are experiencing…

..and how we struggle with that kind of pace.

 

Microsoft Plans to Build OpenAI, ChatGPT Features Into All Products — from wsj.com by Sam Schechner (behind paywall)
Offering for businesses and end users to be transformed by incorporating tools like ChatGPT, CEO Satya Nadella says

Excerpt:

DAVOS, Switzerland—Microsoft Corp. MSFT 2.86%increase; green up pointing triangle plans to incorporate artificial-intelligence tools like ChatGPT into all of its products and make them available as platforms for other businesses to build on, Chief Executive Satya Nadella said.

It’s a matter of time before the LMSs like Canvas and Anthology do the same. Really going to change the complexion of online learning.

Jared Stein; via Robert Gibson on LinkedIn

Also relevant/see:

Donald Clark’s thoughts out on LinkedIn re: Google and AI

Excerpt:

Microsoft are holding a lot of great cards in the AI game, especially ChatGPT-3, but Google also have a great hand, in fact they have a bird in the hand:

Sparrow, from Deepmind, is likely to launch soon. Their aim is to trump ChatGTP by having a chatbot that is more useful and reduces the risk of unsafe and inappropriate answers. In the released paper, they also indicate that it will have moral constraints. Smart move.

Hassabis has promised some sort of release in 2023. Their goal is to reduce wrong and invented information by linking it to Google Search and Scholar for citations.

Donald Clark’s thought re: Apple’s strategy for AI — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com

Wonder Tools:7 ways to Use ChatGPT — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan

Excerpt:

4 recommended ChatGPT resources

  • The Art of ChatGPT PromptingA Guide to Crafting Clear and Effective Prompts.
    This free e-book acts a useful guide for beginners.
  • Collection of ChatGPT Resources
    Use ChatGPT in Google Docs, WhatsApp, as a desktop app, with your voice, or in other ways with this running list of tools.
  • Awesome ChatGPT prompts
    Dozens of clever pre-written prompts you can use to initiate your own conversations with ChatGPT to get it to reply as a fallacy finder or a journal reviewer or whatever else.
  • Writing for Renegades – Co-writing with AI
    This free 17-page resource has writing exercises you can try with ChatGPT. It also includes interesting nuggets, like Wycliffe A. Hill’s 1936 attempt at writing automation, Plot Genie.

 


We often see the battle between technology and humans as a zero-sum game. And that’s how much of the discussion about ChatGPT is being framed now. Like many others who have been experimenting with ChatGPT in recent weeks, I find that a lot of the output depends on the input. In other words, the better the human question, the better the ChatGPT answer.

So instead of seeing ourselves competing with technology, we should find ways to complement it and view ChatGPT as a tool that assists us in collecting information and in writing drafts.

If we reframe the threat, think about how much time can be freed up to read, to think, to write?

As many have noted, including Michael Horn on the Class Disrupted podcast he co-hosts, ChatGPT is to writing what calculators were once to math and other STEM disciplines. 

Jeff Selingo: ‘The Calculator’ for a New Generation?

 


GPT in Higher Education — from insidehighered.com by Ray Schroeder
ChatGPT has caught our attention in higher education. What will it mean in 2023?

Excerpt:

Founder and CEO at Moodle Martin Dougiamas writes in Open Ed Tech that as educators, we must recognize that artificial general intelligence will become ubiquitous. “In short, we need to embrace that AI is going to be a huge part of our lives when creating anything. There is no gain in banning it or avoiding it. It’s actually easier (and better) to use this moment to restructure our education processes to be useful and appropriate in today’s environment (which is full of opportunities).”

Who, at your institution, is examining the impact of AI, and in particular GPT, upon the curriculum? Are instructional designers working with instructors in revising syllabi and embedding AI applications into the course offerings? What can you do to ensure that your university is preparing learners for the future rather than the past?

Ray Schroeder

ChatGPT Advice Academics Can Use Now — from insidehighered.com by Susan D’Agostino
To harness the potential and avert the risks of OpenAI’s new chat bot, academics should think a few years out, invite students into the conversation and—most of all—experiment, not panic. 

Alarmed by AI Chatbots, Universities Start Revamping How They Teach — from The New York Times (out at Yahoo) by Kalley Huang

Excerpt:

At schools including George Washington University in Washington, D.C., Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina, professors are phasing out take-home, open-book assignments — which became a dominant method of assessment in the pandemic but now seem vulnerable to chatbots. They are instead opting for in-class assignments, handwritten papers, group work and oral exams.

Gone are prompts like “write five pages about this or that.” Some professors are instead crafting questions that they hope will be too clever for chatbots and asking students to write about their own lives and current events.

With ChatGPT, Teachers Can Plan Lessons, Write Emails, and More. What’s the Catch? — from edweek.org by Madeline Will  (behind paywall)

Why Banning ChatGPT in Class Is a Mistake — from campustechnology.com by Thomas Mennella
Artificial intelligence can be a valuable learning tool, if used in the right context. Here are ways to embrace ChatGPT and encourage students to think critically about the content it produces.

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Let the Lawsuits Against Generative AI Begin! — from legallydisrupted.com by Zach Abramowitz
Getty Sues Stability AI as Lawsuits Mount Against GenAI Companies

Excerpt:

Well, it was bound to happen. Anytime you have a phenomenon as disruptive as generative AI, you can expect lawsuits.

Case in point: the lawsuit recently filed by Getty Images against Stability AI, highlighting the ongoing legal challenges posed by the use of AI in the creative industries. But it’s not the only lawsuit recently filed, see e.g. Now artists sue AI image generation tools Stable Diffusion, Midjourney over copyright | Technology News, The Indian Express


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© 2025 | Daniel Christian