IT in HE

The resistance to AI in education isn’t really about learning — from medium.com by Peter Shea

A quick comment first from DSC:
Peter Shea gives us some interesting perspectives here. His thoughts should give many of us fodder for our own further reflection.

This reaction underscores a deeper issue: the resistance to AI in education is not truly about learning. It reflects a reluctance to re-evaluate the traditional roles of educators and to embrace the opportunities AI offers to enhance the learning experience.
…
In order to thrive in the learning ecosystem that will evolve in the Age of AI, the teaching profession needs to do some difficult but essential re-evaluation of their role, in order to better understand where they can provide the best value to learners. This requires confronting some comforting myths and uncomfortable truths.

Problem #2: The Closed World of Academic Culture
In addition, many teachers have spent little time working in non-academic professions. This is especially true for college instructors, who must devote five to seven years to graduate education before obtaining their first full-time position, and thus have little time to explore careers outside academia. This common lack of non-academic work experience heightens the anxiety that educators feel when contemplating the potential impact of generative AI on their work lives.

Also see this related posting:

Majority of Grads Wish They’d Been Taught AI in College — from insidehighered.com by Lauren Coffey
A new survey shows 70 percent of graduates think generative AI should be incorporated into courses. More than half said they felt unprepared for the workforce.

A majority of college graduates believe generative artificial intelligence tools should be incorporated into college classrooms, with more than half saying they felt unprepared for the workforce, according to a new survey from Cengage Group, an education-technology company.

The survey, released today, found that 70 percent of graduates believe basic generative AI training should be integrated into courses; 55 percent said their degree programs did not prepare them to use the new technology tools in the workforce.

Instructure to be Acquired by KKR for $4.8 Billion [Instructure]

On 07/26/2024, in business, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, higher education, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Instructure to be Acquired by KKR for $4.8 Billion — from prnewswire.com

SALT LAKE CITY, July 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ — Instructure Holdings, Inc. (NYSE: INST) (“Instructure”), a leading learning ecosystem, today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to be acquired by investment funds managed by KKR, a leading global investment firm, for $23.60 per share in an all-cash transaction valued at an enterprise value of approximately $4.8 billion. The per-share purchase price represents a premium of 16 percent over Instructure’s unaffected share price of $20.27 as of May 17, 2024, the last trading day prior to media reports regarding a potential transaction. KKR, with participation from Dragoneer Investment Group, will acquire all outstanding shares, including those shares owned by Instructure’s existing majority owner, Thoma Bravo, a leading software investment firm, which took the company public in 2021.

Speaking of edtech-related vendors, also see:

Breaking: 2U files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy in Prepackaged Deal — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Phil Hill
Agreements are already in place, and the company may emerge from bankruptcy as soon as September

How to use Perplexity in your daily workflow — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer and Alex McFarland
“I barely use Google anymore (for anything)” says today’s guest author.

Make Perplexity your go-to research companion with these strategies:

Morning briefings: Start your day by asking Perplexity for the latest news in your field. (I personally like to use Perplexity to curate the top AI news of the day to consider writing about for Unite AI and Techopedia.)
Fact-checking: Use it to quickly verify information before including it in your work.
Brainstorming: Generate ideas for projects or content by asking open-ended questions.
Learning new concepts: When you encounter an unfamiliar term or idea, turn to Perplexity for a quick, comprehensive explanation.
Writing assistance: Use it to find relevant statistics, examples, or counterarguments for your content.

From DSC:
So I used it to ask “What is Elon Musk’s Memphis Supercluster?” (which went online yesterday I believe) — which resulted in this reply:

Elon Musk’s Memphis Supercluster is a newly activated AI training cluster that is claimed to be the most powerful in the world. Here are the key details about this supercomputer:

1. Location: The supercluster is located in Memphis, Tennessee[1][2].

2. Hardware: It consists of 100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs connected through a single RDMA (Remote Direct Memory Access) fabric[1][3].

3. Purpose: The supercluster is designed for training large language models (LLMs) and other advanced AI technologies for Musk’s xAI company[1][2].

4. Activation: The Memphis Supercluster began training at approximately 4:20 AM local time on July 22, 2024[1][3].

5. Collaboration: The project is a result of collaboration between xAI, X (formerly Twitter), Nvidia, and other supporting companies[1][2].

6. Investment: With each H100 GPU estimated to cost between $30,000 to $40,000, the total investment in GPUs alone is estimated to be between $3 billion to $4 billion[5].

7. Goals: Musk claims that this supercluster will be used to develop “the world’s most powerful AI by every measure” by December 2024[1].

8. Comparison: The Memphis Supercluster’s 100,000 H100 GPUs significantly outclass other supercomputers in terms of GPU horsepower, such as Frontier (37,888 AMD GPUs) and Microsoft Eagle (14,400 Nvidia H100 GPUs)[3].

9. Infrastructure: The project required significant infrastructure development, including fiber optic networking[5].

While Musk’s claims about the supercluster’s capabilities are ambitious, it remains to be seen how it will perform in practice and whether it will meet the stated goals within the given timeframe[1].

Citations:
[1] https://venturebeat.com/ai/elon-musk-announces-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster-in-the-world/
[2] https://www.tuaw.com/2024/07/22/elon-musks-xai-unveils-worlds-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster/
[3] https://www.tomshardware.com/pc-components/gpus/elon-musk-fires-up-the-most-powerful-ai-training-cluster-in-the-world-uses-100000-nvidia-h100-gpus-on-a-single-fabric
[4] https://www.thestack.technology/xai-elon-musk-ai-supercomputer/
[5] https://www.benzinga.com/news/24/07/39881748/elon-musks-xai-flips-the-switch-on-100k-nvidia-h100-gpus-worth-up-to-4b-in-memphis-supercluster-most
[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JhtJa05C2Y

—–

Elon’s AI empire expands — from theneurondaily.com by Grant Harvey
Elon Musk’s team at xAI just powered on the “World’s Most Powerful AI Training Cluster.”

If you don’t know what a supercluster is, it’s basically a massive network of Nvidia GPUs (computer chips) working together as a single unit to solve “super” complex calculations at unprecedented speeds.

And this Memphis Supercluster is the most “super” supercluster we’ve ever seen. The new facility, dubbed the “Gigafactory of Compute”, is a beast:

100,000 liquid-cooled Nvidia H100 GPUs on a single RDMA fabric (for context, Google snagged only 50,000 H100 GPUs last year).
Up to 150 megawatts of electricity usage per hour—enough for 100K homes.
At least one million gallons of water per day to keep cool!

What to expect: Better models, more frequently. That’s been the trend, at least—look at how the last few model releases have become more squished together.

OpenAI to make GPT-4o Advanced Voice available by the end of the month to select group of users — from tomsguide.com by Ryan Morrison

GPT-4o Advanced Voice is an entirely new type of voice assistant, similar to but larger than the recently unveiled French model Moshi, which argued with me over a story.

In demos of the model, we’ve seen GPT-4o Advanced Voice create custom character voices, generate sound effects while telling a story and even act as a live translator.

This native speech ability is a significant step in creating more natural AI assistants. In the future, it will also come with live vision abilities, allowing the AI to see what you see.

Could AGI break the world? — from theneurondaily.com by Noah Edelman

“Biggest IT outage in history” proves we’re not ready for AGI.
…
Here’s the TL;DR—a faulty software update from cybersecurity firm Crowdstrike made this happen:

Grounded 5,000+ flights around the world.
Slowed healthcare across the UK.
Forced retailers to revert to cash-only transactions in Australia (what is this, the stone ages?!).

…
Here’s where AI comes in: Imagine today’s AI as a new operating system. In 5-10 years, it’ll likely be as integrated into our economy as Microsoft’s cloud servers are now. This isn’t that far-fetched—Microsoft is already planning to embed AI into all its programs.

So what if a Crowdstrike-like incident happens with a more powerful AI system? Some experts predict an AI-powered IT outage could be 10x worse than Friday’s fiasco.

The Crowdstrike outage and global software’s single-point failure problem — from cnbc.com by Kaya Ginsky

KEY POINTS

The CrowdStrike software bug that took down global IT infrastructure exposed a single-point-of-failure risk unrelated to malicious cyberattack.
National and cybersecurity experts say the risk of this kind of technical outage is increasing alongside the risk of hacks, and the market will need to adopt better competitive practices.
Government is also likely to look at new regulations related to software updates and patches.

The “largest IT outage in history,” briefly explained — from vox.com by Li Zhou
Airlines, banks, and hospitals saw computer systems go down because of a CrowdStrike software glitch.

“Deep Learning: Five New Superpowers of Higher Education” [Klitgaard] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 07/19/2024, in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, change, changing business models, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, liberal arts, Natural Language Processing (NLP), personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

What aspects of teaching should remain human? — from hechingerreport.org by Chris Berdik
Even techno optimists hesitate to say teaching is best left to the bots, but there’s a debate about where to draw the line

ATLANTA — Science teacher Daniel Thompson circulated among his sixth graders at Ron Clark Academy on a recent spring morning, spot checking their work and leading them into discussions about the day’s lessons on weather and water. He had a helper: As Thompson paced around the class, peppering them with questions, he frequently turned to a voice-activated AI to summon apps and educational videos onto large-screen smartboards.

When a student asked, “Are there any animals that don’t need water?” Thompson put the question to the AI. Within seconds, an illustrated blurb about kangaroo rats appeared before the class.

Nitta said there’s something “deeply profound” about human communication that allows flesh-and-blood teachers to quickly spot and address things like confusion and flagging interest in real time.

Deep Learning: Five New Superpowers of Higher Education — from jeppestricker.substack.com by Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker
How Deep Learning is Transforming Higher Education

While the traditional model of education is entrenched, emerging technologies like deep learning promise to shake its foundations and usher in an age of personalized, adaptive, and egalitarian education. It is expected to have a significant impact across higher education in several key ways.
…
…deep learning introduces adaptivity into the learning process. Unlike a typical lecture, deep learning systems can observe student performance in real-time. Confusion over a concept triggers instant changes to instructional tactics. Misconceptions are identified early and remediated quickly. Students stay in their zone of proximal development, constantly challenged but never overwhelmed. This adaptivity prevents frustration and stagnation.

InstructureCon 24 Conference Notes — from onedtech.philhillaa.com by Glenda Morgan
Another solid conference from the market leader, even with unclear roadmap

The new stuff: AI
Instructure rolled out multiple updates and improvements – more than last year. These included many AI-based or focused tools and services as well as some functional improvements. I’ll describe the AI features first.

Sal Khan was a surprise visitor to the keynote stage to announce the September availability of the full suite of AI-enabled Khanmigo Teacher Tools for Canvas users. The suite includes 20 tools, such as tools to generate lesson plans and quiz questions and write letters of recommendation. Next year, they plan to roll out tools for students themselves to use.
…
Other AI-based features include.

- Discussion tool summaries and AI-generated responses…
- Translation of inbox messages and discussions…
- Smart search …
- Intelligent Insights…

How can schools prepare for ADA digital accessibility requirements? — from k12dive.com by Kara Arundel
A new U.S. Department of Justice rule aims to ensure that state and local government web content and mobile apps are accessible for people with disabilities.

A newly issued federal rule to ensure web content and mobile apps are accessible for people with disabilities will require public K-12 and higher education institutions to do a thorough inventory of their digital materials to make sure they are in compliance, accessibility experts said.

The update to regulations for Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, published April 24 by the U.S. Department of Justice, calls for all state and local governments to verify that their web content — including mobile apps and social media postings — is accessible for those with vision, hearing, cognitive and manual dexterity disabilities.

Reflections on “What to Know About Buying A Projector for School” [Edwards]

On 07/16/2024, in A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, education, education technology, face-to-face, future, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), intelligent systems, interaction design, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, liberal arts, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online media, platforms, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), tools, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

What to Know About Buying A Projector for School — from by Luke Edwards
Buy the right projector for school with these helpful tips and guidance.

Picking the right projector for school can be a tough decision as the types and prices range pretty widely. From affordable options to professional grade pricing, there are many choices. The problem is that the performance is also hugely varied. This guide aims to be the solution by offering all you need to know about buying the right projector for school where you are.

Luke covers a variety of topics including:

Types of projectors
Screen quality
Light type
Connectivity
Pricing

From DSC:
I posted this because Luke covered a variety of topics — and if you’re set on going with a projector, this is a solid article. But I hesitated to post this, as I’m not sure of the place that projectors will have in the future of our learning spaces. With voice-enabled apps and appliances continuing to be more prevalent — along with the presence of AI-based human-computer interactions and intelligent systems — will projectors be the way to go? Will enhanced interactive whiteboards be the way to go? Will there be new types of displays? I’m not sure. Time will tell.

“Content can be turned into interactive learning games” [Cheung] + other items re: AI in our LE’s

On 07/11/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assessment, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, law schools, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Higher Education Has Not Been Forgotten by Generative AI — from insidehighered.com by Ray Schroeder
The generative AI (GenAI) revolution has not ignored higher education; a whole host of tools are available now and more revolutionary tools are on the way.

Some of the apps that have been developed for general use can be customized for specific topical areas in higher ed. For example, I created a version of GPT, “Ray’s EduAI Advisor,” that builds onto the current GPT-4o version with specific updates and perspectives on AI in higher education. It is freely available to users. With few tools and no knowledge of the programming involved, anyone can build their own GPT to supplement information for their classes or interest groups.

Excerpts from Ray’s EduAI Advisor bot:

AI’s global impact on higher education, particularly in at-scale classes and degree programs, is multifaceted, encompassing several key areas:

1. Personalized Learning…

2. Intelligent Tutoring Systems…

3. Automated Assessment…

4. Enhanced Accessibility…

5. Predictive Analytics…

6. Scalable Virtual Classrooms

7. Administrative Efficiency…

8. Continuous Improvement…

Instructure and Khan Academy Announce Partnership to Enhance Teaching and Learning With Khanmigo, the AI Tool for Education — from instructure.com
Shiren Vijiasingam and Jody Sailor make an exciting announcement about a new partnership sure to make a difference in education everywhere.

“There are many reasons undergrad enrollment is down, but they all come down to two interrelated trends: jobs and affordability.” + We need to “reposition higher ed for a different future of competitors.” [Selingo]

On 06/29/2024, in adjunct faculty, Adobe, apprenticeships, business side of he, career development, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, culture, curriculum, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, innovation, IT in HE, leadership, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, parents/guardians, reinvent, skills, society, sociology, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As I can’t embed his posting, I’m copying/pasting Jeff’s posting on LinkedIn:

According to Flighty, I logged more than 2,220 flight miles in the last 5 days traveling to three conferences to give keynotes and spend time with housing officers in Milwaukee, college presidents in Mackinac Island, MI, and enrollment and marketing leaders in Raleigh.

Before I rest, I wanted to post some quick thoughts about what I learned. Thank you to everyone who shared their wisdom these past few days:

We need to think about the “why” and “how” of AI in higher ed. The “why” shouldn’t be just because everyone else is doing it. Rather, the “why” is to reposition higher ed for a different future of competitors. The “how” shouldn’t be to just seek efficiency and cut jobs. Rather we should use AI to learn from its users to create a better experience going forward.
Residence halls are not just infrastructure. They are part and parcel of the student experience and critical to student success. Almost half of students living on campus say it increases their sense of belonging, according to research by the Association of College & University Housing Officers.
How do we extend the “residential experience”? More than half of traditional undergraduates who live on campus now take at least once course online. As students increasingly spend time off campus – or move off campus as early as their second year in college – we need to help continue to make the connections for them that they would in a dorm. Why? 47% of college students believe living in a college residence hall enhanced their ability to resolve conflicts.
Career must be at the core of the student experience for colleges to thrive in the future, says Andy Chan. Yes, some people might see that as too narrow of a view of higher ed or might not want to provide cogs for the wheel of the workforce, but without the job, none of the other benefits of college follow–citizenship, health, engagement.
A “triple threat grad”–someone who has an internship, a semester-long project, and an industry credential (think Salesforce or Adobe in addition to their degree–matters more in the job market than major or institution, says Brandon Busteed.
Every faculty member should think of themselves as an ambassador for the institution. Yes, care about their discipline/department, but that doesn’t survive if the rest of the institution falls down around them.
Presidents need to place bigger bets rather than spend pennies and dimes on a bunch of new strategies. That means to free up resources they need to stop doing things.
Higher ed needs a new business model. Institutions can’t make money just from tuition, and new products like certificates, are pennies on the dollars of degrees.
Boards aren’t ready for the future. They are over-indexed on philanthropy and alumni and not enough on the expertise needed for leading higher ed.

From DSC:
As I can’t embed his posting, I’m copying/pasting Jeff’s posting on LinkedIn:

It’s the stat that still gnaws at me: 62%.

That’s the percentage of high school graduates going right on to college. A decade ago it was around 70%. So for all the bellyaching about the demographic cliff in higher ed, just imagine if today we were close to that 70% number? We’d be talking a few hundred thousand more students in the system.

As I told a gathering of presidents of small colleges and universities last night on Mackinac Island — the first time I had to take [numerous modes of transportation] to get to a conference — being small isn’t distinctive anymore.

There are many reasons undergrad enrollment is down, but they all come down to two interrelated trends: jobs and affordability.

The job has become so central to what students want out of the experience. It’s almost as if colleges now need to guarantee a job.

These institutions will need to rethink the learner relationship with work. Instead of college with work on the side, we might need to move to more of a mindset of work with college on the side by:

Making campus jobs more meaningful. Why can’t we have accounting and finance majors work in the CFO office, liberal arts majors work in IT on platforms such as Salesforce and Workday, which are skills needed in the workplace, etc.?
Apprenticeships are not just for the trades anymore. Integrate work-based learning into the undergrad experience in a much bigger way than internships and even co-ops.
Credentials within the degree. Every graduate should leave college with more than just a BA but also a certified credential in things like data viz, project management, the Adobe suite, Alteryx, etc.
The curriculum needs to be more flexible for students to combine work and learning — not only for the experience but also money for college — so more availability of online courses, hybrid courses, and flexible semesters.

How else can we think about learning and earning?

Reflections on “The Musician’s Rule and GenAI in Education” [Wiley]

On 06/19/2024, in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, leadership, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, liberal arts, pace of change, pedagogy, platforms, professional development, research, strategy, teaching & learning, tools, trends, United States, universities, using teams, by Daniel Christian

The Musician’s Rule and GenAI in Education — from opencontent.org by David Wiley

We have to provide instructors the support they need to leverage educational technologies like generative AI effectively in the service of learning. Given the amount of benefit that could accrue to students if powerful tools like generative AI were used effectively by instructors, it seems unethical not to provide instructors with professional development that helps them better understand how learning occurs and what effective teaching looks like. Without more training and support for instructors, the amount of student learning higher education will collectively “leave on the table” will only increase as generative AI gets more and more capable. And that’s a problem.

From DSC:
As is often the case, David put together a solid posting here. A few comments/reflections on it:

I agree that more training/professional development is needed, especially regarding generative AI. This would help achieve a far greater ROI and impact.
The pace of change makes it difficult to see where the sand is settling…and thus what to focus on
The Teaching & Learning Groups out there are also trying to learn and grow in their knowledge (so that they can train others)
The administrators out there are also trying to figure out what all of this generative AI stuff is all about; and so are the faculty members. It takes time for educational technologies’ impact to roll out and be integrated into how people teach.
As we’re talking about multiple disciplines here, I think we need more team-based content creation and delivery.
There needs to be more research on how best to use AI — again, it would be helpful if the sand settled a bit first, so as not to waste time and $$. But then that research needs to be piped into the classrooms far better.
.

We need to take more of the research from learning science and apply it in our learning spaces.

“6 AI Tools Recommended by Teachers” [Fitzpatrick] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 06/12/2024, in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assessment, bots, business, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, parents/guardians, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, training / L&D, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

AI Policy 101: a Beginners’ Framework — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
How to make a case for AI experimentation & testing in learning & development

6 AI Tools Recommended By Teachers That Aren’t ChatGPT — from forbes.com by Dan Fitzpatrick

Here are six AI tools making waves in classrooms worldwide:

Brisk Teaching
SchoolAI
Diffit
Curipod
Skybox by Blockade Labs in ThingLink
Ideogram

With insights from educators who are leveraging their potential, let’s explore them in more detail.

AI Is Speeding Up L&D But Are We Losing the Learning? — from learningguild.com by Danielle Wallace

The role of learning & development
Given these risks, what can L&D professionals do to ensure generative AI contributes to effective learning? The solution lies in embracing the role of trusted learning advisors, guiding the use of AI tools in a way that prioritizes achieving learning outcomes over only speed. Here are three key steps to achieve this:

1. Playtest and Learn About AI…
2. Set the Direction for AI to Be Learner-Centered…
3. Become Trusted Learning Advisors…

Some other tools to explore:

Descript: If you can edit text, you can edit videos. — per Bloomberg’s Vlad Savov
Descript is the AI-powered, fully featured, end-to-end video editor that you already know how to use.

A video editor that works like docs and slides

No need to learn a new tool — Descript works like the tools you’ve already learned.

Audeze | Filter — per Bloomberg’s Vlad Savov

AI Chatbots in Schools Findings from a Poll of K-12 Teachers, Students, Parents, and College Undergraduates — from Impact Research; via Michael Spencer and Lily Lee

Key Findings

In the last year, AI has become even more intertwined with our education system. More teachers, parents, and students are aware of it and have used it themselves on a regular basis. It is all over our education system today.
While negative views of AI have crept up over the last year, students, teachers, and parents feel very positive about it in general. On balance they see positive uses for the technology in school, especially if they have used it themselves.
Most K-12 teachers, parents, and students don’t think their school is doing much about AI, despite its widespread use. Most say their school has no policy on it, is doing nothing to offer desired teacher training, and isn’t meeting the demand of students who’d like a career in a job that will need AI.
The AI vacuum in school policy means it is currently used “unauthorized,” while instead people want policies that encourage AI. Kids, parents, and teachers are figuring it out on their own/without express permission, whereas all stakeholders would rather have a policy that explicitly encourages AI from a thoughtful foundation.

The Value of AI in Today’s Classrooms — from waltonfamilyfoundation.org

There is much discourse about the rise and prevalence of AI in education and beyond. These debates often lack the perspectives of key stakeholders – parents, students and teachers.

In 2023, the Walton Family Foundation commissioned the first national survey of teacher and student attitudes toward ChatGPT. The findings showed that educators and students embrace innovation and are optimistic that AI can meaningfully support traditional instruction.

A new survey conducted May 7-15, 2024, showed that knowledge of and support for AI in education is growing among parents, students and teachers. More than 80% of each group says it has had a positive impact on education.

Microsoft teams with Khan Academy + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 06/03/2024, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, Asia, bots, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, computer science, data related items, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, Microsoft, Open AI, pedagogy, platforms, teaching & learning, tools, trends, Uncategorized, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Microsoft teams with Khan Academy to make its AI tutor free for K-12 educators and will develop a Phi-3 math model — from venturebeat.com by Ken Yeung

Microsoft is partnering with Khan Academy in a multifaceted deal to demonstrate how AI can transform the way we learn. The cornerstone of today’s announcement centers on Khan Academy’s Khanmigo AI agent. Microsoft says it will migrate the bot to its Azure OpenAI Service, enabling the nonprofit educational organization to provide all U.S. K-12 educators free access to Khanmigo.

In addition, Microsoft plans to use its Phi-3 model to help Khan Academy improve math tutoring and collaborate to generate more high-quality learning content while making more courses available within Microsoft Copilot and Microsoft Teams for Education.

One-Third of Teachers Have Already Tried AI, Survey Finds — from the74million.org by Kevin Mahnken
A RAND poll released last month finds English and social studies teachers embracing tools like ChatGPT.

One in three American teachers have used artificial intelligence tools in their teaching at least once, with English and social studies teachers leading the way, according to a RAND Corporation survey released last month. While the new technology isn’t yet transforming how kids learn, both teachers and district leaders expect that it will become an increasingly common feature of school life.

Professors Try ‘Restrained AI’ Approach to Help Teach Writing — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young
Can ChatGPT make human writing more efficient, or is writing an inherently time-consuming process best handled without AI tools?

This article is part of the guide: For Education, ChatGPT Holds Promise — and Creates Problems.

When ChatGPT emerged a year and half ago, many professors immediately worried that their students would use it as a substitute for doing their own written assignments — that they’d click a button on a chatbot instead of doing the thinking involved in responding to an essay prompt themselves.

But two English professors at Carnegie Mellon University had a different first reaction: They saw in this new technology a way to show students how to improve their writing skills.

“They start really polishing way too early,” Kaufer says. “And so what we’re trying to do is with AI, now you have a tool to rapidly prototype your language when you are prototyping the quality of your thinking.”

He says the concept is based on writing research from the 1980s that shows that experienced writers spend about 80 percent of their early writing time thinking about whole-text plans and organization and not about sentences.

On Building AI Models for Education — from aieducation.substack.com by Claire Zau
Google’s LearnLM, Khan Academy/MSFT’s Phi-3 Models, and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu

This piece primarily breaks down how Google’s LearnLM was built, and takes a quick look at Microsoft/Khan Academy’s Phi-3 and OpenAI’s ChatGPT Edu as alternative approaches to building an “education model” (not necessarily a new model in the latter case, but we’ll explain). Thanks to the public release of their 86-page research paper, we have the most comprehensive view into LearnLM. Our understanding of Microsoft/Khan Academy small language models and ChatGPT Edu is limited to the information provided through announcements, leaving us with less “under the hood” visibility into their development.

AI tutors are quietly changing how kids in the US study, and the leading apps are from China — from techcrunch.com by Rita Liao

Answer AI is among a handful of popular apps that are leveraging the advent of ChatGPT and other large language models to help students with everything from writing history papers to solving physics problems. Of the top 20 education apps in the U.S. App Store, five are AI agents that help students with their school assignments, including Answer AI, according to data from Data.ai on May 21.

Is your school behind on AI? If so, there are practical steps you can take for the next 12 months — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard

If your school (district) or university has not yet made significant efforts to think about how you will prepare your students for a World of AI, I suggest the following steps:

July 24 – Administrator PD & AI Guidance
In July, administrators should receive professional development on AI, if they haven’t already. This should include…

August 24 –Professional Development for Teachers and Staff…
Fall 24 — Parents; Co-curricular; Classroom experiments…
December 24 — Revision to Policy…

New ChatGPT Version Aiming at Higher Ed — from insidehighered.com by Lauren Coffey
ChatGPT Edu, emerging after initial partnerships with several universities, is prompting both cautious optimism and worries.

OpenAI unveiled a new version of ChatGPT focused on universities on Thursday, building on work with a handful of higher education institutions that partnered with the tech giant.

The ChatGPT Edu product, expected to start rolling out this summer, is a platform for institutions intended to give students free access. OpenAI said the artificial intelligence (AI) toolset could be used for an array of education applications, including tutoring, writing grant applications and reviewing résumés.

Microsoft introduces the world to a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI –> Copilot+ PCs

On 05/21/2024, in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, interaction design, IT in HE, Microsoft, platforms, tools, trends, United States, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Introducing Copilot+ PCs — from blogs.microsoft.com

[On May 20th], at a special event on our new Microsoft campus, we introduced the world to a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI, Copilot+ PCs.

Copilot+ PCs are the fastest, most intelligent Windows PCs ever built. With powerful new silicon capable of an incredible 40+ TOPS (trillion operations per second), all–day battery life and access to the most advanced AI models, Copilot+ PCs will enable you to do things you can’t on any other PC. Easily find and remember what you have seen in your PC with Recall, generate and refine AI images in near real-time directly on the device using Cocreator, and bridge language barriers with Live Captions, translating audio from 40+ languages into English.

From DSC:
As a first off-the-hip look, Recall could be fraught with possible security/privacy-related issues. But what do I know? The Neuron states “Microsoft assures that everything Recall sees remains private.” Ok…

From The Rundown AI concerning the above announcements:

The details:

A new system enables Copilot+ PCs to run AI workloads up to 20x faster and 100x more efficiently than traditional PCs.
Windows 11 has been rearchitected specifically for AI, integrating the Copilot assistant directly into the OS.
New AI experiences include a new feature called Recall, which allows users to search for anything they’ve seen on their screen with natural language.
Copilot’s new screen-sharing feature allows AI to watch, hear, and understand what a user is doing on their computer and answer questions in real-time.
Copilot+ PCs will start at $999, and ship with OpenAI’s latest GPT-4o models.

Why it matters: Tony Stark’s all-powerful JARVIS AI assistant is getting closer to reality every day. Once Copilot, ChatGPT, Project Astra, or anyone else can not only respond but start executing tasks autonomously, things will start getting really exciting — and likely initiate a whole new era of tech work.

AI’s New Conversation Skills Eyed for Education [Coffey]

On 05/17/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, colleges, communications, community colleges, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, Open AI, personalized/customized learning, platforms, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

AI’s New Conversation Skills Eyed for Education — from insidehighered.com by Lauren Coffey
The latest ChatGPT’s more human-like verbal communication has professors pondering personalized learning, on-demand tutoring and more classroom applications.

ChatGPT’s newest version, GPT-4o ( the “o” standing for “omni,” meaning “all”), has a more realistic voice and quicker verbal response time, both aiming to sound more human. The version, which should be available to free ChatGPT users in coming weeks—a change also hailed by educators—allows people to interrupt it while it speaks, simulates more emotions with its voice and translates languages in real time. It also can understand instructions in text and images and has improved video capabilities.
…
Ajjan said she immediately thought the new vocal and video capabilities could allow GPT to serve as a personalized tutor. Personalized learning has been a focus for educators grappling with the looming enrollment cliff and for those pushing for student success.

There’s also the potential for role playing, according to Ajjan. She pointed to mock interviews students could do to prepare for job interviews, or, for example, using GPT to play the role of a buyer to help prepare students in an economics course.

A major step towards much more natural human-computer interaction: OpenAI introduces GPT-4o

On 05/14/2024, in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assistive technologies, bots, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education, education technology, emerging technologies, Emotion, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, lifelong learning, mathematics, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online tutoring, Open AI, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, student-related, technologies for your home, television, tools, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

Hello GPT-4o — from openai.com
We’re announcing GPT-4o, our new flagship model that can reason across audio, vision, and text in real time.

GPT-4o (“o” for “omni”) is a step towards much more natural human-computer interaction—it accepts as input any combination of text, audio, image, and video and generates any combination of text, audio, and image outputs. It can respond to audio inputs in as little as 232 milliseconds, with an average of 320 milliseconds, which is similar to human response time in a conversation. It matches GPT-4 Turbo performance on text in English and code, with significant improvement on text in non-English languages, while also being much faster and 50% cheaper in the API. GPT-4o is especially better at vision and audio understanding compared to existing models.

Example topics covered here:

Two GPT-4os interacting and singing
Languages/translation
Personalized math tutor
Meeting AI
Harmonizing and creating music
Providing inflection, emotions, and a human-like voice
Understanding what the camera is looking at and integrating it into the AI’s responses
Providing customer service

With GPT-4o, we trained a single new model end-to-end across text, vision, and audio, meaning that all inputs and outputs are processed by the same neural network. Because GPT-4o is our first model combining all of these modalities, we are still just scratching the surface of exploring what the model can do and its limitations.

This demo is insane.

A student shares their iPad screen with the new ChatGPT + GPT-4o, and the AI speaks with them and helps them learn in *realtime*.

Imagine giving this to every student in the world.

The future is so, so bright. pic.twitter.com/t14M4fDjwV

— Mckay Wrigley (@mckaywrigley) May 13, 2024

From DSC:
I like the assistive tech angle here:

GPT-4o as tested by @BeMyEyes: pic.twitter.com/WeAoVmxUFH

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) May 14, 2024

It’s been less than 24 hours since the OpenAI changed the world with GPT-4o announcement.

And the Internet is a flooded with demo videos.

Here’re the 10 most jaw-dropping examples so far (Don’t miss the 6th one) pic.twitter.com/sLx1D1YSqb

— Poonam Soni (@CodeByPoonam) May 14, 2024

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2024 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report® Teaching and Learning Edition

Trends
As a first activity, we asked the Horizon panelists to provide input on the macro trends they believe are going to shape the future of postsecondary teaching and learning and to provide observable evidence for those trends. To ensure an expansive view of the larger trends serving as context for institutions of higher education, panelists provided input across five trend categories: social, technological, economic, environmental, and political. Given the widespread impacts of emerging AI technologies on higher education, we are also including in this year’s report a list of “honorary trends” focused on AI. After several rounds of voting, the panelists selected the following trends as the most important:

Learning Ecosystems

The “World’s Most Powerful AI Training Cluster” now online + other items re: AI in general

Reflections on “The Musician’s Rule and GenAI in Education” [Wiley]

Microsoft introduces the world to a new category of Windows PCs designed for AI –> Copilot+ PCs

2024 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report® Teaching and Learning Edition

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