ideas

Reflections on “Introducing Copilot Actions, new agents, and tools to empower IT teams” [Spataro]

On 11/21/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, Daniel S. Christian, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, Microsoft, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Introducing Copilot Actions, new agents, and tools to empower IT teams — from microsoft.com by Jared Spataro

[On November 19th] at Microsoft Ignite 2024, we’re accelerating our ambition to empower every employee with Copilot as a personal assistant and to transform every business process with agents built in Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Announcements include:

Copilot Actions in Microsoft 365 Copilot to help you automate everyday repetitive tasks.
New agents in Microsoft 365 to unlock SharePoint knowledge, provide real-time language interpretation in Microsoft Teams meetings, and automate employee self-service.
The Copilot Control System to help IT professionals confidently manage Copilot and agents securely.

These announcements build on our wave 2 momentum, including the new autonomous agent capabilities that we announced in October 2024.

Per the Rundown AI:

By integrating AI agents directly into Microsoft’s billion-plus users’ daily workflows, this release could normalize agentic AI faster than any previous rollout. Just as users now reach for specific apps or plugins to solve particular problems, specialized agents could soon become the natural first stop for getting work done.

Along these lines, also see:

AI agents — what they are, and how they’ll change the way we work — from news.microsoft.com by Susanna Ray

An agent takes the power of generative AI a step further, because instead of just assisting you, agents can work alongside you or even on your behalf. Agents can do a range of things, from responding to questions to more complicated or multistep assignments. What sets them apart from a personal assistant is that they can be tailored to have a particular expertise.

For example, you could create an agent to know everything about your company’s product catalog so it can draft detailed responses to customer questions or automatically compile product details for an upcoming presentation.

Microsoft pitches AI ‘agents’ that can perform tasks on their own at Ignite 2024 — from techxplore.com
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told customers at a conference in Chicago on Tuesday that the company is teaching a new set of artificial intelligence tools how to “act on our behalf across our work and life.”

From DSC:
I am not trying to push all things AI. There are serious concerns that I and others have with agents and other AI-based technologies especially:

When competitive juices get going and such forces throw people and companies into a sort of an AI arms race, and
When many people haven’t yet obtained the wisdom of reflecting on things like “just because we CAN build this doesn’t mean we SHOULD build it”, or
When governments seek to be the leader of AI due to military applications (and yes, I’m looking at the U.S. Federal Government especially here)
Etc, etc.

But there are also areas where I’m more hopeful and positive about AI-related technologies — such as providing personalized learning and productivity tools (like those from Microsoft above).

VR training aims to help doctors avoid bias — from inavateonthenet.net

A new virtual reality training programme aims to tackle biases in healthcare settings, aimed at improving recognition, understanding, and addressing implicit bias towards black mothers.

Participants in the program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign underwent a series of three modules, with the first module focusing on implicit bias and how it can negatively affect a patient at a doctor’s appointment.

What DICE does in this posting will be available 24x7x365 in the future [Christian]

On 11/20/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, changing business models, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, MBA, microlearning, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), neurodivergent/special needs, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, remote teaching and learning, skills, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, training / L&D, universities, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
First of all, when you look at the following posting:

What Top Tech Skills Should You Learn for 2025? — from dice.com by Nick Kolakowski

…you will see that they outline which skills you should consider mastering in 2025 if you want to stay on top of the latest career opportunities. They then list more information about the skills, how you apply the skills, and WHERE to get those skills.

I assert that in the future, people will be able to see this information on a 24x7x365 basis.

Which jobs are in demand?
What skills do I need to do those jobs?
WHERE do I get/develop those skills?

And that last part (about the WHERE do I develop those skills) will pull from many different institutions, people, companies, etc.

BUT PEOPLE are the key! Oftentimes, we need to — and prefer to — learn with others!

Integrating Active Learning in Large STEM Lectures [Pinto]

On 11/19/2024, in active learning, adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, ideas, instructional design, Learning Experience Design, pedagogy, teaching & learning, United States, by Daniel Christian

Integrating Active Learning in Large STEM Lectures — from scholarlyteacher.com by Gabriele Pinto

Key Statement: Implementing elements of active learning into a large course may seem daunting task, but think-pair-share aided by quizzing and clickers can be done in any size classroom.

Many teachers do not realize how seamless it can be to shift their lectures towards a more active learning environment. In this article, we looked at how think-pair-share (TPS) is a simple activity that can be easily introduced and integrated within a lecture framework. We also explored how clickers and quizzing may fit into course design to provide greater tools of participation for the students and enrich their classroom experience and study patterns. These implementations, which do not involve drastic and daunting changes to lecturing, will improve student engagement and learning, and will allow the instructor to better gauge the state of the class, evaluate and adjust content pacing accordingly, and enrich his own teaching experience, as well as the students’ education.

A Code-Red Leadership Crisis: A Wake-Up Call for Talent Development [Williams]

On 11/13/2024, in bots, business, career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, interaction design, interactivity, leadership, organizational change, personalized/customized learning, training / L&D, wearables, by Daniel Christian

A Code-Red Leadership Crisis: A Wake-Up Call for Talent Development — from learningguild.com by Dr. Arika Pierce Williams

This company’s experience offers three crucial lessons for other organizational leaders who may be contemplating cutting or reducing talent development investments in their 2025 budgets to focus on “growth.”

Leadership development isn’t a luxury – it’s a strategic imperative…
Succession planning must be an ongoing process, not a reactive measure…
The cost of developing leaders is far less than the cost of not having them when you need them most…

Also from The Learning Guild, see:

5 Key EdTech Innovations to Watch — from learningguild.com by Paige Yousey

AI-driven course design
Hyper-personalized content curation
Immersive scenario-based training
Smart chatbots
Wearable devices

What’s a Special Education Aide Worth? A $9,607 Raise, to the Average Teacher [Lovison & Hyunjung Mo]

On 11/13/2024, in education, education reform, ideas, K-12 related, leadership, neurodivergent/special needs, productivity / tips and tricks, strategy, student-related, teachers, by Daniel Christian

What’s a Special Education Aide Worth? A $9,607 Raise, to the Average Teacher — from educationnext.org by Virginia S. Lovison and Cecilia Hyunjung Mo
Survey evidence shows teachers would trade additional salary for expert support

Teachers’ preferences are clear: they want to work where they will have the support of full-time experts in special education and pediatric physical and mental health. An overwhelming majority describe these supports as “beneficial” or “extremely beneficial” when asked to rate special-education co-teachers (93 percent) and paraprofessionals (92 percent), as well as counselors (89 percent) and school nurses (88 percent).

These roles are so important that teachers are willing to forgo salary increases when asked to choose between the two. Our analysis shows the average teacher is willing to trade a 21 percent raise for the full-time support of a special-education co-teacher and an 18 percent raise for a full-time special-education aide.

Also from Education Next, see:

The Education Exchange: Hoover Institution Proposes Massive K–12 School Reform — from educationnext.org by Paul E. Peterson
Education Futures Council recommends putting teachers and principals in charge

Macke Raymond, a Distinguished Research Fellow at the Hoover Institution and director of the Center for Research on Education Outcomes (CREDO) at Stanford University, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss a report from the Education Futures Council, which looks to identify and remove barriers to student success within the K-12 educational system.

From DSC:
I like the sound of putting teachers and principals in charge! As I just mentioned the other day, those on “the front line” (so to speak) know what’s working, what’s not working, and how best to fix things. Less legislators, more teachers.

“How to File a Lawsuit by Yourself: A Simple Guide” [Slone] — DC: Will there be more of this in the future?

On 11/13/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), experimentation, ideas, innovation, vendors, Virtual courts and law firms, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

How to File a Lawsuit by Yourself: A Simple Guide — from courtroom5.com by Debra Slone

I can say from personal experience that when you know how to file a lawsuit on your own, you’re more likely to assert your rights in all walks of life. Simply understanding the process of taking someone to court can change your life.

Introduction
Filing a civil lawsuit without a lawyer can be challenging, but many people do it to stand up for their rights. At Courtroom5, we understand the courage it takes to represent yourself, and we’re here to help. This guide will give you the essential knowledge and steps to file a civil lawsuit on your own. With clear instructions and practical tools, we aim to make the process easier and boost your confidence as you start your case.

Self-representation, or “pro se” litigation, requires more than basic knowledge of the law. It involves research, preparation, and understanding court rules. Our goal is to break down these tasks, making each step manageable from filing to finishing your case.

From DSC:
I haven’t used this site myself. But I post this item because we have a MAJOR issue here in the U.S. with Access To Justice (A2J) — the vast majority of CIVIL lawsuits are heavily tilted towards those who know how the game is played. The winners know what to do, they’ve been trained. But those without representation lose most of the time.

So I’m hoping that such online-based materials and services — including AI-based tools and platforms — can significantly alter this troublesome situation. So that’s why I’m posting this.

Using AI to brainstorm students own learning objectives [Potkalitsky] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 11/13/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, ethics, experimentation, faculty/staff, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, liberal arts, mathematics, morals/values, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, UK, United States, universities, vendors, youth, by Daniel Christian

“The Value of Doing Things: What AI Agents Mean for Teachers” — from nickpotkalitsky.substack.com by guest author Jason Gulya, Professor of English and Applied Media at Berkeley College in New York City

AI Agents make me nervous. Really nervous.

I wish they didn’t.

I wish I could write that the last two years have made me more confident, more self-assured that AI is here to augment workers rather than replace them.

But I can’t.

I wish I could write that I know where schools and colleges will end up. I wish I could say that AI Agents will help us get where we need to be.

But I can’t.

At this point, today, I’m at a loss. I’m not sure where the rise of AI agents will take us, in terms of how we work and learn. I’m in the question-asking part of my journey. I have few answers.

So, let’s talk about where (I think) AI Agents will take education. And who knows? Maybe as I write I’ll come up with something more concrete.

It’s worth a shot, right?

From DSC:
I completely agree with Jason’s following assertion:

A good portion of AI advancement will come down to employee replacement. And AI Agents push companies towards that.

THAT’s where/what the ROI will be for corporations. They will make their investments up in the headcount area, and likely in other areas as well (product design, marketing campaigns, engineering-related items, and more). But how much time it takes to get there is a big question mark.

One last quote here…it’s too good not to include:

Behind these questions lies a more abstract, more philosophical one: what is the relationship between thinking and doing in a world of AI Agents and other kinds of automation?

How Good are Claude, ChatGPT & Gemini at Instructional Design? — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr Philippa Hardman
A test of AI’s Instruction Design skills in theory & in practice

By examining models across three AI families—Claude, ChatGPT, and Gemini—I’ve started to identify each model’s strengths, limitations, and typical pitfalls.

Spoiler: my findings underscore that until we have specialised, fine-tuned AI copilots for instructional design, we should be cautious about relying on general-purpose models and ensure expert oversight in all ID tasks.

From DSC — I’m going to (have Nick) say this again:
I simply asked my students to use AI to brainstorm their own learning objectives. No restrictions. No predetermined pathways. Just pure exploration. The results? Astonishing.

Students began mapping out research directions I’d never considered. They created dialogue spaces with AI that looked more like intellectual partnerships than simple query-response patterns.

The Digital Literacy Quest: Become an AI Hero — from gamma.app

From DSC:
I have not gone through all of these online-based materials, but I like what they are trying to get at:

Confidence with AI
Students gain practical skills and confidence in using AI tools effectively.
Ethical Navigation
Learn to navigate the ethical landscape of AI with integrity and responsibility. Make informed decisions about AI usage.
Mastering Essential Skills
Develop critical thinking and problem-solving skills in the context of AI.

Expanding access to the Gemini app for teen students in education — from workspaceupdates.googleblog.com

Google Workspace for Education admins can now turn on the Gemini app with added data protection as an additional service for their teen users (ages 13+ or the applicable age in your country) in the following languages and countries. With added data protection, chats are not reviewed by human reviewers or otherwise used to improve AI models. The Gemini app will be a core service in the coming weeks for Education Standard and Plus users, including teens,

5 Essential Questions Educators Have About AI — from edsurge.com by Annie Ning

Recently, I spoke with several teachers regarding their primary questions and reflections on using AI in teaching and learning. Their thought-provoking responses challenge us to consider not only what AI can do but what it means for meaningful and equitable learning environments. Keeping in mind these reflections, we can better understand how we move forward toward meaningful AI integration in education.

FrontierMath: A Benchmark for Evaluating Advanced Mathematical Reasoning in AI — from epoch.ai
FrontierMath presents hundreds of unpublished, expert-level mathematics problems that specialists spend days solving. It offers an ongoing measure of AI complex mathematical reasoning progress.

We’re introducing FrontierMath, a benchmark of hundreds of original, expert-crafted mathematics problems designed to evaluate advanced reasoning capabilities in AI systems. These problems span major branches of modern mathematics—from computational number theory to abstract algebraic geometry—and typically require hours or days for expert mathematicians to solve.

Rising demand for AI courses in UK universities shows 453% growth as students adapt to an AI-driven job market — from edtechinnovationhub.com

The demand for artificial intelligence courses in UK universities has surged dramatically over the past five years, with enrollments increasing by 453%, according to a recent study by Currys, a UK tech retailer.

The study, which analyzed UK university admissions data and surveyed current students and recent graduates, reveals how the growing influence of AI is shaping students’ educational choices and career paths.

This growth reflects the broader trend of AI integration across industries, creating new opportunities while transforming traditional roles. With AI’s influence on career prospects rising, students and graduates are increasingly drawn to AI-related courses to stay competitive in a rapidly changing job market.

Reflections on “7 Urgent Changes to Stop the Teacher Shortage Crisis” [Cates]

On 11/07/2024, in education, education reform, ideas, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, strategy, teachers, by Daniel Christian

7 Urgent Changes to Stop the Teacher Shortage Crisis — from teachingexpertise.com by Natalie Cates

In the past few years, the teacher shortage has reached critical levels. According to recent surveys, about 30% of teachers plan to leave their jobs in the next year, and 40% of those are considering leaving education altogether. Even more shocking is that only 16% of educators would strongly recommend the profession to others. This isn’t just a temporary problem; it’s a crisis that threatens the future of education. Teachers are burned out, undervalued, and overwhelmed by growing demands.

The question is: What needs to change? What will it take to stop the mass exodus from education and create an environment where teachers want to stay and thrive?

Below are the key areas that need urgent reform if we want to stop the teacher shortage and rebuild a sustainable, respected profession.

Micromanagement is a key contributor to teacher burnout. Teachers are bogged down with endless paperwork, restrictive policies, and constant oversight, leaving little room for creativity or autonomy in their classrooms. Instead of focusing on teaching, educators are often tied up with administrative tasks that serve little purpose in improving student outcomes.
…
“AMEN!! These are so accurate about what is needed in education.”, as what most teachers exclaimed. Teachers are professionals, and they deserve to be treated as such. Restoring autonomy is key to retaining talented educators.

From DSC:
I believe in giving those on the front lines — of anything (business, government, education, other) — as much control, autonomy, and power as possible. I hold this position because those are the folks who really know what’s going on, what’s working and what’s not working, and how best to fix things.

So I’m all in favor of trusting our teachers to tell us what they need and want to do. We need less input and control from legislators and more input and control from teachers.

Is Generative AI and ChatGPT healthy for Students? — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer and Nick Potkalitsky
Beyond Text Generation: How AI Ignites Student Discovery and Deep Thinking, according to firsthand experiences of Teachers and AI researchers like Nick Potkalitsky.

After two years of intensive experimentation with AI in education, I am witnessing something amazing unfolding before my eyes. While much of the world fixates on AI’s generative capabilities—its ability to create essays, stories, and code—my students have discovered something far more powerful: exploratory AI, a dynamic partner in investigation and critique that’s transforming how they think.
…
They’ve moved beyond the initial fascination with AI-generated content to something far more sophisticated: using AI as an exploratory tool for investigation, interrogation, and intellectual discovery.
…
Instead of the much-feared “shutdown” of critical thinking, we’re witnessing something extraordinary: the emergence of what I call “generative thinking”—a dynamic process where students learn to expand, reshape, and evolve their ideas through meaningful exploration with AI tools. Here I consciously reposition the term “generative” as a process of human origination, although one ultimately spurred on by machine input.

A Road Map for Leveraging AI at a Smaller Institution — from er.educause.edu by Dave Weil and Jill Forrester
Smaller institutions and others may not have the staffing and resources needed to explore and take advantage of developments in artificial intelligence (AI) on their campuses. This article provides a roadmap to help institutions with more limited resources advance AI use on their campuses.

The following activities can help smaller institutions better understand AI and lay a solid foundation that will allow them to benefit from it.

Understand the impact…
Understand the different types of AI tools…
Focus on institutional data and knowledge repositories…

Smaller institutions do not need to fear being left behind in the wake of rapid advancements in AI technologies and tools. By thinking intentionally about how AI will impact the institution, becoming familiar with the different types of AI tools, and establishing a strong data and analytics infrastructure, institutions can establish the groundwork for AI success. The five fundamental activities of coordinating, learning, planning and governing, implementing, and reviewing and refining can help smaller institutions make progress on their journey to use AI tools to gain efficiencies and improve students’ experiences and outcomes while keeping true to their institutional missions and values.

Also from Educause, see:

From Hype to Help: Making GenAI Useful for Enterprise Reporting and Data Analytics — from er.educause.edu by Craig Rudick

AI school opens – learners are not good or bad but fast and slow — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

That is what they are doing here. Lesson plans focus on learners rather than the traditional teacher-centric model. Assessing prior strengths and weaknesses, personalising to focus more on weaknesses and less on things known or mastered. It’s adaptive, personalised learning. The idea that everyone should learn at the exactly same pace, within the same timescale is slightly ridiculous, ruled by the need for timetabling a one to many, classroom model.

For the first time in the history of our species we have technology that performs some of the tasks of teaching. We have reached a pivot point where this can be tried and tested. My feeling is that we’ll see a lot more of this, as parents and general teachers can delegate a lot of the exposition and teaching of the subject to the technology. We may just see a breakthrough that transforms education.

Agentic AI Named Top Tech Trend for 2025 — from campustechnology.com by David Ramel

Agentic AI will be the top tech trend for 2025, according to research firm Gartner. The term describes autonomous machine “agents” that move beyond query-and-response generative chatbots to do enterprise-related tasks without human guidance.
…
More realistic challenges that the firm has listed elsewhere include:

- Agentic AI proliferating without governance or tracking;
- Agentic AI making decisions that are not trustworthy;
- Agentic AI relying on low-quality data;
- Employee resistance; and
- Agentic-AI-driven cyberattacks enabling “smart malware.”

Also from campustechnology.com, see:

New OpenAI Swarm Framework Offers Experimental Tool for Multi-Agent AI Networks — by John K. Waters
OpenAI has introduced a new open source framework designed to simplify the development and management of multi-agent AI systems that can collaborate autonomously to perform tasks.

Three items from edcircuit.com:

All or nothing at Educause24 — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Kevin Kelly
Looking for specific solutions at the conference exhibit hall, with an educator focus

Here are some notable trends:

Alignment with campus policies: …
Choose your own AI adventure: …
Integrate AI throughout a workflow: …
Moving from prompt engineering to bot building: …
More complex problem-solving: …

…
Not all AI news is good news. In particular, AI has exacerbated the problem of fraudulent enrollment–i.e., rogue actors who use fake or stolen identities with the intent of stealing financial aid funding with no intention of completing coursework.
…
The consequences are very real, including financial aid funding going to criminal enterprises, enrollment estimates getting dramatically skewed, and legitimate students being blocked from registering for classes that appear “full” due to large numbers of fraudulent enrollments.

Boosting Student Engagement with Interactive and Practical Teaching Methods — from campustechnology.com by Dr. Lucas Long

One of my biggest goals as an educator is to show students how the material they learn in class can be applied to real-world situations. In my finance courses, this often means taking what we’re learning about financial calculations and connecting it to decisions they’ll have to make as adults. For example, I’ve used real-life scenarios like buying a car with a loan, paying off student debt, saving for a wedding, or calculating mortgage payments for a future home purchase. I even use salary data to show students what they could realistically afford given average salaries after graduation, helping them relate to the financial decisions they will face after college.

These practical examples don’t just keep students engaged; they also demonstrate the immediate value of learning financial principles. I often hear students express frustration when they feel like they’re learning concepts that won’t apply to their lives. But when I use real scenarios and provide tools like financial calculators to show them exactly how they’ll use this knowledge in their future, their attitude changes. They become more motivated to engage with the material because they see its relevance beyond the classroom.

“AI Tutors Double Rates of Learning in Less Learning Time” [Hardman] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 11/01/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, platforms, podcasting, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

AI Tutors Double Rates of Learning in Less Learning Time — by drphilippahardman.substack.com Dr. Philippa Hardman
Inside Harvard’s new groundbreaking study

Conclusion
This Harvard study provides robust evidence that AI tutoring, when thoughtfully designed, can significantly enhance learning outcomes. The combination of doubled learning gains, increased engagement, and reduced time to competency suggests we’re seeing just the beginning of AI’s potential in education and that its potential is significant.

If this data is anything to go by, and if we – as humans – are open and willing to acting on it, it’s possible AI will have a significant and for some deeply positive impact on how we design and deliver learning experiences.

That said, as we look forward, the question shouldn’t just be, “how AI can enhance current educational methods?”, but also “how it might AI transform the very nature of learning itself?”. With continued research and careful implementation, we could be moving toward an era of education that’s more effective but also more accessible than ever before.

Three Quick Examples of Teaching with and about Generative AI — from derekbruff.org Derek Bruff

Text-to-Podcast.
Assigning Students to Groups.
AI Acceptable Use Scale.

Also from Derek’s blog, see:

From Mike Sharples on LinkedIn:

ChatGPT’s free voice wizard — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
How and why to try the new Advanced Voice Mode

7 surprisingly practical ways to use voice AI
Opening up ChatGPT’s Advanced Voice Mode (AVM) is like conjuring a tutor eager to help with whatever simple — or crazy — query you throw at it. Talking is more fluid and engaging than typing, especially if you’re out and about. It’s not a substitute for human expertise, but AVM provides valuable machine intelligence.

Get a virtual museum tour. …
Chat with historical figures….
Practice languages. …
Explore books. …
Others…

Though not AI-related, this is along the lines of edtech:

MoodleMoot Global 24 Conference Notes — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Glenda Morgan
A first look at Moodle under new leadership

Here’s the link to access it: https://t.co/kHq0S2r4aD

It’s only available in the US at the moment, but it works with a VPN.

Truly the best tool for learning a new subject I’ve tried so far.

— Paul Couvert (@itsPaulAi) October 31, 2024

…which links to:

Are ChatGPT, Claude & NotebookLM *Really* Disrupting Education? — from drphilippahardman.substack.com
Evaluating Gen AI’s *real* impact on human learning

The TLDR here is that, as useful as popular AI tools are for learners, as things stand they only enable us to take the very first steps on what is a long and complex journey of learning.

AI tools like ChatGPT 4o, Claude 3.5 & NotebookLM can help to give us access to information but (for now at least) the real work of learning remains in our – the humans’ – hands.

To which Anna Mills had a solid comment:

It might make a lot of sense to regulate generated audio to require some kind of watermark and/or metadata. Instructors who teach online and assign voice recordings, we need to recognize that these are now very easy and free to auto-generate. In some cases we are assigning this to discourage students from using AI to just autogenerate text responses, but audio is not immune.

An AI/robotic-based idea for automakers/suppliers out there [Christian]

On 10/17/2024, in 21st century, assistive technologies, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engineering, entrepreneurship, future, ideas, innovation, robotics, tools, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Whenever we’ve had a flat tire over the years, a tricky part of the repair process is jacking up the car so that no harm is done to the car (or to me!). There are some grooves underneath the Toyota Camry where one is supposed to put the jack. But as the car is very low to the ground, these grooves are very hard to find (even in good weather and light).

What’s needed is a robotic jack with vision.

If the jack had “vision” and had wheels on it, the device could locate the exact location of the grooves, move there, and then ask the owner whether they are ready for the car to be lifted up. The owner could execute that order when they are ready and the robotic jack could safely hoist the car up.

This type of robotic device is already out there in other areas. But this idea for assistance with replacing a flat tire represents an AI and robotic-based, consumer-oriented application that we’ll likely be seeing much more of in the future. Carmakers and suppliers, please add this one to your list!

Daniel

Norway law decrees: Let childhood be childhood — from hechingerreport.org by Jackie Mader
In the Scandinavian country, early childhood education is a national priority, enshrined in law

Ullmann’s conclusion embodies one of Norway’s goals for its citizens: to build a nation of thriving adults by providing childhoods that are joyful, secure and inclusive. Perhaps nowhere is this belief manifested more clearly than in the nation’s approach to early child care. (In Norway, all education for children 5 and under is referred to as “barnehagen,” the local translation of “kindergarten.”) To an American, the Norwegian philosophy, both in policy and in practice, could feel alien. The government’s view isn’t that child care is a place to put children so parents can work, or even to prepare children for the rigors of elementary school. It’s about protecting childhood.

“A really important pillar of Norway’s early ed philosophy is the value of childhood in itself,” said Henrik D. Zachrisson, a professor at the Centre for Research on Equality in Education at the University of Oslo. “Early ed is supposed to be a place where children can be children and have the best childhood possible.”

Learning Ecosystems

VR training aims to help doctors avoid bias [inavateonthenet.net]

Integrating Active Learning in Large STEM Lectures [Pinto]

A Code-Red Leadership Crisis: A Wake-Up Call for Talent Development [Williams]

“How to File a Lawsuit by Yourself: A Simple Guide” [Slone] — DC: Will there be more of this in the future?

An AI/robotic-based idea for automakers/suppliers out there [Christian]

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