United States

AI bot ChatGPT stuns academics with essay-writing skills and usability [Hern]

On 12/14/2022, in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, instructional design, IT in HE, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Microsoft, online media, open courseware and systems, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, UK, United States, universities, vendors, writing, by Daniel Christian

AI bot ChatGPT stuns academics with essay-writing skills and usability — from theguardian.com by Alex Hern
Latest chatbot from Elon Musk-founded OpenAI can identify incorrect premises and refuse to answer inappropriate requests

Excerpt:

Professors, programmers and journalists could all be out of a job in just a few years, after the latest chatbot from the Elon Musk-founded OpenAI foundation stunned onlookers with its writing ability, proficiency at complex tasks, and ease of use.

The system, called ChatGPT, is the latest evolution of the GPT family of text-generating AIs. Two years ago, the team’s previous AI, GPT3, was able to generate an opinion piece for the Guardian, and ChatGPT has significant further capabilities.

In the days since it was released, academics have generated responses to exam queries that they say would result in full marks if submitted by an undergraduate, and programmers have used the tool to solve coding challenges in obscure programming languages in a matter of seconds – before writing limericks explaining the functionality.

Also related/see:

AI and the future of undergraduate writing — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie

Excerpts:

Is the college essay dead? Are hordes of students going to use artificial intelligence to cheat on their writing assignments? Has machine learning reached the point where auto-generated text looks like what a typical first-year student might produce?

And what does it mean for professors if the answer to those questions is “yes”?
…
Scholars of teaching, writing, and digital literacy say there’s no doubt that tools like ChatGPT will, in some shape or form, become part of everyday writing, the way calculators and computers have become integral to math and science. It is critical, they say, to begin conversations with students and colleagues about how to shape and harness these AI tools as an aide, rather than a substitute, for learning.

“Academia really has to look at itself in the mirror and decide what it’s going to be,” said Josh Eyler, director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning at the University of Mississippi, who has criticized the “moral panic” he has seen in response to ChatGPT. “Is it going to be more concerned with compliance and policing behaviors and trying to get out in front of cheating, without any evidence to support whether or not that’s actually going to happen? Or does it want to think about trust in students as its first reaction and building that trust into its response and its pedagogy?”

ChatGPT is incredibly limited, but good enough at some things to create a misleading impression of greatness.

it’s a mistake to be relying on it for anything important right now. it’s a preview of progress; we have lots of work to do on robustness and truthfulness.

— Sam Altman (@sama) December 11, 2022

fun creative inspiration; great! reliance for factual queries; not such a good idea.

we will work hard to improve!

— Sam Altman (@sama) December 11, 2022

1/Large language models like Galactica and ChatGPT can spout nonsense in a confident, authoritative tone. This overconfidence – which reflects the data they’re trained on – makes them more likely to mislead.

— Andrew Ng (@AndrewYNg) December 13, 2022

ChatGPT Could Be AI’s iPhone Moment — from bloomberg.com by Vlad Savov; with thanks to Dany DeGrave for his Tweet on this

Excerpt:

The thing is, a good toy has a huge advantage: People love to play with it, and the more they do, the quicker its designers can make it into something more. People are documenting their experiences with ChatGPT on Twitter, looking like giddy kids experimenting with something they’re not even sure they should be allowed to have. There’s humor, discovery and a game of figuring out the limitations of the system.

And on the legal side of things:

In the legal education context, I’ve been playing around with generating fact patterns and short documents to use in exercises.

— Rebecca Fordon (@theFordon) December 9, 2022

Thriving education systems, thriving youth [Economist Impact]

On 12/14/2022, in Africa, Asia, Australia, Canada, change, changing business models, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Design Thinking, education, education reform, Europe, experimentation, future, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, heutagogy, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, India, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, love of learning, parents/guardians, participation, passions, policy, political science, reinvent, skills, society, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, trends, UK, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Thriving education systems, thriving youth — from events.economist.com by Economist Impact

Some of the key topics to be discussed include:

What are the challenges in how we measure learning outcomes today, and how does this need to transform?
What is a learning ecosystem? What does a successful learning ecosystem look like?
What factors enable the development of thriving learning ecosystems?
Who are the key stakeholders that make up the learning ecosystem? How do different stakeholders see their role in the learning ecosystem?
Which national policies need to be in place to support effective education ecosystems?
What information and data do we need to assess how well learning ecosystems are performing?
What data do we need to collect so that we don’t perpetuate traditional approaches to defining and measuring success?

From DSC:
“How to retain talented staff members should be high on every administrator’s 2023 agenda.” This highlight from a recent email from The Chronicle of Higher Education linked to:

How to Retain Your Best Staff Members — from chronicle.com by Meredith Davis
Four tips from a former student-affairs administrator on how to improve work culture on campus.

Unfortunately, this important item wasn’t high on the agenda in the majority of the years that I was working in higher education. I often thought that folks in higher education could have learned from the corporate world in this regard. Although even the corporate world hasn’t been doing a good job these days about treating their people well. But that wasn’t the case in my experience at Baxter Healthcare, Kraft Foods, and Wells Fargo from years ago.

Perhaps we should have more people “crossing over” between the silos that we seem to have established. That is, a person could work within higher education for 2-3 years, move over to a corporate environment/government/vocational space/other, and then works a few years there before coming back to higher education in a different capacity. Perhaps more pathways and tighter collaboration could exist in this manner.

Hmmm…design thinking…there’s got to be something here…

Police are rolling out new tech without knowing their effects on people [Heikkilä]

On 12/10/2022, in emerging technologies, ethics, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, privacy, robotics, society, the downsides of how people use tech, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

Police are rolling out new tech without knowing their effects on people — from The Algorithm by Melissa Heikkilä

Excerpt:

I got lucky—my encounter was with a drone in virtual reality as part of an experiment by a team from University College London and the London School of Economics. They’re studying how people react when meeting police drones, and whether they come away feeling more or less trusting of the police.

It seems obvious that encounters with police drones might not be pleasant. But police departments are adopting these sorts of technologies without even trying to find out.

“Nobody is even asking the question: Is this technology going to do more harm than good?” says Aziz Huq, a law professor at the University of Chicago, who is not involved in the research.

Michigan flags 112 low-performing schools for intensive intervention — from mlive.com by Matthew Miller

Excerpt:

“These are the urban high minority districts, right? So they were the ones that had the highest death rates, the highest case rates, the highest income and economic hits because of the pandemic,” she said. “We know that all of this goes into what we label as school quality even though it’s about so much more than the school or the district.”

The full list is here >>

From DSC:
I surely hope that what’s going on in the image below isn’t what’s going on within the state of Michigan (as well as other states) — but I have my fears/concerns in that regard. Though admittedly, my focus here isn’t so much about the financial pictures, but rather it has to do with the straight-jacketing of the teachers and students by legislators in Lansing (and other state capitals). If I were to redraw this image, I would have legislators in (far-away) Lansing seated in comfortable chairs and offices while frazzled/overworked educators are straight-jacketed in the classrooms.

We have too many standardized tests and too many one-size-fits-all methods of “doing school” that aren’t coming from the people on the front lines. Those same people, given the right environment, could unleash a far greater amount of joy, wonder, relevance, creativity, and counsel — for themselves as well as for their students.
.

.

The ‘Digital Equity’ Students Need to Learn May Not Come Without Community Outreach — from edsurge.com by Daniel Mollenkamp

Excerpt:

And that means, more than ever, getting an education requires access to fast, reliable internet. But while the infrastructure to make sure that everyone can use the internet has improved in the last couple of years, the process isn’t complete.

If we want to keep the digital divide from growing, experts say, it’ll mean districts thinking about themselves as just one part of the larger community composed of families, nonprofits, businesses—all of them potential partners in expanding internet access for students.

.

Missing an Opportunity: Ed Dept. Criticized by GAO for Teacher Shortage Strategy — from the74million.org by Marianna McMurdock
In recent report, GAO finds key recruitment, retention challenges impacting the profession, and why current federal strategy lacks teeth to succeed

Excerpt:

The challenge of cost of entry into the profession and concerns of return on investment, the GAO report found, is also significantly straining the country’s supply of teachers. Compounding the financial reality, many candidates fear being overworked and mistreated.

“The COVID-19 pandemic laid bare teachers’ discontent with aspects of their jobs, including a lack of support for their safety and value as professionals and an increasingly disrespectful and demanding workplace culture—and exacerbated teacher shortages nationwide,” the GAO stated, pulling data from focus groups held throughout the pandemic.

Addendum on 12/10/22:

What is Snopes and How Can It Be Used to Teach? Tips & Tricks — from techlearning.com by Luke Edwards
Snopes is a fact-checking website that can help students in education to better navigate online media

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.

Robert Talbert: Ending the introduction of new content at Thanksgiving

On 12/08/2022, in adjunct faculty, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, experimentation, faculty/staff, higher education, ideas, instructional design, law schools, learning, Learning Experience Design, teaching & learning, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

One of the best decisions I’ve ever made as a prof is to start building my classes to start with 1 week of onboarding followed by just 12 weeks of content. Last 2 weeks are just catchup and reassessment. Course is basically over at Thanksgiving.

— Robert Talbert (@RobertTalbert) November 28, 2022

From DSC:
With a shout out to Beth McMurtrie’s Teaching Newsletter for pointing this Tweet out from Robert Talbert. Nice work Robert and Beth!

Global Education Market to reach $10 Trillion by 2030 — from holoniq.com

Excerpt:

The global education market is set to reach at least $10T by 2030 as population growth in developing markets fuels a massive expansion and technology drives unprecedented re-skilling and up-skilling in developed economies. The next decade will see an additional 350 million post secondary graduates and nearly 800 million more K12 graduates than today. Asia and Africa are the driving force behind the expansion. The world needs to add 1.5 million teachers per year on average, approaching 100 million in total in order to keep pace with the unprecedented changes ahead in education around the world.

2023 Higher Education Trend Watch [Educause]

On 12/07/2022, in adjunct faculty, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), blended learning, Blockchain, business side of he, colleges, community colleges, copyright/ownership/NFTs, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, cryptocurrencies, data related items, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, health, higher education, hybrid learning, Hyflex learning, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, legislatures / government / legal, online learning, privacy, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

2023 Higher Education Trend Watch — from educause.edu

Also see:

2023 Strategic Trends Glossary — from educause.edu

Excerpts:

Closer alignment of higher education with workforce needs and skills-based learning
Continuation and normalization of hybrid and online learning
Continued adoption and normalization of hybrid and remote work arrangements
Continued resignation and migration of leaders and staff from higher education institutions
Declining public funding for higher education
…and more

Higher Ed Is a Land of Dead-End Jobs [McClure]

On 12/07/2022, in business side of he, career development, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, higher education, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Higher Ed Is a Land of Dead-End Jobs — from chronicle.com by Kevin R. McClure
Colleges have done a spectacularly bad job of managing talent.

Excerpt:

It’s hard to conclude anything other than that higher education has done a spectacularly bad job of managing talent. Campuses have evolved over centuries and dedicated resources to perfect the art and science of human development, while largely outsourcing or ignoring the professional growth and learning of their employees. Rather than draw upon their own experts to develop and retain workers, institutions let employees burn out, and then replace them.

When I floated the idea of dead-end jobs in higher education on Twitter, I was floored by the volume and breadth of responses.

From DSC:
Having worked half of my career in the corporate world and the other half within higher education, I would agree with the main points of this article. There are very few job pathways within the world of higher education.

Looking at the one pathway that I’ve seen…it surprises me to think that faculty members who have taught in the classroom and/or served as department chairs or deans for X years are then put into the Provost position and expected to know how to do that job. There is little — if any — training on project management, how to think more strategically and with greater vision, change management, managing budgets, and managing/motivating people.

New Report from Global Google Research Project Considers the ‘Future of Education’ [Kuykendall]

On 12/06/2022, in education, future, Google, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, trends, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

New Report from Global Google Research Project Considers the ‘Future of Education’ — from thejournal.com by Kristal Kuykendall
Global Trends and ‘Preparing for the Future’ Highlighted in First of Three Reports

As we march towards a radically different future, what should the role of education be and how might it look? To begin to answer this question, we collaborated with research partner Canvas8 to conduct a global study in 24 countries that synthesizes insights from 94 educational experts, two years of peer-reviewed academic literature, and a media narrative analysis across the education sector.

Excerpts:

Google for Education has released the first report from a massive, two-year study considering the role of education in a “radically different future,” and what that might look like.

Part 1 of Google’s Future of Education report focuses on big-picture themes seen as most likely to impact education and the future workforce in the coming years and decades.
…
Parts two and three of the Future of Education project will be released in the coming months, said Magiera, who was a K–12 classroom teacher for a decade in New York City and Chicago before working as a district leader, a chief information officer, and as an advisor for the Obama administration’s ed tech planning efforts. Part two will focus on “evolving how we teach and learn” and part three will be about “reimagining the learning ecosystems and the spaces,” she said.

Reimagining Learning Ecosystems -- by Google for Education

From DSC:
I’d like to thank Sarah Huibregtse for her post out on LinkedIn where she commented on and referenced the following item from Nicholas Thompson (CEO at The Atlantic):

Also relevant/see:

Also related/see the following item which I thank Sam DeBrule’s Machine Learnings newsletter for:

There’s a certain feeling that happens when a new technology adjusts your thinking about computing. Google did it. Firefox did it. AWS did it. iPhone did it. OpenAI is doing it with ChatGPT.

— Aaron Levie (@levie) December 4, 2022

Also, somewhat related, see the following item that Julie Johnston mentioned out on LinkedIn:

Top 10 conversational AI trends for 2023 — from linkedin.com by Kane Simms and Tim Holve, Tarren Corbett-Drummond, Arte Merritt, and Kevin Fredrick.

Excerpt:

In 2023, businesses will realise that, in order to get out of FAQ Land, they need to synchronise business systems together to deliver personalised transactional experiences for customers.

“We finally have the technologies to do all the things we imagined 10 years ago.”

“As enrollment falls and public skepticism grows, some colleges are cutting their prices” [Marcus] + several other items related to higher-education

On 12/03/2022, in adult learning, business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, lifelong learning, new business models, skills, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Udacity’s Train-to-Hire Program Now Available in AWS Marketplace — from prnewswire.com by Udacity; with thanks to GSV for this resource

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Nov. 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — Udacity, the digital talent transformation platform, today announced the availability of its Train-to-Hire Program in AWS Marketplace, a digital catalog with thousands of software listings from independent software vendors that make it easy to find, test, buy, and deploy software that runs on Amazon Web Services (AWS). With the addition of this program, AWS customers can now address technical talent gaps in their organizations by working with Udacity to create customizable, hands-on learning programs that attract and upskill net-new sources of talent. Through these Train-to-Hire Programs, AWS customers can transform the breadth and depth of their talent pipelines, lowering recruiting costs for in-demand roles and improving the diversity of their workforce by offering new opportunities to candidates from underrepresented communities.

As enrollment falls and public skepticism grows, some colleges are cutting their prices — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
The cost of college has stopped rising faster than inflation for the first time since the 1980s

Excerpt:

Colby-Sawyer College, a nearly 200-year-old institution that inhabits a campus in the heart of this bucolic scene, has announced that it will lower its tuition next year for undergraduates by 62 percent, from $46,364 to $17,500.

The move is among the first of what experts are predicting could be many colleges’ so-called tuition resets. Other schools are adjusting what they charge in different ways.

Fewer than one in five families understand that the “sticker price” colleges put on their websites and in their catalogs is almost certainly more than they will have to pay, and six in 10 say it’s made them walk away without even bothering to apply.

From DSC:
That’s very understandable on that last item/quote.

Next Chapter Matters – Two More Universities Launch Midlife Programs For Every Budget — from forbes.com by Avivah Wittenberg-Cox; with thanks to Ray Schroeder out on LinkedIn for this resource

Excerpt:

Whether you are retiring with millions in the bank or stuck at midlife desperately dreaming of a career pivot, there may soon be a university program for you. The latest offerings coming to the market are a testament to the diversity that is likely to develop as educational institutions start to respond to ageing societies and the future of work.

The idea that you get all the education you need up front in a four-year bundle at 18, should fast fade as careers lengthen towards the six-decade mark and retirement ages drift ever upward. There are now 12 programs on offer, and the two latest launching this year in the US are the University of Chicago and the University of Colorado Denver. (I’ll be looking at programs launching in Europe next).

Report: Progress on College Completion Rates Stalls — from insidehighered.com by Safia Abdulahi; with thanks to GSV for this resource

Excerpt:

A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center shows that college completion rates have stagnated, with 62.3 percent of students who enrolled in 2016 completing a degree by June 2022—virtually unchanged from last year’s six-year completion rate of 62.2 percent.

Is This the Beginning of the End of the ‘U.S. News’ Rankings’ Dominance? — from chronicle.com by Francie Diep

Excerpt:

If the law deans’ criticism sounds familiar, it’s because it echoes the complaints that have been leveled for decades against an even bigger project: the magazine’s ranking of undergraduate colleges and universities. There, too, critics have said the magazine’s metrics are flawed, opaque, and harm equity efforts.

But seldom have institutions acted on their concerns, as Yale and its peers have recently. And if elite colleges are willing to withdraw their support from one U.S. News ranking in the name of equity, why not another? In other words, is the undergraduate ranking the next venue for this kind of protest?

Not yet.

LinkedIn CEO Ryan Roslansky: Skills, Not Degrees, Matter Most in Hiring — from hbr.org

Summary:

Ryan Roslansky, the CEO of LinkedIn, thinks the site should be a place where its members’ billions of years of collective work experience should be freed to upskill anyone, anywhere, any time. Skills, more than degrees or pedigrees, are the true measure of what makes a great new hire, he argues, especially as the workforce evolves in fast and dramatic ways.

“Tech Survey 2022” [lawtechnologytoday.org] + several other legal-related items

On 12/03/2022, in Apple, law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, marketing/social marketing, technologies for your home, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Tech Survey 2022 — from lawtechnologytoday.org

Excerpt:

The ABA Legal Technology Survey Report is the most comprehensive study available of lawyers’ actual technology use, spanning a vast range of topics from security and basic office software to technology budgets, marketing tools, and much more. The survey has been published annually for more than 20 years. The 2022 edition features five volumes, each with detailed charts, tables, and trends.

TechReport 2022: Technology Budget and Planning — from lawtechnologytoday.org by Taylor Young

Excerpt:

Each year the American Bar Association’s Legal Technology Resource Center surveys ABA members to discover how lawyers are using technology in their practices nationwide. The 2022 ABA Legal Technology Survey Report is published in five volumes: Online Research, Technology Basics & Security, Law Office Technology, Marketing & Communication Technology, Litigation Technology & E-Discovery. The published results represent one of the most comprehensive technology surveys of lawyers available.

2022 ABA Tech Survey provides information on attorney use of iPhones and iPads — from legaltechmonitor.com by Jeff Richardson

Excerpt:

For over three decades, the ABA has conducted an annual survey of lawyers to find out what legal technology they use. These results are released every year by the ABA Legal Technology Resource Center. The 2022 report was just released (edited by Taylor Young, and researched by Taylor Young and Joshua Poje). There are five volumes, and you can purchase a copy using this page of the ABA website.

I have been looking at these reports every year since 2010 because they have been the best source of statistics on the use of mobile technology by lawyers. (My reports on the prior ABA surveys are located here: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010.)

AALS Selects 2023 Scholarly Papers Competition Winner — from aals.org

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Washington, DC (November 22, 2022) – The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) has announced the winner of the 2023 AALS Scholarly Papers Competition for law school faculty members in the field for five years or fewer.

The competition’s selection committee recognized the following outstanding paper:

- Nicole Summers, Associate Professor, Georgetown University Law Center, “Civil Probation.”

In “Civil Probation,” Summers investigates the outcomes of eviction settlements. Based on her empirical findings, she advances a novel theory of “civil probation” within the eviction legal system. The article will be published in an upcoming issue of Stanford Law Review.
…
“With eviction complaints comprising nearly a quarter of all civil filings, it’s crucial we develop policies that address the myriad ways tenants are systemically disadvantaged in the cases and ultimately harmed. I am very grateful to my mentors and colleagues for encouraging and supporting me in this project.”

I knew we were on to something when the judges liked the idea. https://t.co/WMHBARUUlx

— Jason Tashea (@jtashea) November 29, 2022

‘Press Play’ Isn’t a Teaching Strategy: Why Educators Need New Methods for Video — from edsurge.com by Reed Dickson

Excerpt:

As I prepared to teach my first educational videography course earlier this year, I found that we lacked a common vocabulary for talking about how we design learning with video in mind. Since then, I’ve been advancing the term “video paratext” to reflect the myriad ways that we design educational guidance, prompts, activities or interactive elements to surround or be included within a video.

I pulled the word “paratext” from the field of poetry translation because, personally, I love the “paratext” that precedes or follows a poem—or even interrupts it. At poetry readings in particular, I lean into the words that a poet shares before or after reading each poem. Paratext helps me connect with and make sense of the poem.

Likewise, I ask educators to consider how to help students connect with videos through various prompts and activities that surround, or are included within, the video.” Might such “paratext” inspire students to take a closer look at a video they’ve watched, the way I might want to reread a poem to see how it works or what it means?

Resources for Teachers of Psychology — from teachpsych.org; with thanks to Christine Renner for this resource

Excerpt:

The Society for the Teaching of Psychology (STP) curates and distributes teaching and advising materials to all teachers of psychology (e.g., 4-year instructors, 2-year instructors, and high-school teachers). The resources available below are documents that can pertain to any aspect of teaching. (NOTE: Syllabi have their own listings under Project Syllabus.)

Instructors have generously shared classroom activities, annotated bibliographies, film guides, lab manuals, advising aids, textbook compendiums, and much more. Notations indicate those that developed from Instructional Resource Awards.

Strategies for Teaching Quantitative Concepts Online — from facultyecommons.com

Excerpt:

Collaborative learning is particularly helpful in statistics education. Technology can facilitate and promote collaborative exploration and inquiry allowing students to generate their own knowledge of a concept or new method in a constructivist learning environment. Group interactions have an important role in questioning and critiquing individual perspectives in a mutually supportive fashion so that a clear understanding of statistical concepts energy and knowledge of statistical ideas develops. Research has shown that it is important to discuss the output and results with the students and require them to provide explanations and justifications for the conclusions they draw from the output and to be able to communicate their conclusions effectively.

Worksheet to WOW: 10 ways to upgrade your worksheet — from ditchthattextbook.com by Matt Miller

Excerpt:

Can we turn a worksheet into a “WOW” experience?

We’re about to find out! Here are 10 ways your classroom technology can help transform your worksheet to “WOW” …

Which Blended Learning Model Should I Use? — from catlintucker.com by Dr. Catlin Tucker

Excerpts:

I get this question all the time in coaching and training sessions! First, let’s be clear about the definition of blended learning.

Blended learning is the combination of active, engaged learning online with active, engaged learning offline to provide students with more control over the time, place, pace, and path of their learning.

Creating Classroom Camaraderie to Promote Learning: 3 Strategies — from scholarlyteacher.com by Donna Downs

Key Statement: Intentionally developing a welcoming classroom environment increases student engagement and cultivates meaningful classroom relationships.

Keywords: engagement, motivation, relationship

Although researchers suggest flipped classrooms, engaging humor, and online polling, I have found taking a more personal approach to engagement to be successful, specifically the following three guidelines: show your human side, share your professional experiences and wisdom, and admit your mistakes.

Somewhat related:

How to Receive Feedback With a Growth Mindset — from neuroleadership.com by the NeuroLeadership Institute

Excerpt:

A growth mindset can help us view feedback as a good thing, which ultimately makes performance reviews more effective. After all, we want to learn, grow, and improve our skills. People with a fixed mindset view criticism as an attack on their self-worth. Growth mindset, by contrast, leaves room for the possibility that we all have blind spots — and that your manager may have valuable insights on how you can hone your skills. Feedback, in other words, isn’t personal. A manager may critique our performance, but a growth mindset helps keep us from tying our performance to our identity.

Learning Ecosystems

Reflections on “How to Retain Your Best Staff Members” [Davis]

Police are rolling out new tech without knowing their effects on people [Heikkilä]

Robert Talbert: Ending the introduction of new content at Thanksgiving

Higher Ed Is a Land of Dead-End Jobs [McClure]

“As enrollment falls and public skepticism grows, some colleges are cutting their prices” [Marcus] + several other items related to higher-education

“Tech Survey 2022” [lawtechnologytoday.org] + several other legal-related items

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