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“10 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Instructional Design” [Gibson] + other AI-related items

On 08/21/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, journalism, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, by Daniel Christian

10 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Transforming Instructional Design — from er.educause.edu by Robert Gibson
Artificial intelligence (AI) is providing instructors and course designers with an incredible array of new tools and techniques to improve the course design and development process. However, the intersection of AI and content creation is not new.

What does this mean for the field of instructional and course design? I have been telling my graduate instructional design students that AI technology is not likely to replace them any time soon because learning and instruction are still highly personalized and humanistic experiences. However, as these students embark on their careers, they will need to understand how to appropriately identify, select, and utilize AI when developing course content.

Here are a few interesting examples of how AI is shaping and influencing instructional design. Some of the tools and resources can be used to satisfy a variety of course design activities, while others are very specific.

GenAI Chatbot Prompt Library for Educators — from aiforeducation.io
We have a variety of prompts to help you lesson plan and do adminstrative tasks with GenAI chatbots like ChatGPT, Claude, Bard, and Perplexity.

Also relevant/see:

AI for Education — from linkedin.com
Helping teachers and schools unlock their full potential through AI

Google Chrome will summarize entire articles for you with built-in generative AI — from theverge.com by Jay Peters
Google’s AI-powered article summaries are rolling out for iOS and Android first, before coming to Chrome on the desktop.

Google’s AI-powered Search Generative Experience (SGE) is getting a major new feature: it will be able to summarize articles you’re reading on the web, according to a Google blog post. SGE can already summarize search results for you so that you don’t have to scroll forever to find what you’re looking for, and this new feature is designed to take that further by helping you out after you’ve actually clicked a link.

A Definitive Guide to Using Midjourney — from every.to by Lucas Crespo
Everything you need to know about generating AI Images

In this article, I’ll walk you through the most powerful and useful techniques I’ve come across. We’ll cover:

  • Getting started in Midjourney
  • Understanding Midjourney’s quirks with interpreting prompts
  • Customizing Midjourney’s image outputs after the fact
  • Experimenting with a range of styles and content
  • Uploading and combining images to make new ones via image injections
  • Brainstorming art options with parameters like “chaos” and “weird”
  • Finalizing your Midjourney output’s aspect ratio

And much more.

Report: Potential NYT lawsuit could force OpenAI to wipe ChatGPT and start over — from arstechnica.com by Ashley Belanger; via Misha da Vinci
OpenAI could be fined up to $150,000 for each piece of infringing content.

Weeks after The New York Times updated its terms of service (TOS) to prohibit AI companies from scraping its articles and images to train AI models, it appears that the Times may be preparing to sue OpenAI. The result, experts speculate, could be devastating to OpenAI, including the destruction of ChatGPT’s dataset and fines up to $150,000 per infringing piece of content.

NPR spoke to two people “with direct knowledge” who confirmed that the Times’ lawyers were mulling whether a lawsuit might be necessary “to protect the intellectual property rights” of the Times’ reporting.

Midjourney Is Easily Tricked Into Making AI Misinformation, Study Finds — from bloomberg.com (paywall)

AI-generated art cannot be copyrighted, rules a US Federal Judge — from msn.com by Wes Davis; via Tom Barrett

Do you want to Prepare your Students for the AI World? Support your Speech and Debate Team Now — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
Adding funding to the debate budget is a simple and immediate step administrators can take as part of developing a school’s “AI Strategy.”

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AI’s impact on journalism, some workers in Kenya, the SEC, programming, entertainment, ethics, AI tools, and more

On 07/24/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Africa, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, biology, computer science, journalism, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Partnership with American Journalism Project to support local news — from openai.com; via The Rundown AI
A new $5+ million partnership aims to explore ways the development of artificial intelligence (AI) can support a thriving, innovative local news field, and ensure local news organizations shape the future of this emerging technology.

SEC’s Gensler Warns AI Risks Financial Stability — from bloomberg.com by Lydia Beyoud; via The Brainyacts
SEC on lookout for fraud, conflicts of interest, chair says | Gensler cautions companies touting AI in corporate docs

Per a recent Brainyacts posting:

The recent petition from Kenyan workers who engage in content moderation for OpenAI’s ChatGPT, via the intermediary company Sama, has opened a new discussion in the global legal market. This dialogue surrounds the concept of “harmful and dangerous technology work” and its implications for laws and regulations within the expansive field of AI development and deployment.

The petition, asking for investigations into the working conditions and operations of big tech companies outsourcing services in Kenya, is notable not just for its immediate context but also for the broader legal issues it raises. Central among these is the notion of “harmful and dangerous technology work,” a term that encapsulates the uniquely modern form of labor involved in developing and ensuring the safety of AI systems.

The most junior data labelers, or agents, earned a basic salary of 21,000 Kenyan shillings ($170) per month, with monthly bonuses and commissions for meeting performance targets that could elevate their hourly rate to just $1.44 – a far cry from the $12.50 hourly rate that OpenAI paid Sama for their work. This discrepancy raises crucial questions about the fair distribution of economic benefits in the AI value chain.

How ChatGPT Code Interpreter (And Four Other AI Initiatives) Might Revolutionize Education — from edtechinsiders.substack.com by Phuong Do, Alex Sarlin, and Sarah Morin
And more on Meta’s Llama, education LLMs, the Supreme Court affirmative action ruling, and Byju’s continued unraveling

Let’s put it all together for emphasis. With Code Interpreter by ChatGPT, you can:

  1. Upload any file
  2. Tell ChatGPT what you want to do with it
  3. Receive your instructions translated into Python
  4. Execute the code
  5. Transform the output back into readable language (or visuals, charts, graphs, tables, etc.)
  6. Provide the results (and the underlying Python code)

AI Tools and Links — from Wally Boston

It’s become so difficult to track AI tools as they are revealed. I’ve decided to create a running list of tools as I find out about them.  The list is in alphabetical order even though there are classification systems that I’ve seen others use. Although it’s not good in blogging land to update posts, I’ll change the date every time that I update this list. Please feel free to respond to me with your comments about any of these as well as AI tools that you use that I do not have on the list. I’ll post your comments next to a tool when appropriate. Thanks.

Meet Claude — A helpful new AI assistant — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
How to make the most of ChatGPT’s new alternative

Claude has surprising capabilities, including a couple you won’t find in the free version of ChatGPT.

Since this new AI bot launched on July 11, I’ve found Claude useful for summarizing long transcripts, clarifying complex writings, and generating lists of ideas and questions. It also helps me put unstructured notes into orderly tables. For some things, I prefer Claude to ChatGPT. Read on for Claude’s strengths and limitations, and ideas for using it creatively.

Claude’s free version allows you to attach documents for analysis. ChatGPT’s doesn’t.

The Next Frontier For Large Language Models Is Biology — from forbes.com by Rob Toews

Large language models like GPT-4 have taken the world by storm thanks to their astonishing command of natural language. Yet the most significant long-term opportunity for LLMs will entail an entirely different type of language: the language of biology.

In the near term, the most compelling opportunity to apply large language models in the life sciences is to design novel proteins.

Seven AI companies agree to safeguards in the US — from bbc.com by Shiona McCallum; via Tom Barrett

Seven leading companies in artificial intelligence have committed to managing risks posed by the tech, the White House has said.

This will include testing the security of AI, and making the results of those tests public.

Representatives from Amazon, Anthropic, Google, Inflection, Meta, Microsoft, and OpenAI joined US President Joe Biden to make the announcement.

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“YouTube tests AI-generated quizzes on educational videos” [Forristal] + numerous other items re: AI in education/HE/corporate training

On 07/13/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assessment, change, colleges, community colleges, computer science, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, journalism, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, programming, research, science, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

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

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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.

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Legal items

MISC items

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Mixed media online project serves as inspiration for student journalists [Balmeo]

On 03/02/2023, in colleges, communications, community colleges, digital storytelling, higher education, journalism, media/film, multimedia, society, sociology, story, storytelling, surviving, United States, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

Mixed media online project serves as inspiration for student journalists — from jeadigitalmedia.org by Michelle Balmeo

Excerpt:

If you’re on the hunt for inspiration, go check out Facing Life: Eight stories of life after life in California’s prisons.

This project, created by Pendarvis Harshaw and Brandon Tauszik, has so many wonderful and original storytelling components, it’s the perfect model for student journalists looking for ways to tell important stories online.

Facing Life -- eight stories of life after life in California's prisons

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Team Teaching, Educator Retention and Education’s Next Workforce

On 02/24/2023, in career development, journalism, K-12 related, teachers, by Daniel Christian

Team Teaching, Educator Retention and Education’s Next Workforce — from gettingsmart.com by

Key Points

  • Team teaching models present an innovative solution to build high-quality teams of satisfied and empowered educators.
  • The future of the nation depends on the quality of education provided to the next generation.
  • Discovering, creating and retaining great teachers who are driven to support every K-12 learner is one of the most effective ways to change long-term outcomes for both students and their future communities.

Stevenson Elementary Third-Grade Team's Transition -- still teaching 100 students, let's say, but in a different team-teaching sort of way

Also from GettingSmart.com:

Why Teach Journalism When AI Writes Articles? — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Key Points

  • Historically, journalism has been a valued and viable career path.
  • However, the rise of the web, particularly social media, disrupted time-honored media business models.
  • Good writing matters in careers and in a healthy democracy and journalism–the regular production of public content in newspapers, magazines, and websites–is a great way to teach it.
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Introducing: ChatGPT Edu-Mega-Prompts [Hardman] + several other items re: AI

On 02/06/2023, in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assessment, bots, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, education, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, journalism, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning theories, liberal arts, memory, Natural Language Processing (NLP), open courseware and systems, pedagogy, productivity / tips and tricks, psychology, skills, streams of content, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

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.

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Stop the Presses | Journalism Employment and the Economic Value of 850 Journalism and Communication Programs

On 12/21/2022, in career development, colleges, higher education, journalism, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Stop the Presses | Journalism Employment and the Economic Value of 850 Journalism and Communication Programs — from cew.georgetown.edu

Summary

The number of journalism jobs has been declining for decades and will continue to fall over the next decade. Projected job losses for journalists are primarily due to newspaper downsizing and closures. Stop the Presses: Journalism Employment and the Economic Value of 850 Journalism and Communication Programs explores the transformation of the journalism profession and ranks journalism and communication programs at 850 institutions by their payoff for graduates in the labor market. The report finds that only about 15 percent of journalism majors become editors or news analysts, reporters, and correspondents early in their careers.

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“The incredible shrinking future of college” [Carey] + several other higher-ed related items

On 12/09/2022, in adjunct faculty, business side of he, career development, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, ethics, faculty, funding / grants, higher education, journalism, law schools, leadership, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, parents/guardians, society, sociology, strategy, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

The incredible shrinking future of college — from vox.com by Kevin Carey

Excerpt:

The future looks very different in some parts of the country than in others, and will also vary among national four-year universities, regional universities like Ship, and community colleges. Grawe projects that, despite the overall demographic decline, demand for national four-year universities on the West Coast will increase by more than 7.5 percent between now and the mid-2030s. But in states like New York, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Louisiana, it will decline by 15 percent or more.

Higher ed’s eight-decade run of unbroken good fortune may be about to end.

Demand for regional four-year universities, per Grawe, will drop by at least 7.5 percent across New England, the mid-Atlantic, and Southern states other than Florida and Texas, with smaller declines in the Great Plains. Community colleges will be hit hard in most places other than Florida, which has a robust two-year system with a large Latino population.

The next generation of higher education leaders will take scarcity as a given and “return on investment” as both sales pitch and state of mind.

The decline of American higher education — from youtube.com by Bryan Alexander and Kevin Carey

 

Most Colleges Omit or Understate Net Costs in Financial-Aid Offers, Federal Watchdog Finds — from chronicle.com by Eric Hoover

Excerpt:

Nine out of 10 colleges either exclude or understate the net cost of attendance in their financial-aid offers to students, according to estimates published in a new report by the Government Accountability Office. The watchdog agency recommended that Congress consider legislation that would require institutions to provide “clear and standard information.”

The lack of clarity makes it hard for students to decide where to enroll and how much to borrow.

The report, published on Monday, paints a troubling picture of an industry that makes it difficult for consumers to understand the bottom line by presenting insufficient if not downright misleading information. Federal law does not require colleges to present financial-aid offers in a clear, consistent way to all students.

Higher ed faces ‘deteriorating’ outlook in 2023, Fitch says — from highereddive.com by Rick Seltzer

Dive Brief (excerpt):

  • U.S. higher education faces a stable but deteriorating credit outlook in 2023, Fitch Ratings said Thursday, taking a more pessimistic view of the sector’s future than it had at the same time last year.
  • Operating performance at colleges and universities will be pressured by enrollment, labor and wage challenges, according to the bond ratings agency. Colleges have been able to raise tuition slightly because of inflation, but additional revenue they generate generally isn’t expected to be enough to offset rising costs.

Merger Watch: Don’t wait too long to find a merger partner. Closure does not benefit anybody. — from highereddive.com by Ricardo Azziz
Leaders fail students, employees and communities when they embrace a strategy of hope in the face of overwhelming evidence.

Excerpt:

While not all institutions can (or should be) saved, most institutional closures reflect the failure of past governing boards to face the fiscal reality of their institution — and to plan accordingly and in a timely manner. Leaders should always consider and, if necessary, pursue potential partnerships, mergers, or consolidations before a school has exhausted its financial and political capital. The inability or unwillingness of many leaders to take such action is reflected in the fact that the number of institutional closures in higher education far outweighs the number of successful mergers.

In fact, the risk of closure can be predicted. In a prior analysis several coauthors and I reported on a number of risk factors predictive of closure, noting that most schools at risk for closure are small and financially fragile, with declining enrollment and limited resources to mount significant online programs. While there are many clear signs that a school is at risk for closure, the major challenge to mounting a response seems to be the unwillingness of institutional leaders to understand, face and act on these signs.

What can colleges learn from degrees awarded in the fast-shrinking journalism field? — from highereddive.com by Lilah Burke
Bachelor’s degrees offer solid payoffs, while grad programs post mixed returns, researchers find. But many students don’t go on to work in the field.

Excerpt:

Journalism jobs are hard to find. But it’s nice work when you can get it.

That’s the takeaway from a new report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce on the payoff of journalism programs. An analysis of federal education and labor data reveals that journalism and communication bachelor’s degrees offer moderate payoff to their graduates, but only 15% of majors end up working in the field early in their careers. Newsroom employment has declined 26% since 2008, and researchers predict it will fall 3% over the next nine years.

Addendum on 12/10/22:

A Sectorwide Approach to Higher Ed’s Future — from insidehighered.com by Sylvia M. Burwell
Institutions must seek ways to differentiate themselves even as they work together to address common challenges facing all of higher education, writes Sylvia M. Burwell.

We have to think differently about the future of higher education. And rather than limit our work to what one type of institution or program can achieve, we should look across the entire higher education sector.

A sectorwide [insert DSC: system-wide] approach is needed because the economics of higher education are not going to hold.
…
To evolve our thinking on these questions, we should focus on the value proposition of higher education and market differentiation.

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The Future Today Institute’s 15th Anniversary Tech Trends Report is now available

On 10/29/2022, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, business, career development, change, corporate / business world, culture, data related items, education technology, health, ideas, innovation, internet, journalism, legislatures / government / legal, machine-to-machine communications, Metaverse, music, play, policy, technology (general), telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, tools, trends, vendors, videoconferencing, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Future Today Institute's 2022 Tech and Science Trends Report is now available

The Future Today Institute’s 15th Anniversary Tech Trends Report

Excerpt:

Future Today Institute’s 2022 Tech and Science Trends Report is now available. Downloaded more than 1 million times each year, FTI’s annual Tech Trends Report is a must-read for every industry. Learn the key trends impacting finance, insurance, transportation, healthcare, sports, logistics, telecom, work, government and policy, security, privacy, education, agriculture, entertainment, music, CPG, hospitality and dining, ESGs, climate, space and more. Discover critical insights. See what strategic action you can take on the futures, today.

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Diving into Drones – How your journalism program can use DJI drones to enhance your visuals [O’Daniel]

On 09/12/2022, in digital photography, engagement / engaging students, engineering, journalism, K-12 related, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, robotics, universities, by Daniel Christian

Diving into Drones – How your journalism program can use DJI drones to enhance your visuals — from jeadigitalmedia.org by Spencer O’Daniel

Excerpt:

Here’s our journey to getting started in the drone world and how our visuals took off (no pun intended) when we listened to the students and began actively using the drones in the field to cover stories in our surrounding community. Buckle up-I’m not an expert on drones by any means but here’s some information to get you started in the drone world.

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“Choose ready to go content,” digital storytelling, PBL, + several other edtech-related items for the K12 learning ecosystem

On 07/14/2022, in accessibility / UDL, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), communications, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, curriculum, digital storytelling, education, education technology, ideas, journalism, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Microsoft, pedagogy, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, project-based learning, story, storytelling, teachers, tools, youth, by Daniel Christian

Best Sites and Apps for Digital Storytelling — from techlearning.com by Diana Restifo
Digital storytelling can help boost communication and presentation skills

Excerpt:

…storytelling is a great way for kids to learn to love reading and writing. But almost any school subject can be considered through a dramatic frame, from history to geography to science. Even math can be taught through narrative (word problems, anyone?). Most importantly, storytelling gives kids the opportunity to be inventive with language, graphics, and design, and to share their creations with others.

The following sites and apps for storytelling range from basic to advanced. Many are designed for educators or include guides for use in education. And while most are paid products, the prices are generally reasonable and nearly every platform offers a free trial or free basic account.

6 best classroom noise meters for teachers — from educatorstechnology.com by Med Kharbach

Excerpt:

One of the effective ways to monitor and reduce noise levels in classrooms is by making noise visible. Enabling students to visualize their noise raises awareness to their sound levels and makes them noise conscious. There are several noise meter tools and apps to use in your classroom to bring down students noise and therefore help in creating optimal learning experiences. Below is a collection of some of the best noise meters for classroom use.  They are simple, easy to use, and cost-effective.

Digital age classroom projects — from thetechedvocate.org by Matthew Lynch

Excerpt:

Classroom learning today has left the era of flipping through textbooks trying to be on the same page with the teacher, though not for every class lesson. Educators today are seizing the opportunities of digital devices and media to expand learning opportunities beyond pencil and paper homework. Also, assessment is not just a multiple-choice test.

Consider trying one of these projects:

The Education of Incarcerated Youth with Disabilities Ep.14 — from edcircuit.com

Excerpt:

The School Justice Project (SJP) champions an extremely vulnerable population: incarcerated youth with disabilities. The SJP’s mission is to ensure every learner, in or out of prison facilities, receives the education they were promised and deserve. Their current class action lawsuit against the DC prison system underscores the impact of their efforts. Featured guest, Claire Blumenson, pulls no punches as she forces us to look, and not to look away, in this pivotal moment.

We are educators, parents, siblings, and friends who aren’t satisfied with the quality of the content our students are exposed to. We know they deserve better, and are committed to bringing authentic, engaging, diverse and accessible content to all learners.

Business Leaders Say Computer Science Needs to Be A Core Subject — from edsurge.com by Daniel Mollenkamp

Excerpt:

[On July 12], a collection of more than 500 prominent business, education and nonprofit leaders called on states to update their K-12 curriculum to make computer science a core subject.

In a letter sent to governors from all fifty states, they write, “computer science provides an essential foundation—not only for careers in technology, but for every career in today’s world,” and call upon state leaders to update curriculum to ensure that all students have an opportunity to learn computer science in school.

What is Microsoft Sway and How Can it Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Microsoft Sway is a presentation tool that works really well for teaching

Excerpt:

Microsoft Sway is the company’s alternative to PowerPoint as a presentation tool that embraces collaborative working. As such, this is a powerful system for teachers and students to use in the classroom and beyond.

The idea behind Sway is to offer a super simple setup that allows anybody to create presentation slideshows. This makes it good for both younger students and teachers for in-class or online-based presenting.

For a somewhat related item, see:

Exploring some different instructional strategies and discovering how to incorporate them into the classroom process can rekindle a love affair with teaching. Finding the right instructional strategy to fit your classroom can make a world of difference to your students by allowing them to make meaningful connections with what they are learning. Take a look at a few different strategies, and see which one might suit your students this academic year.

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Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s newest exhibit teaches community about media literacy [Broekema & Sue Ellen Christian]

On 04/27/2022, in collaboration, community colleges, ideas, innovation, journalism, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning spaces, media/film, Michigan, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Kalamazoo Valley Museum’s newest exhibit teaches community about media literacy — from mmlive.com by Gabi Broekema along with one of our sisters Sue Ellen Christian

Excerpt:

The 14-element interactive exhibit is scattered across two floors of the museum and invites visitors to learn about media literacy through fun games and stories.

This project is the brainchild of presidential innovation professor in communication at Western Michigan University, Sue Ellen Christian. A few years back, Christian wrote the book, “Everyday Media Literacy: An Analog Guide for Your Digital Life,” to teach media literacy to the classes she taught full of students from different majors across the university.

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“WayRay’s AR Car Display Could Change Driving Forever” [Melnick] + several other resources re: AR, MR, VR, XR

On 04/07/2022, in Augmented Reality (AR), creativity, digital storytelling, engineering, entrepreneurship, Facebook / Meta Platforms, health, journalism, new media literacies, story, storytelling, wearables, XR - extended reality, youth, by Daniel Christian

WayRay’s AR Car Display Could Change Driving Forever — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick

How One Hospital Is Using An AR Bear To Calm Young Patients — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick

Excerpt:

Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOCK), a children’s hospital located in Orange County, California, has transformed its lovable mascot ‘Choco’ into an AR (augmented reality) experience that walks children through the steps of a standard MRI scan. The idea is that by familiarizing younger patients with the process, they’ll feel more comfortable during the actual procedure.

Arizona State Launching New VR/AR Classes, Nonny De La Peña To Helm — by Darragh Dandurand

Excerpt:

The Center for Narrative and Emerging Media (NEM) will be housed in Downtown Los Angeles in the Herald Examiner Building, newly renovated to welcome faculty, staff, and students. NEM’s goal is to teach and support students, from reporters to artists to entrepreneurs and engineers, who are pursuing careers across the burgeoning creative technology sector.

Why Meta decided against an open VR app store — from protocol.com by Janko Roettgers and Nick Statt

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Taking Aim at Disinformation [Sue Ellen Christian]

On 03/01/2022, in ideas, journalism, library / librarians, media/film, Michigan, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Taking Aim at Disinformation — from encorekalamazoo.com with the work of one of our sisters, Sue Ellen Christian, highlighted in it
Southwest Michigan’s Magazine: WMU Professor Sue Ellen Christian and the Kalamazoo Valley Museum team up to teach media literacy…

From the Editor of Encore Magazine

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Howard University to digitize its archive of thousands of Black newspapers [Bunn]

On 02/24/2022, in Africa, history, journalism, library / librarians, society, sociology, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Howard University to digitize its archive of thousands of Black newspapers — from nbcnews.com by Curtis Bunn
A $2 million grant will be used to digitize Howard’s Black Press Archives, the largest collection of newspapers from the U.S., Africa and the African diaspora.

Excerpt:

Now, with the help of a $2 million grant announced Monday, Howard University’s Moorland-Spingarn Research Center will make available countless articles that captured in real-time the impact of historical events on Black people that have long been difficult, if not impossible, to access. By digitizing its extensive Black Press Archives, anyone will be able to access Howard’s collection of more than 2,000 newspapers from the United States, Africa and the African diaspora online.

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