vision/possibilities

Comparing Online and AI-Assisted Learning: A Student’s View — from educationnext.org by Daphne Goldstein
An 8th grader reviews traditional Khan Academy and its AI-powered tutor, Khanmigo

Hi everyone, I’m Daphne, a 13-year-old going into 8th grade.

I’m writing to compare “regular” Khan Academy (no AI) to Khanmigo (powered by GPT4), using three of my own made-up criteria.

They are: efficiency, effectiveness, and enjoyability. Efficiency is how fast I am able to cover a math topic and get basic understanding. Effectiveness is my quality of understanding—the difference between basic and advanced understanding. And the final one—most important to kids and maybe least important to adults who make kids learn math—is enjoyability.

7 Questions on Generative AI in Learning Design — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
Open LMS Adoption and Education Specialist Michael Vaughn on the challenges and possibilities of using artificial intelligence to move teaching and learning forward.

The potential for artificial intelligence tools to speed up course design could be an attractive prospect for overworked faculty and spread-thin instructional designers. Generative AI can shine, for example, in tasks such as reworking assessment question sets, writing course outlines and learning objectives, and generating subtitles for audio and video clips. The key, says Michael Vaughn, adoption and education specialist at learning platform Open LMS, is treating AI like an intern who can be guided and molded along the way, and whose work is then vetted by a human expert.

We spoke with Vaughn about how best to utilize generative AI in learning design, ethical issues to consider, and how to formulate an institution-wide policy that can guide AI use today and in the future.

First Impressions with GPT-4V(ision) — from blog.roboflow.com by James Gallagher; via Donald Clark on LinkedIn

On September 25th, 2023, OpenAI announced the rollout of two new features that extend how people can interact with its recent and most advanced model, GPT-4: the ability to ask questions about images and to use speech as an input to a query.

This functionality marks GPT-4’s move into being a multimodal model. This means that the model can accept multiple “modalities” of input – text and images – and return results based on those inputs. Bing Chat, developed by Microsoft in partnership with OpenAI, and Google’s Bard model both support images as input, too. Read our comparison post to see how Bard and Bing perform with image inputs.

In this guide, we are going to share our first impressions with the GPT-4V image input feature.

ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak — from openai.com
We are beginning to roll out new voice and image capabilities in ChatGPT. They offer a new, more intuitive type of interface by allowing you to have a voice conversation or show ChatGPT what you’re talking about.

Voice and image give you more ways to use ChatGPT in your life. Snap a picture of a landmark while traveling and have a live conversation about what’s interesting about it. When you’re home, snap pictures of your fridge and pantry to figure out what’s for dinner (and ask follow up questions for a step by step recipe). After dinner, help your child with a math problem by taking a photo, circling the problem set, and having it share hints with both of you.

We’re rolling out voice and images in ChatGPT to Plus and Enterprise users over the next two weeks. Voice is coming on iOS and Android (opt-in in your settings) and images will be available on all platforms.

Use your voice to engage in a back-and-forth conversation with ChatGPT. Speak with it on the go, request a bedtime story, or settle a dinner table debate.

Sound on ? pic.twitter.com/3tuWzX0wtS

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 25, 2023

Speak in your voice in the listener’s language, not your own, using the latest @OpenAI voice synthesis technology. Great use-case by Spotify: https://t.co/GhDlNrZVqZ https://t.co/s6MLFGx7aR

— Greg Brockman (@gdb) September 25, 2023

ChatGPT can now browse the internet to provide you with current and authoritative information, complete with direct links to sources. It is no longer limited to data before September 2021. pic.twitter.com/pyj8a9HWkB

— OpenAI (@OpenAI) September 27, 2023

OpenAI Seeks New Valuation of Up to $90 Billion in Sale of Existing Shares — from wsj.com (behind paywall)
Potential sale would value startup at roughly triple where it was set earlier this year

The World’s First AI Cinema Experience Starring YOU Is Open In NZ And Buzzy Doesn’t Cover It — from theedge.co.nz by Seth Gupwell
Allow me to manage your expectations.

Because it’s the first-ever on Earth, it’s hard to label what kind of entertainment Hypercinema is. While it’s marketed as a “live AI experience” that blends “theatre, film and digital technology”, Dr. Gregory made it clear that it’s not here to make movies and TV extinct.

Your face and personality are how HyperCinema sets itself apart from the art forms of old. You get 15 photos of your face taken from different angles, then answer a questionnaire – mine started by asking what my fave vegetable was and ended by demanding to know what I thought the biggest threat to humanity was. Deep stuff, but the questions are always changing, cos that’s how AI rolls.

All of this information is stored on your cube – a green, glowing accessory that you carry around for the whole experience and insert into different sockets to transfer your info onto whatever screen is in front of you. Upon inserting your cube, the “live AI experience” starts.

The AI has taken your photos and superimposed your face on a variety of made-up characters in different situations.

Announcing Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion — from blogs.microsoft.com by Yusuf Mehdi

We are entering a new era of AI, one that is fundamentally changing how we relate to and benefit from technology. With the convergence of chat interfaces and large language models you can now ask for what you want in natural language and the technology is smart enough to answer, create it or take action. At Microsoft, we think about this as having a copilot to help navigate any task. We have been building AI-powered copilots into our most used and loved products – making coding more efficient with GitHub, transforming productivity at work with Microsoft 365, redefining search with Bing and Edge and delivering contextual value that works across your apps and PC with Windows.

Today we take the next step to unify these capabilities into a single experience we call Microsoft Copilot, your everyday AI companion. Copilot will uniquely incorporate the context and intelligence of the web, your work data and what you are doing in the moment on your PC to provide better assistance – with your privacy and security at the forefront.

DALL·E 3 understands significantly more nuance and detail than our previous systems, allowing you to easily translate your ideas into exceptionally accurate images.
DALL·E 3 is now in research preview, and will be available to ChatGPT Plus and Enterprise customers in October, via the API and in Labs later this fall.

“Will Generative AI Improve Digital Accessibility?” + other items re: accessibility from boia.org

On 09/18/2023, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), instructional design, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, society, tools, vendors, vision/possibilities, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

Will Generative AI Improve Digital Accessibility? — from boia.org

Generative A.I. could reduce the busywork of accessibility
Most digital accessibility issues can be addressed easily with clean code and thoughtful content creation. However, many “easy” fixes still take time to implement, particularly when humans need to be involved.

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) function as the international standards of digital accessibility. WCAG includes a number of requirements that require a subjective approach, which can create busywork for developers, designers, and writers.

For example:

WCAG requires text alternatives (alt text) for images and other non-text content. Writing alt text takes a few seconds, but if you’re operating a large eCommerce site with thousands of images, you may need to spend days or weeks adding alt text.
WCAG requires captions and transcripts for video content. If you don’t plan for those features when drafting your videos, you’ll need to write them after-the-fact — and on a lengthy video, that’s a time-consuming process.
WCAG requires content to maintain an appropriate color contrast ratio. Adjusting your website’s CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) isn’t especially difficult, but on a complex website, designers may need to spend hours adjusting each element.

Generative A.I. may be able to address these challenges.

Also relevant/see:

How Accessibility Can Help You Grow Your Web Design Business — from boia.org
Worried About Web Accessibility Lawsuits? Start Here. — from boia.org
Semantics and Screen Readers: Creating Better Content — from boia.org

What Will Determine AI’s Impact on College Teaching? 5 Signs to Watch. — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie (behind a paywall)

One of the biggest challenges to navigate now is the fact that more digital tools will come with generative AI already embedded in them, says Annette Vee, director of composition and an associate professor at the University of Pittsburgh. “It’s everywhere in professional writing.”

“We need to be fundamentally rethinking ways we teach writing, so we are thinking about integrating tools mindfully,” says Vee, who helped develop a new resource, TextGenEd, that provides guidance in this area. “The real challenge is how do we teach courses that are preparing students and that are smart about generative AI? We have very few teachers currently equipped to do that work.”

“It’s best if there are real stakes attached to the work, for example, an authentic audience the student is writing to,” he writes. “A subject on which students have both sufficient interest and knowledge in order to feel as though they can write convincingly to this audience also matters a lot.”

Also relevant/see — via Robert Gibson on LinkedIn:

Learnt.ai — Built for Learning Specialists — from learnt.ai
Harness the power of artificial intelligence to enhance your learning and development efforts with our easy-to-use platform – no technical expertise required!

Introducing Learnt.ai – a revolutionary collection of AI-powered content generation tools and AI chatbots that are specifically designed to support the common writing tasks of educationalists and learning and development professionals. Imagine being able to generate learning objectives on any topic of your choice, create engaging icebreakers and activities, write assessment questions with ease, and so much more.

Also relevant/see:

An AI and higher education panel — from aiandacademia.substack.com by Bryan Alexander
Live notes

Today I took in a webinar on AI and higher education. The American Association of Colleges and Universities hosted “The AI Revolution: Transforming Higher Education for the Workforce of Tomorrow” and I’d like to share my running notes.

Also relevant/see:

Students’ Perspectives on Using AI — from er.educause.edu by Sarah J. Buszka, Jeremy Cortez, and Isabella Meltzer

Students are using artificial intelligence tools to assist them in their academic careers. Three students share their viewpoints on the tools they use and how using these tools helps them in their coursework and prepares them for the professional world.

Also relevant/see:

Why Professors Are Polarized on AI — from insidehighered.com by Susan D’Agostino
Academics who perceive threats to education from AI band together as a survival mechanism. The resulting alliances echo divisions formed during online learning’s emergence.

What if the presenter/teacher/professor/ trainer/preacher provided a set of notes for the AI to compare to the readers’ notes? [Christian]

On 08/29/2023, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, lifelong learning, presentations, religion, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Yesterday, I posted the item about Google’s NotebookLM research tool. Excerpt:

What if you could have a conversation with your notes? That question has consumed a corner of the internet recently, as companies like Dropbox, Box, Notion, and others have built generative AI tools that let you interact with and create new things from the data you already have in their systems.

Google’s version of this is called NotebookLM. It’s an AI-powered research tool that is meant to help you organize and interact with your own notes.

That got me to thinking…

What if the presenter/teacher/professor/trainer/preacher provided a set of notes for the AI to compare to the readers’ notes?

That way, the AI could see the discrepancies between what the presenter wanted their audience to learn/hear and what was actually being learned/heard. In a sort of digital Socratic Method, the AI could then generate some leading questions to get the audience member to check their thinking/understanding of the topic.

The end result would be that the main points were properly communicated/learned/received.

What if you could have a conversation with your notes? [Pierce]

On 08/28/2023, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Design Thinking, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, productivity / tips and tricks, research, student-related, teachers, tools, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Google’s AI-powered note-taking app is the messy beginning of something great — from theverge.com by David Pierce; via AI Insider
NotebookLM is a neat research tool with some big ideas. It’s still rough and new, but it feels like Google is onto something.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

What if you could have a conversation with your notes? That question has consumed a corner of the internet recently, as companies like Dropbox, Box, Notion, and others have built generative AI tools that let you interact with and create new things from the data you already have in their systems.

Google’s version of this is called NotebookLM. It’s an AI-powered research tool that is meant to help you organize and interact with your own notes.
…
Right now, it’s really just a prototype, but a small team inside the company has been trying to figure out what an AI notebook might look like.

ElevenLabs’ AI Voice Generator Can Now Fake Your Voice in 30 Languages — from gizmodo.com by Kyle Barr
ElevenLabs said its AI voice generator is out of beta, saying it would support video game and audiobook creators with cheap audio.

According to ElevenLabs, the new Multilingual v2 model promises it can produce “emotionally rich” audio in a total of 30 languages. The company offers two AI voice tools, one is a text-to-speech model and the other is the “VoiceLab” that lets paying users clone a voice by inputting fragments of theirs (or others) speech into the model to create a kind of voice cone. With the v2 model, users can get these generated voices to start speaking in Greek, Malay, or Turkish.
…
Since then, ElevenLabs claims its integrated new measures to ensure users can only clone their own voice. Users need to verify their speech with a text captcha prompt which is then compared to the original voice sample.

From DSC:
I don’t care what they say regarding safeguards/proof of identity/etc. This technology has been abused and will be abused in the future. We can count on it. The question now is, how do we deal with it?

Introducing SeamlessM4T, the first all-in-one, multilingual multimodal translation model.

This single model can perform tasks across speech-to-text, speech-to-speech, text-to-text translation & speech recognition for up to 100 languages depending on the task.

Details ??

— Meta AI (@MetaAI) August 22, 2023

Google, Amazon, Nvidia and other tech giants invest in AI startup Hugging Face, sending its valuation to $4.5 billion — from cnbc.com by Kif Leswing

But Hugging Face produces a platform where AI developers can share code, models, data sets, and use the company’s developer tools to get open-source artificial intelligence models running more easily. In particular, Hugging Face often hosts weights, or large files with lists of numbers, which are the heart of most modern AI models.

While Hugging Face has developed some models, like BLOOM, its primary product is its website platform, where users can upload models and their weights. It also develops a series of software tools called libraries that allow users to get models working quickly, to clean up large datasets, or to evaluate their performance. It also hosts some AI models in a web interface so end users can experiment with them.

The global semiconductor talent shortage — from www2.deloitte.com
How to solve semiconductor workforce challenges

Numerous skills are required to grow the semiconductor ecosystem over the next decade. Globally, we will need tens of thousands of skilled tradespeople to build new plants to increase and localize manufacturing capacity: electricians, pipefitters, welders; thousands more graduate electrical engineers to design chips and the tools that make the chips; more engineers of various kinds in the fabs themselves, but also operators and technicians. And if we grow the back end in Europe and the Americas, that equates to even more jobs.

Each of these job groups has distinct training and educational needs; however, the number of students in semiconductor-focused programs (for example, undergraduates in semiconductor design and fabrication) has dwindled. Skills are also evolving within these job groups, in part due to automation and increased digitization. Digital skills, such as cloud, AI, and analytics, are needed in design and manufacturing more than ever.

The chip industry has long partnered with universities and engineering schools. Going forward, they also need to work more with local tech schools, vocational schools, and community colleges; and other organizations, such as the National Science Foundation in the United States.

Our principles for partnering with the music industry on AI technology — from blog.youtube (Google) by Neal Mohan, CEO, YouTube
AI is here, and we will embrace it responsibly together with our music partners.

Principle #1: AI is here, and we will embrace it responsibly together with our music partners.
Principle #2: AI is ushering in a new age of creative expression, but it must include appropriate protections and unlock opportunities for music partners who decide to participate.
Principle #3: We’ve built an industry-leading trust and safety organization and content policies. We will scale those to meet the challenges of AI.

Developers are now using AI for text-to-music apps — from techcrunch.com by Ivan Mehta

Brett Bauman, the developer of PlayListAI (previously LinupSupply), launched a new app called Songburst on the App Store this week. The app doesn’t have a steep learning curve. You just have to type in a prompt like “Calming piano music to listen to while studying” or “Funky beats for a podcast intro” to let the app generate a music clip.

If you can’t think of a prompt the app has prompts in different categories, including video, lo-fi, podcast, gaming, meditation and sample.

A Generative AI Primer — from er.educause.edu by Brian Basgen
Understanding the current state of technology requires understanding its origins. This reading list provides sources relevant to the form of generative AI that led to natural language processing (NLP) models such as ChatGPT.

Three big questions about AI and the future of work and learning — from workshift.opencampusmedia.org by Alex Swartsel
AI is set to transform education and work today and well into the future. We need to start asking tough questions right now, writes Alex Swartsel of JFF.

How will AI reshape jobs, and how can we prepare all workers and learners with the skills they’ll need?
How can education and workforce leaders equitably adopt AI platforms to accelerate their impact?
How might we catalyze sustainable policy, practice, and investments in solutions that drive economic opportunity?

“As AI reshapes both the economy and society, we must collectively call for better data, increased accountability, and more flexible support for workers,” Swartsel writes.

The Current State of AI for Educators (August, 2023) — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
A podcast interview with the University of Toronto on where we’re at & where we’re going.

“Leading your law firm into the Gen AI Era” [Furlong] + other legaltech-related items

On 08/17/2023, in 21st century, business, Canada, corporate / business world, innovation, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, strategy, UK, United States, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Legal Innovators Assemble! Great Speakers for London in November — from artificiallawyer.com

The Legal Innovators UK conference will take place on 8 + 9 November, and we are already assembling a fantastic group of speakers from across the legal innovation ecosystem.

The two-day event comes at a time of potentially massive change for the legal market and we will be bringing you engaging panels and presentations where leading experts really dig into the issues of the day, from generative AI, to the evolution of ALSPs, to law firm innovation teams in this new era for legal tech, to how empowered legal ops groups and pioneering GCs are taking inhouse teams in new directions.

Virtual law firm Scale absorbs Texas IP firm in first acquisition — from reuters.com by Sara Merken

Aug 1 (Reuters) – Virtual law firm Scale said [on 8/1/23] that it has brought on small Texas intellectual property firm Creedon in the first of what it hopes may be a series of acquisitions.

James Creedon and two other attorneys from his firm have joined Scale, a Silicon Valley-founded law firm where lawyers work entirely remotely.

Scale, which debuted in 2020, is among so-called “distributed” or virtual firms that use technology to operate without physical offices and embrace a non-traditional law firm business model.

The lawyers are leaning into AI — from alexofftherecord.com by Alex Su
Despite all the gloom and doom, corporate legal and law firms are both embracing generative AI much more quickly than previous technologies

When I first heard law firms announcing that they were adopting AI, I was skeptical. Anyone can announce a partnership or selection/piloting of an AI vendor. It’s good PR, and doesn’t mean that the firm has truly embraced AI. But when they create their own GPT-powered tool—that feels different. Setting aside whether it’s a good idea to build your own vs. buy, it certainly feels like a real investment, especially since the firms are dedicating significant internal resources to it.

Today I’ll discuss why generative AI is diffusing across law firms much more quickly than expected.

Leading your law firm into the Gen AI Era — from jordanfurlong.substack.com by Jordan Furlong
Lawyers are embracing its promise. Clients want to reap its rewards. Here are three ways your firm can respond to the immense disruption and extraordinary opportunity of Generative AI.

Move fast to implement project and client pricing.
Prepare to hire fewer associates and to rethink partnership.
Establish a fresh approach to developing future law firm leaders.

…
Above resource via BrainyActs — who mentioned that the QR code takes you to this survey. Just 3 simple questions.

Q1: Agree/Disagree: Artificial Intelligence (AI) won’t replace lawyers anytime soon. Lawyers who use AI will replace lawyers who do not use AI.

Q2: Agree/Disagree: Non-lawyers should be allowed to have an ownership interest in a law firm.

Q3 Agree/Disagree: Trained non-lawyers should be allowed to advocate for parties in lower courts.

Generative AI In The Law: Where Could This All Be Headed? — from abovethelaw.com
Findings from a new Wolters Kluwer / Above the Law survey.

To get a sense of what the legal industry predicts, Above the Law and Wolters Kluwer fielded a survey of 275 professionals from March to mid-April 2023. We asked about AI’s potential effects in varied areas of the legal industry: Will it differentiate successful firms? Which practice areas could be affected the most? Could even high-level work be transformed?

Will one of our future learning ecosystems look like a Discord server type of service? [Christian]

On 08/17/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Alternatives, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, communities of practice, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, love of learning, microlearning, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, simulations, skills, social learning / networks, society, streams of content, student-related, technologies for your home, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

DC: Is the future of one of our powerful learning ecosystems more like adding your own desired groups/cohorts, topics, items, etc. to your server? Like a learning-focused type of Discord service? (https://t.co/Vq4dZamBf2)#future #learningecosystems #personalizedlearning pic.twitter.com/wVMWYBN3R1

— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) August 17, 2023

Why we don’t intuitively get how fast the world is changing.

Our brains understand linear not exponential growth.

30 linear steps = +30
30 exponential steps = +1 billion pic.twitter.com/z9a42eFmZM

— Misha (@mishadavinci) July 29, 2023

From DSC:
Which reminds me of some graphics:

The pace has changed -- don't come onto the track in a Model T

From DSC:
Time will tell.

Per Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera CEO: “This system-wide industry micro-credential program sets an innovative blueprint for the future of higher education.”

***

University Of Texas, Coursera Launch Historic Micro-credential Partnership — from forbes.com by Michael T. Nietzel

The University of Texas and Coursera, the online learning platform and a pioneer of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCS), are launching a large-scale, industry-recognized micro-credential program. The collaboration was announced today in a blogpost by Coursera.

Through the new partnership, every student, faculty, and staff (and even alumni) across all nine universities in the University of Texas (UT) System will gain access to Courser’s Career Academy for no additional cost to them.

“Navigating the Future of Learning in a Digitally-Disrupted World” [Cailey] + several other AI in education items

On 08/05/2023, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Australia, change, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, disruption, education, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, policy, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, UK, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Navigating the Future of Learning in a Digitally-Disrupted World — from thinklearningstudio.org by Russell Cailey

Are we on the frontier of unveiling an unseen revolution in education? The hypothesis is that this quiet upheaval’s importance is far more significant than we imagine. As our world adjusts, restructures, and emerges from a year which launched an era of mass AI, so too does a new academic year dawn for many – with hope and enthusiasm about new roles, titles, or simply just a new mindset. Concealed from sight, however, I believe a significant transformative wave has started and will begin to reshape our education systems and push us into a new stage of innovative teaching practice whether we desire it or not. The risk and hope is that the quiet revolution remains outside the regulator’s and ministries’ purview, which could risk a dangerous fragmentation of education policy and practice, divorced from the actualities of the world ‘in and outside school’.

“This goal can be achieved through continued support for introducing more new areas of study, such as ‘foresight and futures’, in the high school classroom.”

Four directions for assessment redesign in the age of generative AI— from timeshighereducation.com by Julia Chen
The rise of generative AI has led universities to rethink how learning is quantified. Julia Chen offers four options for assessment redesign that can be applied across disciplines

Direction 1: From written description to multimodal explanation and application

Direction 2: From literature review alone to referencing lectures

Direction 3: From presentation of ideas to defence of views

Direction 4: From working alone to student-staff partnership

15 Inspirational Voices in the Space Between AI and Education — from jeppestricker.substack.com by Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker
Get Inspired for AI and The Future of Education.

If you are just back from vacation and still not quite sure what to do about AI, let me assure you that you are not the only one. My advice for you today is this: fill your LinkedIn-feed and/or inbox with ideas, inspirational writing and commentary on AI. This will get you up to speed quickly and is a great way to stay informed on the newest movements you need to be aware of.

My personal recommendation for you is to check out these bright people who are all very active on LinkedIn and/or have a newsletter worth paying attention to. I have kept the list fairly short – only 15 people – in order to make it as easy as possible for you to begin exploring.

Universities say AI cheats can’t be beaten, moving away from attempts to block AI (Australia) — from abc.net.au by Jake Evans

Key points:

Universities have warned against banning AI technologies in academia
Several say AI cheating in tests will be too difficult to stop, and it is more practical to change assessment methods
The sector says the entire nature of teaching will have to change to ensure students continue to effectively learn

Navigating A World of Generative AI: Suggestions for Educators — from nextlevellab.gse.harvard.edu by Lydia Cao and Chris Dede

Understanding the nature of generative AI is crucial for educators to navigate the evolving landscape of teaching and learning. In a new report from the Next Level Lab, Lydia Cao and Chris Dede reflect on the role of generative AI in learning and how this pushes us to reconceptualize our visions of effective education. Though there are concerns of plagiarism and replacement of human jobs, Cao and Dede argue that a more productive way forward is for educators to focus on demystifying AI, emphasizing the learning process over the final product, honoring learner agency, orchestrating multiple sources of motivation, cultivating skills that AI cannot easily replicate, and fostering intelligence augmentation (IA) through building human-AI partnerships.

20 CHATGPT PROMPTS FOR ELA TEACHERS — from classtechtips.com by Dr. Monica Burns

Have you used chatbots to save time this school year? ChatGPT and generative artificial intelligence (AI) have changed the way I think about instructional planning. Today on the blog, I have a selection of ChatGPT prompts for ELA teachers.

You can use chatbots to tackle tedious tasks, gather ideas, and even support your work to meet the needs of every student. In my recent quick reference guide published by ISTE and ASCD, Using AI Chatbots to Enhance Planning and Instruction, I explore this topic. You can also find 50 more prompts for educators in this free ebook.

Professors Craft Courses on ChatGPT With ChatGPT — from insidehighered.com by Lauren Coffey
While some institutions are banning the use of the new AI tool, others are leaning into its use and offering courses dedicated solely to navigating the new technology.

Maynard, along with Jules White at Vanderbilt University, are among a small number of professors launching courses focused solely on teaching students across disciplines to better navigate AI and ChatGPT.

The offerings go beyond institutions flexing their innovation skills—the faculty behind these courses view them as imperative to ensure students are prepared for ever-changing workforce needs.

GPT-4 can already pass freshman year at Harvard | professors need to adapt to their students’ new reality — fast — from chronicle.com by Maya Bodnick (an undergraduate at Harvard University, studying government)

A. A. A-. B. B-. Pass.

That’s a solid report card for a freshman in college, a respectable 3.57 GPA. I recently finished my freshman year at Harvard, but those grades aren’t mine — they’re GPT-4’s.
…
Three weeks ago, I asked seven Harvard professors and teaching assistants to grade essays written by GPT-4 in response to a prompt assigned in their class. Most of these essays were major assignments which counted for about one-quarter to one-third of students’ grades in the class. (I’ve listed the professors or preceptors for all of these classes, but some of the essays were graded by TAs.)

Here are the prompts with links to the essays, the names of instructors, and the grades each essay received…

The impact that AI is having on liberal-arts homework is indicative of the AI threat to the career fields that liberal-arts majors tend to enter. So maybe what we should really be focused on isn’t, “How do we make liberal-arts homework better?” but rather, “What are jobs going to look like over the next 10–20 years, and how do we prepare students to succeed in that world?”

The great assessment rethink — from timeshighereducation.com by
How to measure learning and protect academic integrity in the age of ChatGPT

Post-prison job training [Sanchez & García Mathewson]

On 07/31/2023, in business, change, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, society, sociology, Uncategorized, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Post-prison job training — hechingerreport.org by Olivia Sanchez and Tara García Mathewson

We’ve known for a long time that higher education can play a huge role in helping people who serve time in prison get back on their feet. Research shows that higher-ed attainment is directly correlated with a lower likelihood of being reincarcerated, as is stable employment.

But people getting out of prison face many obstacles in finding jobs, and lack of educational opportunities is just part of the issue. A patchwork of more than 14,000 federal, state and local laws and regulations restricts individuals who have arrest and conviction histories from getting licensed in certain fields. Here’s some of what my reporting found about how pervasive this problem is and why it matters:

Actors say Hollywood studios want their AI replicas — for free, forever [Webster]

On 07/14/2023, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, changing business models, digital audio, digital storytelling, digital video, drama/theater, media/film, television, United States, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Actors say Hollywood studios want their AI replicas — for free, forever — from theverge.com by Andrew Webster
The reveal came as SAG-AFTRA actors confirmed they were going on strike.

When asked about the proposal during the press conference, Crabtree-Ireland said that “This ‘groundbreaking’ AI proposal that they gave us yesterday, they proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their companies should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity on any project they want, with no consent and no compensation. So if you think that’s a groundbreaking proposal, I suggest you think again.”

Learning Ecosystems

“Leading your law firm into the Gen AI Era” [Furlong] + other legaltech-related items

“Why we don’t intuitively get how fast the world is changing.” [Misha]

Time will tell whether this statement from Jeff Maggioncalda, Coursera’s CEO, will be the case. [Christian]

Post-prison job training [Sanchez & García Mathewson]

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