From DSC: Last Thursday, I presented at the Educational Technology Organization of Michigan’s Spring 2024 Retreat. I wanted to pass along my slides to you all, in case they are helpful to you.
AI Policy 101: a Beginners’ Framework — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman How to make a case for AI experimentation & testing in learning & development
The role of learning & development
Given these risks, what can L&D professionals do to ensure generative AI contributes to effective learning? The solution lies in embracing the role of trusted learning advisors, guiding the use of AI tools in a way that prioritizes achieving learning outcomes over only speed. Here are three key steps to achieve this:
1. Playtest and Learn About AI… 2. Set the Direction for AI to Be Learner-Centered…
3. Become Trusted Learning Advisors…
In the last year, AI has become even more intertwined with our education system. More teachers, parents, and students are aware of it and have used it themselves on a regular basis. It is all over our education system today.
While negative views of AI have crept up over the last year, students, teachers, and parents feel very positive about it in general. On balance they see positive uses for the technology in school, especially if they have used it themselves.
Most K-12 teachers, parents, and students don’t think their school is doing much about AI, despite its widespread use. Most say their school has no policy on it, is doing nothing to offer desired teacher training, and isn’t meeting the demand of students who’d like a career in a job that will need AI.
The AI vacuum in school policy means it is currently used “unauthorized,” while instead people want policies that encourage AI. Kids, parents, and teachers are figuring it out on their own/without express permission, whereas all stakeholders would rather have a policy that explicitly encourages AI from a thoughtful foundation.
There is much discourse about the rise and prevalence of AI in education and beyond. These debates often lack the perspectives of key stakeholders – parents, students and teachers.
In 2023, the Walton Family Foundation commissioned the first national survey of teacher and student attitudes toward ChatGPT. The findings showed that educators and students embrace innovation and are optimistic that AI can meaningfully support traditional instruction.
A new survey conducted May 7-15, 2024, showed that knowledge of and support for AI in education is growing among parents, students and teachers. More than 80% of each group says it has had a positive impact on education.
We are current and former employees at frontier AI companies, and we believe in the potential of AI technology to deliver unprecedented benefits to humanity.
We also understand the serious risks posed by these technologies. These risks range from the further entrenchment of existing inequalities, to manipulation and misinformation, to the loss of control of autonomous AI systems potentially resulting in human extinction. AI companies themselves have acknowledged these risks [1, 2, 3], as have governments across the world [4, 5, 6] and other AI experts [7, 8, 9].
We are hopeful that these risks can be adequately mitigated with sufficient guidance from the scientific community, policymakers, and the public. However, AI companies have strong financial incentives to avoid effective oversight, and we do not believe bespoke structures of corporate governance are sufficient to change this.
Remember Microsoft’s shiny new AI tool, “Recall”? It’s like your personal time machine, answering questions about your browsing history and laptop activity by taking screenshots every 5 seconds. Sounds cool, right? Well, it gets problematic.
What’s going on here?
Security researchers have found a potential privacy nightmare lurking within this seemingly convenient tool.
What does this mean?
Recall stores all those screenshots in an unencrypted database on your laptop. This means anyone with access to your device could potentially see everything you’ve been doing. Cybersecurity experts are already comparing it to spyware, and one ethical hacker even built a tool called “TotalRecall” (yes, like the movie) that can pull all the information Recall saves. Yikes.
How Humans Do (and Don’t) Learn— from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman One of the biggest ever reviews of human behaviour change has been published, with some eye-opening implications for how we design & deliver learning experiences
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
This month, researchers from the University of Pennsylvania publishedone of the biggest ever reviews of behaviour change efforts– i.e. interventions which do (and don’t) lead to behavioural change in humans.
…
Research into human behaviour change suggests that, in order to impact capability in real, measurable terms, we need to rethink how we typically design and deliver training.
The interventions which we use most frequently to behaviour change – such as video + quiz approaches and one off workshops – have a negligible impact on measurable changes in human behaviour.
For learning professionals who want to change how their learners think and behave, this research shows conclusively the central importance of:
Shifting attention away from the design of content to the design of context.
Delivering sustained cycles of contextualised practice, support & feedback.
The Magic of Storytelling: Lessons from Penn Jillette — from learningguild.com by David Kelly This fall we’re celebrating 20 Years of DevLearn. As part of that celebration, I’m reflecting on the insights I’ve gained from some of my favorite DevLearn keynote speakers over the years. I kick off this series by revisiting The Magic of Storytelling and Learning from Penn Jillette, from DevLearn 2016.
At the heart of Jillette’s message is the power of storytelling. He demonstrates that, much like a magician’s performance, effective learning experiences are crafted from engaging narratives. These stories, although selectively told, can ethically captivate and teach, making the learning process more impactful. Jillette’s career itself is a story of transformation and adaptation, one that resonates deeply with the ongoing journey of a learning professional.
Complementing these conversational approaches are learning experiences enhanced with AI. I highlighted the fast-growing role of immersive scenarios and simulations, produced in tandem with AI and powered through AI in their delivery.
Moreover, the integration of voice interactions, advanced image processing, and augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies provides additional tools to enrich learning experiences.
…
The rapid adoption of AI signifies a real shift for our industry, and we are able to see sparks of what is coming our way throughout 2024 and beyond.
Practicing difficult conversations One of the most compelling applications I’ve seen lies in managerial and leadership training, specifically in navigating complex interpersonal dynamics: practicing difficult conversations. Through interactions with sophisticated avatars capable of mimicking a diverse range of employee personalities and behaviors, learners can engage in realistic scenarios that challenge their communication skills.
Table 1. Most Important Transferable Skills 2024–2028
Transferable Skill
Description
Problem-solving
The ability to identify, analyze, and solve complex problems.
Critical thinking
The ability to think objectively, analyze information, and form sound judgments.
Communication (written & verbal)
The ability to effectively convey ideas and information to others, both in writing and verbally.
Collaboration
The ability to work effectively with others to achieve a common goal.
Creativity & innovation
The ability to think creatively and come up with new ideas and solutions.
Digital literacy & competency
The ability of everyone from CEO to workers to use digital tools and technologies effectively.
Data analysis & interpretation
The ability to collect, analyze, and interpret data to draw meaningful conclusions.
Self-directed learning & adaptability
The ability to take initiative to learn new things and adapt to change.
Time management & organization
The ability to manage time effectively and stay organized.
Emotional intelligence & empathy
The ability to understand and manage one’s own emotions, and the emotions of others.
Also for the L&D world, see:
When Business Is Just a Game — from bloomberg.com by Robb Mandelbaum Corporate trainer Abilitie uses simulations to teach lessons in management.
When is the high-stakes, high-pressure world of the C-suite just a game? When executives at emerging companies Compuline and Nanotel met on a Wednesday evening in May to manage existing products and roll out new ones, that’s exactly what it was. The “executives” were students in…
Nvidia reported $6.12 earnings per share and $26 billion of sales for the three-month period ending April 30, shattering mean analyst forecasts of $5.60 and $24.59 billion, according to FactSet.
Nvidia’s profits and revenues skyrocketed by 628% and 268% compared to 2023’s comparable period, respectively.
This was Nvidia’s most profitable and highest sales quarter ever, topping the quarter ending this January’s record $12.3 billion net income and $22.1 billion revenue.
Driving the numerous superlatives for Nvidia’s financial growth over the last year is unsurprisingly its AI-intensive datacenter division, which raked in $22.6 billion of revenue last quarter, a 427% year-over-year increase and a whopping 20 times higher than the $1.1 billion the segment brought in in 2020.
Per ChatPGT today:
NVIDIA is a prominent technology company known for its contributions to various fields, primarily focusing on graphics processing units (GPUs) and artificial intelligence (AI).Here’s an overview of NVIDIA’s main areas of activity:
1. **Graphics Processing Units (GPUs):**
– **Consumer GPUs:** NVIDIA is famous for its GeForce series of GPUs, which are widely used in gaming and personal computing for their high performance and visual capabilities.
– **Professional GPUs:** NVIDIA’s Quadro series is designed for professional applications like 3D modeling, CAD (Computer-Aided Design), and video editing.
2. **Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning:**
– NVIDIA GPUs are extensively used in AI research and development. They provide the computational power needed for training deep learning models.
– The company offers specialized hardware for AI, such as the NVIDIA Tesla and A100 GPUs, which are used in data centers and supercomputing environments.
3. **Data Centers:**
– NVIDIA develops high-performance computing solutions for data centers, including GPU-accelerated servers and AI platforms. These products are essential for tasks like big data analytics, scientific simulations, and AI workloads.
4. **Autonomous Vehicles:**
– Through its DRIVE platform, NVIDIA provides hardware and software solutions for developing autonomous vehicles. This includes AI-based systems for perception, navigation, and decision-making.
5. **Edge Computing:**
– NVIDIA’s Jetson platform caters to edge computing, enabling AI-powered devices and applications to process data locally rather than relying on centralized data centers.
6. **Gaming and Entertainment:**
– Beyond GPUs, NVIDIA offers technologies like G-SYNC (for smoother gaming experiences) and NVIDIA GameWorks (a suite of tools for game developers).
7. **Healthcare:**
– NVIDIA’s Clara platform utilizes AI and GPU computing to advance medical imaging, genomics, and other healthcare applications.
8. **Omniverse:**
– NVIDIA Omniverse is a real-time graphics collaboration platform for 3D production pipelines. It’s designed for industries like animation, simulation, and visualization.
9. **Crypto Mining:**
– NVIDIA GPUs are also popular in the cryptocurrency mining community, although the company has developed specific products like the NVIDIA CMP (Cryptocurrency Mining Processor) to cater to this market without impacting the availability of GPUs for gamers and other users.
Overall, NVIDIA’s influence spans a broad range of industries, driven by its innovations in GPU technology and AI advancements.
Learning to Work, Or Working to Learn? — from insidehighered.com by Erin Crisp; via Melanie Booth, Ed.D. on LinkedIn We need a systems approach to making work-to-learn models just as accessible as traditional learn-to-work pathways, Erin Crisp writes.
Over the past two years, I have had the unique experience of scaling support for a statewide registered teacher-apprenticeship program while also parenting three college-aged sons. The declining appeal of postsecondary education, especially among young men, is evident at my dinner table, in my office, and in my dreams (literally).
…
Scaling a statewide apprenticeship program for the preparation of teachers has meant that I am consistently hearing from four stakeholder groups—K-12 school district leaders, college and university leaders, aspiring young educators, and local workforce development leaders.
A theme has emerged from my professional life, one that echoes the dinner table conversations happening in my personal life: Society needs systematic work-to-learn pathways in addition to the current learn-to-work ecosystem. This is not an either/or. What we need is a systematic expansion of effort.
In a work-to-learn model, the traditional college sequence is flipped. Instead of starting with general education coursework or survey courses, the working learner is actively engaged in practicing the skills they are interested in acquiring. A workplace supervisor often helps him make connections between the coursework and the job. The learner’s attention is piqued. The learning is relevant. The learner gains confidence, and seeing their influence in the workplace (and paycheck) is satisfying. All of the ARCS model elements are easily achieved.
Microsoft’s new ChatGPT competitor… — from The Rundown AI
The Rundown: Microsoft is reportedly developing a massive 500B parameter in-house LLM called MAI-1, aiming to compete with top AI models from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google.
Hampton runs a private community for high-growth tech founders and CEOs. We asked our community of founders and owners how AI has impacted their business and what tools they use
Here’s a sneak peek of what’s inside:
The budgets they set aside for AI research and development
The most common (and obscure) tools founders are using
Measurable business impacts founders have seen through using AI
Where they are purposefully not using AI and much more
To help leaders and organizations overcome AI inertia, Microsoft and LinkedIn looked at how AI will reshape work and the labor market broadly, surveying 31,000 people across 31 countries, identifying labor and hiring trends from LinkedIn, and analyzing trillions of Microsoft 365 productivity signals as well as research with Fortune 500 customers. The data points to insights every leader and professional needs to know—and actions they can take—when it comes to AI’s implications for work.
Are Colleges Ready For an Online-Education World Without OPMs?— from edsurge.com by Robert Ubell (Columnist) Online Program Management companies have helped hundreds of colleges build online degree programs, but the sector is showing signs of strain.
For more than 15 years, a group of companies known as Online Program Management providers, or OPMs, have been helping colleges build online degree programs. And most of them have relied on an unusual arrangement — where the companies put up the financial backing to help colleges launch programs in exchange for a large portion of tuition revenue.
…
As a longtime administrator of online programs at colleges, I have mixed feelings about the idea of shutting down the model. And the question boils down to this: Are colleges ready for a world without OPMs?
This conversation went in a bunch of unexpected directions. And that’s what’s so fun about it. After all, podcasting is all about bringing audio back and turning learning into leisure. And the question Guy and his partner Mindy Thomas asked a while back was: Why not bring kids in on the fun? Guy shared how his studio, Tinkercast, is leveraging the medium to inspire and educate the next generation of problem solvers.
We discussed the power of audio to capture curiosities and foster imagination, how Tinkercast is doing that in and out of the classroom, and how it can help re-engage students in building needed skills at a critical time. Enjoy!
NEW: Is this America’s next big middle-class job?
28,000 more “technicians” will soon be needed to run giant machines that make tiny semiconductor chips used in phones, cars, missiles, etc.
Education Companies in the Education industry, which includes schools and universities, cut the second-most jobs last monthwith 8,092 for a total of 17,892. That is a 635% increase from the 2,435 cuts announced during the first four months of 2023.
“April is typically the time school districts are hiring and setting budgets for the next fiscal year. Certainly, there are budgetary constraints, as labor costs rise, but school systems also have a retention and recruitment issue,” said Challenger.
The lifetime rate of return for a college education differs significantly by major, but it also varies by a student’s gender and race or ethnicity, according to new peer-reviewed research published in the American Educational Research Journal.
A bachelor’s degree in general provides a roughly 9% rate of return for men, and nearly 10% for women, researchers concluded. The majors with the best returns were computer science and engineering.
Black, Hispanic and Asian college graduates had slightly higher rates of return than their White counterparts, the study found.
The theme of the day was Human Connection V Innovative Technology. I see this a lot at conferences, setting up the human connection (social) against the machine (AI). I think this is ALL wrong. It is, and has always been a dialectic, human connection (social) PLUS the machine. Everyone had a smartphone, most use it for work, comms and social media. The binary between human and tech has long disappeared.
The first step to finding the right PR learning program is understanding what’s currently available to learners:
Undergraduate and graduate degree programs remain the pathway to earning a college degree in public relations, and now include more online options than ever before.
Certificate programs are shorter courses of study that often focus on strengthening specific skills, such as crisis communications or knowledge of a specific industry such as health care. They are offered through professional associations, employers, private entities or academic graduate programs, especially programs geared toward working professionals.
Microcertificate or microcredential programs may be even shorter and more focused than certificate programs. They can be a series of short courses and are usually focused on skills needed for a specific employer or job, such as analytical tools for a particular web platform. Successful completion of the microcertificate(s) may earn a microcredential, such as a badge, which can be displayed on the recipient’s social media sites.
If you’re a professional who’s considering jumping back into school, then certificate and microcertificate programs are excellent ways to dip a toe in the water.
On somewhat related notes:
Public Infrastructure on Skills — from the-job.beehiiv.com by Paul Fain The search for population-level solutions to strengthen links between education and work.
The new Center for Skills by C-BEN seeks to bring clarity and coordination to the skills space. Launched this week with a $1.5M grant from Walmart, the center will attempt to create objective, reliable ways to assess and validate skills, to help bridge the gap between education and the workforce.
The center could help the millions of employers who are looking for skills-based solutions and aren’t going to build their own skills academies, says Clayton Lord, director of foundation programs at SHRM.
“It’s hard for small and mid-sized businesses to find their way into this conversation,” he says. “We can’t create something that is more arduous for employers.”
In the dynamic realm of today’s workforce, skills gaps are increasing. Highly skilled talent is out there, but information gaps and traditional hiring methods make it challenging for skilled talent and employers to find one another. While digital recruiting systems have made it more efficient to find prospective candidates, qualified candidates are often vetted out of the hiring process when they do not match the exact criteria, according to a study conducted by Harvard Business School.
With the rapid pace of change — think automation, new technology, and artificial intelligence — businesses must innovate and think about the best ways to create career mobility and career pathways for their workforces into the roles of tomorrow.
In Pursuit of Agency
Imagine a future where learners can instantly see where they stand in a crowded job market, assess their abilities and gaps, and identify opportunities for growth. Or where employers can identify candidates with specific, often hard-to-spot competencies and skills. Possible? Yes. Western Governors University (WGU), the country’s largest competency-based, workforce-relevant online university, is reimagining that future by deploying the Achievement Wallet for WGU students nationally and working students at educational institutions across the state of Indiana.
