change

Consortium Creates New ‘Bridge’ Transcript [O’Donnell]

On 03/24/2023, in change, consortiums, credentialing, education, education reform, K-12 related, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

As Schools Embrace Mastery Learning, and Confront Challenges of GPAs and College Admissions, Consortium Creates New ‘Bridge’ Transcript — from the74million.org by Patrick O’Donnell; via Ryan Craig
The Mastery Transcript Consortium is now piloting a ‘Learning Record’ that lets a broader view of students accompany standard grades in applications.

Excerpt:

Creators of a grading system that ditches traditional A-F grades for a new “mastery” transcript know that’s too big a leap for some schools to make, so they’ve created a “bridge” that can ease students, parents and college admissions officers into the shift.

“The single biggest barrier to adoption of the mastery transcript is that it’s perceived as risky, and kind of unfamiliar,” said Mike Flanagan, CEO of the Mastery Transcript Consortium, a national group that wants students to learn at their own pace and be rated continually on their progress, not just by snapshots when the calendar says a grading period ends.

Houses of worship to move streaming from social media to dedicated platforms [inavateonthenet.net]

On 03/22/2023, in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, change, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital audio, digital video, experimentation, faith, society, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Houses of worship to move streaming from social media to dedicated platforms — from inavateonthenet.net

Excerpt:

A report by Pushpay, with data from over 1,700 organisations has found that while 91% of churches currently livestream worship services on social media, only 47% plan to do the same in the upcoming year.

The report, entitled ‘State of Church Tech 2023 is available to download here.

The reason cited for this shift is organisations’ lack of control on social media platforms to maintain engagement, as users are bombarded with pop-up windows, notifications, status updates, and more.

This is driving a rise in custom video players, website embeds, mobile app streaming, and other platforms that are better suited to maintain engagement.

Reflections on “Policy by Waivers Won’t Boost School Innovation” [Horn]

On 03/18/2023, in change, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, legislatures / government / legal, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, teachers, United States, by Daniel Christian

Policy by Waivers Won’t Boost School Innovation — by Michael B. Horn
“Permissionless” beats having to ask for an okay

Excerpt:

In recent conversations, educators and state policymakers have expressed shock to me that district schools aren’t innovating more. With microschools growing and test scores floundering, why aren’t districts seeking permission to reinvent themselves?

As evidence of the opportunities to innovate, many bureaucrats and think tanks point to the vast number of waivers that states offer. The opportunities to move beyond traditional structures and processes do exist, the argument goes.

Yet waivers help far less than most policymakers believe. Until regulators create frameworks where innovation in pursuit of student outcomes is the default and doesn’t require permission, don’t expect a sea change.

From DSC:
TrimTab Groups. That’s what we need more of within K-12 and higher education.

Research shows the only way an organization can truly reinvent itself is to launch a separate organization that has the autonomy to rethink its value proposition, resources, processes, and financial formula.

Below is a graphic I created a while back, but with traditional institutions of higher education in mind.

We need more Trim Tab Groups within K-12 and Higher Education.

“The teacher shortage, and the profession itself, are finally getting the attention it needs.” [Green]

On 03/16/2023, in career development, change, education, education reform, future, K-12 related, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, reinvent, society, student-related, teachers, youth, by Daniel Christian

HOW DUOLINGO’S AI LEARNS WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN — from spectrum.ieee.org by Klinton Bicknell, Claire Brust, and Burr Settles
The AI that powers the language-learning app today could disrupt education tomorrow

Excerpt:

It’s lunchtime when your phone pings you with a green owl who cheerily reminds you to “Keep Duo Happy!” It’s a nudge from Duolingo, the popular language-learning app, whose algorithms know you’re most likely to do your 5 minutes of Spanish practice at this time of day. The app chooses its notification words based on what has worked for you in the past and the specifics of your recent achievements, adding a dash of attention-catching novelty. When you open the app, the lesson that’s queued up is calibrated for your skill level, and it includes a review of some words and concepts you flubbed during your last session.

The AI systems we continue to refine are necessary to scale the learning experience beyond the more than 50 million active learners who currently complete about 1 billion exercises per day on the platform.

Although Duolingo is known as a language-learning app, the company’s ambitions go further. We recently launched apps covering childhood literacy and third-grade mathematics, and these expansions are just the beginning. We hope that anyone who wants help with academic learning will one day be able to turn to the friendly green owl in their pocket who hoots at them, “Ready for your daily lesson?”

Also relevant/see:

Duolingo turned to OpenAI’s GPT-4 to advance the product with two new features: Role Play, an AI conversation partner, and Explain my Answer, which breaks down the rules when you make a mistake, in a new subscription tier called Duolingo Max.

“We wanted AI-powered features that were deeply integrated into the app and leveraged the gamified aspect of Duolingo that our learners love,” says Bodge.

Also relevant/see:

The following is a quote from Donald Clark’s posting on LinkedIn.com today:

The whole idea of AI as a useful teacher is here. Honestly it’s astounding. They have provided a Socratic approach to an algebra problem that is totally on point. Most people learn in the absence of a teacher or lecturer. They need constant scaffolding, someone to help them move forward, with feedback. This changes our whole relationship with what we need to know, and how we get to know it. Its reasoning ability is also off the scale.

We now have human teachers, human learners but also AI teachers and AI that learns. It used to be a diad, it is now a tetrad – that is the basis of the new pedAIgogy.

Personalised, tutor-led learning, in any subject, anywhere, at any time for anyone. That has suddenly become real.

Also relevant/see:

Introducing Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4 — from blog.duolingo.com

Excerpts:

We believe that AI and education make a great duo, and we’ve leveraged AI to help us deliver highly-personalized language lessons, affordable and accessible English proficiency testing, and more. Our mission to make high-quality education available to everyone in the world is made possible by advanced AI technology.

Explain My Answer offers learners the chance to learn more about their response in a lesson (whether their answer was correct or incorrect!)
…
Roleplay allows learners to practice real-world conversation skills with world characters in the app.

Exploring generative AI and the implications for universities — from universityworldnews.com

Excerpt:

This is part of a weekly University World News special report series on ‘AI and higher education’. The focus is on how universities are engaging with ChatGPT and other generative artificial intelligence tools. The articles from academics and our journalists around the world are exploring developments and university work in AI that have implications for higher education institutions and systems, students and staff, and teaching, learning and research.

Fostering sustainable learning ecosystems [Blessinger]

On 03/13/2023, in 21st century, Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, change, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, culture, curriculum, education, education technology, Europe, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, higher education, ideas, informal learning, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, platforms, policy, society, strategy, technology (general), tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

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.

What’s It Like to Leave the Classroom for a Job in Edtech? [Tamez-Robledo]

On 03/13/2023, in career development, change, education technology, instructional design, teachers, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

What’s It Like to Leave the Classroom for a Job in Edtech? — from edsurge.com by Nadia Tamez-Robledo

Excerpt:

Our recent analysis of teacher representation in edtech leadership revealed that former educators held a variety of top roles in the companies we sampled, heading teams that handled pedagogy, curriculum, product, marketing and sales.

Former educators told us they had moved on to become UX designers, part of sales teams and founders of their own edtech companies.

Transitioning to edtech would have been much harder about five years ago, she believes, because there weren’t as many resources available to help teachers get started. Now job seekers can turn to podcasts or TikTok’s #transitioningteachers community for advice on approaching the edtech job search.

These 20 jobs are the most “exposed” to AI, ChatGPT, researchers say + other AI-related items

On 03/11/2023, in Africa, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, Canada, career development, change, Europe, global / globalization, India, society, UK, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

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

Love it or hate it, academics can’t ignore the already pervasive technology. [McMurtrie]

On 03/11/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, change, colleges, community colleges, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, student-related, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

ChatGPT is Everywhere — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie
Love it or hate it, academics can’t ignore the already pervasive technology.

Excerpt:

Many academics see these tools as a danger to authentic learning, fearing that students will take shortcuts to avoid the difficulty of coming up with original ideas, organizing their thoughts, or demonstrating their knowledge. Ask ChatGPT to write a few paragraphs, for example, on how Jean Piaget’s theories on childhood development apply to our age of anxiety and it can do that.

Other professors are enthusiastic, or at least intrigued, by the possibility of incorporating generative AI into academic life. Those same tools can help students — and professors — brainstorm, kick-start an essay, explain a confusing idea, and smooth out awkward first drafts. Equally important, these faculty members argue, is their responsibility to prepare students for a world in which these technologies will be incorporated into everyday life, helping to produce everything from a professional email to a legal contract.

“Artificial-intelligence tools present the greatest creative disruption to learning that we’ve seen in my lifetime.”

Sarah Eaton, associate professor of education at the University of Calgary

6 Tenets of Postplagiarism: Writing in the Age of #ArtificialIntelligence – In my 2021 book, #Plagiarism in #HigherEducation, I introduce the idea of life in the post-plagiarism era. Here I expand on those ideas.https://t.co/DGzelD9phc pic.twitter.com/hHej4e55zq

— Dr. Sarah Elaine Eaton?? (@DrSarahEaton) February 25, 2023

Artificial intelligence and academic integrity, post-plagiarism — from universityworldnews.com Sarah Elaine Eaton; with thanks to Robert Gibson out on LinkedIn for the resource

Excerpt:

The use of artificial intelligence tools does not automatically constitute academic dishonesty. It depends how the tools are used. For example, apps such as ChatGPT can be used to help reluctant writers generate a rough draft that they can then revise and update.

Used in this way, the technology can help students learn. The text can also be used to help students learn the skills of fact-checking and critical thinking, since the outputs from ChatGPT often contain factual errors.

When students use tools or other people to complete homework on their behalf, that is considered a form of academic dishonesty because the students are no longer learning the material themselves. The key point is that it is the students, and not the technology, that is to blame when students choose to have someone – or something – do their homework for them.

There is a difference between using technology to help students learn or to help them cheat. The same technology can be used for both purposes.

From DSC:
These couple of sentences…

In the age of post-plagiarism, humans use artificial intelligence apps to enhance and elevate creative outputs as a normal part of everyday life. We will soon be unable to detect where the human written text ends and where the robot writing begins, as the outputs of both become intertwined and indistinguishable.

…reminded me of what’s been happening within the filmmaking world for years (i.e., such as in Star Wars, Jurrasic Park, and many others). It’s often hard to tell what’s real and what’s been generated by a computer.

K–12 teachers are quitting. What would make them stay? [McKinsey & Company]

On 03/07/2023, in career development, change, education, game-changing environment, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, society, strategy, teachers, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

K–12 teachers are quitting. What would make them stay? — by McKinsey & Company

Excerpts:

When school districts can’t attract and retain enough teachers, students suffer. And the COVID-19 pandemic has only compounded the nation’s education talent challenges. To improve our understanding of what makes K–12 teachers want to stay, leave, or return to their jobs, McKinsey surveyed more than 1,800 US educators, school leaders, and school mental health professionals at the end of the 2021–22 school year (see sidebar “About the research”). Approximately one-third of respondents said they planned to leave their role before the next school year began. That equates to roughly 900,000 teachers across the nation. Our research also revealed that this pending turnover could further exacerbate inequality, hampering efforts to create more resilient and equitable K–12 education systems.2 While this stated intention to leave has historically not panned out, it suggests an unhealthiness to the profession that administrators should be mindful of.

Teachers who are thinking of leaving cite compensation, unreasonable expectations, and an inability to protect their well-being as top motivators.

How ChatGPT is going to change the future of work and our approach to education — from livemint.com

From DSC:
I thought that the article made a good point when it asserted:

The pace of technological advancement is booming aggressively and conversations around ChatGPT snatching away jobs are becoming more and more frequent. The future of work is definitely going to change and that makes it clear that the approach toward education is also demanding a big shift.
…
A report from Dell suggests that 85% of jobs that will be around in 2030 do not exist yet. The fact becomes important as it showcases that the jobs are not going to vanish, they will just change and most of the jobs by 2030 will be new.

The Future of Human Agency — from pewresearch.org by Janna Anderson and Lee Rainie

Excerpt:

Thus the question: What is the future of human agency? Pew Research Center and Elon University’s Imagining the Internet Center asked experts to share their insights on this; 540 technology innovators, developers, business and policy leaders, researchers, academics and activists responded. Specifically, they were asked:

By 2035, will smart machines, bots and systems powered by artificial intelligence be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making that is relevant to their lives?

The results of this nonscientific canvassing:

- 56% of these experts agreed with the statement that by 2035 smart machines, bots and systems will not be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making.
- 44% said they agreed with the statement that by 2035 smart machines, bots and systems will be designed to allow humans to easily be in control of most tech-aided decision-making.

What are the things humans really want agency over? When will they be comfortable turning to AI to help them make decisions? And under what circumstances will they be willing to outsource decisions altogether to digital systems?

The next big threat to AI might already be lurking on the web — from zdnet.com by Danny Palmer; via Sam DeBrule
Artificial intelligence experts warn attacks against datasets used to train machine-learning tools are worryingly cheap and could have major consequences.

Excerpts:

Data poisoning occurs when attackers tamper with the training data used to create deep-learning models. This action means it’s possible to affect the decisions that the AI makes in a way that is hard to track.

By secretly altering the source information used to train machine-learning algorithms, data-poisoning attacks have the potential to be extremely powerful because the AI will be learning from incorrect data and could make ‘wrong’ decisions that have significant consequences.

Why AI Won’t Cause Unemployment — from pmarca.substack.com by Marc Andreessen

Excerpt:

Normally I would make the standard arguments against technologically-driven unemployment — see good summaries by Henry Hazlitt (chapter 7) and Frédéric Bastiat (his metaphor directly relevant to AI). And I will come back and make those arguments soon. But I don’t even think the standand arguments are needed, since another problem will block the progress of AI across most of the economy first.

Which is: AI is already illegal for most of the economy, and will be for virtually all of the economy.

How do I know that? Because technology is already illegal in most of the economy, and that is becoming steadily more true over time.

How do I know that? Because:

From DSC:
And for me, it boils down to an inconvenient truth: What’s the state of our hearts and minds?

AI, ChatGPT, Large Language Models (LLMs), and the like are tools. How we use such tools varies upon what’s going on in our hearts and minds. A fork can be used to eat food. It can also be used as a weapon. I don’t mean to be so blunt, but I can’t think of another way to say it right now.

Do we care about one another…really?
Has capitalism gone astray?
Have our hearts, our thinking, and/or our mindsets gone astray?
Do the products we create help or hurt others? It seems like too many times our perspective is, “We will sell whatever they will buy, regardless of its impact on others — as long as it makes us money and gives us the standard of living that we want.” Perhaps we could poll some former executives from Philip Morris on this topic.
Or we will develop this new technology because we can develop this new technology. Who gives a rat’s tail about the ramifications of it?

Unboxing the Future of Education: A Sneak Peek into a Day in the Life of a Student in 2040 [Cailey]

On 03/01/2023, in change, education, education technology, future, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, student-related, teachers, technology (general), youth, by Daniel Christian

Unboxing the Future of Education:“A Sneak Peek into a Day in the Life of a Student in 2040” — from thinklearningstudio.org by Russell Cailey

Excerpts:

To explore this question, I collaborated with my new friend Chat GPT to create a concept of what a day in the life of a 2040 student might look like. The results were fascinating, providing a glimpse into the possible future of education.

In response to our collaborative moment, I would like to pose three guiding questions to the audience:

How might we re-imagine education to create a more holistic and meaningful learning experience for our students as we move forward towards 2040?

How might we cultivate a sense of curiosity, wonder, and creativity in our students, and how might this foster a deeper engagement with learning?

How might we expand the definition of “education” beyond the confines of the classroom and foster lifelong learning and growth in our students?

From DSC:
I appreciated this interesting thought experiment re: the future of learning in the year 2040. I appreciate Russell’s statement where he says:

To conduct a thorough and accurate foresight project, it is crucial to explore multiple potential futures. While the scenario presented here is intended to be playful and imaginative, it represents only one possible outcome among many. I encourage readers to share their scenarios and perspectives in the comments, as this will help to create a more robust and diverse exploration of the future.

Planning for AGI and beyond — from OpenAI.org by Sam Altman

Excerpt:

There are several things we think are important to do now to prepare for AGI.

First, as we create successively more powerful systems, we want to deploy them and gain experience with operating them in the real world. We believe this is the best way to carefully steward AGI into existence—a gradual transition to a world with AGI is better than a sudden one. We expect powerful AI to make the rate of progress in the world much faster, and we think it’s better to adjust to this incrementally.

A gradual transition gives people, policymakers, and institutions time to understand what’s happening, personally experience the benefits and downsides of these systems, adapt our economy, and to put regulation in place. It also allows for society and AI to co-evolve, and for people collectively to figure out what they want while the stakes are relatively low.

*AGI stands for Artificial General Intelligence

Donald Clark’s recent thoughts regarding how ChatGPT is and will impact the Learning & Development world

On 02/28/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, business, change, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Donald Clark’s recent thoughts regarding how ChatGPT is and will impact the Learning & Development world — from linkedin.com by Donald Clark

Excerpts:

Fascinating chat with three people heading up L&D in a major international company. AI has led them to completely re-evaluate their strategy. Key concepts were performance, process and data. What I liked was their focus on that oft-quoted issue of aligning L&D with the business goals – unlike most, they really meant it.

The technology that puts that in the hands of learners has arrived. Performance support will be a teacher or trainer at your fingertips.

We also talked about prompting, the need to see it as ‘CHAT’gpt, an iterative process, where you need to understand how to speak to the tech. It’s a bit like speaking to an alien from space, as it has no comprehension or consciousness but it is still competent and smart. We have put together 100 prompt tips for learning professionals and taking it out on the road soon. All good in the hood.

Also from Donald Clark, see:

OpenAI releases massive wave of innovation — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com

Excerpt:

With LLMs, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, based on GPT 3.5, started a race where:

AI is integrated into mainstream tools like Teams
Larger LLMs are being built
LLMs are changing ‘search’
LLMs are being used on a global scale in real businesses
Real businesses are being built on the back of LLMs
LLMs as part of ensembes of other tools are being researched to solve accuracy, updatability & provenance issues
Open, transparent LLMs (Bloom) are being built

Learning Ecosystems

Houses of worship to move streaming from social media to dedicated platforms [inavateonthenet.net]

What’s It Like to Leave the Classroom for a Job in Edtech? [Tamez-Robledo]

Donald Clark’s recent thoughts regarding how ChatGPT is and will impact the Learning & Development world

Categories

Tags