Generative AI Is Set to Shake Up Education — from morganstanley.com
While educators debate the risks and opportunities of generative AI as a learning tool, some education technology companies are using it to increase revenue and lower costs.

Key Takeaways

  • Contrary to the view that generative AI is undermining education, it could ultimately improve access and quality.
  • Education technology companies have opportunities from generative AI that markets may be missing.
  • Generative AI could bring $200 billion in value to the global education sector by 2025.
  • Reskilling and retraining alone could require $6 billion in investments by 2025, with edtech companies poised to fill that need.

Outgoing SNHU president: AI means universities must change ‘dramatically’ — from msn.com by Steven Porter

In his next chapter, LeBlanc will work with a team of researchers to study emerging AI trends, impacts on education, and opportunities to innovate. (The initiative harkens back to his early scholarship. During grad school decades ago, LeBlanc studied the ways computers could impact how societies think.)

LeBlanc said the AI-induced changes on the horizon will require educational institutions to reimagine how they assess student learning and grapple with implications for privacy and data security. There are also bigger questions about what jobs will go away and what jobs will be created, which influences the fields of study schools will offer, he said.



AI & Education: A Year in Review — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
The top five use cases & most popular tools among educators at the end of 2023 – the year than Gen AI shook-up education

Use Case #1: Content Creation
Use Case #2: Brainstorming & Ideation
Use Case #3: Research & Analysis
Use Case #4: Writing & Communicating
Use Case #5: Task Automation


I Used ChatGPT for 12 Months. Here Are Some Hidden Gems That Will Change Your Life — from theaigirl.substack.com by Diana Dovgopol
Transform your life with these ChatGPT’s hidden gems.

1. Summarize videos, articles, papers and posts
Here’s how it works (note that you need to enable browsing or plugins for this)

  1. Find the video/article/paper/post.
  2. Copy the link.
  3. Ask ChatGPT to summarize it for you.

AI ADVISORY BOARDS: Giving Students and Teachers a Voice — from aiadvisoryboards.wordpress.com

My mission is to spread awareness about the incredible potential of AI and AI advisory boards in education. Through my website, aiadvisoryboards.wordpress.com, I aim to inspire educators, administrators, and students to embrace AI and create innovative learning environments.


Report Update: Human and Computer Deep Learning and the Future of Humanity — from by Stefan Bauschard
New Chapter on School Guidance; updates on technology, the labor markets, and deep learning


 

K12 District-Level Perspectives on AI — from aiforeducation.io by Amanda Bickerstaff, Dr. Patrick Gittisriboongul, Samantha Armstrong, & Brett Roer

Want to know how K12 schools are navigating the adoption of AI and what district-level leaders really think about GenAI EdTech tools?

Join us for this free webinar where we discussed AI technology, literacy, training, and the responsible adoption of GenAI tools in K12. Our panel explored what is working well – and not so well – across their districts from a school leader and practitioner’s perspective.


ChatGPT Has Changed Teaching. Our Readers Tell Us How. — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie and Beckie Supiano

Those vastly different approaches to college writing pretty much sum up the responses to generative AI: They’re all over the map.

One year after its release, ChatGPT has pushed higher education into a liminal place. Colleges are still hammering out large-scale plans and policies governing how generative AI will be dealt with in operations, research, and academic programming. But professors have been forced more immediately to adapt their classrooms to its presence. Those adaptations vary significantly, depending on whether they see the technology as a tool that can aid learning or as a threat that inhibits it.

Nearly 100 faculty members shared their stories. While not a representative sample, they teach at a wide range of institutions: 15 community colleges, 32 public and 24 private four-year colleges or universities, seven international institutions, and one for-profit college. They teach a variety of subjects, including animal science, statistics, computer science, history, accounting, and composition. Many spent hours learning about AI: enrolling in workshops and webinars, experimenting with the tools, and reading articles, so that they could enter the fall semester informed and prepared.


The Disruption of AI in CTE Is Real — from techlearning.com by Annie Galvin Teich
An ACTE expert panel urges CTE educators to jump on the AI train as it’s already left the station

10 Best Practices for AI and CTE 

  1. Embrace AI and use it first for simple tasks to create efficiencies. Then use it to individualize instruction and for formative assessment tools aligned to standards.
  2. Be creative and conscious of internal bias and ethics. Focus on DEI and access.
  3. Encourage students to use apps and tools to start moving toward an integrated curriculum using AI.
  4. Prepare students for jobs of the future by partnering with industry to solve real problems.
  5. …and others

How are universities responding to generative AI? — from medium.com by Nic Newman
What’s next for higher education as we enter a new wave of edtech innovation: AI-powered learning

Where will AI make a big difference?
At Emerge, we have identified eight high-level trends — what we’re calling “engines of opportunity”. These eight “engines of opportunity” capture our ideas about how AI is being used to drive better practice and outcomes in HE, now and into the future.

They fall into two main categories:

  • Making learning more engaging: solutions that scale high quality pedagogy at low cost.
  • Making teaching more efficient: solutions that save educators and organisations time and money.

 

The Rise of Learning Societies — from educationnext.org by Alan Gottlieb
A small experiment in rural Idaho holds big promise for student success 

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The basic idea is this: Some parents who, for a variety of reasons, hesitate to send their children to a traditional brick-and-mortar school have neither the time, inclination, or temperament to homeschool or to monitor a full-time online program. Learning Societies provide an intimate environment where kids, supervised by professional educators, learn online and in small, in-person groups for six hours a day. Gem Prep leaders describe it as a sweet spot between traditional schooling and at-home online learning. It is particularly well suited to rural areas.

Learning Societies have the potential to achieve a happy medium that combines the strengths of both homeschooling (or online learning from home) and a traditional brick-and-mortar school.

A typical school day at a Gem Prep Learning Society sees some students engaged in online lessons on laptops while others receive instruction from a teacher in a small group, all within the same classroom. Both modalities use Gem Prep Online’s well-regarded curriculum.

 

A Nation At Risk +40 | A Review of Progress in US Public Education — from hoover.org

Forty years ago, the release of A Nation at Risk led to what we know today as the modern school reform movement. With its calls for increased academic rigor, more productive use of instructional time, more effective teaching, and more impactful leadership, A Nation at Risk set in motion policy and practice changes at every level of the education system. But after four decades, what has been the result? And where do we go from here?

Forty years on, significant challenges remain. The COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating effects on student learning, and chronic absenteeism remains at alarming rates. Even prior to the pandemic, student achievement, as measured by standardized tests, seemed to have plateaued despite ever-increasing resources—in time, dollars, research, technology, and human capital—being devoted to school reform.

Much has been tried in the effort to improve our schools. Has any of it made a difference?

 

Using Drawing as a Powerful Learning Tool — from edutopia.org by Selim Tlili
When students draw something they’re learning about, they’re more likely to remember key details.

One of my main goals as a science teacher is to open students up to seeing all of those beautiful and interesting details. I do that by having students draw things and clearly write what they observe. Drawing something requires students to look at their subject far longer than they are accustomed. Writing what they see forces them to consciously acknowledge it. I explain to students that just as every single human is unique, so is every coin, plant, and salt crystal.

 

 

25 Exciting Music Activities For Kids Of All Ages — from teachingexpertise.com by Aqinnah Alexia Del Fava

Our collection of 25 engaging music activities includes activities for kids from preschool through to middle school. Have a look at this carefully selected list and pick out a few ideas to try out with your class and get the most out of your next music session!

Snag some empty jars or small bottles and make them into instruments! A

 

An Opinionated Guide to Which AI to Use: ChatGPT Anniversary Edition — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
A simple answer, and then a less simple one.

If you are at all interested in generative AI and understanding what it can do and why it matters, you should just get access to OpenAI’s GPT-4 in as unadulterated and direct way as possible. Everything else comes after that.

Now, to be clear, this is not the free ChatGPT, which uses GPT-3.5.


America's Next Top Model LLMs in Educational Settings

1. America’s Next Top Model LLMs in Educational Settings

  • PDF
    Topics Discussed:
    Need for a Comprehensive Student-Centric Approach
    Collaboration between EdTech Companies and Educators
    Personalized Learning Orchestration
    Innovation and Agility of Startups vs. Resources of Big Tech
    The Essential Role of AI in Transforming Education
  • Video recording from Edtech Insiders

2. Hello, Mr. Chips: AI Teaching Assistants, Tutors, Coaches and Characters

  • PDF
    Topics discussed:
    Engagement and Co-Creation
    Educator Skills and AI Implementation
    Teacher Empowerment and Student Creativity
    Efficacy and Ethical Concerns
  • Video recording from Edtech Insiders

He Was Falsely Accused of Using AI. Here’s What He Wishes His Professor Did Instead | Tech & Learning — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
When William Quarterman was accused of submitting an AI-generated midterm essay, he started having panic attacks. He says his professor should have handled the situation differently.


Teaching: Practical AI strategies for the classroom — from chronicle.com by Beckie Supiano and Luna Laliberte

Here are several strategies you can try.

  • Quick Hits: Several presenters suggested exercises that can be quick, easy, and fun for students. Invite your class to complete a Mad Libs using ChatGPT. It’s a playful way to leverage ChatGPT’s ability to predict the next word, giving students insight into how generative AI works on a fundamental level. You can also have your students use ChatGPT to rewrite their own writing in the tone and style of their favorite writers. This exercise demonstrates AI’s ability to mimic style and teaches students about adopting different tones in writing.
  • Vetting Sources
  • Grade ChatGPT
  • Lead by Example  

Embracing Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom — from gse.harvard.edu; via Alex Webb at Bloomberg
Generative AI tools can reflect our failure of imagination and that is when the real learning starts


Class Disrupted S5 E3: The Possibilities & Challenges of Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom — from the74million.org by Michael B. Horn & Diane Tavenner
AI expert and Minerva University senior Irhum Shafkat joins Michael and Diane to discuss where the technology is going.


Schools urged to teach children how to use AI from age of 11 — from news.sky.com by Tom Acres
Artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT are being used by children to help with homework and studying – and there are calls for it to become a central part of the school curriculum.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Schools have been urged to teach children how to use AI from the age of 11 as the technology threatens to upend the jobs market.

Rather than wait for pupils to take up computer science at GCSE, the British Computer Society (BCS, The Chartered institute for IT) said all youngsters need to learn to work with tools like ChatGPT.

The professional body for computing wants a digital literary qualification to be introduced, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence and its practical applications.

An understanding of AI should also become a key part of teacher training and headteacher qualifications, it added.


Improving Your Teaching With an AI Coach — from edutopia.org by Stephen Noonoo
New tools are leveraging artificial intelligence to help teachers glean insights into how they interact with students.


COMMENTARY
Embracing artificial intelligence in the workforce starts with higher education — from nebraskaexaminer.com by Jaci Lindburg and Cassie Mallette

When students can understand the benefit of using it effectively, and learn how to use AI to brainstorm, problem solve, and think through decision making scenarios, they can work more efficiently, make difficult decisions faster and improve a company’s production output.

It is through embracing the power and potential of AI that we can equip our students with future-ready skills. Through intentional teaching strategies that guide students to think creatively about how to use AI in their work, higher education can ensure that students are on the cutting edge in terms of using advancing technologies and being workforce ready upon graduation.

Also see:

The ChatGPT/AI Prompt Book is a resource for the UNO community that demonstrates how students can use AI in their studies and how faculty can incorporate it into their courses and daily work. The goal: to teach individuals how to be better prompt engineers and develop the skills needed to utilize this emerging technology as one of the many tools available to them in the workforce.


Two Ideas for Teaching with AI: Course-Level GPTs and AI-Enhanced Polling — from derekbruff.org by Derek Bruff

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Might we see course-level GPTs, where the chatbot is familiar with the content in a particular course and can help students navigate and maybe even learn that material? The answer is, yes and they’re already here. Top Hat recently launched Ace, an AI-powered learning assistant embedded in its courseware platform. An instructor can activate Ace, which then trains itself on all the learning materials in the course. Students can then use Ace as a personal tutor of sorts, asking it questions about course material.

Ace from Top Hat -- empowering educators and students with a human-centered application of AI


Reflections On AI Policies in Higher Education — from jeppestricker.substack.com by Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker
And Why First-Hand Generative AI Experience is Crucial for Leadership

AI is already showing far-reaching consequences for societies and educational institutions around the world. It is my contention that it is impossible to set strategic direction for AI in higher education if you haven’t yet tried working with the technology yourself. The first wave of overwhelming, profound surprise simply cannot be outsourced to other parts of the organization.

I mention this because the need for both strategic and operational guidance for generative AI is growing rapidly in higher education institutions. Without the necessary – and quite basic – personal generative AI experience, however, it becomes difficult for leadership to meaningfully direct and anchor AI in the organization.

And without clear guidance in place, uncertainty arises for all internal stakeholders about expectations and appropriate uses of AI. This makes developing an institutional AI policy not just sensible, but necessary.




A free report for educational leaders and policymakers who want to understand the AI World — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
And the immediate need for AI literacy

Beyond synthesizing many ideas from educational theory and AI deep learning, the report provides a comprehensive overview of developments in the field of AI, including current “exponential advances.” It’s updated through the release of Gemini and Meta’s new “Seamless” translation technology that arguably eliminates the need for most translators, and probably even the need to learn to speak another language for most purposes.

We were a mere 18 hours too late from covering an entire newscast (and news channel) that is produced with AI in a way that creates representations that are indistinguishable from what is “real” (see below) though it super-charges our comprehensive case and immediate AI literacy.

We also provide several suggestions and a potential roadmap for schools to help students prepare for an AI World where computers are substantialy smarter than them in many ways.

 

Michigan launches lifelong learning department with acting director — from mlive.com by Simon Schuster

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Advancement, and Potential, deemed MiLEAP, took its first steps Friday [12/1/23] as Gov. Gretchen Whitmer launched the department with an acting director in place to lead it.

The department will handle everything from child care licensing, formerly in the department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs, to scholarship administration, which was previously handled by the Department of Treasury.

More than 300 state government employees from four different departments are being consolidated into MiLEAP. The department will have three offices: early childhood education, higher education and education partnerships.


Also re: Michigan, see:

Growing Michigan Together Council | Recommendation Report
November 28 Discussion Draft

Excerpt:

Growing Michigan Together Council Recommendation

Develop a lifelong education system for Michigan kids that prepares them to be successful in a 21st century economy.

01 Redesign the Michigan P–12 education system so that all students have a broad set of future ready skills and competencies to thrive in work and life, and guarantee up to a 13th year to ensure all students achieve this standard
02 Provide all students opportunities to gain up to two years of publicly funded college credits or postsecondary training once they are prepared to succeed
03 Align secondary, postsecondary, higher education, and skills training to create a seamless system of continuous learning so that all Michiganders can be prepared for and adapt to a changing workplace

 

Educational practices to identify and support students experiencing homelessness — from edresearchforaction.org by Alexandra Pavlakis, J. Kessa Roberts, Meredith Richards, Kathryn Hill, and Zitsi Mirakhur

The EdResearch for Action Overview Series summarizes the research on key topics to provide K-12 education decision makers and advocates with an evidence base to ground discussions about how to best serve students. Authors – leading experts from across the field of education research – are charged with highlighting key findings from research that provide concrete, strategic insight on persistent challenges sourced from district and state leaders.

Central Question
What evidence-based practices can schools and districts implement to identify and support students experiencing homelessness?

 

Learning and employment record use cases -- from the National Governors Association

LERs Are Hot. What Are States Going To Do With Them?

Governors and state leaders are concerned about the current labor shortage, occurring during a time when many skilled workers are underemployed or even unemployed. Skills-based approaches to hiring and recruiting can shift that dynamic—making pathways to good careers accessible to a wider segment of the workforce and opening up new pools of talent for employers. They do so by focusing on what workers know and can do, not on the degrees or credentials they’ve earned.

That’s the theory. But a lot hinges on how things actually play out on the ground.

Technology will play a key role, and many states have zeroed in on learning and employment records—essentially digital resumes with verified records of people’s skills, educational experiences, and work histories—as an essential tool. A lot of important work is going into the technical design and specifications.

This project, on the other hand, aims to take a step back and look at the current state of play when it comes to the use cases for LERs. Just a few of the key questions:

  • How might employers, education providers, government agencies, and workers themselves actually use them? Will they?
  • In what areas do state policymakers have the most influence over key stakeholders and the most responsibility to invest?
  • What actions are needed now to ensure that LERs, and skills-based hiring more broadly, actually widen access to good jobs—rather than setting up a parallel system that perpetuates many of today’s inequities?
 

Exploring blockchain’s potential impact on the education sector — from e27.co by Moch Akbar Azzihad M
By the year 2024, the application of blockchain technology is anticipated to have a substantial influence on the education sector

Areas mentioned include:

  • Credentials that are both secure and able to be verified
  • Records of accomplishments that are not hidden
  • Enrollment process that is both streamlined and automated
  • Storage of information that is both secure and decentralised
  • Financing and decentralised operations
 

Why Entrepreneurship Might Save Our Kids—and the Rest of Us. — from gettingsmart.com by Katie Kimbrell

Key Points (emphasis DSC):

  • We need to be asking our students “How did you put your ideas into the world today?”.
  • To be human is to be entrepreneurial.

One of my favorite mom friends asks her young school-aged kids every day, “What did you make today?”

I love how subtly subversive this question is. Not, “How was school today?” “Were you good today?” or, “How’s [insert school subject] going?” But, How did you put your ideas out into the world today?” 

That simple question understands this fundamental truth: to be human is to create, to employ our imaginations and partake in forming the world we want to live in.


Microschool in a Box: Programs Enabling the Microschool Movement — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen

Key Points

  • Microschools are not new. In fact, they are as old as learning itself.
  • Funding and operations can be difficult within a microschool model. Programs and other organizations can support planning, design and implementation.

Microschools are meeting strong market demand for more personalized, more contextualized and more relevant learning for every student. Programs like ASU Prep’s Microschool in a Box make it possible for more learners to become future-ready with access to affordable, relational microschool learning.

Nate McClennen


The Science of Classroom Design — from edutopia.org by Youki Terada and Stephen Merrill
Our comprehensive, all-in, research-based look at the design of effective learning spaces.

Topics include:

  • Light
  • Ventilation and air quality
  • Complexity and color
  • Data walls
  • Nature, plants, and greenery
  • Representation
    • Students can experience representation in classrooms by seeing their own or peers’ artifacts on walls and in shared virtual spaces, or by being exposed to images and references that mirror their interests, passions, and backgrounds.
  • Flexibility
  • Learning differences and neurodivergence
  • Heat
  • Acoustics/noise
  • Seating arrangements
  • Learning Zones

Addendum on 12/1/23:

 

Amazon aims to provide free AI skills training to 2 million people by 2025 with its new ‘AI Ready’ commitment — from aboutamazon.com by Swami Sivasubramanian

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the most transformative technology of our generation. If we are going to unlock the full potential of AI to tackle the world’s most challenging problems, we need to make AI education accessible to anyone with a desire to learn.

That’s why Amazon is announcing “AI Ready,” a new commitment designed to provide free AI skills training to 2 million people globally by 2025. To achieve this goal, we’re launching new initiatives for adults and young learners, and scaling our existing free AI training programs—removing cost as a barrier to accessing these critical skills.

From DSC:
While this will likely serve Amazon just fine, it’s still an example of the leadership of a corporation seeking to help others out.

 

 

Where a developing, new kind of learning ecosystem is likely headed [Christian]

From DSC:
As I’ve long stated on the Learning from the Living [Class]Room vision, we are heading toward a new AI-empowered learning platform — where humans play a critically important role in making this new learning ecosystem work.

Along these lines, I ran into this site out on X/Twitter. We’ll see how this unfolds, but it will be an interesting space to watch.

Project Chiron's vision: Our vision for education Every child will soon have a super-intelligent AI teacher by their side. We want to make sure they instill a love of learning in children.


From DSC:
This future learning platform will also focus on developing skills and competencies. Along those lines, see:

Scale for Skills-First — from the-job.beehiiv.com by Paul Fain
An ed-tech giant’s ambitious moves into digital credentialing and learner records.

A Digital Canvas for Skills
Instructure was a player in the skills and credentials space before its recent acquisition of Parchment, a digital transcript company. But that $800M move made many observers wonder if Instructure can develop digital records of skills that learners, colleges, and employers might actually use broadly.

Ultimately, he says, the CLR approach will allow students to bring these various learning types into a coherent format for employers.

Instructure seeks a leadership role in working with other organizations to establish common standards for credentials and learner records, to help create consistency. The company collaborates closely with 1EdTech. And last month it helped launch the 1EdTech TrustEd Microcredential Coalition, which aims to increase quality and trust in digital credentials.

Paul also links to 1EDTECH’s page regarding the Comprehensive Learning Record

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian