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Public confidence in higher ed plunges — again [Seltzer & Schermele]

On 07/14/2023, in adjunct faculty, business side of he, change, colleges, community colleges, Emotion, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, learning ecosystem, parents/guardians, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Commentary from Rick Seltzer re: “Public confidence in higher ed plunges — again” — from chronicle.com

Excerpt:

Only 36 percent of Americans say they have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in higher education, according to a survey Gallup conducted in June. That’s down from 48 percent who said the same in 2018 and 57 percent in 2015.

It’s also broadly consistent with a March Wall Street Journal-NORC survey that found just 42 percent of respondents thought college was worth the cost because it improves career prospects.

Confidence waned among all major groups. Sharpest declines were among Republicans, those without a college degree, women, and the oldest respondents.

Rick links to Zachary’s article:

Public Trust in Higher Ed Has Plummeted. Yes, Again. — from chronicle.com by Zachary Schermele
Americans’ confidence in higher ed is continuing to shrivel — a troubling sign that could foreshadow further erosion of colleges’ enrollment, funding, and stature in the coming years.
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Also relevant/see:

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PROOF POINTS: Plenty of Black college students want to be teachers, but something keeps derailing them [Barshay]

On 07/14/2023, in career development, colleges, community colleges, education, higher education, K-12 related, leadership, society, strategy, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

PROOF POINTS: Plenty of Black college students want to be teachers, but something keeps derailing them — from hechingerreport.org by Jill Barshay
Study inside Michigan’s teacher preparation programs sheds light on some of the reasons for the scarcity of Black teachers in America

There are many reasons for the paucity of Black teachers. But a June 2023 analysis of college students in Michigan highlights a particularly leaky part of the teacher pipeline: teacher preparation programs inside colleges and universities.

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Neurodivergent Students Need Flexibility, Not Our Frustration [Rose Guest Pryal]

On 07/14/2023, in adjunct faculty, colleges, communications, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, instructional design, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, neurodivergent/special needs, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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

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Building A Skills-Based Organization: The Exciting But Sober Reality [Bersin]

On 07/14/2023, in corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, skills, training / L&D, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Building A Skills-Based Organization: The Exciting But Sober Reality — from joshbersin.com by Josh Bersin

Excerpt:

Fueled by new AI tools and skills technology, nearly every company wants to become a “skills-based organization.” Now that we’ve had a few years to study this trend, I’d like to share some of the realities and calm some of the hype.

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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/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, change, colleges, community colleges, computer science, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, 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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“Gen Z values education — but doesn’t think a four-year degree is the only option” [Spitalniak] + several other items re: higher education

On 07/07/2023, in 21st century, Alternatives, business side of he, career development, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, experimentation, higher education, ideas, leadership, learning ecosystem, society, strategy, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Gen Z values education — but doesn’t think a four-year degree is the only option — from highereddive.com by Laura Spitalniak

Dive Brief:

  • The current cohort of high school students, part of Generation Z, values postsecondary education but is increasingly interested in alternatives to four-year colleges, according to a new report from ECMC Group, a nonprofit focused on student success, and Vice Media.
  • In 2023, 65% of surveyed students said they would need education beyond high school, compared to 59% pre-pandemic, the report said. But 59% said they could be successful if they don’t get a four-year degree
  • Almost half, 48%, of high schoolers said their postsecondary education would ideally take three years or less, and just over a third, 35%, said it should take two years or less.

From DSC:
And some further comments on that article:

Rather than looking to modify the traditional higher education structures for 18-year-olds fresh out of high school, the College for Adult Learners and Continuing Education will establish its own processes for the nontraditional student.

The average age of students enrolled in the Center for Distance Education is 32, and many have kids or other life responsibilities that impact their time and ability to focus on education, Seal explains.

“It’s not so much that we’re competing with other institutions [for adult learners], it’s that we’re competing with life,” Seal says. “They’re not leaving to go to another institution—they’re leaving because of life things.”

Some resources and reflections from Stephen Downes:

Online Learning Still in High Demand at Community Colleges — from insidehighered.com by Sara Weissman
Some colleges are still offering half or the majority of their classes online in response to student demand.

East Los Angeles College, the most populous campus in the California Community College system, offered 60 percent of its courses in a hybrid or online format this past spring, most of them asynchronous. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, fewer than a quarter of courses were offered online.
…

He said students have made their preferences clear via their enrollment trends—online course sections at the college have filled much more quickly lately than in-person courses.

Teaching: Does higher education value good teaching? — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie; possible paywall but at least must have an account

Excerpt:

But the bigger question hanging over the conference was this: Do colleges actually value good teaching? On the one hand, it would seem obvious that they must. Undergraduate education is the central reason most colleges exist. How could you not value your core product?

But look below the surface and what do you see? An industry in which the majority of instructors are adjuncts who are often low-paid and unlikely to receive any sort of professional development, let alone an office in which to meet with students after class. At research universities you will find many tenure-track professors who were warned not to devote too much time to teaching before securing tenure, since scholarship is what’s rewarded. Promotion and tenure policies on many campuses, research-intensive or not, over-rely on student evaluations when it comes to judging teaching expertise or commitment. Finally, given that most doctoral programs devote a nominal amount of time to teaching students how to teach, it’s easy to see why many professors stick to how they were taught as students, whether or not those methods were effective.

 

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The Homework Apocalypse [Mollick]

On 07/07/2023, in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, colleges, community colleges, education technology, face-to-face, faculty/staff, flipping -- inverted learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, pedagogy, platforms, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

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

Excerpt:

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

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

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Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best of Show at ISTE 2023 [techlearning.com]

On 07/07/2023, in A/V -- audio/visual, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, digital learning, education technology, higher education, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best of Show at ISTE 2023 — from techlearning.com
Our annual awards celebrate the products, and businesses behind each one, who are transforming education in schools around the world.

Excerpt:

The evaluation criteria included: ease of use, value, uniqueness in the market, and proof that the product helped make teachers’ lives easier and supported student achievement.

“We received an impressive array of nominations for this year’s awards,” says Christine Weiser, content director for Tech & Learning. “Our judges chose the products that they believed best supported innovation in the classroom and district.

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“Do you remember a time when someone truly listened to you?” [Mehrabi]

On 07/07/2023, in attention, collaboration, communications, culture, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, Emotion, face-to-face, hearts -- matters of the heart, ideas, psychology, relationships, religion, society, sociology, United States, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The Bible talks about listening quite frequently. The authors ask people to listen to what is being communicated.

Proverbs 16:20
Whoever gives heed to instruction prospers,
and blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord.

Unfortunately, it often involves people NOT listening to the LORD and/or to others and, instead, going their/our own way. In my own life, things don’t go so well when I do that. I think the same is true on a more general/corporate level as well.

For example, Israel in ancient days thought and behaved this way too. Read 1 Kings and 2 Kings to see what I mean. They didn’t listen to the LORD. They didn’t listen to instruction. They thought they knew it all. They didn’t give credit to Whom credit was due. They made up their own gods and worshipped the things that they created.

The LORD wanted to bless them — and us. But they didn’t — and we still don’t — want to listen and submit to His will at times (even though His will is meant to BLESS US).

I used to see the LORD looking down from heaven, with a stern or disappointed look on His face. He was tapping His foot, and had His arms folded. I imagined Him saying, “Daniel, get your stuff together!!!” I didn’t see Him as being on my team.

Through the years He has shown me that He IS on my team and that He is active in my heart, mind, and life. He is full of grace, truth, patience, forgiveness, vulnerable love, and wisdom. He’s awesome. I love Him and His ways — but that’s taken me decades to be able to say that.

He wants what is best for us. He gave us gifts and wants us to use those gifts to serve others.

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Recording Arts as Reengagement, Social Justice and Pathway [gettingsmart.com]

On 07/07/2023, in art, attention, career development, communities of practice, creativity, digital audio, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, formal learning, ideas, informal learning, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning spaces, liberal arts, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, music, personalized/customized learning, project-based learning, society, sociology, story, storytelling, student-related, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

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

Key Points

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

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

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AI for Education Webinars [Barrett & Co.] plus other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 07/07/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, assessment, Australia, bots, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital learning, digital textbooks, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, ethics, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, library / librarians, morals/values, multimedia, new media literacies, online media, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, society, staying relevant, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, textbooks, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

AI for Education Webinars — from youtube.com by Tom Barrett and others

AI for education -- a webinar series by Tom Barrett and company

Post-AI Assessment Design — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
A simple, three-step guide on how to design assessments in a post-AI world

Excerpt:

Step 1: Write Inquiry-Based Objectives
Inquiry-based objectives focus not just on the acquisition of knowledge but also on the development of skills and behaviours, like critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration and research skills.

They do this by requiring learners not just to recall or “describe back” concepts that are delivered via text, lecture or video. Instead, inquiry-based objectives require learners to construct their own understanding through the process of investigation, analysis and questioning.

Step 1 -- Write Inquiry-Based Objectives

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Massive Disruption Now: What AI Means for Students, Educators, Administrators and Accreditation Boards
— from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard; via Will Richardson on LinkedIn
The choices many colleges and universities make regarding AI over the next 9 months will determine if they survive. The same may be true for schools.

Excerpts:

Just for a minute, consider how education would change if the following were true –

  • AIs “hallucinated” less than humans
  • AIs could write in our own voices
  • AIs could accurately do math
  • AIs understood the unique academic (and eventually developmental) needs of each student and adapt instruction to that student
  • AIs could teach anything any student wanted or need to know any time of day or night
  • AIs could do this at a fraction of the cost of a human teacher or professor

Fall 2026 is three years away. Do you have a three year plan? Perhaps you should scrap it and write a new one (or at least realize that your current one cannot survive). If you run an academic institution in 2026 the same way you ran it in 2022, you might as well run it like you would have in 1920.  If you run an academic institution in 2030 (or any year when AI surpasses human intelligence) the same way you ran it in 2022, you might as well run it like you would have in 1820.  AIs will become more intelligent than us, perhaps in 10-20 years (LeCun), though there could be unanticipated breakthroughs that lower the time frame to a few years or less (Benjio); it’s just a question of when, not “if.”

On one creative use of AI — from aiandacademia.substack.com by Bryan Alexander
A new practice with pedagogical possibilities

Excerpt:

Look at those material items again. The voiceover? Written by an AI and turned into audio by software. The images? Created by human prompts in Midjourney. The music is, I think, human created. And the idea came from a discussion between a human and an AI?
…
How might this play out in a college or university class?

Imagine assignments which require students to craft such a video. Start from film, media studies, or computer science classes. Students work through a process:

Generative Textbooks — from opencontent.org by David Wiley

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

I continue to try to imagine ways generative AI can impact teaching and learning, including learning materials like textbooks. Earlier this week I started wondering – what if, in the future, educators didn’t write textbooks at all? What if, instead, we only wrote structured collections of highly crafted prompts? Instead of reading a static textbook in a linear fashion, the learner would use the prompts to interact with a large language model. These prompts could help learners ask for things like:

  • overviews and in-depth explanations of specific topics in a specific sequence,
  • examples that the learner finds personally relevant and interesting,
  • interactive practice – including open-ended exercises – with immediate, corrective feedback,
  • the structure of the relationships between ideas and concepts,
  • etc.

Also relevant/see:


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Generating The Future of Education with AI — from aixeducation.com

AI in Education -- An online-based conference taking place on August 5-6, 2023

Designed for K12 and Higher-Ed Educators & Administrators, this conference aims to provide a platform for educators, administrators, AI experts, students, parents, and EdTech leaders to discuss the impact of AI on education, address current challenges and potentials, share their perspectives and experiences, and explore innovative solutions. A special emphasis will be placed on including students’ voices in the conversation, highlighting their unique experiences and insights as the primary beneficiaries of these educational transformations.

How Teachers Are Using ChatGPT in Class — from edweek.org by Larry Ferlazzo

Excerpt:

The use of generative AI in K-12 settings is complex and still in its infancy. We need to consider how these tools can enhance student creativity, improve writing skills, and be transparent with students about how generative AI works so they can better understand its limitations. As with any new tech, our students will be exposed to it, and it is our task as educators to help them navigate this new territory as well-informed, curious explorers.

Japan emphasizes students’ comprehension of AI in new school guidelines — from japantimes.co.jp by Karin Kaneko; via The Rundown

Excerpt:

The education ministry has emphasized the need for students to understand artificial intelligence in new guidelines released Tuesday, setting out how generative AI can be integrated into schools and the precautions needed to address associated risks.

Students should comprehend the characteristics of AI, including its advantages and disadvantages, with the latter including personal information leakages and copyright infringement, before they use it, according to the guidelines. They explicitly state that passing off reports, essays or any other works produced by AI as one’s own is inappropriate.

AI’s Teachable Moment: How ChatGPT Is Transforming the Classroom — from cnet.com by Mark Serrels
Teachers and students are already harnessing the power of AI, with an eye toward the future.

Excerpt:

Thanks to the rapid development of artificial intelligence tools like Dall-E and ChatGPT, my brother-in-law has been wrestling with low-level anxiety: Is it a good idea to steer his son down this path when AI threatens to devalue the work of creatives? Will there be a job for someone with that skill set in 10 years? He’s unsure. But instead of burying his head in the sand, he’s doing what any tech-savvy parent would do: He’s teaching his son how to use AI.

In recent months the family has picked up subscriptions to AI services. Now, in addition to drawing and sculpting and making movies and video games, my nephew is creating the monsters of his dreams with Midjourney, a generative AI tool that uses language prompts to produce images.

The AI Dictionary for Educators — from blog.profjim.com

To bridge this knowledge gap, I decided to make a quick little dictionary of AI terms specifically tailored for educators worldwide. Initially created for my own benefit, I’ve reworked my own AI Dictionary for Educators and expanded it to help my fellow teachers embrace the advancements AI brings to education.

7 Strategies to Prepare Educators to Teach With AI — from edweek.org by Lauraine Langreo; NOTE: Behind paywall

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Reflections on “Introducing Superalignment” + other items re: AI in general

On 07/06/2023, in 21st century, architecture, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, copyright/ownership/NFTs, design, Europe, future, game-changing environment, health, India, platforms, skills, society, sociology, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

Introducing Superalignment — from openai.com
We need scientific and technical breakthroughs to steer and control AI systems much smarter than us. To solve this problem within four years, we’re starting a new team, co-led by Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, and dedicating 20% of the compute we’ve secured to date to this effort. We’re looking for excellent ML researchers and engineers to join us.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

How do we ensure AI systems much smarter than humans follow human intent?
…
Currently, we don’t have a solution for steering or controlling a potentially superintelligent AI, and preventing it from going rogue. Our current techniques for aligning AI, such as reinforcement learning from human feedback, rely on humans’ ability to supervise AI. But humans won’t be able to reliably supervise AI systems much smarter than us, and so our current alignment techniques will not scale to superintelligence. We need new scientific and technical breakthroughs.
…
Our goal is to build a roughly human-level automated alignment researcher. We can then use vast amounts of compute to scale our efforts, and iteratively align superintelligence.

From DSC:
Hold up. We’ve been told for years that AI is at the toddler stage. But now assertions are being made that AI systems are smarter than humans — much smarter even. That said, then why is the goal of OpenAI to build a roughly human-level automated alignment researcher if humans aren’t that smart after all…? Which is it? I must be missing or misunderstanding something here…

OpenAI are jumping back on the alignment bandwagon with the brilliantly-named Superalignment Team. And you guessed it – they’re researching alignment of future superintelligent AIs. They reckon that AI can align other AI faster than humans can, and the plan is to build an AI that does just that. Head-spinning stuff…

Ben’s Bites

Plus…

Who else should be on this team? We certainly don’t want a team comprised of just technical people. How about including rabbis, pastors, priests, parents, teachers, professors, social workers, judges, legislators, and many others who can help represent other specialties, disciplines, and perspectives to protect society?

Authors file a lawsuit against OpenAI for unlawfully ‘ingesting’ their books — from theguardian.com by Ella Creamer; via Ben’s Bytes
Mona Awad and Paul Tremblay allege that their books, which are copyrighted, were ‘used to train’ ChatGPT because the chatbot generated ‘very accurate summaries’ of the works
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How AI is Transforming Workplace Architecture and Design — from workdesign.com by Christian Lehmkuhl

London Futurists | Generative AI drug discovery breakthrough, with Alex Zhavoronkov — from londonfuturists.buzzsprout.com

Alex Zhavoronkov is our first guest to make a repeat appearance, having first joined us in episode 12, last November. We are delighted to welcome him back, because he is doing some of the most important work on the planet, and he has some important news.

In 2014, Alex founded Insilico Medicine, a drug discovery company which uses artificial intelligence to identify novel targets and novel molecules for pharmaceutical companies. Insilico now has drugs designed with AI in human clinical trials, and it is one of a number of companies that are demonstrating that developing drugs with AI can cut the time and money involved in the process by as much as 90%.

Watch This Space: New Field of Spatial Finance Uses AI to Estimate Risk, Monitor Assets, Analyze Claims — from blogs.nvidia.com

When making financial decisions, it’s important to look at the big picture — say, one taken from a drone, satellite or AI-powered sensor.

The emerging field of spatial finance harnesses AI insights from remote sensors and aerial imagery to help banks, insurers, investment firms and businesses analyze risks and opportunities, enable new services and products, measure the environmental impact of their holdings, and assess damage after a crisis.

Secretive hardware startup Humane’s first product is the Ai Pin — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers; via The Rundown AI

Excerpt:

Humane, the startup launched by ex-Apple design and engineering duo Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, today revealed details about its first product: The Humane Ai Pin.
…
Humane’s product, as it turns out, is a wearable gadget with a projected display and AI-powered features. Chaudhri gave a live demo of the device onstage during a TED Talk in April, but a press release issued today provides a few additional details.

The Humane Ai Pin is a new type of standalone device with a software platform that harnesses the power of AI to enable innovative personal computing experiences.

He Spent $140 Billion on AI With Little to Show. Now He Is Trying Again. — from wsj.com by Eliot Brown; via Superhuman
Billionaire Masayoshi Son said he would make SoftBank ‘the investment company for the AI revolution,’ but he missed out on the most recent frenzy

“Stunning”—Midjourney update wows AI artists with camera-like feature — from arstechnica.com by Benj Edwards; via Sam DeBrule from Machine Learnings
Midjourney v5.2 features camera-like zoom control over framing, more realism.

What is AIaaS? Guide to Artificial Intelligence as a Service — from eweek.com by Shelby Hiter
Artificial intelligence as a service, AIaaS, is an outsourced AI service provided by cloud-based AI providers.

AIaaS Definition
When a company is interested in working with artificial intelligence but doesn’t have the in-house resources, budget, and/or expertise to build and manage its own AI technology, it’s time to invest in AIaaS.

Artificial intelligence as a service, or AIaaS, is an outsourced service model AI that cloud-based companies provide to other businesses, giving them access to different AI models, algorithms, and other resources directly through a cloud computing platform; this access is usually managed through an API or SDK connection.

The Rise of the AI Engineer — from latent.space

Boost ChatGPT with new plugins — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan
Wonder Tools | Six new ways to use AI
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A series re: AI from Jeff Foster out at ProvideoCoalition.com

The AI upskilling imperative to build a future-ready workforce — from businessinsider.com

Excerpts:

Skill development has always been crucial, but recent technological advancements have raised the stakes. We are currently in the midst of the fourth industrial revolution, where automation and breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) are revolutionising the workplace. In this era of quick change and short half-life of skills, upskilling shouldn’t be an afterthought. Instead, reskilling and upskilling have to evolve into requirements for effective professional development.

To understand the significance of upskilling for your career trajectory, it is important to recognise the ever-evolving nature of technology and the rapid pace of digital transformation. Business Insider India has been exploring how businesses and thought leaders are driving innovation by educating their staff on the technologies and skills that will shape the future.

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Does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Require Captions for Internet Videos? [boia.org] + other accessibility-related items

On 07/06/2023, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Apple, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital video, education technology, faculty/staff, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), instructional design, K-12 related, legislatures / government / legal, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Does the ADA Require Captions for Internet Videos? — from boia.org

Excerpt:

According to Accessibility.com, at least 2,387 web accessibility lawsuits were filed in 2022. Those lawsuits were either filed under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) or California’s Unruh Act; any violation of the ADA is considered a violation of the Unruh Act.

While the plaintiffs cited a variety of issues, multimedia accessibility is a common point of concern. In 2015, the National Association of the Deaf (NAD) and other plaintiffs settled a lawsuit with Netflix, which cited a lack of captions for certain featured movies and TV shows.

That prompts an interesting question: Does the ADA require captions for internet videos — and if so, how can businesses make sure that they’re compliant?

267: College Learning Disability Specialist Elizabeth Hamblet and 7 Steps to College Success (Author Series) — from learnsmarterpodcast.com

Rachel Kapp, M.Ed., BCET, and Stephanie Pitts, M.Ed., BCET welcome back College Learning Disability Specialist Elizabeth Hamblet to discuss her new book 7 Steps to College Success: A Pathway for Students with Disabilities. She discusses the origin story of the book and the disconnect between what college disability services can do for learners and what learners and parents expect. She talks about reading this book when the learner is in 8th grade because of the specific impact it can have on parent and learner decisions on course selection. Elizabeth discusses how parents and learners can get surprised in the college disability process. Elizabeth talks about the critical importance of non-academic skills and how the drive for success in high school can stand in the way of independence necessary for college success.

What Web Designers Can Learn From Apple’s Assistive Access Feature — from boia.org

Excerpt:

If you’re interested in accessible digital design, pay attention to Apple. The company seems to approach accessibility from the perspective of users with disabilities. 

Apple’s messaging treats accessibility as a fundamental design principle: Accessibility must be built into digital systems from the start, not tacked on as an afterthought. In other words, they take an accessibility-first mindset, and their commitment seems consistent.

The company’s track record continued in May 2023, when Apple announced its latest suite of accessibility features to launch later that year. One of these features, Assistive Access for iPhone and iPad, holds valuable lessons that web designers can apply to their own work.     

Here’s what Apple accomplished with Assistive Access, plus a few ways web designers can achieve similar goals.

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Why Colleges Should Pay Attention to Strikes by Their Most Precarious Teachers [Ubell]

On 07/06/2023, in adjunct faculty, career development, colleges, community colleges, faculty/staff, higher education, leadership, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Why Colleges Should Pay Attention to Strikes by Their Most Precarious Teachers — from edsurge.com by Robert Ubell
There’s a news story in higher ed that’s not getting enough attention. The nation’s adjuncts are rising up.

Excerpts:

But a recent survey of contingent faculty reveals the more uncertain situation most adjuncts find themselves in. A third of respondents earn less than $25,000 a year, falling below federal poverty guidelines for a family of four. Fewer than half receive university-provided health insurance, with nearly 20 percent on Medicaid.

In a stinging irony, many tenured faculty teach courses on equity and social justice, where students learn about oppression engendered by privilege. Yet just down the hall, someone else with the same level of education is teaching a similar course for vastly less pay and with little or no benefits.

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Here’s why K–12 teachers are quitting [McKinsey] + several other items re: teachers/K12

On 07/06/2023, in career development, change, education, education reform, instructional design, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, parents/guardians, participation, teachers, trends, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Here’s why K–12 teachers are quitting — from mckinsey.com

Excerpt:

School’s out for summer, but will educators return to the classroom in the fall? Nearly a third of US K–12 educators—or roughly 900,000 teachers—said in a recent McKinsey survey they are thinking of leaving their jobs before the next school year. “The longer [talent shortages] go unaddressed, the more potential damage they could cause to students and the future of the nation,” write partner Jake Bryant and coauthors. “By tailoring solutions that address the root causes of attrition, leaders could potentially build more fulfilling and equitable environments that better serve not only educators but also students and society at large.” Check out these insights for more on the factors that motivate educators to stay or leave, and dive into other vital issues impacting American public education.

Teachers Leaving the Classroom: An EdSurge Summer Reading List — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpt:

In fact, our top pieces all address the reality that plenty of educators are thinking of leaving the classroom behind. A National Education Association survey from 2022 found that more than half of educators were thinking of departing the profession earlier than planned.

As EdSurge senior reporter Emily Tate Sullivan wrote earlier this year, “Most educators have not left, and many never will. But some are following through; they’re walking out of their classrooms and away from the careers they thought they’d have for life.”

What Should You Learn for an Instructional Design Career? — from theelearningcoach.com by Connie Malamed

Excerpt:

Instructional design is a multidisciplinary field. This explains why it is often overwhelming when you want to transition into the career. There are so many shiny objects to attract your attention along the way. Do you love visual design? We’ve got it. Are you fascinated by the latest technologies? We’ve got that too. Perhaps you’re interested in data and analytics? We’ve got a place for you.

No wonder one of the most common questions I’m asked during coaching calls is, “Where do I start?” If you need help, here is the path I recommend regarding what to learn for a career in instructional design. To reduce stress and confusion, learn and build skills in one area at a time.

How to Transition From Teacher to Instructional Designer [2023 Guide] — from devlinpeck.com by Devlin Peck

Opinion: We must remove barriers that keep teachers away from our profession and encourage a diverse workforce — from hechingerreport.org by Sharif El-Mekki
Keeping teachers of color in classrooms requires a hard look at the state and district policies that work against them

Schools can’t afford to lose teachers of color. And with public schools struggling to fill teacher vacancies with qualified educators, district and school leaders can’t afford to lose any more teachers,period.

Teachers and Families Are More Divided Than Ever — and Students Are Losing Out — from edsurge.com by Alicia Simba

What I’ve found is that inviting families in as collaborators has not only strengthened my students’ performance in school, but it has strengthened the bonds I have with their families, which is important, especially when those relationships are put under pressure in times of conflict. And conflict does inevitably come.

The problems facing schools are complex ones without easy answers, so we will disagree. But parents and families need to work with each other, not against each other, in order to jointly create the best schools for all of our kids.

Survey: Nearly half of parents looking to switch their kids’ schools — from reimaginedonline.org

Excerpt:

Nearly half of all parents are seeking new schools for their children in the 2023-24 school year. The data comes from a new survey by National School Choice Week, which found that 45.9 percent of parents want to enroll their child in a different learning environment this fall.

Of those parents, about 17 percent are still considering their options; 13 percent enrolled their student in a new school; 8.4 percent applied, and 7.5 percent chose homeschooling. That leaves 54 percent of parents keeping their child in their current school.

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