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

Excerpt:

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

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

 
 

Why Are Students So Disengaged? — from insidehighered.com by Johanna Alonso
A new survey by Wiley finds that one-fourth of students said they would be more invested in their courses if they learned in a way that emulated their future careers.

Excerpt:

Undergraduate students are struggling to stay engaged in class—and they believe that material more directly connected to real-life issues could help solve the problem.

That’s a key finding of the recent State of the Student 2022 survey by the academic publishing company Wiley, which noted that 55 percent of undergraduate and 38 percent of graduate students said they struggle to remain interested in their classes. The same proportion of undergraduates and 34 percent of graduate students also said they have trouble retaining the material they learn.

The survey of 5,258 students and 2,452 instructors in North America was conducted in August 2022 and sought to understand the factors that most impact student success, as well as what factors instructors perceive as the most impactful.

 

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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


Also relevant/see:


One Foot in the Future — from the BIG questions institute

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

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

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

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

And much more.

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

ONE FOOT IN THE FUTURE -- a free ebook from the BIG questions institute regarding new frameworks, tools, and lenses to help educators imagine what comes next

 

 

Along the lines of tools, also see:

6 Apps and Websites to Make Video Journals — from classtechtips.com by Monica Burns

Excerpt:

Have you made video journals with your students? Earlier this year on the blog, I shared some of the reasons why this medium is worth considering. Today on the blog, we’ll look at six apps and websites to make video journals alongside a few more reasons why video journals are worth considering.

There are several reasons why a teacher might introduce video journals to their students. First, video journals can be a powerful tool for self-reflection and personal growth. By creating and reflecting on videos of themselves, students can better understand their own thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and identify areas for improvement.

Video journals can also provide a creative outlet for students to express themselves. Students may enjoy experimenting with different video-editing techniques and sharing their work with their peers. This experience using video tools can transfer to additional learning experiences, especially because video journals can help students practice their communication skills in speaking and visual storytelling.


And speaking of tools and technologies, also see:

A Valentine for Education Technology — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush and Gardner Campbell

Excerpt:

However, in making some adjustments for an online experience, I soon realized that I was able, actually, to enhance aspects of the Read-a-thon and thus the course as well. For the first time, I could choose to invite the wider Milton community to the event, encouraging people to join from many different points across the country and potentially around the globe!

I like certain kinds of management technologies that help me with record keeping and organization. But I don’t love them. I love technologies of communication because, I think, they’re at the heart of teaching and learning — creating opportunities for human beings to think together, to study something together.

 

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

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

Excerpts:

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

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

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

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

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


Also relevant/see:

3 trends that may unlock AI's potential for Learning and Development in 2023

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

Excerpts:

AI-assisted design and development work
This is the trend most likely to have a dramatic evolution this year.

Solutions like large language models, speech generators, content generators, image generators, translation tools, transcription tools, and video generators, among many others, will transform the way IDs create the learning experiences our organizations use. Two examples are:

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

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

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

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

 


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

Excerpts:

Somehow, Mira Murati can forthrightly discuss the dangers of AI while making you feel like it’s all going to be OK.

A growing number of leaders in the field are warning of the dangers of AI. Do you have any misgivings about the technology?

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


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

Excerpts:

Gerganov adapted it from a program called Whisper, released in September by OpenAI, the same organization behind ChatGPTand dall-e. Whisper transcribes speech in more than ninety languages. In some of them, the software is capable of superhuman performance—that is, it can actually parse what somebody’s saying better than a human can.

Until recently, world-beating A.I.s like Whisper were the exclusive province of the big tech firms that developed them.

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

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

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

Excerpt:

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


 

Best Document Cameras for Teachers — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Get the best document camera for teachers to make the classroom more digitally immersive

Along the lines of edtech, also see:

Tech & Learning Names Winners of the Best of 2022 Awards — from techlearning.com by TL Editors
This annual award celebrates recognizing the very best in EdTech from 2022

.
The Tech & Learning Awards of Excellence: Best of 2022 celebrate educational technology from the last 12 months that has excelled in supporting teachers, students, and education professionals in the classroom, for professional development, or general management of education resources and learning. Nominated products are divided into three categories: Primary, Secondary, or Higher Education.

 

Incremental Change Didn’t Save Blockbuster. It Won’t Save Education, Either — from the74million.org by Mike Miles; with thanks to Rob Reynolds for this resource
Broken public school systems need wholescale change if they are going to prepare students for the skills they will need by 2035

Excerpt:

Perhaps the biggest failure of the current education ecosystem is its inability to envision what the future holds for our students and to make systemic changes now to prepare them for that future. Shackled to a monolithic, change-resistant system, school and district leaders continue to make incremental and piecemeal changes to a broken system expecting to get different outcomes.

In an analogous way, almost all public-school systems are like Blockbusters in the late 1990s — unwilling to assess the impact of technological advances and consider how they might need to revisit their design principles. In the end, if an organization does not move purposefully toward some likely future, then any path forward will do, and it is likely to be the path they are currently on.

From DSC:
The following quote…

Using a split-screen strategy, a district would not attempt to make systemic changes district-wide. Rather, it would implement transformative changes in one or two schools while continuing to make incremental improvements in the rest of the district. Once the schools operating with the new system principles achieve the outcomes and succeed, they will become proof points to allow the district to implement systemic change in even more schools over a period of time.

…made me think of a graphic (see below) — and an article out at evoLLLtion.com — I developed a while back re: the need for more Trim Tab Groups. I think we’re talking about the same thing here.

 


Addendum on 2/4/23:

A Few Educators ‘Going the Extra Mile’ Cannot Save the Education System — from edsurge.com by Jennifer Yoo-Brannon

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Not a Pyramid, But a Garden
Instead of a pyramid, let’s adopt a new image, a more organic one. School communities are webs of complex relationships, like gardens. Imagine if we all understood a school community like a Three Sisters Garden. In this Indigenous agricultural practice, corn, beans and squash grow together to create a sustainable cycle of growth in which the whole garden can thrive. Corn provides the tall stalks for the beans to climb. The large squash plant leaves provide shade so the soil can retain moisture, and the beans provide the nitrogen to fertilize the soil. The garden does not rely on the exploitation of one crop to allow the rest to grow.

From DSC:
Re: the emphasized text immediately above…that sounds like a learning ecosystem to me!  🙂


 

Meet MathGPT: a Chatbot Tutor Built Specific to a Math Textbook — from thejournal.com by Kristal Kuykendall

Excerpt:

Micro-tutoring platform PhotoStudy has unveiled a new chatbot built on OpenAI’s ChatGPT APIs that can teach a complete elementary algebra textbook with “extremely high accuracy,” the company said.

“Textbook publishers and teachers can now transform their textbooks and teaching with a ChatGPT-like assistant that can teach all the material in a textbook, assess student progress, provide personalized help in weaker areas, generate quizzes with support for text, images, audio, and ultimately a student customized avatar for video interaction,” PhotoStudy said in its news release.

Some sample questions the MathGPT tool can answer:

    • “I don’t know how to solve a linear equation…”
    • “I have no idea what’s going on in class but we are doing Chapter 2. Can we start at the top?”
    • “Can you help me understand how to solve this mixture of coins problem?”
    • “I need to practice for my midterm tomorrow, through Chapter 6. Help.”
 

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

Also relevant/see:

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

The question that I’d like to spend some time thinking about is the following: What new knowledge, capacities, and skills do  instructional designers need in their role as editors and users of LLMs?

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

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

Robert Gibson


 

Unbundled: Designing Personalized Pathways for Every Learner — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen “with contributions from the Getting Smart team and numerous friends and partners in the field”

Excerpts:

In this publication, we articulate the critical steps needed to unbundle the learning ecosystem, build core competencies, design learning experiences, curate new opportunities, and rebundle these experiences into coherent pathways.
.

Building the Unbundled Ecosystem

Vision

Every learner deserves an unlimited number of unbundled opportunities to explore, engage, and define experiences that advance their progress along a co-designed educational pathway. Each pathway provides equitable and personalized access to stacked learning experiences leading to post-secondary credentials and secure family-sustaining employment. Throughout the journey, supportive coaches focus on helping learners build skills to navigate with agency. In parallel, learners develop foundational skills (literacy, math), technical skills, and durable skills and connect these to challenging co-designed experiences. The breadth and depth of experiences increase over time, and, in partnership, learners and coaches map progress towards reaching community-defined goals. This vision is only enabled by an unbundled learning ecosystem.

Recommendations

Solutions already exist in the ecosystem and need to be combined and scaled. Funding models (like My Tech High), badging/credentialing at the competency level (like VLACS), coaching models (like Big Thought), and open ecosystems (like NH Learn Everywhere) provide an excellent foundation. Thus, building unbundled systems has already begun but needs systemic changes to become widely available and accepted.

      1. Build a robust competency-based system.
      2. Create a two-way marketplace for unbundled learning.
      3. Implement policy to support credit for out-of-system experiences.
      4. Invest in technology infrastructure for Learning and Employment Records.
      5. Design interoperable badging systems that connect to credentials.
 

Virtual Exam Case Primes Privacy Fight Over College Room Scans — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Skye Witley

  • Cleveland State case centers on remote proctoring software
  • Fourth Amendment protections in question before Sixth Circuit

Excerpt:

A legal dispute over a university’s use of exam proctoring software that allegedly scanned students’ rooms is set to shape the scope of Fourth Amendment and privacy protections for online college tests.

Cleveland State University last week asked a federal appeals court in Cincinnati to review a district court finding that the “room scans” were unconstitutional searches. The case could influence how other students litigate their privacy rights and change how universities virtually monitor their students during exams, attorneys said.

 

Colleges consider overhauling grading system for freshmen to ease transition to higher learning — from mercurynews.com by Kate Hull
Supporters say ‘ungrading’ could result in less stress and a more level playing field for students from less rigorous high schools  

Excerpt:

Dubbed “weed-out” or “gatekeeper” classes, they can be dream-crushing for many students — especially those hoping to enter the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields. And a growing body of research says the courses can be particularly discriminatory toward historically excluded groups such as Latinos and Black and Indigenous people.

One possible remedy, some educators say, is “ungrading,” a style of teaching and assessment that seeks to evaluate students in other ways besides A-F letter grades — usually just in their freshman year.

“You’re trying to move the focus from a score to the learning,” said Robin Dunkin, who teaches biology and is the assistant faculty director at UCSC’s Center for Innovations in Teaching and Learning.  “For that reason, it’s immensely powerful.”


Also relevant see the #Ungrading hashtag on Twitter, from which the below item was taken:

Excerpts from Jesse Stommel’s Ungrading: an Introduction presentation:

An excerpt from Ungrading - an Introduction by Jesse Stommel

An excerpt from Ungrading - an Introduction by Jesse Stommel

An excerpt from Ungrading - an Introduction by Jesse Stommel


Also relevant/see Robert Talbert’s Grading for Growth.


 

 

Retrieval Practice, Scaffolding, and the Socratic Method — from scholarlyteacher.com by Todd Zakrajsek
Revisit the Socratic method by using it to enact retrieval practice and scaffolding in courses and refresh thinking about applying recommendations from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SOTL)

Excerpt:

When students think they know course material because they have collected reams and reams of information, retrieval practice, much like Socratic questioning, forces students to stop, think, reflect, and reconsider. It meets students where they are (e.g., overwhelmed with information), encourages effortful struggle associated with learning (e.g., presents a desirable difficulty), and offers the discipline of practice (or, perhaps, the practice of discipline). The goal of retrieval practice, getting information out, reflects the goal of so many of Socrates’s questions, to make his interlocutors give an account of and become more aware of their thinking.

When faculty chunk up material, assist students as they move through Bloom’s taxonomy, model approaches to help students get started and maintain momentum, make the student an active participant in developing and reflecting on knowledge, they are incorporating key elements of some of the most important recommendations from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. All these techniques help students build or generate knowledge.

 

Tired of the Same Old Professional Development? Let Students Lead. — from edsurge.com by Matt Homrich-Knieling

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

Despite my love for learning, I strongly disliked most professional development sessions. The way sessions were facilitated often contradicted research-based teaching strategies. It is also frustrating when pre-packaged PD sessions are disconnected from your specific school context and student population.

To most teachers, this critique isn’t surprising. PD has a bad reputation in education circles, and it isn’t because teachers are resistant to professional learning. On the contrary, teachers want professional learning that is practical, engaging and relevant.

A group of students from the club met with the principal and explained their idea for leading a PD on building classroom community and supporting student self-confidence.

“Think about times when you lacked community or self-confidence in class. What did the teacher do/not do that led you to that experience? On the other hand, think about times when you felt a great sense of community or self-confidence in class. What did the teacher do/not do that led you to that experience?”

From DSC:
“On the contrary, teachers want professional learning that is practical, engaging and relevant.

Hmmm…sounds like what students want as well.

 
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