Learning Ecosystems

Giving ELA Lessons a Little Edtech Boost — from edutopia.org by Julia Torres
Common activities in English language arts classes such as annotation and note-taking can be improved through technology.

6 ELA Practices That Can Be Enhanced by EdTech

Book clubs.
Collective note-taking.
Comprehension checks.
Video lessons.
..and more

Using Edtech Tools to Differentiate Learning— from edutopia.org by Katie Novak and Mary E. Pettit
Teachers can use tech tools to make it easier to give students choice about their learning, increasing engagement.

3 UDL-Aligned EdTech Tools

Digital audiobook platforms.
Multimedia presentation tools.
Digital annotation tools.

Why Jensen Huang and Marc Benioff see ‘gigantic’ opportunity for agentic AI [Plumb]

On 09/27/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, learning agents, NVIDIA, pace of change, society, trends, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Why Jensen Huang and Marc Benioff see ‘gigantic’ opportunity for agentic AI — from venturebeat.com by Taryn Plumb

Going forward, the opportunity for AI agents will be “gigantic,” according to Nvidia founder and CEO Jensen Huang.

Already, progress is “spectacular and surprising,” with AI development moving faster and faster and the industry getting into the “flywheel zone” that technology needs to advance, Huang said in a fireside chat at Salesforce’s flagship event Dreamforce this week.

“This is an extraordinary time,” Huang said while on stage with Marc Benioff, Salesforce chair, CEO and co-founder. “In no time in history has technology moved faster than Moore’s Law. We’re moving way faster than Moore’s Law, are arguably reasonably Moore’s Law squared.”

“We’ll have agents working with agents, agents working with us,” said Huang.

Should we be concerned about what’s happening at OpenAI? What does this say about the leader of arguably 1 of the most powerful co’s in the world today?

On 09/27/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, leadership, new business models, Open AI, society, strategy, the downsides of how people use tech, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

One left
byu/jim_andr inOpenAI

From DSC:
I’m not trying to gossip here. I post this because Sam Altman is the head of arguably one of the most powerful companies in the world today — at least in terms of introducing change to a variety of societies throughout the globe (both positive and negative). So when we’ve now seen almost the entire leadership team head out the door, this certainly gives me major pause. I don’t like it. Items like the ones below begin to capture some of why I’m troubled and suspicious about these troubling moves.

OpenAI board mulls equity stake for Sam Altman that could be a massive payday — from fortune.com by Dave Smith
And as Linus Ekenstam points out:

So. hear me out. it’s natural for leadership to change. but if we look at Apple, leadership changes over decades if not more.

Why, if everything is so fast paced, hyper growth oriented and groundbreaking. Do people choose to leave?

I think I and many others are baffled

— Linus @ Meta Connect (@LinusEkenstam) September 26, 2024

OpenAI to Become For-Profit Company — from wsj.com by Deepa Seetharaman, Berber Jin, and Tom Dotan (behind paywall)
Planned restructuring comes amid personnel upheaval including resignation of chief technology officer
Three more execs out at OpenAI, including technology chief Mira Murati — from cnn.com by Clare Duffy
OpenAI’s executive exodus is continuing with three top leaders announcing their exits Wednesday, including Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati.

Has the cost of college reached a tipping point for a significant number of middle-class students? [Young]

On 09/27/2024, in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, future of higher education, higher education, parents/guardians, student-related, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Has the cost of college reached a tipping point for a significant number of middle-class students? — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Has the cost of college reached a tipping point for a significant number of middle-class students?

I’m seeing more signs of just that, and it’s happening at the undergrad and graduate levels.

Just this week, for instance, a new survey of 1,500 high school counselors conducted by the education consulting firm EAB found 63 percent reported that fewer students at public schools plan to attend college than four years ago. And 53 percent of those counselors said cost was the primary reason.

Meanwhile, a new study released this week by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce found that the cost of graduate education has risen to the point where a significant number of degrees will not pay off. The center says that 41 percent of master’s degree programs and 67 percent of professional degree programs for which data was available would not pass their “debt-to-earnings test,” meaning they would not bring enough earnings to cover the cost plus interest from typical student loans.

Also see:

How Rising Higher Ed Costs Change Student Attitudes About College — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Democrats and Republicans Agree Teacher Prep Needs to Change. But How? — from edweek.org by Libby Stanford
The programs have been designed “essentially to mass-produce identical educators,” a teachers college dean told lawmakers

The core problem, witnesses at the hearing said, is that teacher-preparation programs treat all teachers—and, by extension, students—the same, asking teachers to be “everything to everybody.”

“The current model of teaching where one teacher works individually with a group of learners in a classroom—or a small box inside of a larger box that we call school—promotes unrealistic expectations by assuming individual teachers working in isolation can meet the needs of all students,” said Greg Mendez, the principal of Skyline High School in Mesa, Ariz.

From DSC:
I’ve long thought teacher education programs could and should evolve (that’s why I have a “student teacher/teacher education” category on this blog). For example, they should inform their future teachers about the science of learning and how to leverage edtech/emerging technologies into their teaching methods.

But regardless of what happens in our teacher prep programs, the issues about the current PreK-12 learning ecosystem remain — and THOSE things are what we need to address. Or we will continue to see teachers leave the profession.

Are we straight-jacketing our teachers and administrators by having them give so many standardized tests and then having to teach to those tests? (We should require our legislators to teach in a classroom before they can draft any kind of legislation.)
Do teachers have the joy they used to have? The flexibility they used to have? Do students?
Do students have choice and voice?
etc.

Also, I highlighted the above excerpt because we can’t expect a teacher to do it all. They can’t be everything to everybody. It’s a recipe for burnout and depression. There are too many agendas coming at them.

We need to empower our current teachers and listen very carefully to the changes that they recommend. We should also listen very carefully to what our STUDENTS are recommending as well!

This article….

Artificial Intelligence and Schools: When Tech Makers and Educators Collaborate, AI Doesn’t Have to be Scary — from the74million.org by Edward Montalvo
AI is already showing us how to make education more individualized and equitable.

The XQ Institute shares this mindset as part of our mission to reimagine the high school learning experience so it’s more relevant and engaging for today’s learners, while better preparing them for the future. We see AI as a tool with transformative potential for educators and makers to leverage — but only if it’s developed and implemented with ethics, transparency and equity at the forefront. That’s why we’re building partnerships between educators and AI developers to ensure that products are shaped by the real needs and challenges of students, teachers and schools. Here’s how we believe all stakeholders can embrace the Department’s recommendations through ongoing collaborations with tech leaders, educators and students alike.

…lead me to the XQ Institute, and I very much like what I’m initially seeing! Here are some excerpts from their website:

Transforming high school isn’t easy, but it is possible. ? Educator @nwallacecxh from XQ’s @CrosstownHigh shares real-world strategies to make learning relevant and meaningful. Ready to see how it’s done? ? https://t.co/xD8hkP33TH

— XQ (@XQAmerica) September 26, 2024

“Google’s NotebookLM: A Game-Changer for Education and Beyond” [Spencer & Potkalitsky] + other items re: AI in our LE’s

On 09/25/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, multimedia, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

FlexOS’ Stay Ahead Edition #43 — from flexos.work

People started discussing what they could do with Notebook LM after Google launched the audio overview, where you can listen to 2 hosts talking in-depth about the documents you upload. Here are what it can do:

Summarization: Automatically generate summaries of uploaded documents, highlighting key topics and suggesting relevant questions.
Question Answering: Users can ask NotebookLM questions about their uploaded documents, and answers will be provided based on the information contained within them.
Idea Generation: NotebookLM can assist with brainstorming and developing new ideas.
Source Grounding: A big plus against AI chatbot hallucination, NotebookLM allows users to ground the responses in specific documents they choose.
…plus several other items

The posting also lists several ideas to try with NotebookLM such as:

Idea 2: Study Companion

Upload all your course materials and ask NotebookLM to turn them into Question-and-Answer format, a glossary, or a study guide.
Get a breakdown of the course materials to understand them better.

Google’s NotebookLM: A Game-Changer for Education and Beyond — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer and Nick Potkalitsky
AI Tools: Breaking down Google’s latest AI tool and its implications for education.

“Google’s AI note-taking app NotebookLM can now explain complex topics to you out loud”

With more immersive text-to-video and audio products soon available and the rise of apps like Suno AI, how we “experience” Generative AI is also changing from a chatbot of 2 years ago, to a more multi-modal educational journey. The AI tools on the research and curation side are also starting to reflect these advancements.

Meet Google NotebookLM: 10 things to know for educators — from ditchthattextbook.com by Matt Miller

1. Upload a variety of sources for NotebookLM to use.
You can use …

websites
PDF files
links to websites
any text you’ve copied
Google Docs and Slides
even Markdown

You can’t link it to YouTube videos, but you can copy/paste the transcript (and maybe type a little context about the YouTube video before pasting the transcript).

2. Ask it to create resources.
3. Create an audio summary.
4. Chat with your sources.
5. Save (almost) everything.

NotebookLM summarizes my dissertation — from darcynorman.net by D’Arcy Norman, PhD

I finally tried out Google’s newly-announced NotebookLM generative AI application. It provides a set of LLM-powered tools to summarize documents. I fed it my dissertation, and am surprised at how useful the output would be.

The most impressive tool creates a podcast episode, complete with dual hosts in conversation about the document. First – these are AI-generated hosts. Synthetic voices, speaking for synthetic hosts. And holy moly is it effective. Second – although I’d initially thought the conversational summary would be a dumb gimmick, it is surprisingly powerful.

4 Tips for Designing AI-Resistant Assessments — from techlearning.com by Steve Baule and Erin Carter
As AI continues to evolve, instructors must modify their approach by designing meaningful, rigorous assessments.

As instructors work through revising assessments to be resistant to generation by AI tools with little student input, they should consider the following principles:

Incorporate personal experiences and local content into assignments
Ask students for multi-modal deliverables
Assess the developmental benchmarks for assignments and transition assignments further up Bloom’s Taxonomy
Consider real-time and oral assignments

Google CEO Sundar Pichai announces $120M fund for global AI education — from techcrunch.com by Anthony Ha

He added that he wants to avoid a global “AI divide” and that Google is creating a $120 million Global AI Opportunity Fund through which it will “make AI education and training available in communities around the world” in partnership with local nonprofits and NGOs.

Educators discuss the state of creativity in an AI world — from gettingsmart.com by Joe & Kristin Merrill, LaKeshia Brooks, Dominique’ Harbour, Erika Sandstrom

Key Points

AI allows for a more personalized learning experience, enabling students to explore creative ideas without traditional classroom limitations.
The focus of technology integration should be on how the tool is used within lessons, not just the tool itself

Addendum on 9/27/24:

Google’s NotebookLM enhances AI note-taking with YouTube, audio file sources, sharable audio discussions — from techcrunch.com by Jagmeet Singh

Google on Thursday announced new updates to its AI note-taking and research assistant, NotebookLM, allowing users to get summaries of YouTube videos and audio files and even create sharable AI-generated audio discussions…

NotebookLM adds audio and YouTube support, plus easier sharing of Audio Overviews — from blog.google

“AI, Humans and Work: 10 Thoughts.” [Tobaccowala] + other items re: AI in general

On 09/23/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, creativity, emerging technologies, engineering, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, media/film, Open AI, platforms, robotics, society, tools, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

AI researcher Jim Fan has had a charmed career. He was OpenAI’s first intern before he did his PhD at Stanford with “godmother of AI,” Fei-Fei Li. He graduated into a research scientist position at Nvidia and now leads its Embodied AI “GEAR” group. The lab’s current work spans foundation models for humanoid robots to agents for virtual worlds. Jim describes a three-pronged data strategy for robotics, combining internet-scale data, simulation data and real world robot data. He believes that in the next few years it will be possible to create a “foundation agent” that can generalize across skills, embodiments and realities—both physical and virtual. He also supports Jensen Huang’s idea that “Everything that moves will eventually be autonomous.”

Runway Partners with Lionsgate — from runwayml.com via The Rundown AI
Runway and Lionsgate are partnering to explore the use of AI in film production.

Lionsgate and Runway have entered into a first-of-its-kind partnership centered around the creation and training of a new AI model, customized on Lionsgate’s proprietary catalog. Fundamentally designed to help Lionsgate Studios, its filmmakers, directors and other creative talent augment their work, the model generates cinematic video that can be further iterated using Runway’s suite of controllable tools.

Per The Rundown: Lionsgate, the film company behind The Hunger Games, John Wick, and Saw, teamed up with AI video generation company Runway to create a custom AI model trained on Lionsgate’s film catalogue.

The details:

The partnership will develop an AI model specifically trained on Lionsgate’s proprietary content library, designed to generate cinematic video that filmmakers can further manipulate using Runway’s tools.
Lionsgate sees AI as a tool to augment and enhance its current operations, streamlining both pre-production and post-production processes.
Runway is considering ways to offer similar custom-trained models as templates for individual creators, expanding access to AI-powered filmmaking tools beyond major studios.

Why it matters: As many writers, actors, and filmmakers strike against ChatGPT, Lionsgate is diving head-first into the world of generative AI through its partnership with Runway. This is one of the first major collabs between an AI startup and a major Hollywood company — and its success or failure could set precedent for years to come.

A bottle of water per email: the hidden environmental costs of using AI chatbots — from washingtonpost.com by Pranshu Verma and Shelly Tan (behind paywall)
AI bots generate a lot of heat, and keeping their computer servers running exacts a toll.

Each prompt on ChatGPT flows through a server that runs thousands of calculations to determine the best words to use in a response.

In completing those calculations, these servers, typically housed in data centers, generate heat. Often, water systems are used to cool the equipment and keep it functioning. Water transports the heat generated in the data centers into cooling towers to help it escape the building, similar to how the human body uses sweat to keep cool, according to Shaolei Ren, an associate professor at UC Riverside.

Where electricity is cheaper, or water comparatively scarce, electricity is often used to cool these warehouses with large units resembling air-conditioners, he said. That means the amount of water and electricity an individual query requires can depend on a data center’s location and vary widely.

AI, Humans and Work: 10 Thoughts. — from rishad.substack.com by Rishad Tobaccowala
The Future Does Not Fit in the Containers of the Past. Edition 215.

10 thoughts about AI, Humans and Work in 10 minutes:

AI is still Under-hyped.
AI itself will be like electricity and is unlikely to be a differentiator for most firms.
AI is not alive but can be thought of as a new species.
Knowledge will be free and every knowledge workers job will change in 2025.
The key about AI is not to ask what AI will do to us but what AI can do for us.
Plus 5 other thoughts

“10 Ways I Use LLMs like ChatGPT as a Professor” [Clay] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 09/23/2024, in adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, culture, dangers of the status quo, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, pace of change, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

10 Ways I Use LLMs like ChatGPT as a Professor — from automatedteach.com by Graham Clay
ChatGPT-4o, Gemini 1.5 Pro, Claude 3.5 Sonnet, custom GPTs – you name it, I use it. Here’s how…

Excerpt:

To plan lessons (especially activities)
To create course content (especially quizzes)
To tutor my students
To grade faster and give better feedback
To draft grant applications
Plus 5 other items

From Caution to Calcification to Creativity: Reanimating Education with AI’s Frankenstein Potential — from nickpotkalitsky.substack.com by Nick Potkalitsky
A Critical Analysis of AI-Assisted Lesson Planning: Evaluating Efficacy and Pedagogical Implications

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

As we navigate the rapidly evolving landscape of artificial intelligence in education, a troubling trend has emerged. What began as cautious skepticism has calcified into rigid opposition. The discourse surrounding AI in classrooms has shifted from empirical critique to categorical rejection, creating a chasm between the potential of AI and its practical implementation in education.

This hardening of attitudes comes at a significant cost. While educators and policymakers debate, students find themselves caught in the crossfire. They lack safe, guided access to AI tools that are increasingly ubiquitous in the world beyond school walls. In the absence of formal instruction, many are teaching themselves to use these tools, often in less than productive ways. Others live in a state of constant anxiety, fearing accusations of AI reliance in their work. These are just a few symptoms of an overarching educational culture that has become resistant to change, even as the world around it transforms at an unprecedented pace.

Yet, as this calcification sets in, I find myself in a curious position: the more I thoughtfully integrate AI into my teaching practice, the more I witness its potential to enhance and transform education

NotebookLM and Google’s Multimodal Vision for AI-Powered Learning Tools — from marcwatkins.substack.com by Marc Watkins

A Variety of Use Cases

Create an Interactive Syllabus
Presentation Deep Dive: Upload Your Slides
Note Taking: Turn Your Chalkboard into a Digital Canvas
Explore a Reading or Series of Readings
Help Navigating Feedback
Portfolio Building Blocks

Must-Have Competencies and Skills in Our New AI World: A Synthesis for Educational Reform — from er.educause.edu by Fawzi BenMessaoud
The transformative impact of artificial intelligence on educational systems calls for a comprehensive reform to prepare future generations for an AI-integrated world.

The urgency to integrate AI competencies into education is about preparing students not just to adapt to inevitable changes but to lead the charge in shaping an AI-augmented world. It’s about equipping them to ask the right questions, innovate responsibly, and navigate the ethical quandaries that come with such power.

AI in education should augment and complement their aptitude and expertise, to personalize and optimize the learning experience, and to support lifelong learning and development. AI in education should be a national priority and a collaborative effort among all stakeholders, to ensure that AI is designed and deployed in an ethical, equitable, and inclusive way that respects the diversity and dignity of all learners and educators and that promotes the common good and social justice. AI in education should be about the production of AI, not just the consumption of AI, meaning that learners and educators should have the opportunity to learn about AI, to participate in its creation and evaluation, and to shape its impact and direction.

3 Improvements, 3 Weeks In (I Think?) [Luther]

On 09/23/2024, in education, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, pedagogy, student-related, teachers, by Daniel Christian

3 Improvements, 3 Weeks In (I Think?) — from thebrokencopier.substack.com by Marcus Luther out at The Broken Copier
What I think I’m doing better this year as a teacher—plus reasons why I might be…wrong?

So here we go: three ways I think I’ve improved so far this year as a teacher—along with three potential downsides for these shifts in my practice.

What this looks like: as I noted in my beginning-of-year goals, something I realized that I wanted to improve upon this year was consistently and intentionally protecting enough time at the end of each lesson to allow students to reflect on their learning. Along with creating a slide template I could consistently adapt from throughout the year, I knew this would mean creating and maintaining a system in our classroom of “closing with our takeaway”:

Very cool creativity. “David Moreno’s Anthropomorphic Foundations Support Cascading Villages”

On 09/23/2024, in architecture, art, creativity, by Daniel Christian

David Moreno’s Anthropomorphic Foundations Support Cascading Villages — from thisiscolossal.com by David Moreno and Kate Mothes

Question: Where Do You Need Guidance in Supporting Students With Learning Disabilities? [edutopia]

On 09/23/2024, in Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), education, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, neurodivergent/special needs, student-related, teachers, United States, by Daniel Christian

Question: Where Do You Need Guidance in Supporting Students With Learning Disabilities? — from edutopia.org
We want to better serve your needs. Tell us about the specific challenges you’re facing.

As an educator, you’re constantly adapting your teaching to meet the needs of your classroom, but it can be difficult to know everything necessary for effectively supporting your students, including those with learning disabilities.

We’re turning to you, our Edutopia community, to help us shape the content we create around this important topic. Where do you need more guidance in helping students with learning disabilities? Are there specific challenges you face, such as classroom accommodations, identifying learning disabilities early on, or navigating IEPs? Maybe you’re looking for help with differentiated instruction, inclusive teaching practices, or strategies for fostering social-emotional growth in these students.

..
More Guidance for Learning Disabilities
Are you looking for resources that have already been published? We maintain a page dedicated entirely to Special Education. This resource is updated continuously with our latest articles and videos, offering practical tips and insights from educators like you.

For students studying engineering: “Top Software Engineering Newsletters in 2024” [Spencer]

On 09/23/2024, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, computer science, emerging technologies, engineering, faculty, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, programming, student-related, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Top Software Engineering Newsletters in 2024 — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer
Including a very select few ML, AI and product Newsletters into the mix for Software Engineers.

This is an article specifically for the software engineers and developers among you.

In the past year (2023-2024) professionals are finding more value in Newsletters than ever before (especially on Substack).

As working from home took off, the nature of mentorship and skill acquisition has also evolved and shifted. Newsletters with pragmatic advice on our careers it turns out, are super valuable. This article is a resource list. Are you a software developer, work with one or know someone who is or wants to be?

DSC: I agree with Brandon Busteed on this item — excellent pricing/tuition transparency!

On 09/18/2024, in changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, faculty, higher education, ideas, law schools, leadership, learning ecosystem, new business models, parents/guardians, society, sociology, strategy, student-related, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The cost of obtaining a degree is heavily on my mind this morning as I’m having to withdraw funds — again — to help our son get through his senior year of college. He’s a Marine Reservist and he continues to do his best to contribute to his expenses…but man o’ man, these expenses are just crazy.

So it’s no surprise this item caught my eye! Anything colleges and universities can do to bring down the prices — as well as make the total prices more transparent and upfront — would be greatly appreciated by students and families alike.

Also related, see:

How Rising Higher Ed Costs Change Student Attitudes About College — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

But she admits the issue is complicated. She said one of her own daughters, who is now 26, would have benefitted from a gap year. “The problem was the cost was a major factor,” Klein told me. “She was offered huge financial aid by a very good school, and I said, ‘We don’t know if you take a gap year if that offer is going to be on the table. And I can’t afford this school without that offer.’”

Learning Ecosystems

Very cool creativity. “David Moreno’s Anthropomorphic Foundations Support Cascading Villages”

Greetings!

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