education

One County Is Making Tutors ‘Co-Teachers.’ Will That Help With Teacher Burnout? [Mollenkamp]

On 03/01/2023, in education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, youth, by Daniel Christian

One County Is Making Tutors ‘Co-Teachers.’ Will That Help With Teacher Burnout? — from edsurge.com by Daniel Mollenkamp

Excerpt:

Teachers can sign up specific students for one-on-one or small group online tutoring sessions during class, as part of the school day, as if there were another teacher in the room. (Though, those tutors are sourced through the company that designed the program, Varsity Tutors, and not the school.) Schools also have access to more standard on-demand tutoring, outside of school hours, as part of the deal.

Teachers are usually the ones who know when a student needs help, but they’re already stretched thin, Heid says. This way, teachers can use assessment and testing data to identify students who are struggling and get them in front of tutors, he adds.

On a somewhat related note, also see:

The Current State of Teacher Pay, in Charts — from edweek.org by Libby Stanford

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.

From DSC:
It seems to me that the idea of a Trim Tab Group goes waaaaay back. And from an excellent teacher — the LORD.

Mark 2:21 — from bible.com

“No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment. Otherwise, the new piece will pull away from the old, making the tear worse.”

So the idea of starting a small, different group that will grow into an amazingly large group of people may turn out to be the route that the invention of a new lifelong learning ecosystem will need to go through.

Reflections on “Why The Education Economy Is The Next Big Thing For The American Workforce” [Busteed]

On 02/22/2023, in business, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, Design Thinking, education, education reform, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, motivation, participation, passions, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Why The Education Economy Is The Next Big Thing For The American Workforce — from fastcompany.com by Brandon Busteed
How can integrating our educational system, our employers, and our job creators affect our modern economy?

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Though the economy and education have long been topics of top concern to Americans, we haven’t created strong linkages between the two.

The topics are more like two castles with a large moat between them. Yet there is nothing more important we can do as a country than to build the world’s most effective “educonomy,” which would seamlessly integrate our educational system, our employers, and our job creators.
…
All told, we collected the voices of close to 1 million Americans on this subject in the past year alone. And what we’ve learned is alarming:

Student engagement in school drops precipitously from 5th grade through 12th grade. About three quarters of elementary school kids (76%) are engaged in school, while only 44% of high school kids are engaged. The longer students stay in school, the less engaged they become. If we were doing this right, the trend would be going in the exact opposite direction.

From DSC:
I appreciated the imagery of the economy and education being like two castles with a large moat between them. I, like many others, also use the term siloed to describe our various learning ecosystems — PreK-12, higher education and vocational programming, and the corporate/business world (I realize I could also include those who work in other areas such as the government, but hopefully folks get the gist of what I’m trying to say).

But here’s the most disturbing part (albeit likely not a surprise to those working within K-12 environments):

About seven in 10 K-12 teachers are not engaged in their work (69%), and as a profession, teachers are dead last among all professions Gallup studied in saying their “opinions count” at work and their “supervisors create an open and trusting environment.” We also found that teacher engagement is the most important driver of student engagement. We’ll never improve student engagement until we boost teachers’ own workplace engagement first.

Our older daughter works in an elementary school where several of the teachers left prior to Christmas and more have announced that they are leaving after this academic year. For teachers to leave halfway through the year, you know something is majorly wrong!

I think that legislators are part of the problem, as they straight-jacket teachers, principals, and administrators with all kinds of standardized testing.

Standardized testing is like a wrecking ball on our educational systems -- impacting things like our students' and teachers' sense of joy, play, wonder, and motivation

I would think that such testing dictates the pace and the content and the overall agendas out there. I don’t recall taking nearly as many standardized tests as our youth do today. Looking back, each of my teachers was engaged and seemed to be happy and enthusiastic. I don’t think that’s the case any longer. Let’s ask the teachers — not the legislators — why that is the case and what they would recommend to change things (before it’s too late).

Podcast Special: Using Generative AI in Education — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
An exploration of the risks and benefits of Generative AI in education, in conversation with Mike Palmer

Excerpt:

Among other things, we discussed:

The immediate challenges that Generative AI presents for learning designers, educators and students.
The benefits & opportunities that Generative AI might offer the world of education, both in terms of productivity and pedagogy.
How bringing together the world of AI and the world of learning science, we might revolutionise the way we design and deliver learning experiences.

Speaking of podcasts, this article lists some podcasts to check out for those working in — or interested in — higher education.

Also relevant/see:

Teachers: Treat ChatGPT as Your Assistant, Not Your Enemy — from by Maria Andersen

Also relevant/see:

Are librarians the next prompt engineers? — from linkedin.com by Laura Solomon

Excerpt:

Without the right prompt, AI fails to provide what someone might be looking for. This probably is a surprise to no one, especially librarians. If you remember the days before Google, you know exactly how this tended to play out. Google became dominant in large part to its inherent ability to accept natural language queries.
A small industry is now popping up to provide people with the correct, detailed prompts to get what they want when interacting with AI. The people doing this work are referred to as “prompt engineers.”
Prompt engineers aren’t just people who write queries to be directed to an AI. They also have tend to have a great deal of technical expertise and a deep understanding of how artificial intelligences and natural language can intersect.
Prompt engineers don’t work for free.

The above item links to The Most Important Job Skill of This Century — from theatlantic.com by Charlie Warzel
Your work future could depend on how well you can talk to AI.

Also relevant/see:

My class required AI. Here’s what I’ve learned so far. — from oneusefulthing.substack.com by Ethan Mollick
(Spoiler alert: it has been very successful, but there are some lessons to be learned)

Excerpt:

I fully embraced AI for my classes this semester, requiring students to use AI tools in a number of ways. This policy attracted a lot of interest, and I thought it worthwhile to reflect on how it is going so far. The short answer is: great! But I have learned some early lessons that I think are worth passing on.

AI is everywhere already
Even if I didn’t embrace AI, it is also clear that AI is now everywhere in classes. For example, students used it to help them come up with ideas for class projects, even before I even taught them how to do that. As a result, the projects this semester are much better than previous pre-AI classes. This has led to greater project success rates and more engaged teams. On the downside, I find students also raise their hands to ask questions less. I suspect this might be because, as one of them told me, they can later ask ChatGPT to explain things they didn’t get without needing to speak in front of the class. The world of teaching is now more complicated in ways that are exciting, as well as a bit unnerving.

Competition Can Motivate, Encourage and Inspire Students. But It Can Also Harm Them. — from edsurge.com by Patrick Harris II

Excerpt:

The American Psychological Association (APA) defines competition as “any performance situation structured in such a way that success depends on performing better than others.” Naturally, this could create challenges in a school setting, but in my experience, whether innate or as a product of a structure, competition itself isn’t always problematic. In fact, some studies confirm that competition has benefits, though they vary based on the individual and the competition.
…
Competition can be thrilling and motivating to those who choose to engage. But it’s important to remember that competition is not a golden key to unlock student engagement. Depending on how we use it, competition can also cause harm, such as anxiety, low self-esteem or negative feelings of self-worth.

For every student who was celebrated, there was another student who, by design, was shamed.

Looking back, these competitions weren’t used to teach students sportsmanship or resilience. They were used as gimmicks and antics to “motivate” students. I now recognize that I played a part in reinforcing a system of inequity by awarding those students who were already privileged.

From DSC:
I appreciate Patrick’s balanced article here — mentioning both the potential advantages and disadvantages of using competitive activities in the classroom.

I’m also going to comment on the topic of competition but from a different perspective. One that involves my faith journey and relationships.

I used to play a lot of sports and I played one sport at the university level. I mention this to establish that I’ve had my share of competition. In my experience, competition was anti-relational. That could have been just my perspective, but perhaps others share this perspective as well.

That is, I viewed people as to be competed against…not to be in relationships with. When my identity was tied up with my sport, that was ok. But as my identity changed in my senior year, it was not ok. When I became a Christian (in faith), my identity shifted big time. And the LORD wanted me to be in relationships with other people. Competition didn’t help that part of my journey.

As an aside, competition was also encouraged in terms of grades and performance in school — including at the university level. Several professors put our results up on the walls outside their offices — clearly showing everyone where they stood in the class. And I saw competition in the corporate world all the time as well. So while it’s something we here in the United States practice big time, it does seem to have its plusses and minuses.

Why Studying Is So Hard, and What Teachers Can Do to Help [McKenna & Willingham]

On 02/14/2023, in education, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, memory, productivity / tips and tricks, psychology, research, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, by Daniel Christian

Why Studying Is So Hard, and What Teachers Can Do to Help — from edutopia.org by Laura McKenna
Beginning in the upper elementary grades, research-backed study skills should be woven into the curriculum, argues psychology professor Daniel Willingham in a new book.

Excerpt:

The additional context for Willingham’s new book is that students often don’t know the best methods to study for tests, master complex texts, or take productive notes, and it’s difficult to explain to them why they should take a different tack. In the book, Willingham debunks popular myths about the best study strategies, explains why they don’t work, and recommends effective strategies that are based on the latest research in cognitive science.

I recently spoke to him about why listening to lectures isn’t like watching a movie, how our self-monitoring of learning is often flawed and self-serving, and when it’s too late to start teaching students good study skills.

Preparing Today’s Students for the Future Workforce — from rdene915.com by Rachelle Dené Poth

Excerpt:

Today’s high school students are the future of our workforce. Before long they will be in college or starting full-time jobs of their own. But how are today’s students preparing for their futures? What will the workforce look like when these students move on to the next stage of their lives?

Schools, districts, and even state education departments provide various programs for students to gain relevant work experience and gain necessary skills outside of the classroom.

What Are These Programs?
There are a number of school-based programs that support student growth through work such as…

Also relevant/see:

One Foot in the Future — from the BIG questions institute

As an excerpt from an email describing this new/free ebook, Homa Tavangar and Will Richardson write:

We need a fresh set of tools, frameworks, and lenses if we are to meet the future effectively.

With this new ebook, “One Foot in the Future,” we’re charting a different path forward, introducing readers to things like:

Design Fiction – A tool to help us become “archeologists of the future” and help us
Regenerative Learning – A lens that helps us see our work as it impacts all living things
Schoolpunk – A movement and a community to help imagine the future of education together.

And much more.

Our sense is that there is growing appetite to get out of the traditional school box and to design a more aspirational future. This new ebook is a great starting point for anyone who wants to do just that.

Two items re: accessibility / inclusive design / special education

On 02/11/2023, in accessibility / UDL, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), content development, aggregation, repositories, curriculum, education, neurodivergent/special needs, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Imagine Learning Announces Major New Special Education Initiative — from businesswire.com; via GSV

Excerpt:

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Imagine Learning, the largest provider of digital curriculum solutions in the United States serving 15 million students in more than half the districts nationwide, today announced a major new initiative to address the urgent learning needs of more than seven million students with disabilities across the U.S.
…
Imagine Learning is also launching Imagine AscendTM, a new comprehensive solution for special education students that combines digital courseware with highly qualified virtual instructors. Imagine Ascend provides districts with a sustainable solution for staffing shortages and a scalable approach to increasing graduation rates, both critical needs of special education programs. The Imagine Ascend portfolio of curricula and services will support learners with accommodating instruction and help educators serve students with disabilities.

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.

Some resources regarding how our emotions impact our learning [Knight]

On 02/10/2023, in Daniel S. Christian, education, Emotion, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, by Daniel Christian

Learning relies on emotions — from linkedin.com by Melanie Knight

From DSC:
I don’t know nearly enough about how our emotions impact our learning. But this version of the Learn About Learning newsletter reminds me of a wish I have that our nation would create a one-stop shop/resource for how we learn:

I wish we had a one-stop shop / URL for how we learn

Why Educators And Employers Must Come Together To Cross The Skills Gap [Perna]

On 02/10/2023, in business, career development, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, education, higher education, ideas, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, United States, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Why Educators And Employers Must Come Together To Cross The Skills Gap — from forbes.com by Mark C. Perna

Excerpts:

Beyond the IT sector, skills gaps also exist in other areas of the economy, such as manufacturing and retail. There is a shortage of workers in the skilled trades industries, for example, which is growing more acute every year.

The other major factor in the growth of the skills gap is the aging of the Boomer generation, who are exiting the workforce—leaving open highly-skilled jobs that members of younger generations have not had the time or training to fill.

By 2030, forecasts predict that all Boomers will have left the job market—leaving some 85 million open jobs, according to a Korn Ferry study on the Global Talent Crunch. The cost? A projected $8.5 trillion in lost revenue.

Put another way, schools and employers need to team up in new ways to help provide access to members of the younger generation to gain the kinds of skills that make the skills gap a thing of the past. We need to connect the dots between school and work, because far too many people are getting lost in the middle.

And on a somewhat relevant note, also see:

General Assembly Launches Apprenticeship Solution to Help Employers Source, Deploy, and Retain Hard-to-Find Tech Talent — from finance.yahoo.com; via Paul Fain

Excerpt:

NEW YORK, Feb. 7, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — General Assembly (GA) today announced the launch of GA Apprenticeships, Powered by Interapt, a tech apprenticeship solution designed to fast-track high-potential, overlooked talent into careers in software engineering, data, and cybersecurity. In light of growing labor market challenges and ongoing skill shortages across a range of industries, this new model will provide employers with a derisked opportunity to onboard entry-level tech talent while also enabling apprentices to earn a salary as they learn alongside senior-level developers.

See Workers as Workers, Not as a College Credential — an opinion item out at nytimes.com (paywall)

In one of the richest nations on earth, the path to prosperity has narrowed significantly in recent decades — especially for those without a college education. More than 62 percent of Americans ages 25 and up do not hold bachelor’s degrees, and the earnings gapbetween those with a college education and those without one has never been wider.

Introducing: ChatGPT Edu-Mega-Prompts [Hardman] + several other items re: AI

On 02/06/2023, in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, bots, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, education, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, journalism, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, liberal arts, memory, Natural Language Processing (NLP), open courseware and systems, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, psychology, skills, streams of content, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

Introducing: ChatGPT Edu-Mega-Prompts — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman; with thanks to Ray Schroeder out on LinkedIn for this resource
How to combine the power of AI + learning science to improve your efficiency & effectiveness as an educator

From DSC:
Before relaying some excerpts, I want to say that I get the gist of what Dr. Hardman is saying re: quizzes. But I’m surprised to hear she had so many pedagogical concerns with quizzes. I, too, would like to see quizzes used as an instrument of learning and to practice recall — and not just for assessment. But I would give quizzes a higher thumbs up than what she did. I think she was also trying to say that quizzes don’t always identify misconceptions or inaccurate foundational information.

Excerpts:

The Bad News: Most AI technologies that have been built specifically for educators in the last few years and months imitate and threaten to spread the use of broken instructional practices (i.e. content + quiz).

The Good News: Armed with prompts which are carefully crafted to ask the right thing in the right way, educators can use AI like GPT3 to improve the effectiveness of their instructional practices.

As is always the case, ChatGPT is your assistant. If you’re not happy with the result, you can edit and refine it using your expertise, either alone or through further conversation with ChatGPT.

For example, once the first response is generated, you can ask ChatGPT to make the activity more or less complex, to change the scenario and/or suggest more or different resources – the options are endless.

Philippa recommended checking out Rob Lennon’s streams of content. Here’s an example from his Twitter account:

Everyone’s using ChatGPT.

But almost everyone’s STUCK in beginner mode.

10 techniques to get massively ahead with AI:

(cut-and-paste these prompts?)

— Rob Lennon ? | Audience Growth (@thatroblennon) January 3, 2023

Also relevant/see:

3 Trends That May Unlock AI’s Potential for L&D in 2023 — from learningguild.com by Juan Naranjo

Excerpts:

AI-assisted design and development work
This is the trend most likely to have a dramatic evolution this year.
…
Solutions like large language models, speech generators, content generators, image generators, translation tools, transcription tools, and video generators, among many others, will transform the way IDs create the learning experiences our organizations use. Two examples are:

1. IDs will be doing more curation and less creation:

Many IDs will start pulling raw material from content generators (built using natural language processing platforms like Open AI’s GPT-3, Microsoft’s LUIS, IBM’s Watson, Google’s BERT, etc.) to obtain ideas and drafts that they can then clean up and add to the assets they are assembling. As technology advances, the output from these platforms will be more suitable to become final drafts, and the curation and clean-up tasks will be faster and easier.
Then, the designer can leverage a solution like DALL-E 2 (or a product developed based on it) to obtain visuals that can (or not) be modified with programs like Illustrator or Photoshop (see image below for Dall-E’s “Cubist interpretation of AI and brain science.”

2. IDs will spend less, and in some cases no time at all, creating learning pathways

AI engines contained in LXPs and other platforms will select the right courses for employees and guide these learners from their current level of knowledge and skill to their goal state with substantially less human intervention.

The Creator of ChatGPT Thinks AI Should Be Regulated — from time.com by John Simons

Excerpts:

Somehow, Mira Murati can forthrightly discuss the dangers of AI while making you feel like it’s all going to be OK.
…
A growing number of leaders in the field are warning of the dangers of AI. Do you have any misgivings about the technology?

This is a unique moment in time where we do have agency in how it shapes society. And it goes both ways: the technology shapes us and we shape it. There are a lot of hard problems to figure out. How do you get the model to do the thing that you want it to do, and how you make sure it’s aligned with human intention and ultimately in service of humanity? There are also a ton of questions around societal impact, and there are a lot of ethical and philosophical questions that we need to consider. And it’s important that we bring in different voices, like philosophers, social scientists, artists, and people from the humanities.

Whispers of A.I.’s Modular Future — from newyorker.com by James Somers; via Sam DeBrule

Excerpts:

Gerganov adapted it from a program called Whisper, released in September by OpenAI, the same organization behind ChatGPTand dall-e. Whisper transcribes speech in more than ninety languages. In some of them, the software is capable of superhuman performance—that is, it can actually parse what somebody’s saying better than a human can.
…
Until recently, world-beating A.I.s like Whisper were the exclusive province of the big tech firms that developed them.

Ever since I’ve had tape to type up—lectures to transcribe, interviews to write down—I’ve dreamed of a program that would do it for me. The transcription process took so long, requiring so many small rewindings, that my hands and back would cramp. As a journalist, knowing what awaited me probably warped my reporting: instead of meeting someone in person with a tape recorder, it often seemed easier just to talk on the phone, typing up the good parts in the moment.

From DSC:
Journalism majors — and even seasoned journalists — should keep an eye on this type of application, as it will save them a significant amount of time and/or money.

Microsoft Teams Premium: Cut costs and add AI-powered productivity — from microsoft.com by Nicole Herskowitz

Excerpt:

Built on the familiar, all-in-one collaborative experience of Microsoft Teams, Teams Premium brings the latest technologies, including Large Language Models powered by OpenAI’s GPT-3.5, to make meetings more intelligent, personalized, and protected—whether it’s one-on-one, large meetings, virtual appointments, or webinars.

Educator considerations for ChatGPT — from platform.openai.com; with thanks to Anna Mills for this resource

Excerpt:

Streamlined and personalized teaching
Some examples of how we’ve seen educators exploring how to teach and learn with tools like ChatGPT:

Drafting and brainstorming for lesson plans and other activities
Help with design of quiz questions or other exercises
Experimenting with custom tutoring tools
Customizing materials for different preferences (simplifying language, adjusting to different reading levels, creating tailored activities for different interests)
Providing grammatical or structural feedback on portions of writing
Use in upskilling activities in areas like writing and coding (debugging code, revising writing, asking for explanations)
Critique AI generated text

While several of the above draw on ChatGPT’s potential to be explored as a tool for personalization, there are risks associated with such personalization as well, including student privacy, biased treatment, and development of unhealthy habits. Before students use tools that offer these services without direct supervision, they and their educators should understand the limitations of the tools outlined below.

Also relevant/see:

- Designing Assignments in the ChatGPT Era — from insidehighered.com by Susan D’Agostino
  Some instructors seek to craft assignments that guide students in surpassing what AI can do. Others see that as a fool’s errand—one that lends too much agency to the software.
- 5 Ways Instructional Designers Can Use ChatGPT — from drlukehobson.com by Luke Hobson
- AI, ChatGPT, instructional design, and prompt crafting — from veletsianos.com by George Veletsianos, PhD

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
David Wiley wrote a thoughtful post on the ways in which AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) can “provide instructional designers with first drafts of some of the work they do.” He says “imagine you’re an instructional designer who’s been paired with a faculty member to create a course in microeconomics. These tools might help you quickly create first drafts of” learning outcomes, discussion prompts, rubrics, and formative assessment items. The point is that LLMs can quickly generate rough drafts that are mostly accurate drafts, that humans can then “review, augment, and polish,” potentially shifting the work of instructional designers from authors to editors. The post is well worth your time.
…
The question that I’d like to spend some time thinking about is the following: What new knowledge, capacities, and skills do instructional designers need in their role as editors and users of LLMs?

This resonated with me. Instructional Designer positions are starting to require AI and ML chops. I’m introducing my grad students to AI and ChatGPT this semester. I have an assignment based on it.

(This ain’t your father’s instructional design…)

Robert Gibson

We’re piloting ChatGPT Plus, a $20/mo subscription for faster response times and reliability during peak hours: https://t.co/ZDK37w9MIs

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) February 1, 2023

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.

Learning Ecosystems

Two items re: accessibility / inclusive design / special education

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

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