change

A quick and sobering guide to cloning yourself — from oneusefulthing.substack.com by Professor Ethan Mollick
It took me a few minutes to create a fake me giving a fake lecture.

Excerpt:

I think a lot of people do not realize how rapidly the multiple strands of generative AI (audio, text, images, and video) are advancing, and what that means for the future.

With just a photograph and 60 seconds of audio, you can now create a deepfake of yourself in just a matter of minutes by combining a few cheap AI tools. I’ve tried it myself, and the results are mind-blowing, even if they’re not completely convincing. Just a few months ago, this was impossible. Now, it’s a reality.

To start, you should probably watch the short video of Virtual Me and Real Me giving the same talk about entrepreneurship. Nothing about the Virtual Me part of the video is real, even the script was completely AI-generated.

.

From DSC:
Also, I wanted to post the resource below just because I think it’s an excellent question!

If ChatGPT Can Disrupt Google In 2023, What About Your Company? — from forbes.com by Glenn Gow

Excerpts:

Board members and corporate execs don’t need AI to decode the lessons to be learned from this. The lessons should be loud and clear: If even the mighty Google can be potentially overthrown by AI disruption, you should be concerned about what this may mean for your company.
…
Professions that will be disrupted by generative AI include marketing, copywriting, illustration and design, sales, customer support, software coding, video editing, film-making, 3D modeling, architecture, engineering, gaming, music production, legal contracts, and even scientific research. Software applications will soon emerge that will make it easy and intuitive for anyone to use generative AI for those fields and more.
.

Want to Recruit Male Teachers of Color? Look to This New York City Leader [Klein & Walsh]

On 02/10/2023, in career development, change, education, education reform, teachers, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Want to Recruit Male Teachers of Color? Look to This New York City Leader — from edweek.org by Alyson Klein & Mark Walsh

Chimere Stephens, the director of NYC Men Teach at the NYC Department of Education, reads a book to a class of 1st grade students in January at PS 55 elementary school.

— Mostafa Bassim for Education Week

Excerpt:

Now, the pipeline he’s helped build to bring men of color into the teaching force stretches all the way back to high schoolers, continues with college students, and includes on-ramps for those already working as paraprofessionals and in similar positions throughout the city’s schools.

“I always get asked, ‘How do you create a vibrant, diverse, inclusive pathway for people to come into the teaching profession?’ And my biggest takeaway is start early,” Stephens said.

‘Unlike anyone I’d ever seen before’
In part thanks to Stephens’ work, the district has quadrupled its ambitious initial goal, adding 4,000 men of color to its teaching ranks over the past eight years. The move has brought the share of male teachers of color from 8.5 percent in 2015 to 15 percent last year.

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.

Canary in the coal mine for coding bootcamps? — from theview.substack.com by gordonmacrae; with thanks to Mr. Ryan Craig for this resource

Excerpt:

If you run a software development bootcamp, a recent Burning Glass institute report should keep you awake at night.

The report, titled How Skills Are Disrupting Work, looks at a decade of labor market analysis and identifies how digital skill training and credentials have responded to new jobs.

Three trends stuck out to me:

The most future-proof skills aren’t technical
Demand for software development is in decline
One in eight postings feature just four skill sets

These three trends should sound a warning for software development bootcamps, in particular. Let’s see why, and how you can prepare to face the coming challenges.

Also relevant/see:

Issue #14: Trends in Bootcamps — from theview.substack.com by gordonmacrae

Excerpt:

Further consolidation of smaller providers seems likely to continue in 2023. A number of VC-backed providers will run out of money.

A lot of bootcamps will be available cheaply for any larger providers, or management companies. Growth will continue to be an option in the Middle East, as funding doesn’t look like drying up any time soon. And look for the larger bootcamps to expand into hire-train-deploy, apprenticeships or licensing.

As Alberto pointed out this week, it’s hard for bootcamps to sustain the growth trajectory VC’s expect. But there are other options available.

Reflections on “Incremental Change Didn’t Save Blockbuster. It Won’t Save Education, Either” [Miles]

On 02/02/2023, in change, changing business models, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, Design Thinking, future, game-changing environment, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, student-related, teachers, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

Incremental Change Didn’t Save Blockbuster. It Won’t Save Education, Either — from the74million.org by Mike Miles; with thanks to Rob Reynolds for this resource
Broken public school systems need wholescale change if they are going to prepare students for the skills they will need by 2035

Excerpt:

Perhaps the biggest failure of the current education ecosystem is its inability to envision what the future holds for our students and to make systemic changes now to prepare them for that future. Shackled to a monolithic, change-resistant system, school and district leaders continue to make incremental and piecemeal changes to a broken system expecting to get different outcomes.

In an analogous way, almost all public-school systems are like Blockbusters in the late 1990s — unwilling to assess the impact of technological advances and consider how they might need to revisit their design principles. In the end, if an organization does not move purposefully toward some likely future, then any path forward will do, and it is likely to be the path they are currently on.

From DSC:
The following quote…

Using a split-screen strategy, a district would not attempt to make systemic changes district-wide. Rather, it would implement transformative changes in one or two schools while continuing to make incremental improvements in the rest of the district. Once the schools operating with the new system principles achieve the outcomes and succeed, they will become proof points to allow the district to implement systemic change in even more schools over a period of time.

…made me think of a graphic (see below) — and an article out at evoLLLtion.com — I developed a while back re: the need for more Trim Tab Groups. I think we’re talking about the same thing here.

Addendum on 2/4/23:

A Few Educators ‘Going the Extra Mile’ Cannot Save the Education System — from edsurge.com by Jennifer Yoo-Brannon

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Not a Pyramid, But a Garden
Instead of a pyramid, let’s adopt a new image, a more organic one. School communities are webs of complex relationships, like gardens. Imagine if we all understood a school community like a Three Sisters Garden. In this Indigenous agricultural practice, corn, beans and squash grow together to create a sustainable cycle of growth in which the whole garden can thrive. Corn provides the tall stalks for the beans to climb. The large squash plant leaves provide shade so the soil can retain moisture, and the beans provide the nitrogen to fertilize the soil. The garden does not rely on the exploitation of one crop to allow the rest to grow.

From DSC:
Re: the emphasized text immediately above…that sounds like a learning ecosystem to me! 🙂

Galloway: “The greatest assault on middle-class America’s prosperity may be the relentless, four-decade-long inflation in higher education.”

On 02/02/2023, in business side of he, change, colleges, cost of getting a degree, health, higher education, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Reflections on “63% of educators consider leaving profession” [Merod]

On 02/02/2023, in career development, change, K-12 related, leadership, learning ecosystem, Michigan, parents/guardians, teachers, trends, by Daniel Christian

63% of educators consider leaving profession — from k12dive.com by Anna Merod

Dive Brief:

Thirty percent of surveyed educators said they plan to leave the education profession within the next three years, while another 33% said they would “maybe” do the same, according to a report released Wednesday by Horace Mann Educators Corp., a financial services company that focuses on educators.
For those thinking of leaving, the largest share — 42% — said they would retire. Another 28% said they would consider the private sector, and 10% would move to another public sector position, the survey found.
What would keep teachers in education? Respondents largely said higher salaries (57%), followed by improved parent or community support (42%), and better school or district leadership (41%).

From DSC:
Ouch! At one of our daughter’s schools (where she teaches third grade and is in her first year of teaching), many teachers left even before Christmas. As but one example of a flawed system, our daughter and other teachers are required to be there way before school begins (for early dropoffs) and way after school ends (for late pickups). If our society doesn’t start valuing teachers, all Americans are going to pay the price eventually.

And a heads up to the faculty and staff members working in higher education. These students are coming your way.

And then they’ll be at your doorsteps corporate world.

Bottom line: We all should care about what’s going on — or what’s NOT going on — in the PreK-12 learning ecosystem!

Unbundled: Designing Personalized Pathways for Every Learner [Nate McClennen & Co.]

On 01/31/2023, in assessment, Blockchain, change, changing business models, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, Design Thinking, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, love of learning, marketplaces, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, new business models, online learning, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, society, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), ubiquitous learning, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, youth, by Daniel Christian

Unbundled: Designing Personalized Pathways for Every Learner — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen “with contributions from the Getting Smart team and numerous friends and partners in the field”

Excerpts:

In this publication, we articulate the critical steps needed to unbundle the learning ecosystem, build core competencies, design learning experiences, curate new opportunities, and rebundle these experiences into coherent pathways.
.

Vision

Every learner deserves an unlimited number of unbundled opportunities to explore, engage, and define experiences that advance their progress along a co-designed educational pathway. Each pathway provides equitable and personalized access to stacked learning experiences leading to post-secondary credentials and secure family-sustaining employment. Throughout the journey, supportive coaches focus on helping learners build skills to navigate with agency. In parallel, learners develop foundational skills (literacy, math), technical skills, and durable skills and connect these to challenging co-designed experiences. The breadth and depth of experiences increase over time, and, in partnership, learners and coaches map progress towards reaching community-defined goals. This vision is only enabled by an unbundled learning ecosystem.
…

Recommendations

Solutions already exist in the ecosystem and need to be combined and scaled. Funding models (like My Tech High), badging/credentialing at the competency level (like VLACS), coaching models (like Big Thought), and open ecosystems (like NH Learn Everywhere) provide an excellent foundation. Thus, building unbundled systems has already begun but needs systemic changes to become widely available and accepted.

1. 1. Build a robust competency-based system.
  2. Create a two-way marketplace for unbundled learning.
  3. Implement policy to support credit for out-of-system experiences.
  4. Invest in technology infrastructure for Learning and Employment Records.
  5. Design interoperable badging systems that connect to credentials.

What is college for? Gov. Shapiro raises the question. Higher ed leaders are listening. — from The Philadelphia Inquirer by Will Bunch; with thanks to Ray Schroeder out on LinkedIn for the resource
Pa.’s new governor Josh Shapiro’s first move was to question the need of a college diploma as a job credential. U.S. universities, pay attention.

Excerpt:

NEW HAVEN, Conn. — What is college actually for?

No one expected this to be the initial question raised by Pennsylvania’s new governor, Josh Shapiro, in his first full day on the job. While he may not have stated it explicitly, this was the essence of the Democrat’s very first executive order, which opened up some 92% of job listings in state government — about 65,000 in all — to applicants who don’t have a four-year college degree.

In branding degree requirements for many jobs as “arbitrary” and declaring “there are many different pathways to success,” the Keystone State’s new chief executive was tugging at the shaky Jenga block that has undergirded the appalling rise of a $1.75 trillion student debt bomb in the U.S. and led, arguably, to a college/non-college divide driving our nation’s bitter politics. The notion is this: You can’t make it in 21st-century America without that most expensive piece of sheepskin: the college diploma.

So the $64,000 question (OK, $80,000 … for one year on some elite private campuses) is this: If you don’t need the credential, do you actually need college?

Something is clearly gained by giving America’s young people more career options that won’t contribute to that $1.75 trillion college debt bomb. But are we talking enough about what could be lost in a new system that not only devalues the university but also seems to ratify a dubious idea — that higher education is almost solely about careerism, and not the wider knowledge and critical-thinking skills that come from liberal arts learning?

From DSC:
To me — and to many other parents and families — it all boils down to the price tag of obtaining a liberal arts education. It’s one thing to get a liberal arts education at $5K per year. It’s another thing when the pricetag runs at $40K and above (per year)! Most people ARE FORCED to question the ROI of a liberal arts education. They simply have to.

On a relevant tangent here…many inside the academy have traditionally looked with disdain at the corporate world. The thinking went something like this:

Business! Ha! We are not a business! Students are not customers. Don’t ever compare us to the corporate world.

Having spent half of my career in the corporate world, I do not subscribe to that perspective. In fact, I’d like to ask those who still hold this point of view:

Where else can you pay tens of thousands of dollars for something and not be treated as a customer?! Don’t you typically expect value on your own purchases and positive returns on your investments?
How will you collaborate with the corporate world if you look upon them with disdain?!

But now that colleges and universities enrollments are not doing so well, perhaps there will be more openness to change and towards developing more impactful collaborations.

Colleges consider overhauling grading system for freshmen to ease transition to higher learning — from mercurynews.com by Kate Hull
Supporters say ‘ungrading’ could result in less stress and a more level playing field for students from less rigorous high schools

Excerpt:

Dubbed “weed-out” or “gatekeeper” classes, they can be dream-crushing for many students — especially those hoping to enter the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. And a growing body of research says the courses can be particularly discriminatory toward historically excluded groups such as Latinos and Black and Indigenous people.

One possible remedy, some educators say, is “ungrading,” a style of teaching and assessment that seeks to evaluate students in other ways besides A-F letter grades — usually just in their freshman year.

“You’re trying to move the focus from a score to the learning,” said Robin Dunkin, who teaches biology and is the assistant faculty director at UCSC’s Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning. “For that reason, it’s immensely powerful.”

Also relevant see the #Ungrading hashtag on Twitter, from which the below item was taken:

Any educators out there who are #ungrading in a standards-based grading school district? I’ve been studying @Jessifer’s work for a bit & I’d love to go full-implementation next year.

If you have any experience, let me know. I’d love to pick your brain! https://t.co/ClnwZsBdl9

— Adrian Neibauer, EdD (@MrNeibauer) January 25, 2023

Excerpts from Jesse Stommel’s Ungrading: an Introduction presentation:

Also relevant/see Robert Talbert’s Grading for Growth.

The academic career is broken [Leffingwell]

On 01/25/2023, in career development, change, colleges, community colleges, culture, dangers of the status quo, higher education, ideas, leadership, learning ecosystem, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

The academic career is broken — from chronicle.com by Hannah Leffingwell

Excerpt:

We are in the midst of a crisis in academe, to be sure, but it’s not an economic crisis. It’s a crisis of faith. The question is not just whether our institutions pay faculty fairly, but whether any wage is worth the subservience and sacrifice that modern higher ed requires. Too often, colleges perceive themselves as voluntary, meritocratic institutions dedicated to a “higher” moral purpose. Or, as one of the characters in Babel puts it: “The professors like to pretend that the tower is a refuge for pure knowledge, that it sits above the mundane concerns of business and commerce, but it does not.”

Have these strikes solved the central paradox of academe: a capitalist institution that claims it is above capitalism while exploiting students, faculty, and staff for financial gain? No, they have not.

It gives me no pleasure to say that the system I have dedicated my entire life to is broken — that it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up.

Also related to careers and higher education, see:

36% of higher ed supervisors are looking for other work, study finds — from highereddive.com by Laura Spitalniak

Excerpt:

Over a third of higher education supervisors, 36%, are likely to look for a new job in the next year, according to a new survey from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources, CUPA-HR. And only 40% said they were interested in finding employment opportunities at their current institution.

14 Technology Predictions for Higher Education in 2023 [Kelly]

On 01/17/2023, in accessibility / UDL, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blended learning, career development, change, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, data related items, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning preferences, liberal arts, lifelong learning, online learning, personalized/customized learning, skills, teaching & learning, technology (general), tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

14 Technology Predictions for Higher Education in 2023 — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
How will technologies and practices like artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, digital transformation, and change management impact colleges and universities this year? Here’s what the experts told us.

Excerpt:

In an open call on LinkedIn, we asked higher education and ed tech industry leaders to forecast the most important trends to watch in the coming year. Their responses reflect both the challenges on the horizon — persistent cyber attacks, the disruptive force of emerging technologies, failures in project management — as well as the opportunities that technology brings to better serve students and support the institutional mission. Here are 14 predictions to help steer your technology efforts in 2023.

Job Titles: It’s Not Only Instructional Design [Csordas]

On 01/09/2023, in business, career development, change, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, instructional design, interaction design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, multimedia, teaching & learning, training / L&D, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Job Titles: It’s Not Only Instructional Design — from idolcourses.com by Ivett Csordas

Excerpt:

When I first came across the title “Instructional Designer” while looking for alternative career options, I was just as confused as anybody would be hearing about our job for the first time. I remember asking questions like: What does an Instructional Designer do? Why is it called Instructional Design? Wouldn’t a title such as Learning Experience Designer or Training Content Developer suit them better? How are their skill sets different from curriculum developers like teachers’? etc.

Then, the more I learnt about the different roles of Instructional Designers, and the more job interviews I had, ironically, the less clarity I had over the companies’ expectations of us.

The truth is that the role of an Instructional Designer varies from company to company. What a person hired with the title “Instructional Designer” ends up doing depends on a range of factors such as the company’s training portfolio, the profile of their learners, the size of the L&D team, the way they use technology, just to mention a few.

From DSC:
I don’t know a thing about idolcourses.com, but I really appreciated running across this posting by Ivett Csordas about the various job titles out there and the differences between some of these job titles. The posting deals with job titles associated with developers, designers, LXD, LMS roles, managers, L&D Coordinators, specialists, consultants, and strategists.

“The church is a hospital.” Reflections on Isaiah 1:16-17.

On 01/09/2023, in Access to Justice (A2J), change, Daniel S. Christian, faith, global / globalization, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, religion, society, by Daniel Christian

¹⁶Wash and make yourselves clean.
    Take your evil deeds out of my sight;
    stop doing wrong.
¹⁷Learn to do right; seek justice.
    Defend the oppressed.
Take up the cause of the fatherless;
    plead the case of the widow.

From DSC:
Obviously, all of this goes for me as well. I constantly thank the LORD for His patience with me as well as His grace and forgiveness. I often seek His help, wisdom, and strength. Anyway, the above verse caught my eye due to Isaiah’s focus on justice and to seeing that justice is had by all.

And those reflections caused me to think about what the church is all about — at least for me. This brought to mind an old pastor friend of mine who once exclaimed, “The church is a hospital.”

Wow. That thought hit me powerfully. And you know what? I agree with him.

My pastor friend said that the church is a hospital -- and I agree with him

“The church” is a place for “sick” people who are in need of hope, healing, teaching, support, forgiveness, grace, love, wisdom, community, and more. Besides a place to worship the LORD, those are some of the reasons why I continue to go to church.

¹²On hearing this, Jesus said, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.

Along these lines, I’m trying to figure out what the LORD wants me to do (during this next year and beyond). I want to make a contribution. For those who pray out there, I could use your prayers on where He wants me to plug in.

Education is about to radically change: AI for the masses [McClennen & Dené Poth]

On 01/07/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), bots, change, copyright/ownership/NFTs, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, more voice more choice more control, new business models, platforms, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Education is about to radically change: AI for the masses — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen and Rachelle Dené Poth

Key Points:

AI already does and will continue to impact education – along with every other sector.
Innovative education leaders have an opportunity to build the foundation for the most personalized learning system we have ever seen.

Action

Education leaders need to consider these possible futures now. There is no doubt that K-12 and higher ed learners will be using these tools immediately. It is not a question of preventing “AI plagiarism” (if such a thing could exist), but a question of how to modify teaching to take advantage of these new tools.

From DSC:
They go on to list some solid ideas and experiments to try out — both for students and for teachers. Thanks Nate and Rachelle!

Also from Rachelle, see:

How Can We Prepare K-12 Students for the Future? — from rdene915.com by Rachelle Dené Poth

Learning Ecosystems

Want to Recruit Male Teachers of Color? Look to This New York City Leader [Klein & Walsh]

Canary in the coal mine for coding bootcamps? [gordonmacrae]

Galloway: “The greatest assault on middle-class America’s prosperity may be the relentless, four-decade-long inflation in higher education.”

Reflections on “What is college for? Gov. Shapiro raises the question. Higher ed leaders are listening.” [Bunch]

The academic career is broken [Leffingwell]

Job Titles: It’s Not Only Instructional Design [Csordas]

“The church is a hospital.” Reflections on Isaiah 1:16-17.

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