Infographic: Gamify your eLearning with these 7 techniques — from thelearningrooms.com
Excerpt:
Gamification refers to the application of gaming elements into the instructional design of a course. Here are 7 ways to incorporate gamification into your eLearning.
DC: I’m going to check this out for a bit. I’m passing it along in case some folks might be interested in #legaltech and in various applications of #AI. https://t.co/laYoOHLuOC
— Daniel Christian (he/him/his) (@dchristian5) March 18, 2023
Policy by Waivers Won’t Boost School Innovation — by Michael B. Horn
“Permissionless” beats having to ask for an okay
Excerpt:
In recent conversations, educators and state policymakers have expressed shock to me that district schools aren’t innovating more. With microschools growing and test scores floundering, why aren’t districts seeking permission to reinvent themselves?
As evidence of the opportunities to innovate, many bureaucrats and think tanks point to the vast number of waivers that states offer. The opportunities to move beyond traditional structures and processes do exist, the argument goes.
Yet waivers help far less than most policymakers believe. Until regulators create frameworks where innovation in pursuit of student outcomes is the default and doesn’t require permission, don’t expect a sea change.
From DSC:
TrimTab Groups. That’s what we need more of within K-12 and higher education.
Research shows the only way an organization can truly reinvent itself is to launch a separate organization that has the autonomy to rethink its value proposition, resources, processes, and financial formula.
Below is a graphic I created a while back, but with traditional institutions of higher education in mind.
Designing Virtual Edtech Faculty Development Workshops That Stick: 10 Guiding Principles — from er.educause.edu by Tolulope (Tolu) Noah
These ten principles offer guidance on ways to design and facilitate effective and engaging virtual workshops that leave faculty feeling better equipped to implement new edtech tools.
Excerpt:
I share here ten guiding principles that have shaped my design and facilitation of virtual synchronous edtech workshops. These guiding principles are based on lessons learned in both my previous role as a professional learning specialist at a major technology company and my current role as a faculty developer at a university. In the spirit of James M. Lang’s book Small Teaching, my hope is that the principles shared here may prompt reflection on the small yet impactful moves academic technology specialists, instructional designers, and educational developers can make to create virtual learning experiences whereby faculty leave feeling better equipped to implement the edtech tools they have learned.
Somewhat relevant/see:
Evidence-Based Learning Design 101 — by Dr. Philippa Hardman
A practical guide on how to bake the science of learning into the art of course design
Excerpt:
As I reflect on the experience and what I’ve learned so far, I thought I’d share a response to the question I probably get asked most: what process do you use to go from an idea to a designed learning experience?
So, let’s do a rapid review of the four step process I and my bootcamp alumni use – aka the DOMS™? process – to go from zero to a designed learning experience.
Copilot — A whole new way to work — from news.microsoft.com
Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot – your copilot for work — from blogs.microsoft.com by Jared Spataro
“Today marks the next major step in the evolution of how we interact with computing, which will fundamentally change the way we work and unlock a new wave of productivity growth,” said Satya Nadella, Chairman and CEO, Microsoft. “With our new copilot for work, we’re giving people more agency and making technology more accessible through the most universal interface — natural language.”
Introducing Microsoft 365 Copilot — A whole new way to work — from microsoft.com by Colette Stallbaumer
Excerpt:
Copilot is integrated into Microsoft 365 in two ways. It works alongside you, embedded in the Microsoft 365 apps you use every day—Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, Teams, and more—to unleash creativity, unlock productivity, and uplevel skills. Today, we’re also announcing an entirely new experience: Business Chat. Business Chat works across the LLM, the Microsoft 365 apps, and your data—your calendar, emails, chats, documents, meetings, and contacts—to do things you’ve never been able to do before. You can give it natural language prompts like “tell my team how we updated the product strategy” and it will generate a status update based on the morning’s meetings, emails, and chat threads.
A new era for AI and Google Workspace — from workspace.google.com by Johanna Voolich Wright
Excerpt:
As we embark on this next journey, we will be bringing these new generative-AI experiences to trusted testers on a rolling basis throughout the year, before making them available publicly.
With these features, you’ll be able to:
Here’s a look at the first set of AI-powered features, which make writing even easier.
Join us to promote full inclusion on World Down Syndrome Day
21 March is World Down Syndrome Day (WDSD) as declared by the United Nations General Assembly in December 2011.
On this day, people with Down syndrome and those who live and work with them throughout the world organise and participate in activities and events to raise public awareness and create a single global voice advocating for the rights, inclusion and well-being of people with Down syndrome.
WDSD has an official website, created and updated by DSi, where we share global events and activities.
United Nations | March 21 2023 is World Down Syndrome Day — from un.org
Excerpt:
Down syndrome occurs when an individual has an extra partial (or whole) copy of chromosome 21. It is not yet know why this syndrome occurs, but Down syndrome has always been a part of the human condition. It exists in all regions across the globe and commonly results in variable effects on learning styles, physical characteristics and health.
Adequate access to health care, to early intervention programmes, and to inclusive education, as well as appropriate research, are vital to the growth and development of the individual.
Also relevant/see:
Territorium Introduces AI-Powered System to Track Skills and Competencies from K–12 to Career — from campustechnology.com by Kate Lucariello
Excerpt:
Global ed tech provider Territorium has launched LifeJourney, a suite of AI-powered tools for users to keep track of education, job skills, and career readiness capabilities. With the LifeJourney toolkit’s comprehensive individual records all in one place, students can provide quick and easily accessible information to prospective employers, according to the company. The suite of tools keeps track of progress and achievements from K–12 through higher education and career readiness.
From DSC:
This type of comprehensive learner record is a piece of the vision that I’ve been tracking at “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” — where I call it a Cloud-Based Learner Profile.
Also relevant/see:
College Accreditation 101: How It Works & Why It Matters — from business-essay.com; with thanks to Lili North for this resource
Excerpt:
Entering a prestigious college and getting a quality education is one of the top priorities for high school graduates. But how do you know if the college you are considering is really worth it?
Well, luckily, there is accreditation: a process of evaluating educational institutions. Accreditation is an important factor to consider when selecting a college: after all, unaccredited schools don’t provide you with widely recognized diplomas and can leave you with insufficient knowledge and skills.
Want to know more? You’re in the right place! This article covers the essential information every college applicant should know about accreditation.
Also relevant/see:
Addendum on 3/18/23:
Credentialing Everything: A Primer on Learning and Employment Records and Digital Wallets — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen and Rachelle Dené Poth
Key Points
Measuring Learning Growth: Competencies and Standards — from gettingsmart.com by Nate McClennen and Rebecca Midles
Key Points
Legal Prompt Engineering – Examples and Tips — from law.mit.edu by Dazza Greenwood and Damien Riehl
Walk through and discussion of Legal Prompt Engineering examples, showing ways to compose inputs to generative AI systems like ChatGPT and Claude to get improved outputs for law and legal processes
GPT4 demo’s last 5 mins should be a must watch for legal / tax folks!
Spoiler Alert: snippet of US tax code is used + a fictional set of facts, and GPT asked to determine the appropriate tax calculation + reasoning, which it seemingly does correctly.https://t.co/rthFsTCUic
— lawtomated (@lawtomated) March 14, 2023
PwC announces strategic alliance with Harvey, positioning PwC’s Legal Business Solutions at the forefront of legal generative AI — from pwc.com
Excerpt:
LONDON, 15 March 2023 – Today, PwC announced a global partnership with artificial intelligence (AI) startup Harvey, providing PwC’s Legal Business Solutions professionals exclusive access (among the Big 4) to the game-changing AI platform.
Harvey, which is backed by the OpenAI Startup Fund, is built on OpenAi and Chat GPT technology. It is a platform that uses natural language processing, machine learning and data analytics to automate and enhance various aspects of legal work. Harvey will help generate insights and recommendations based on large volumes of data, delivering richer information that will enable PwC professionals to identify solutions faster. All outputs will be overseen and reviewed by PwC professionals.
The strategic alliance builds on PwC’s ability to bring human-led and tech-enabled solutions to clients, delivering on its global strategy, The New Equation.
The Robot Lawyer Resistance — from a16z Podcast by Andreessen Horowitz
Description of podcast:
Should AI belong in the courtroom? Joshua Browder ventured to run an experiment where a robot lawyer would defend a court case. Looking to up the ante, he even offered $1m for a Supreme Court hearing! His experiment was met with a threat of 6 months jail time. Listen in for the full story.
Also somewhat related, see:
What’s New in Legal Technology? ABA TECHSHOW 2023 — from attorneyatwork.com by Joan Feldman
ABA TECHSHOW has been the place to learn what’s new in legal technology for more than 35 years. Last week in Chicago, we scoped out the ABA TECHSHOW 2023 exposition hall. Here are a few of the highlights.
??Well this is something else.
GPT-4 passes basically every exam. And doesn’t just pass…
The Bar Exam: 90%
LSAT: 88%
GRE Quantitative: 80%, Verbal: 99%
Every AP, the SAT… pic.twitter.com/zQW3k6uM6Z— Ethan Mollick (@emollick) March 14, 2023
Description of video:
Sal Khan walks through Khan Academy’s GPT-4 integration (not generally available yet). Folks can join the waitlist at Khanacademy.org. To learn more about Khanmigo, visit: khanacademy.org/khan-labs
We believe that AI has the potential to transform learning in a positive way, but we are also keenly aware of the risks. To test the possibilities, we’re inviting our district partners to opt in to Khan Labs, a new space for testing learning technology. We want to ensure that our work always puts the needs of students and teachers first, and we are focused on ensuring that the benefits of AI are shared equally across society. In addition to teachers and students, we’re inviting the general public to join a waitlist to test Khanmigo. Teachers, students and donors will be our partners on this learning journey, helping us test AI to see if we can harness it as a learning tool for all.
GPT-4 has arrived. It will blow ChatGPT out of the water. — from washingtonpost.com by Drew Harwell and Nitasha Tiku
The long-awaited tool, which can describe images in words, marks a huge leap forward for AI power — and another major shift for ethical norms
Introducing Our Virtual Volunteer Tool for People who are Blind or Have Low Vision, Powered by OpenAI’s GPT-4 — from bemyeyes.com
We are thrilled to announce Be My Eyes Virtual Volunteer™, the first-ever digital visual assistant powered by OpenAI’s new GPT-4 language model.
For example, [GPT-4] passes a simulated bar exam with a score around the top 10% of test takers; in contrast, GPT-3.5’s score was around the bottom 10%.
Here are some incredible things people are already doing with GPT-4
It’s been less than 3.5 hours
? A thread
— Linus (???) (@LinusEkenstam) March 14, 2023
Had my wife close her eyes and describe rooms in her dream home.
In 3 minutes, I made these on Midjourney (h/t @nickfloats)
She was speechless.
She’s now a huge fan of AI and “gets it”
This is the way. pic.twitter.com/sjf3CQYtwa
— Kallaway (@kanekallaway) March 6, 2023
HOW DUOLINGO’S AI LEARNS WHAT YOU NEED TO LEARN — from spectrum.ieee.org by Klinton Bicknell, Claire Brust, and Burr Settles
The AI that powers the language-learning app today could disrupt education tomorrow
Excerpt:
It’s lunchtime when your phone pings you with a green owl who cheerily reminds you to “Keep Duo Happy!” It’s a nudge from Duolingo, the popular language-learning app, whose algorithms know you’re most likely to do your 5 minutes of Spanish practice at this time of day. The app chooses its notification words based on what has worked for you in the past and the specifics of your recent achievements, adding a dash of attention-catching novelty. When you open the app, the lesson that’s queued up is calibrated for your skill level, and it includes a review of some words and concepts you flubbed during your last session.
The AI systems we continue to refine are necessary to scale the learning experience beyond the more than 50 million active learners who currently complete about 1 billion exercises per day on the platform.
Although Duolingo is known as a language-learning app, the company’s ambitions go further. We recently launched apps covering childhood literacy and third-grade mathematics, and these expansions are just the beginning. We hope that anyone who wants help with academic learning will one day be able to turn to the friendly green owl in their pocket who hoots at them, “Ready for your daily lesson?”
Also relevant/see:
Duolingo turned to OpenAI’s GPT-4 to advance the product with two new features: Role Play, an AI conversation partner, and Explain my Answer, which breaks down the rules when you make a mistake, in a new subscription tier called Duolingo Max.
“We wanted AI-powered features that were deeply integrated into the app and leveraged the gamified aspect of Duolingo that our learners love,” says Bodge.
Also relevant/see:
The following is a quote from Donald Clark’s posting on LinkedIn.com today:
The whole idea of AI as a useful teacher is here. Honestly it’s astounding. They have provided a Socratic approach to an algebra problem that is totally on point. Most people learn in the absence of a teacher or lecturer. They need constant scaffolding, someone to help them move forward, with feedback. This changes our whole relationship with what we need to know, and how we get to know it. Its reasoning ability is also off the scale.
We now have human teachers, human learners but also AI teachers and AI that learns. It used to be a diad, it is now a tetrad – that is the basis of the new pedAIgogy.
Personalised, tutor-led learning, in any subject, anywhere, at any time for anyone. That has suddenly become real.
Also relevant/see:
Introducing Duolingo Max, a learning experience powered by GPT-4 — from blog.duolingo.com
Excerpts:
We believe that AI and education make a great duo, and we’ve leveraged AI to help us deliver highly-personalized language lessons, affordable and accessible English proficiency testing, and more. Our mission to make high-quality education available to everyone in the world is made possible by advanced AI technology.
Explain My Answer offers learners the chance to learn more about their response in a lesson (whether their answer was correct or incorrect!)
…
Roleplay allows learners to practice real-world conversation skills with world characters in the app.
Six Important Disciplines for Using AI in Learning & Development — from linkedin.com by Josh Cavalier
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
In practice, L&D professionals must responsibly use AI-based tools. AI outputs that introduce bias or falsehoods may adversely affect the learning process of individual associates as well as the company’s overall efficiency. A human must review all content before being implemented in a learning solution.
…
AI will revolutionize corporate learning and development because of the ability to analyze and process large amounts of data. These capabilities will enable learners to acquire knowledge and skills more efficiently while providing personalized learning pathways customized to their current skill levels and goals.
For example, AI-powered chatbots can provide immediate feedback to front-line sales looking for specific client solutions or trying to learn about new products. By fine-tuning models, AI can ingest vendor opportunities and dynamically priced products at scale, allowing a sales team to focus on data-driven solutions for their customers.
The creation of educational media will be automated through generative AI, including training videos, podcasts, and, eventually, eLearning courses. This new reality will level the playing field for instructional designers needing more media creation skills, ultimately allowing Learning & Development to create personalized, immersive learning experiences representing the entire learning journey.
Also relevant/see:
How artificial intelligence can support knowledge management in organizations — from realkm.com by Bruce Boyes
Examples of use cases:
ChatGPT as a teaching tool, not a cheating tool — from timeshighereducation.com by Jennifer Rose
How to use ChatGPT as a tool to spur students’ inner feedback and thus aid their learning and skills development
Excerpt:
Use ChatGPT to spur student’s inner feedback
One way that ChatGPT answers can be used in class is by asking students to compare what they have written with a ChatGPT answer. This draws on David Nicol’s work on making inner feedback explicit and using comparative judgement. His work demonstrates that in writing down answers to comparative questions students can produce high-quality feedback for themselves which is instant and actionable. Applying this to a ChatGPT answer, the following questions could be used:
Unveiling GPT-4 — our large multimodal model that exhibits human-level performance on various professional and academic benchmarks. With iterative alignment and adversarial testing, it’s our best-ever model on factuality, steerability, and safety.https://t.co/rjsIYWTN3Y
— Mira Murati (@miramurati) March 14, 2023
…which links to openai.com/research/gpt-4
Also relevant/see:
See the recording from the GPT-4 Developer Demo
About GPT-4
GPT-4 can solve difficult problems with greater accuracy, thanks to its broader general knowledge and advanced reasoning capabilities.
You can learn more through:
From DSC:
I do hope that the people building all of this are taking enough time to ask, “What might humans do with these emerging technologies — both positively AND negatively?” And then put some guard rails around things.
Also relevant/see:
Now do education.
I need help doing x.
Videos are surfaced. AI asks questions about content. AI provides credential so student can use for new opportunities. https://t.co/bRvr5Oetka
— Scott David Meyer (@MrScottMeyer) March 2, 2023
My name is Daniel Christian and this blog seeks to cover the teaching and learning environments within the K-12 (including homeschooling, learning pods/micro-schools), collegiate, and corporate training spaces -- whether those environments be face-to-face, blended, hyflex, or 100% online.
Just as the organizations that we work for have their own learning ecosystems, each of us has our own learning ecosystem. We need to be very intentional about enhancing those learning ecosystems -- as we all need to be lifelong learners in order to remain marketable and employed. It's no longer about running sprints (i.e., getting a 4-year degree or going to a vocational school and then calling it quits), but rather, we are all running marathons now (i.e., we are into lifelong learning these days).
And feel free to add this stream of content into your other feeds.
Tweets by @dchristian5
