Generative AI and the future of work in America — from mckinsey.com by Kweilin Ellingrud, Saurabh Sanghvi, Gurneet Singh Dandona, Anu Madgavkar, Michael Chui, Olivia White, and Paige Hasebe

At a glance

  • During the pandemic (2019–22), the US labor market saw 8.6 million occupational shifts, 50 percent more than in the previous three-year period.
  • By 2030, activities that account for up to 30 percent of hours currently worked across the US economy could be automated—a trend accelerated by generative AI.
  • Federal investment to address climate and infrastructure, as well as structural shifts, will also alter labor demand.
  • An additional 12 million occupational transitions may be needed by 2030.
  • The United States will need workforce development on a far larger scale as well as more expansive hiring approaches from employers.

Employers will need to hire for skills and competencies rather than credentials, recruit from overlooked populations (such as rural workers and people with disabilities), and deliver training that keeps pace with their evolving needs.


The AI-Powered, Totally Autonomous Future of War Is Here — from wired.com by Will Knight
Ships without crews. Self-directed drone swarms. How a US Navy task force is using off-the-shelf robotics and artificial intelligence to prepare for the next age of conflict.

From DSC:
Hhhhmmmmm…..not good. Is anyone surprised by this? No, I didn’t think so either. That’s why the United States and China are so heated up about semiconductor chips.


AI puts glitch in graduates’ employment plans — from hrdive.com by Ginger Christ
Recent grads are worried how AI will affect their career prospects, a new survey found.

Excerpt:

  • The proliferation of new technologies like generative artificial intelligence is making recent graduates uneasy, a new study released Thursday found. A third of the 1,000 people who graduated in the past year said they are second-guessing their career choice, while roughly half reported questioning their workforce preparedness and feeling threatened by AI, according to the 2023 Employability Report by Cengage Group, a global education technology company.

“The workplace has changed rapidly in the last few years, and now we are witnessing a new shift as AI begins to reshape worker productivity, job requirements, hiring habits and even entire industries,” Michael Hansen, Cengage Group CEO, said in a news release. 

Along these lines, also see:

AI Boom Creates Concerns for Recent Graduates — from insidehighered.com by  Lauren Coffey

More than half of recent graduates question whether they are properly prepared for the workforce in light of the rise of artificial intelligence, a survey finds.

There is also more of a preference for skills training credentials. Among employers, nearly 40 percent said skills training credentials are most important, while only 19 percent ranked a college degree as most important.

However, recent graduates did cite an issue with most higher education institutions’ ability to teach employability skills. In 2023, 43 percent of students said their degree program taught them the necessary skills for their first job, down 20 percentage points from 2022.


Instructure, Khan Academy Announce Major Partnership On AI Tutoring, Teaching
— from forbes.com by Derek Newton

The news is that Instructure, one of the few public education companies and the market leader in learning management with their signature product Canvas, struck a partnership with Khan Academy to create an AI-powered tutoring and teaching assistant tool – merging Khan’s innovative instructional content and Instructure’s significant reach, scale, and data insights. The partnership and related tools will be known as Khanmigo, according to the announcement.

On brand names alone, this is a big deal. On potential impact, it could be even bigger.


How To Use AI to Write Scenarios — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
How can you use AI to write scenarios for learning? Read this example with prompts and results using ChatGPT and Bard.

Excerpts:

So far, I have found these tools helpful in generating ideas, writing first drafts, and summarizing. They work better for general knowledge tasks than really specific topics unless I provide more details to them, which makes sense.

This post isn’t going to give you “5 magical prompts to instantly write scenarios for you” or anything like that. Instead, this is a “working out loud” post where I’ll share some prompts I have used.

Christy’s posting includes:

  1. “The Meeting from Hell”
  2. “The Backstabbing Coworker”
  3. “The Boss from Hell”
  4. “The Office Romance Gone Wrong”
  5. “The New Hire with Attitude”

Some potential tools for you to check out:



The Rise of the Talent Economy — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
How Education & Training Will Dictate the Future & Impact of AI

“Talent, more than capital, will represent the critical factor of production.”

In short, the demand for AI skills requires a significant transformation in training and education models. To bridge the global skills gap, educational institutions, online learning providers, and employers must design and deliver training programs that cater to the rapidly evolving AI-driven labor market. 


How ChatGPT killed my discussion boards and prompted new prompts — from timeshighereducation.com by Sara Cline; per Robert Gibson on LinkedIn
Advice on learning and discussion prompts that require students to think beyond the remit of AI responses

Excerpts:

To combat this problem, we modified some of our prompts this summer to try to prevent students from using AI to avoid learning. I’m sharing some of our strategies in the hope that they help you out as you adapt your course to a world of generative AI.

  1. Use prompts that force a personal opinion.
  2. Have students include their source(s) as an attachment.
  3. Use current or local events.
  4. Have them take and caption a photo.
  5. Draw a diagram or chart.
  6. Build and explain a 3D model.
  7. Include timestamps from lecture videos.
  8. Scrap the discussion boards.

Dark web ChatGPT is here… — from therundown.ai

The Rundown: A new cybercrime generative AI tool called FraudGPT is being advertised on the Dark web and Telegram channels, offering offensive capabilities like crafting spear-phishing emails and creating undetectable malware.

Why it matters: Scammers can now look more realistic than ever before and at a larger scale. The sad truth is that the emergence of cybercrime AI tools like FraudGPT is just beginning.


From DSC:
If true and if it could help build and/or contribute to cloud-based learner profiles,  this could be huge.


Wayfair’s AI tool can redraw your living room and sell you furniture — from theverge.com by Wes Davis
The home decoration company’s new Decorify AI remodeling tool is clumsy but could be effective for visualization while remodeling.

A living room -- Wayfair is experimenting with using AI technologies to help people envision interior design moves

 

22 Classroom-Focused Resources on AI from Teachers Everywhere

22 Classroom-Focused Resources on AI from Teachers Everywhere — from coolcatteacher.com by Vicki Davis; via GSV

***


Back to School Survey: 44% of Teens “Likely” to Use AI To Do Their Schoolwork for Them This School Year — from prnewswire.com by Junior Achievement
Research by Junior Achievement Shows 60% of Teens Consider the Use of AI to Do Their Schoolwork for Them as “Cheating”

Excerpt:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.July 26, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — A new survey of teens conducted for Junior Achievement by the research firm Big Village shows that nearly half of teens (44%) are “likely” to use AI to do their schoolwork instead of doing it themselves this coming school year. However, most teens (60%) consider using AI in this way as “cheating.” The survey of 1,006 13- to 17-year-olds was conducted by Big Village from July 6 through 11, 2023.

From DSC:
In a competitive society as we have in the U.S. and when many of our K-12 learning ecosystems are designed to create game players, we shouldn’t be surprised to see a significant amount of our students using AI to “win”/game the system.

As it becomes appropriate for each student, offering more choice and control should help to allow more students to pursue what they want to learn about. They won’t be as interested in gaming the system if they truly want to learn about something.

 

Camera fixed on a surgery being used to provide remote learning and feeds

Learning Experience — from inavateemea.com by Tim Kridel

“Some of the stuff we’re doing is creating templates and workflows that capture multiple feeds: not just the teacher, [but also] the white board, an overhead camera,” Risby says.

“The student can then go in and pick what they look at, so it’s more interactive. You might be watching it the first time to listen to the lecturer, but you might watch the second time to concentrate on the experiment. It makes the stream more valuable.”

 

McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023 — from mckinsey.com

Excerpt:

Which technology trends have the most momentum in an accelerating world? We ranked the top cross-industry trends that matter most for companies and executives.

McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2023

 

The invisible cost of resisting AI in higher education — from blogs.lse.ac.uk by Dr. Philippa Hardman

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The implications of this development are perhaps more significant than we realise. There has been much discussion in recent months about the risks associated with the rise of generative AI for higher education, with most of the discussion centring around the challenge that ChatGPT poses to academic integrity.

However, much less work has been done on exploring the negative – even existential – consequences that might stem from not embracing AI in higher education. Are these new principles enough to reverse the risk of irrelevance?

What if we reimagine “learning” in higher education as something more than the recall and restructuring of existing information? What if instead of lectures, essays and exams we shifted to a model of problem sets, projects and portfolios?

I am often asked what this could look like in practice. If we turn to tried and tested instructional strategies which optimise for learner motivation and mastery, it would look something like this…

Also relevant/see:

Do or Die? — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
The invisible cost of resisting AI in higher education

Excerpt:

  • Embracing AI in the higher education sector prepares students for the increasingly technology-driven job market and promotes more active, participatory learning experiences which we know lead to better outcomes for both students and employers.
  • With the rising popularity of alternative education routes such as bootcamps and apprenticeships, it’s crucial for traditional higher education to engage positively with AI in order to maintain its competitiveness and relevance.

For example, a teacher crafting a lesson plan no longer has to repeat that they’re teaching 3rd grade science. A developer preferring efficient code in a language that’s not Python – they can say it once, and it’s understood. Grocery shopping for a big family becomes easier, with the model accounting for 6 servings in the grocery list.


This is the worst AI will ever be, so focused are educators on the present they can’t see the future — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Teaching technology
There is also the misconception around the word ‘generative’, the assumption that all it does is create blocks of predictable text. Wrong. May of its best uses in learning are its ability to summarise, outline, provide guidance, support and many other pedagogic features that can be built into the software. This works and will mean tutors, teachers, teaching support, not taking support, coaches and many other services will emerge that aid both teaching and learning. They are being developed in their hundreds as we speak.

This simple fact, that this is the first technology to ‘learn’ and learn fast, on scale, continuously, across a range of media and tasks, it what makes it extraordinary.


On holding back the strange AI tide — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
There is no way to stop the disruption. We need to channel it instead

And empowering workers is not going to be possible with a top-down solution alone. Instead, consider:

  • Radical incentives to ensure that workers are willing to share what they learn. If they are worried about being punished, they won’t share. If they are worried they won’t be rewarded, they won’t share. If they are worried that the AI tools that they develop might replace them, or their coworkers, they won’t share. Corporate leaders need to figure out a way to reassure and reward workers, something they are not used to doing.
  • Empowering user-to-user innovation. Build prompt libraries that help workers develop and share prompts with other people inside the organization. Open up tools broadly to workers to use (while still setting policies around proprietary information), and see what they come up with. Create slack time for workers to develop, and discuss, AI approaches.
  • Don’t rely on outside providers or your existing R&D groups to tell you the answer. We are in the very early days of a new technology. Nobody really knows anything about the best ways to use AI, and they certainly don’t know the best ways to use it in your company. Only by diving in, responsibly, can you hope to figure out the best use cases.

Teaching: Preparing yourself for AI in the classroom — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie

Auburn’s modules cover the following questions:

  • What do I need to know about AI?
  • What are the ethical considerations in a higher-ed context?
  • How will AI tools affect the courses I teach?
  • How are students using AI tools, and how can I partner with my students?
  • How do I need to rethink exams, papers, and projects I assign?
  • How do I redesign my courses in the wake of AI disruption?
  • What other AI tools or capabilities are coming, and how can I design for them?
  • What conversations need to happen in my department or discipline, and what is my role?

Transforming Higher Education: AI as an Assistive Technology for Inclusive Learning — from fenews.co.uk by Gain Hoole

In recent years, I have witnessed the transformative power of technology in higher education. One particular innovation that has captured my attention is Artificial Intelligence (AI). AI holds tremendous potential as an assistive technology for students with reasonable adjustments in further education (FE) and higher education (HE).

In this comprehensive blog post, I will delve into the multifaceted aspects of AI as an assistive technology, exploring its benefits, considerations, challenges, and the future it holds for transforming higher education.

The integration of AI as an assistive technology can create an inclusive educational environment where all students, regardless of disabilities or specific learning needs, have equal access to educational resources. Real-time transcription services, text-to-speech capabilities, and personalized learning experiences empower students like me to engage with course content in various formats and at our own pace (Fenews, 2023). This not only removes barriers but also fosters a more inclusive and diverse academic community.


5 Ways to Ease Students Off the Lecture and Into Active Learning — from chronicle.com by Jermey T. Murphy
Lecturing endures in college classrooms in part because students prefer that style of teaching. How can we shift that preference?

What can we do? Here are five considerations I’ll be following this coming fall in response to that nagging “less discussion, more instruction” evaluation.

  • Lecture … sparingly. 
  • Routinely ask how the course is going.
  • Be transparent.
  • …and more

A three-part series re: courseware out at The Chronicle of Higher Education:

  1. Millions of Students a Year Are Required to Buy Courseware. Often, It Replaces the Professor. — from chronicle.com by Taylor Swaak
    .
  2. Courseware Can Be Integral to a Course. Why, Then, Are Students Footing the Bill for It? — from chronicle.com by Taylor Swaak
    The Homework Tax | For students already struggling to afford college, courseware can add to the burden
    Their argument is multifold: For one, they say, products like these — which often deliver key elements of a course that an instructor would typically be responsible for, like homework, assessments, and grading — should not be the student’s burden. At least one student advocate said colleges, rather, should cover or subsidize the cost, as they do with software like learning-management systems, if they’re allowing faculty free rein to adopt the products.

    And the fact that students’ access to these products expires — sometimes after just a semester — rubs salt in the wound, and risks further disadvantaging students.
    .
  3. Bots Are Grabbing Students’ Personal Data When They Complete Assignments — from chronicle.com by Taylor Swaak
    When students use courseware, how much personal data is it collecting?

Institutions aren’t “letting the wolf into the henhouse”; instead, “we’re letting the hens out into a forest of wolves,” said Billy Meinke, an open educational resources technologist with the Outreach College at the University of Hawaii-Manoa who’s done research on publisher misuse of student data.
.


Here are five reading challenges to learn about learning this summer — from retrievalpractice.org by Pooja K. Agarwal, Ph.D.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Here are five summer reading challenges to learn about the science of learning.

Important: make sure you remember what you learn! Engage yourself in retrieval practice and retrieve two things after each book, practice guide, and research article you read. Share your two things with our communities on Twitter and Facebook, make a list of what you’ve learned to boost your long-term learning,…


Assignment Makeovers in the AI Age: Essay Edition — from derekbruff.org Derek Bruff

Last week, I explored some ways an instructor might want to (or need to) redesign a reading response assignment for the fall, given the many AI text generation tools now available to students. This week, I want to continue that thread with another assignment makeover. Reading response assignments were just the warm up; now we’re tackling the essay assignment.


Here are ways professional education leaders can prepare students for the rise of AI — from highereddive.com by A. Benjamin Spencer
Institutions must adapt their curricula to incorporate artificial intelligence-related topics, the dean of William & Mary Law School argues.

First, they need to understand that the technological side of AI can no longer be simply left to the information technology experts. Regardless of the professional domain, understanding what AI is, how it works, how the underlying code and algorithms are designed, and what assumptions lie behind the computer code are important components to being able to use and consume the products of AI tools appropriately. 

 

National ChatGPT Survey: Teachers Accepting AI Into Classrooms & Workflow — Even More Than Students — from the74million.org by Greg Toppo
42% of students use ChatGPT, up from 33% in a prior survey. Their teachers are way ahead of them, with now 63% saying they’ve used the tool on the job

Teachers … and parents … believe it’s legit
Teachers who use ChatGPT overwhelmingly give it good reviews. Fully 84% say it has positively impacted their classes, with about 6 in 10 (61%) predicting it will have “legitimate educational uses that we cannot ignore.”

New Book Aims to Reshape the Future of Learning (With Your Help) — from samchaltain.substack.com by Sam Chaltain

  • What circumstances would be required for the existing educational model to be deemed obsolete?
  • What stands in the way of those circumstances coming to pass?
  • And if you were to craft a tool that actually helped people create those circumstances, what would you want that sort of resource to be, say, and do?

Last week, in Istanbul, a select group of educators, architects, students and entrepreneurs met to wrestle with those questions, as part of a yearlong collaborative design project.

What small changes could have the biggest impact and help spark the larger revolution we seek?

Will the future even have occupations — and if so, what are they most likely to be? 

What is most essential to know and embody in the next 25 years?

The Great Unbundling — from educationnext.org by Joseph Olchefske and Steven Adamowski
Is the parents’ rights movement opening a new frontier in school choice?

The mindsets of parents are changing—rapidly—as they make decisions about the schooling of their children. Over the past few years, a convergence of two megatrends—pandemic desperation and parental-rights politics—has driven many families to reconsider the traditional school model and find ways of “unbundling” their children’s schooling into discrete elements that are controlled by the parent rather than the school.

While parent-led unbundling is not a new phenomenon, the current movement has expanded so quickly that it’s been dubbed “the Great Unbundling” of K–12 schooling.

The Great Unbundling is now influencing the education marketplace, as a broad set of nonschool vendors have responded to this unprecedented demand by pitching their education services directly to families: “microschools,” online courses, private tutoring, learning pods, and outdoor learning experiences.

Yes, AI could profoundly disrupt education. But maybe that’s not a bad thing — from theguardian.com by Rose Luckin; with thanks to Will Richardson and Homa Tavangar for this resource
Humans need to excel at things AI can’t do – and that means more creativity and critical thinking and less memorisation

Staying ahead of AI will mean radically rethinking what education is for, and what success means. Human intelligence is far more impressive than any AI system we see today. We possess a rich and diverse intelligence, much of which is unrecognised by our current education system.

How we can teach children so they survive AI – and cope with whatever comes next — from theguardian.com by George Monbiot
It’s not enough to build learning around a single societal shift. Students should be trained to handle a rapidly changing world

I don’t claim to have definitive answers. But I believe certain principles would help. One is that rigidity is lethal. Any aspect of an education system that locks pupils in to fixed patterns of thought and action will enhance their vulnerability to rapid and massive change. For instance, there could be no worse preparation for life than England’s Standard Assessment Tests, which dominate year 6 teaching. If the testimony of other parents I know is representative, SATs are a crushing experience for the majority of pupils, snuffing out enthusiasm, forcing them down a narrow, fenced track and demanding rigidity just as their minds are seeking to blossom and expand.

Education, to the greatest extent possible, should be joyful and delightful, not only because joy and delight are essential to our wellbeing, but also because we are more likely to withstand major change if we see acquiring new knowledge and skills as a fascinating challenge, not a louring threat.

BRINGING AI TO SCHOOL: TIPS FOR SCHOOL LEADERS— a mini ebook from ISTE

Artificial Intelligence is having a major impact on education. Whether you are excited or
concerned about AI, as a school leader you have a responsibility to ensure AI is approached
thoughtfully and appropriately in your school community and informs your vision for teaching and learning. This guide will help you quickly gain the background you need as a learning leader in an AI infused world.

Schools that have been successful in bringing AI into their schools in purposeful ways have some common strategies. The following five strategies are critical for a successful AI culture in your school.

The Potential Impact of AI Technology on Education. — from medium.com by Happiness Uduak

In this article, we’ll explore the potential impact of AI on education, and then take a look at how it could shape the human view of learning for good.

Teaching Through Asking Rather Than Telling — from edutopia by Jay Schauer
High school teachers can promote active learning by strategically replacing some direct instruction with questions that produce thoughtful conversations.

Does much of your teaching resemble the lectures you and 20 or 50 or 400 of your closest college friends received from a “sage on the stage”? Are you frustrated that most of your students won’t remember much from the fascinating information you just delivered to them for 15 or 30 or 55 minutes? If so, maybe it’s time to implement more ARTT—Ask, Rather Than Tell—into your teaching.

I started doing a lot of asking in order to help students make connections, establish common baseline understandings, and identify knowledge gaps or areas of misunderstanding, rather than telling them information. My lectures then evolved into more meaningful conversations.

Best Free Virtual Labs — from techlearning.com by Diana Restifo
These best virtual lab sites and apps are all free, highly engaging, and informative—and most don’t require registration

Many schools don’t have robust in-person laboratory facilities, instead relying primarily on dry textbooks to teach difficult STEM topics. But even schools with quality labs can benefit from these innovative and flexible online simulations.

The following top virtual lab sites and apps are all free, highly engaging, and informative—and most don’t require registration. Since most browsers no longer support Java or Flash, sites built exclusively with those outdated technologies have been excluded.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer launching new education-focused state department — from detroitnews.com by Craig Mauger and Chad Livengood

Whitmer’s office said Wednesday the new Michigan Department of Lifelong Education, Achievement and Potential, or MiLEAP, will feature offices governing early childhood education, higher education and “education partnerships.”

“Establishing MiLEAP ensures all available resources, data and dollars are aligned around a single vision — supporting an education system focused on lifelong learning that can support the economy of the future and helping anyone make it in Michigan,” according to a “talking points” document obtained by The Detroit News on Wednesday morning.

How to Get Kids to Read for Fun — from nataliewexler.substack.com by Natalie Wexler
An overemphasis on analytical skills can make reading a joyless task.

Schools have been giving students isolated bits of text rather than letting them sink their teeth into engaging novels, and they’ve prioritized teaching analytical reading skills over allowing kids to immerse themselves in a good story.

Celebrating Student Interests to Create a Positive High School Culture — from edutopia.org by Nicole Rossi-Mumpower
Events that center students’ picks in art, music, and food can create powerful opportunities for them to increase their sense of belonging.

Modeled after the First Friday events that take place in many cities and towns (when community members gather to experience local culture), First Fridays at school offer students a chance to listen to music, view art, and sample cuisine.?The tradition has become a cornerstone of our school community and is replicable across school sites.

THE IMPORTANCE OF A MEANINGFUL SCHOOL CULTURE
Creating a positive school climate and culture is essential for student success. When students feel like they are an important part of the community, they’re more likely to be engaged in their learning and have a positive attitude toward school.

 

Teaching Assistants that Actually Assist Instructors with Teaching — from opencontent.org by David Wiley

“…what if generative AI could provide every instructor with a genuine teaching assistant – a teaching assistant that actually assisted instructors with their teaching?”

Assignment Makeovers in the AI Age: Reading Response Edition — from derekbruff.org by Derek Bruff

For my cryptography course, Mollick’s first option would probably mean throwing out all my existing reading questions. My intent with these reading questions was noble, that is, to guide students to the big questions and debates in the field, but those are exactly the kinds of questions for which AI can write decent answers. Maybe the AI tools would fare worse in a more advanced course with very specialized readings, but in my intro to cryptography course, they can handle my existing reading questions with ease.

What about option two? I think one version of this would be to do away with the reading response assignment altogether.

4 Steps to Help You Plan for ChatGPT in Your Classroom — from chronicle.com by Flower Darby
Why you should understand how to teach with AI tools — even if you have no plans to actually use them.


Some items re: AI in other areas:

15 Generative AI Tools A billion+ people will be collectively using very soon. I use most of them every day — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
ChatGPT, Bing, Office Suite, Google Docs, Claude, Perplexity.ai, Plug-Ins, MidJourney, Pi, Runway, Bard, Bing, Synthesia, D-ID

The Future of AI in Video: a look forward — from provideocoalition.com by Iain Anderson

Actors say Hollywood studios want their AI replicas — for free, forever — from theverge.com by Andrew Webster; resource from Tom Barrett

Along these lines of Hollywood and AI, see this Tweet:

Claude 2: ChatGPT rival launches chatbot that can summarise a novel –from theguardian.com by Dan Milmo; resource from Tom Barrett
Anthropic releases chatbot able to process large blocks of text and make judgments on what it is producing

Generative AI imagines new protein structures — from news.mit.edu by Rachel Gordon; resource from Sunday Signal
MIT researchers develop “FrameDiff,” a computational tool that uses generative AI to craft new protein structures, with the aim of accelerating drug development and improving gene therapy.

Google’s medical AI chatbot is already being tested in hospitals — from theverge.com by Wes Davis; resource via GSV

Ready to Sing Elvis Karaoke … as Elvis? The Weird Rise of AI Music — from rollingstone.com by Brian Hiatt; resource from Misha da Vinci
From voice-cloning wars to looming copyright disputes to a potential flood of nonhuman music on streaming, AI is already a musical battleground

 

So, you want to become an instructional designer? — from drlukehobson.com by Luke Hobson

Excerpt:

The most significant problem I’ve seen for aspiring instructional designers is that they don’t have a solid plan in place with how to make acquiring a new job a reality. What does this involve? A monumental portion of instructional design is knowing about how learning works. Yes, there are other components about instructional design like technology, project management, relationship management, research, but at the end of the day, you need to know how people learn to design meaningful learning experiences. So, think of your instructional design journey as a learning experience. How would you reverse engineer this process to help you obtain your goal? Let’s start by asking a few questions:

 

Neurodivergent Students Need Flexibility, Not Our Frustration — from chronicle.com by Katie Rose Guest Pryal
In negotiating accommodations, we need more communication and less suspicion.

Excerpt:

A quick note: When I refer to neurodivergent (ND) students, I mean people whose mental or neurological function is different from what is considered typical. This includes not only students with ADHD or autism, but also those with anxiety, depression, or other mental-health disorders. Crucially, I’m also writing here about the many college students who are struggling with their mental health for whatever reason, and need our understanding and care to prevent them from doing poorly, dropping out, or facing something much, much worse.

Two key messages underlie all of the advice that follows: More communication. Less suspicion.


Also from Katie Rose Guest Pryal out at The Chronicle, of Higher Education, see:


 

Sources of Cognitive Load — from learningscientists.org

Excerpt:

Cognitive Load Theory is an influential theory from educational psychology that describes how various factors affect our ability to use our working memory resources. We’ve done a digest about cognitive load theory here and talked about it here and here, but haven’t provided an overview of the theory so I want to give an overview here.

Cognitive load theory provides useful and dynamic model for how many different factors affect working memory and learning. Hopefully this post provides a useful overview of some of the main components of cognitive load!


From DSC:
Along these lines, a while back I put together a video regarding cognitive load. It addresses at least two main questions:

  1. What is cognitive load?
  2. Why should I care about it?

 

What is cognitive load? And why should I care about it?

What is cognitive load? And why should I care about it?

Transcript here.

 

How do I put it into practice?

  • Simplify the explanations of what you’re presenting as much as possible and break down complex tasks into smaller parts
  • Don’t place a large amount of text on a slide and then talk about it at the same time — doing so requires much more processing than most people can deal with.
  • Consider creating two versions of your PowerPoint files:
    • A text-light version that can be used for presenting that content to students
    • A text-heavy version — which can be posted to your LMS for the learners to go through at their own pace — and without trying to process so much information (voice and text, for example) at one time.
  • Design-wise:
    • Don’t use decorative graphics — everything on a slide should be there for a reason
    • Don’t use too many fonts or colors — this can be distracting
    • Don’t use background music when you are trying to explain something
 

YouTube tests AI-generated quizzes on educational videos — from techcrunch.com by Lauren Forristal

YouTube tests AI-generated quizzes on educational videos

YouTube is experimenting with AI-generated quizzes on its mobile app for iOS and Android devices, which are designed to help viewers learn more about a subject featured in an educational video. The feature will also help the video-sharing platform get a better understanding of how well each video covers a certain topic.


Incorporating AI in Teaching: Practical Examples for Busy Instructors — from danielstanford.substack.com by Daniel Stanford; with thanks to Derek Bruff on LinkedIn for the resource

Since January 2023, I’ve talked with hundreds of instructors at dozens of institutions about how they might incorporate AI into their teaching. Through these conversations, I’ve noticed a few common issues:

  • Faculty and staff are overwhelmed and burned out. Even those on the cutting edge often feel they’re behind the curve.
  • It’s hard to know where to begin.
  • It can be difficult to find practical examples of AI use that are applicable across a variety of disciplines.

To help address these challenges, I’ve been working on a list of AI-infused learning activities that encourage experimentation in (relatively) small, manageable ways.


September 2023: The Secret Intelligent Beings on Campus — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
Many of your students this fall will be enhanced by artificial intelligence, even if they don’t look like actual cyborgs. Do you want all of them to be enhanced, or just the highest SES students?


How to report better on artificial intelligence — from cjr.org (Columbia Journalism Review) by Syash Kapoor, Hilke Schellmann, and Ari Sen

In the past few months we have been deluged with headlines about new AI tools and how much they are going to change society.

Some reporters have done amazing work holding the companies developing AI accountable, but many struggle to report on this new technology in a fair and accurate way.

We—an investigative reporter, a data journalist, and a computer scientist—have firsthand experience investigating AI. We’ve seen the tremendous potential these tools can have—but also their tremendous risks.

As their adoption grows, we believe that, soon enough, many reporters will encounter AI tools on their beat, so we wanted to put together a short guide to what we have learned.


AI

.
DSC:
Something I created via Adobe Firefly (Beta version)

 


The 5 reasons L&D is going to embrace ChatGPT — from chieflearningoffice.com by Josh Bersin

Does this mean it will do away with the L&D job? Not at all — these tools give you superhuman powers to find content faster, put it in front of employees in a more useful way and more creatively craft character simulations, assessments, learning in the flow of work and more.

And it’s about time. We really haven’t had a massive innovation in L&D since the early days of the learning experience platform market, so we may be entering the most exciting era in a long time.

Let me give you the five most significant use cases I see. And more will come.


AI and Tech with Scenarios: ID Links 7/11/23 — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker

As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on using tech with scenarios: AI, xAPI, and VR. I’ll also share some other AI tools and links on usability, resume tips for teachers, visual language, and a scenario sample.



It’s only a matter of time before A.I. chatbots are teaching in primary schools — from cnbc.com by Mikaela Cohen

Key Points

  • Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates saying generative AI chatbots can teach kids to read in 18 months rather than years.
  • Artificial intelligence is beginning to prove that it can accelerate the impact teachers have on students and help solve a stubborn teacher shortage.
  • Chatbots backed by large language models can help students, from primary education to certification programs, self-guide through voluminous materials and tailor their education to specific learning styles [preferences].

The Rise of AI: New Rules for Super T Professionals and Next Steps for EdLeaders — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Key Points

  • The rise of artificial intelligence, especially generative AI, boosts productivity in content creation–text, code, images and increasingly video.
  • Here are six preliminary conclusions about the nature of work and learning.

The Future Of Education: Embracing AI For Student Success — from forbes.com by Dr. Michael Horowitz

Unfortunately, too often attention is focused on the problems of AI—that it allows students to cheat and can undermine the value of what teachers bring to the learning equation. This viewpoint ignores the immense possibilities that AI can bring to education and across every industry.

The fact is that students have already embraced this new technology, which is neither a new story nor a surprising one in education. Leaders should accept this and understand that people, not robots, must ultimately create the path forward. It is only by deploying resources, training and policies at every level of our institutions that we can begin to realize the vast potential of what AI can offer.


AI Tools in Education: Doing Less While Learning More — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush
A Q&A with Mark Frydenberg


Why Students & Teachers Should Get Excited about ChatGPT — from ivypanda.com with thanks to Ruth Kinloch for this resource

Table of Contents for the article at IvyPanda.com entitled Why Students & Teachers Should Get Excited about ChatGPT

Excerpt re: Uses of ChatGPT for Teachers

  • Diverse assignments.
  • Individualized approach.
  • Interesting classes.
  • Debates.
  • Critical thinking.
  • Grammar and vocabulary.
  • Homework review.

SAIL: State of Research: AI & Education — from buttondown.email by George Siemens
Information re: current AI and Learning Labs, education updates, and technology


Why ethical AI requires a future-ready and inclusive education system — from weforum.org


A specter is haunting higher education — from aiandacademia.substack.com by Bryan Alexander
Fall semester after the generative AI revolution

In this post I’d like to explore that apocalyptic model. For reasons of space, I’ll leave off analyzing student cheating motivations or questioning the entire edifice of grade-based assessment. I’ll save potential solutions for another post.

Let’s dive into the practical aspects of teaching to see why Mollick and Bogost foresee such a dire semester ahead.


Items re: Code Interpreter

Code Interpreter continues OpenAI’s long tradition of giving terrible names to things, because it might be most useful for those who do not code at all. It essentially allows the most advanced AI available, GPT-4, to upload and download information, and to write and execute programs for you in a persistent workspace. That allows the AI to do all sorts of things it couldn’t do before, and be useful in ways that were impossible with ChatGPT.

.


Legal items


MISC items


 

Strengthening Elementary Reading Instruction — from nctq.org

Excerpt:

The status quo is far from inevitable. In fact, we know the solution to this reading crisis, but we are not using the solution at scale. More than 50 years of research compiled by the National Institutes of Health, and continued through further research, provides a clear picture of how skilled reading develops and of effective literacy instruction. These strategies and methods—collectively called scientifically based reading instruction, which is grounded in the science of reading—could dramatically reduce the rate of reading failure. Past estimates have found that while 3 in 10 children struggle to read (and that rate has grown higher since the pandemic), research indicates that more than 90% of all students could learn to read if they had access to teachers who employed scientifically based reading instruction.

Also relevant/see:

 


Though not related to reading, here are some potentially-valuable resource re: mathematics for homeschoolers:


 

The Homework Apocalypse — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
Fall is going to be very different this year. Educators need to be ready.

Excerpt:

Students will cheat with AI. But they also will begin to integrate AI into everything they do, raising new questions for educators. Students will want to understand why they are doing assignments that seem obsolete thanks to AI. They will want to use AI as a learning companion, a co-author, or a teammate. They will want to accomplish more than they did before, and also want answers about what AI means for their future learning paths. Schools will need to decide how to respond to this flood of questions.

The challenge of AI in education can feel abstract, so to understand a bit more about what is going to happen, I wanted to examine some common assignment types.

 

Shift to Providing Feedback as Students Work — from catlintucker.com by Caitlin Tucker

Excerpt:

How can pulling feedback into the classroom help students develop confidence and improve their self-regulation skills?

Feedback is one of the most powerful tools a teacher has to support students in achieving standards-aligned goals. Feedback also

  • Provides clarity on learning goals and expectations.
  • Guides students in understanding their strengths as well as areas in need of improvement.
  • Supports skill development and mastery of concepts.
  • Enhances metacognitive skills, such as self-regulation and self-monitoring.
  • Encourages engagement and active participation in the learning process.
  • Promotes a growth mindset and a belief in the potential for improvement.
  • Fosters effective communication and dialogue between teachers and students.
  • Builds confidence and self-efficacy in learners.

 

 

Recording Arts as Reengagement, Social Justice and Pathway — from gettingsmart.com

Key Points

  • After a successful career as a recording artist, David “TC” Ellis created Studio 4 in St. Paul to spot budding music stars.
  • It became a hangout spot for creative young people, most of whom had “dropped out of school due to boredom and a sense that school wasn’t relevant to their lives and dreams.”
  • Ellis and colleagues then opened the High School for Recording Arts in 1998.

Young people learning how to perform and record music at the High School for Recording Arts

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian