Introducing Teach AI — Empowering educators to teach w/ AI & about AI [ISTE & many others]


Teach AI -- Empowering educators to teach with AI and about AI


Also relevant/see:

 

2023 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition

2023 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition — from library.educause.edu

Excerpt:

The Future of Teaching and Learning
Artificial intelligence (AI) has taken the world by storm, with new AI-powered tools such as ChatGPT opening up new opportunities in higher education for content creation, communication, and learning, while also raising new concerns about the misuses and overreach of technology. Our shared humanity has also become a key focal point within higher education, as faculty and leaders continue to wrestle with understanding and meeting the diverse needs of students and to find ways of cultivating institutional communities that support student well-being and belonging.

For this year’s teaching and learning Horizon Report, then, our panelists’ discussions oscillated between these seemingly polar ideas: the supplanting of human activity with powerful new technological capabilities, and the need for more humanity at the center of everything we do. This report summarizes the results of those discussions and serves as one vantage point on where our future may be headed.

 

Accessibility Do’s and Don’ts for Website Navigation — from boia.org

Excerpt:

If people can’t navigate your website, they can’t use it — and you miss an opportunity to connect with your audience.

Navigation controls can present a significant barrier to people with disabilities, making it difficult for them to find and interact with the content they need.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) includes a list of success criteria to ensure that navigation controls are operable (they don’t require interactions that a user can’t perform). These criteria are put in place to assist users with a wide variety of abilities, including individuals who use assistive technologies (AT).

If you’re new to web accessibility, WCAG’s requirements may seem overwhelming. Fortunately, they’re based on simple principles — and by understanding a few basic concepts, you can avoid common mistakes.

Also relevant/see:

Assistive Technology: What’s an “Alternative Input Device?” — from boia.org

Examples:

  • Eye-Tracking Systems
  • Sip-and-Puff Systems
  • Head Mouse
  • Modified Keyboards
  • Joysticks
 

Nurturing student learning and motivation through the application of cognitive science — from deansforimpact.org by Cece Zhou

Excerpt:

In particular, TutorND’s emphasis on applying principles of cognitive science – the science of our how minds work – in tutoring practice has not only bolstered the interest and confidence of some of its tutors to pursue teaching, but also strengthened their instructional skills and meaningfully contributed to PK-12 student growth.

Today, TutorND trains and supports 175 tutors in schools across the greater South Bend community and across the country. Given that these tutors are students, faculty, and staff interested in cognitive science research and its application to student learning, they’re able to bridge theory and practice, assess the effectiveness of instructional moves, and foster learning experiences for students that are rigorous, affirming, and equitable.

 
  1. The GPT-4 Browser That Will Change Your Search Game — from noise.beehiiv.com by Alex Banks
    Why Microsoft Has The ‘Edge’ On Google

Excerpts:

Microsoft has launched a GPT-4 enhanced Edge browser.

By integrating OpenAI’s GPT-4 technology with Microsoft Edge, you can now use ChatGPT as a copilot in your Bing browser. This delivers superior search results, generates content, and can even transform your copywriting skills (read on to find out how).

Benefits mentioned include: Better Search, Complete Answers, and Creative Spark.

The new interactive chat feature means you can get the complete answer you are looking for by refining your search by asking for more details, clarity, and ideas.

From DSC:
I have to say that since the late 90’s, I haven’t been a big fan of web browsers from Microsoft. (I don’t like how Microsoft unfairly buried Netscape Navigator and the folks who had out-innovated them during that time.) As such, I don’t use Edge so I can’t fully comment on the above article.

But I do have to say that this is the type of thing that may make me reevaluate my stance regarding Microsoft’s browsers. Integrating GPT-4 into their search/chat functionalities seems like it would be a very solid, strategic move — at least as of late April 2023.


Speaking of new items coming from Microsoft, also see:

Microsoft makes its AI-powered Designer tool available in preview — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers

Excerpts:

[On 4/27/23], Microsoft Designer, Microsoft’s AI-powered design tool, launched in public preview with an expanded set of features.

Announced in October, Designer is a Canva-like web app that can generate designs for presentations, posters, digital postcards, invitations, graphics and more to share on social media and other channels. It leverages user-created content and DALL-E 2, OpenAI’s text-to-image AI, to ideate designs, with drop-downs and text boxes for further customization and personalization.

Designer will remain free during the preview period, Microsoft says — it’s available via the Designer website and in Microsoft’s Edge browser through the sidebar. Once the Designer app is generally available, it’ll be included in Microsoft 365 Personal and Family subscriptions and have “some” functionality free to use for non-subscribers, though Microsoft didn’t elaborate.

 

PricewaterhouseCoopers to Pour $1 Billion Into Generative AI — from wsj.com by Angus Loten
Multiyear investment in U.S. business includes accessing ChatGPT maker OpenAI’s language model, training staff in AI capabilities

Excerpt:

PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP plans to invest $1 billion in generative artificial intelligence technology in its U.S. operations over the next three years, working with Microsoft Corp. and ChatGPT-maker OpenAI to automate aspects of its tax, audit and consulting services.

The accounting and consulting giant said the multiyear investment, announced Wednesday, includes funding to recruit more AI workers and train existing staff in AI capabilities, while targeting AI software makers for potential acquisitions.

For PwC, the goal isn’t only to develop and embed generative AI into its own technology stack and client-services platforms, but also advising other companies on how best to use generative AI, while helping them build those tools, said Mohamed Kande, PwC’s vice chair and co-leader of U.S. consulting solutions and global advisory leader.

 



Going to court without a lawyer? DIY law is on the rise — from cbc.ca by Yvette Brend
Self-representation saves money, but the larger cost is high, say justice-access advocates

Excerpt:

Most reported feeling the justice system was “unfair,” and many described a sense of “the odds being stacked against them.”

Advocates say the rising number of lawyer-free litigants is problematic. The legal system is meant to be adversarial — with strong lawyers on each side — but the high rate of self-representation creates lopsided justice, pitting an untrained individual against a professional.

‘Legal Tech Lists’: 3 Things Your CRM Should Do For You — from abovethelaw.com by Cady Darago
How you can go beyond merely storing information.

Exploring the Hottest Legal Tech Startups in Europe — from legalreader.com by Amy Hollow
Europe is quickly becoming a hub for legal tech startups, offering innovative solutions to the legal industry.

Excerpt:
Europe is home to some of the most innovative legal tech startups in the world. Here are five of the hottest ones:

    1. Legatics
    2. Juro
    3. LawGeex
    4. The Lawyer Guide
    5. CaseCrunch

Keep Up With Today’s Legal Tech (Or Be Left Behind) — from legaltalknetwork.com by Joy Murao and Tony Sipp

In this podcast:

  • High tech tools aren’t just for big trials anymore. Learn to incorporate the latest tech for depositions and even smaller hearings and trials.
  • Keep track of every detail and hold every bit of data at your fingertips.
  • The COVID-19 pandemic opened doors and highlighted technologies that support paralegals and legal teams in the courtroom and online.

Legal Operations and Generative AI: Preparing for a Sea Change — from jdsupra.com

Excerpt:

AI will likely make lawyer’s jobs easier (or, at least, more interesting) for some tasks, however the effects it may have on the legal profession could be the real legacy of the technology. Schafer pointed to its potential to improve access to justice for people who want legal representation but can’t get it for whatever reason.


 

The Edtech Insiders’ Rundown of ASU GSV 2023  — from edtechinsiders.substack.com by Sarah Morin, Alex Sarlin, and Ben Kornell

Excerpt:

A few current categories of AI in Edtech particularly jump out:

  • Teacher Productivity and Joy: Tools to make educators’ lives easier (and more fun?) by removing some of the more rote tasks of teaching, like lesson planning (we counted at least 8 different tools for lesson planning), resource curation and data collection.
  • Personalization and Learning Delivery: Tools to tailor instruction to the particular interests, learning preferences and preferred media consumption of students. This includes tools that convert text to video, video to text, text to comic books, Youtube to notes, and many more.
  • Study and Course Creation Tools: Tools for learners to automatically make quizzes, flashcards, notes or summaries of material, or even to automatically create full courses from a search term.
  • AI Tutors, Chatbots and Teachers: There will be no shortage of conversational AI “copilots” (which may take many guises) to support students in almost any learning context. Many Edtech companies launched their own during the conference. Possible differentiators here could be personality, safety, privacy, access to a proprietary or specific data set, or bots built on proprietary LLMs.
  • Simplifying Complex Processes: One of the most inspiring conversations of the conference for me was with Tiffany Green, founder of Uprooted Academy, about how AI can and should be used to remove bureaucratic barriers to college for underrepresented students (for example, used to autofill FAFSA forms, College Applications, to search for schools and access materials, etc). This is not the only complex bureaucratic process in education.
  • Educational LLMs: The race is on to create usable large language models for education that are safe, private, appropriate and classroom-ready. Merlyn Mind is working on this, and companies that make LLMs are sprouting up in other sectors…
 

Tuition Discount Rates Hit New High — from insidehighered.com by Josh Moody
According to a new NACUBO study, private college tuition discount rates hit a record 56.2 percent, continuing a pattern of annual increases.

According to a new NACUBO study, private college tuition discount rates hit a record 56.2 percent, continuing a pattern of annual increases.


College prices aren’t skyrocketing—but they’re still too high for some — from brookings.edu by Phillip Levine

If we do not find better ways to track college costs for students with different family financial circumstances, we will not easily know if that happened. Students and their families will continue to make one of the most important financial decisions of their lives half in the dark.


Addendum:

Private colleges’ tuition discount rates continue to hit record highs — from highereddive.com by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf

Dive Brief:

  • The average tuition discount rate for full-time first year students attending private nonprofit colleges reached a record high of 56.2% in the 2022-23 academic year, the National Association of College and University Business Officers said Monday.
  • This represents a more than 2 percentage point increase year over year. Average tuition discount rates for all private college undergraduate students also continued to rise, reaching another record high, 50.9%, that year, NACUBO said in its newly released annual report.
  • After adjusting for inflation, private colleges’ net tuition and fee revenue fell by 5.4% per first-time undergraduate and by 5.9% across all undergraduates, NACUBO found.
 

EdTech Is Going Crazy For AI — from joshbersin.com by Josh Bersin

Excerpts:

This week I spent a few days at the ASU/GSV conference and ran into 7,000 educators, entrepreneurs, and corporate training people who had gone CRAZY for AI.

No, I’m not kidding. This community, which makes up people like training managers, community college leaders, educators, and policymakers is absolutely freaked out about ChatGPT, Large Language Models, and all sorts of issues with AI. Now don’t get me wrong: I’m a huge fan of this. But the frenzy is unprecedented: this is bigger than the excitement at the launch of the i-Phone.

Second, the L&D market is about to get disrupted like never before. I had two interactive sessions with about 200 L&D leaders and I essentially heard the same thing over and over. What is going to happen to our jobs when these Generative AI tools start automatically building content, assessments, teaching guides, rubrics, videos, and simulations in seconds?

The answer is pretty clear: you’re going to get disrupted. I’m not saying that L&D teams need to worry about their careers, but it’s very clear to me they’re going to have to swim upstream in a big hurry. As with all new technologies, it’s time for learning leaders to get to know these tools, understand how they work, and start to experiment with them as fast as you can.


Speaking of the ASU+GSV Summit, see this posting from Michael Moe:

EIEIO…Brave New World
By: Michael Moe, CFA, Brent Peus, Owen Ritz

Excerpt:

Last week, the 14th annual ASU+GSV Summit hosted over 7,000 leaders from 70+ companies well as over 900 of the world’s most innovative EdTech companies. Below are some of our favorite speeches from this year’s Summit…

***

Also see:

Imagining what’s possible in lifelong learning: Six insights from Stanford scholars at ASU+GSV — from acceleratelearning.stanford.edu by Isabel Sacks

Excerpt:

High-quality tutoring is one of the most effective educational interventions we have – but we need both humans and technology for it to work. In a standing-room-only session, GSE Professor Susanna Loeb, a faculty lead at the Stanford Accelerator for Learning, spoke alongside school district superintendents on the value of high-impact tutoring. The most important factors in effective tutoring, she said, are (1) the tutor has data on specific areas where the student needs support, (2) the tutor has high-quality materials and training, and (3) there is a positive, trusting relationship between the tutor and student. New technologies, including AI, can make the first and second elements much easier – but they will never be able to replace human adults in the relational piece, which is crucial to student engagement and motivation.



A guide to prompting AI (for what it is worth) — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
A little bit of magic, but mostly just practice

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Being “good at prompting” is a temporary state of affairs. The current AI systems are already very good at figuring out your intent, and they are getting better. Prompting is not going to be that important for that much longer. In fact, it already isn’t in GPT-4 and Bing. If you want to do something with AI, just ask it to help you do the thing. “I want to write a novel, what do you need to know to help me?” will get you surprisingly far.

The best way to use AI systems is not to craft the perfect prompt, but rather to use it interactively. Try asking for something. Then ask the AI to modify or adjust its output. Work with the AI, rather than trying to issue a single command that does everything you want. The more you experiment, the better off you are. Just use the AI a lot, and it will make a big difference – a lesson my class learned as they worked with the AI to create essays.

From DSC:
Agreed –> “Being “good at prompting” is a temporary state of affairs.” The User Interfaces that are/will be appearing will help greatly in this regard.


From DSC:
Bizarre…at least for me in late April of 2023:


Excerpt from Lore Issue #28: Drake, Grimes, and The Future of AI Music — from lore.com

Here’s a summary of what you need to know:

  • The rise of AI-generated music has ignited legal and ethical debates, with record labels invoking copyright law to remove AI-generated songs from platforms like YouTube.
  • Tech companies like Google face a conundrum: should they take down AI-generated content, and if so, on what grounds?
  • Some artists, like Grimes, are embracing the change, proposing new revenue-sharing models and utilizing blockchain-based smart contracts for royalties.
  • The future of AI-generated music presents both challenges and opportunities, with the potential to create new platforms and genres, democratize the industry, and redefine artist compensation.

The Need for AI PD — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
Educators need training on how to effectively incorporate artificial intelligence into their teaching practice, says Lance Key, an award-winning educator.

“School never was fun for me,” he says, hoping that as an educator he could change that with his students. “I wanted to make learning fun.”  This ‘learning should be fun’ philosophy is at the heart of the approach he advises educators take when it comes to AI. 


Coursera Adds ChatGPT-Powered Learning Tools — from campustechnology.com by Kate Lucariello

Excerpt:

At its 11th annual conference in 2023, educational company Coursera announced it is adding ChatGPT-powered interactive ed tech tools to its learning platform, including a generative AI coach for students and an AI course-building tool for teachers. It will also add machine learning-powered translation, expanded VR immersive learning experiences, and more.

Coursera Coach will give learners a ChatGPT virtual coach to answer questions, give feedback, summarize video lectures and other materials, give career advice, and prepare them for job interviews. This feature will be available in the coming months.

From DSC:
Yes…it will be very interesting to see how tools and platforms interact from this time forth. The term “integration” will take a massive step forward, at least in my mind.


 
 

Fresh Voices on Legal Tech with Natalie Knowlton — from legaltalknetwork.com by Dennis Kennedy and Tom Mighell

EPISODE NOTES

Technology has become the main driver for increasing access to justice, and there are huge opportunities for legal service providers to leverage both existing and emerging tech to reach new clients. Dennis and Tom welcome Natalie Knowlton to discuss the current state of legal services, the justice gap, and ways technology is helping attorneys provide better and more affordable services to consumers. As always, stay tuned for the parting shots, that one tip, website, or observation that you can use the second the podcast ends.

New report on ChatGPT & generative AI in law firms shows opportunities abound, even as concerns persist — from thomsonreuters.com; via Brainyacts #43

Excerpt:

The survey, conducted in late-March by the Thomson Reuters Institute, gathered insight from more than 440 respondent lawyers at large and midsize law firms in the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada. The survey forms the basis of a new report, ChatGPT & Generative AI within Law Firms, which takes a deep look at the evolving attitudes towards generative AI and ChatGPT within law firms, measuring awareness and adoption of the technology as well as lawyers’ views on its potential risks.

The report also reveals several key findings that deserve special attention from law firm leaders and other legal professionals as ChatGPT and generative AI evolve from concept to reality for the vast majority of the legal industry participants. These findings include:

    • Attitudes are evolving around this technology
    • Firms are taking a cautiously proactive approach
    • There’s a growing awareness of the risks

‘Legal Tech Lists’: 5 Lawyer Tropes That Were Upended By Legal Tech — from abovethelaw.com by Jared Correia
These common fictitious scenarios would be solved by technology.

Excerpt:

There are lots of tropes related to lawyers and law firms that frequently show up in works of fiction.  The thing is, those tropes are tropes because they’re sort of old; they’ve been around for a long time. Now, however, modern technology can solve a heck of a lot of those issues. So, for this edition of the “Reference Manual of Lists,” we’re going to relay a trope, offer an example, and talk about how legal tech actually fixes the problem today.

The Future of Generative Large Language Models and Potential Applications in LegalTech — from jdsupra.com by Johannes Scholtes and Geoffrey Vance

Excerpt:

If you made it this far, you should by now understand that ChatGPT is not by itself a search engine, nor an eDiscovery data reviewer, a translator, knowledge base, or tool for legal analytics. But it can contribute to these functionalities.

In-person vs. virtual ADR — How to choose? — from reuters.com by Eric Larson

Excerpt:

April 20, 2023 – Alternative dispute resolution (ADR), a common technique parties can use to settle disputes with the help of a third party, offers several unique benefits over traditional litigation. It is typically more cost-effective, confidential and generally a preferred method to resolving disputes. As a result, counsel and their clients often view ADR as a no-brainer. But the once simple decision to engage in ADR is now complicated by whether to proceed in-person, virtually or with a hybrid approach.

ChatGPT: A Lawyer’s Friend or Ethical Time Bomb? A Look at Professional Responsibility in the Age of AI — from jdsupra.com by Mitchell, Williams, Selig, Gates, & Woodyard

Excerpt:

The emergence of ChatGPT comes with tremendous promise of increased automation and efficiency. But at what cost? In this blog post, we’ll explore the potential ethical time bomb of using ChatGPT and examine the responsibility of lawyers in the age of AI.

 

 

The 2023 Global Sentiment Survey — from donaldhtaylor.co.uk by Don Taylor

Excerpt:

This year’s Global Sentiment Survey – the tenth – paints a picture that is both familiar and unusual. In our 2020 survey report, we noted that ‘Data dominates this year’s survey’. It does so again this year, with the near 4,000 respondents showing a strong interest in AI, Skills-based talent management and Learning analytics (in positions #2, #3 and #4), all of which rely on data. The table is topped by Reskilling/upskilling, in the #1 spot for the third year running.
.

Donald Taylor's GSS 2023

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Also see Don’s report here >>

 

 

In a talk from the cutting edge of technology, OpenAI cofounder Greg Brockman explores the underlying design principles of ChatGPT and demos some mind-blowing, unreleased plug-ins for the chatbot that sent shockwaves across the world. After the talk, head of TED Chris Anderson joins Brockman to dig into the timeline of ChatGPT’s development and get Brockman’s take on the risks, raised by many in the tech industry and beyond, of releasing such a powerful tool into the world.


Also relevant/see:


 

35 Ways Real People Are Using A.I. Right Now — from nytimes.com by Francesca Paris and Larry Buchanan

From DSC:
It was interesting to see how people are using AI these days. The article mentioned things from planning Gluten Free (GF) meals to planning gardens, workouts, and more. Faculty members, staff, students, researchers and educators in general may find Elicit, Scholarcy and Scite to be useful tools. I put in a question at Elicit and it looks interesting. I like their interface, which allows me to quickly resort things.
.

Snapshot of a query result from a tool called Elicit


 

There Is No A.I. — from newyorker.com by Jaron Lanier
There are ways of controlling the new technology—but first we have to stop mythologizing it.

Excerpts:

If the new tech isn’t true artificial intelligence, then what is it? In my view, the most accurate way to understand what we are building today is as an innovative form of social collaboration.

The new programs mash up work done by human minds. What’s innovative is that the mashup process has become guided and constrained, so that the results are usable and often striking. This is a significant achievement and worth celebrating—but it can be thought of as illuminating previously hidden concordances between human creations, rather than as the invention of a new mind.

 


 

Resource per Steve Nouri on LinkedIn


 
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