Generative AI has taken the world by storm since OpenAI launched ChatGPT-3 in November 2022. Generative AI is characterized by its capacity to generate human-like content based on deep learning models in response to prompts. There is a wealth of opinions about how this will impact higher education spanning from the need to limit the use in the protection of higher education to embracing the tool as a means to improve higher education. In this webinar session, speakers from different regions shared their views and perspectives and discuss how Generative AI will transform higher education. What are the challenges to be addressed and which opportunities can be pursued to improve the quality of higher education? Watch the webinar and learn about the uncertainties, tensions, and opportunities triggered by Generative AI.
Trust and Transparency Are Key Factors When Using AI in Academia — from by Dr. Andrew Lang Much can be learned from embracing artificial intelligence in the teaching and learning process. Here, two professors share their experiences using ChatGPT freely in the classroom.
The AI-Education Divide— from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Philippa Hardman How the rise of AI has reinforced inequity in education (and what we need to do to reverse it) .
Coursera’s Global Skills Report for 2023 — from coursera.org Benchmark talent and transform your workforce with skill development and career readiness insights drawn from 124M+ learners.
Excerpt:
Uncover global skill trends
See how millions of registered learners in 100 countries are strengthening critical business, technology, and data science skills.
Merlyn Mind, an AI-powered digital assistant platform, announced the launch of a suite of large language models (LLMs) specifically tailored for the education sector under an open-source license.
Designing courses in an age of AI— from teachinginhighered.com by Maria Andersen Maria Andersen shares about designing courses in an age of artificial intelligence (AI) on episode 469 of the Teaching in Higher Ed podcast.
With generative AI, we have an incredible acceleration of change happening.
Their most recognisable role is to partner with faculty and provide them with inspiration, expertise and support in their teaching. But a broader role is emerging at institutional level- helping create a culture where people value talking about teaching and more generally, fostering a culture of continuous learning. In this respect, CTLs act as agents of change, aiming to influence the organizational (learning) environment.
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CTLs are part of an ecosystem, internally and externally, and they have the potential to play a very important role, that of a network node. Internally, this can mean connecting various silos within the university, a much needed task, while externally it implies establishing collaboration flows with other CTLs that can in turn lead to broader inter-university collaboration. Making use of the full potential of this role can make a big difference for the success of a CTL.
Speaking of Teaching & Learning Centers, also see:
7 Questions on Engaging Faculty in Digital Accessibility — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly We asked the Technical College System of Georgia’s accessibility champions how they help instructors create a more inclusive learning experience for all students.
Schools and organizations are human systems, filled with opportunities.
And yet there is a profound difference between building from a foundation of schooling and building from a foundation of learning.
Rather than simply replicate and scale the arrangements of schooling, we must seize the possibility to shift from a schooling system to a learning ecosystem to truly empower learners, educators, and parents to create a virtuous future for themselves and their communities.
Louka Parry
Our challenge will be how we choose to redesign and remake our experiences, environments, and ecosystems so that we unlock our true creative potential and thrive in the future.
An instrument for a city: An audio project filling one of London’s busiest roads with serene sounds
Why shouldn’t we have a piece of audio infrastructure as we do with lighting (lampposts) or seating, and use it to enable us to change the sound of a place, not once every 300 years but every second? We could transform the street using the sound of a rainforest into the sound of a river into the sound of voices.
From DSC: A very interesting idea here. I can’t help but think there are applications of this type of thing within some of our learning spaces out there.
The generative AI announcements are coming fast and furious these days, but among the biggest in terms of sheer dollar commitments just landed: Accenture, the global professional services and consulting giant, today announced it will invest $3 billion (with a “b”!) in AI over the next three years in building out its team of AI professionals and AI-focused solutions for its clients.
“There is unprecedented interest in all areas of AI, and the substantial investment we are making in our Data & AI practice will help our clients move from interest to action to value, and in a responsible way with clear business cases,” said Julie Sweet, Accenture’s chairwoman and CEO.
Also related/see:
Artificial intelligence creates 40,000 new roles at Accenture— from computerweekly.com by Karl Flinders Accenture is planning to add thousands of AI experts to its workforce as part of a $3bn investment in its data and artificial intelligence practice
Why leaders need to evolve alongside generative AI — from fastcompany.com by Kelsey Behringer Even if you’re not an educator, you should not be sitting on the sidelines watching the generative AI conversation being had around you—hop in.
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
Leaders should be careful to watch and support education right now. At the end of the day, the students sitting in K-12 and college classrooms are going to be future CPAs, lawyers, writers, and teachers. If you are parenting a child, you have skin in the game. If you use professional services, you have skin in the game. When it comes to education, we all have skin in the game. … Students need to master fundamental skills like editing, questioning, researching, and verifying claims before they can use generative AI exceptionally well.
[On 6/15/23, I joined] colleagues from OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Stanford, Harvard and other others at the first meeting of the GenAI Summit. Our shared goal [was] to help to educate universities & schools in Europe about the impact of Generative AI on their work.
…how can we effectively communicate to education professionals that generative AI will enhance their work rather than replace them?
A recent controlled study found that ChatGPT can help professionals increase their efficiency in routine tasks by ~35%. If we keep in mind that the productivity gains brought by the steam engine in the nineteenth century was ~25%, this is huge.
As educators, we should embrace the power of ChatGPT to automate the repetitive tasks which we’ve been distracted by for decades. Lesson planning, content creation, assessment design, grading and feedback – generative AI can help us to do all of these things faster than ever before, freeing us up to focus on where we bring most value for our students.
SAN FRANCISCO, June 15 (Reuters) – Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) is cautioning employees about how they use chatbots, including its own Bard, at the same time as it markets the program around the world, four people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
The Google parent has advised employees not to enter its confidential materials into AI chatbots, the people said and the company confirmed, citing long-standing policy on safeguarding information.
Adobe Firefly for the Enterprise — Dream Bigger with Adobe Firefly. Dream it, type it, see it with Firefly, our creative generative AI engine. Now in Photoshop (beta), Illustrator, Adobe Express, and on the web.
AI21 Labs concludes largest Turing Test experiment to date — from ai21.com As part of an ongoing social and educational research project, AI21 Labs is thrilled to share the initial results of what has now become the largest Turing Test in history by scale. .
But whereas Finland’s schools are still characterized by a culture of teaching, Oodi stands as a beacon of learning — self-organizing, emergent, and overflowing with the life force of its inhabitants. .
From DSC: As the above got me to thinking about learning spaces, here’s another somewhat relevant item from Steelcase:
Addendum on 6/6/23:
Also relevant to the first item in this posting, see:
Looking for Miracles in the Wrong Places — from nataliewexler.substack.com by Natalie Wexler An “edutourist” in Finland finds the ideal school, but it isn’t a school at all.
Counterpoint/excerpt:
It sounds appealing, but any country following that route is not only likely to find itself at the bottom of the PISA heap. It’s also likely to do a profound disservice to many of its children, particularly those from less highly educated families, who depend on teachers to impart information they don’t already have and to systematically build their knowledge.
Of course it’s possible for explicit, teacher-directed instruction to be soul-crushing for students. But it certainly doesn’t have to be, and there’s no indication from Mr. X’s account that the students in the schools he visited felt their experience was oppressive. When teachers get good training—of the kind apparently provided in Finland—they know how to engage students in the content they’re teaching and guide them to think about it deeply and analytically.
That’s not oppressive. In fact, it’s the key to enabling students to reach their full potential. In that sense, it’s liberating.
What would artists create if all of the world’s surfaces could become a canvas? Joseph Ford—of Invisible Jumpers fame—responds to this question in a new project called Impossible Street Art. Collaborating with eight artists including Peeta, Levalet, and Victoria Villasana, Ford reimagines the possibilities of public spaces that are otherwise inaccessible due to scale, safety issues, or restrictions.
No better way for Judges to learn about both how AI could improve courts and the risks of AI (e.g., deepfakes) than to experiment with it.
Check out the AI avatars that @Judgeschlegel created: https://t.co/UqbJ2PHA09#AI4Law#Law4AI
Most reported feeling the justice system was “unfair,” and many described a sense of “the odds being stacked against them.”
Advocates say the rising number of lawyer-free litigants is problematic. The legal system is meant to be adversarial — with strong lawyers on each side — but the high rate of self-representation creates lopsided justice, pitting an untrained individual against a professional.
AI will likely make lawyer’s jobs easier (or, at least, more interesting) for some tasks, however the effects it may have on the legal profession could be the real legacy of the technology. Schafer pointed to its potential to improve access to justice for people who want legal representation but can’t get it for whatever reason.
This year’s Global Sentiment Survey – the tenth – paints a picture that is both familiar and unusual. In our 2020 survey report, we noted that ‘Data dominates this year’s survey’. It does so again this year, with the near 4,000 respondents showing a strong interest in AI, Skills-based talent management and Learning analytics (in positions #2, #3 and #4), all of which rely on data. The table is topped by Reskilling/upskilling, in the #1 spot for the third year running. .
From DSC: It was interesting to see how people are using AI these days. The article mentioned things from planning Gluten Free (GF) meals to planning gardens, workouts, and more. Faculty members, staff, students, researchers and educators in general may findElicit, ScholarcyandSciteto be useful tools. I put in a question at Elicit and it looks interesting. I like their interface, which allows me to quickly resort things. .
There Is No A.I. — from newyorker.com by Jaron Lanier There are ways of controlling the new technology—but first we have to stop mythologizing it.
Excerpts:
If the new tech isn’t true artificial intelligence, then what is it? In my view, the most accurate way to understand what we are building today is as an innovative form of social collaboration.
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The new programs mash up work done by human minds. What’s innovative is that the mashup process has become guided and constrained, so that the results are usable and often striking. This is a significant achievement and worth celebrating—but it can be thought of as illuminating previously hidden concordances between human creations, rather than as the invention of a new mind.
