IT in HE

AI Pedagogy Project, metaLAB (at) Harvard
Creative and critical engagement with AI in education. A collection of assignments and materials inspired by the humanities, for educators curious about how AI affects their students and their syllabi

AI Guide
Focused on the essentials and written to be accessible to a newcomer, this interactive guide will give you the background you need to feel more confident with engaging conversations about AI in your classroom.

From #47 of SAIL: Sensemaking AI Learning — by George Siemens

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Welcome to Sensemaking, AI, and Learning (SAIL), a regular look at how AI is impacting education and learning.

Over the last year, after dozens of conferences, many webinars, panels, workshops, and many (many) conversations with colleagues, it’s starting to feel like higher education, as a system, is in an AI groundhog’s day loop. I haven’t heard anything novel generated by universities. We have a chatbot! Soon it will be a tutor! We have a generative AI faculty council! Here’s our list of links to sites that also have lists! We need AI literacy! My mantra over the last while has been that higher education leadership is failing us on AI in a more dramatic way than it failed us on digitization and online learning. What will your universities be buying from AI vendors in five years because they failed to develop a strategic vision and capabilities today?

AI + the Education System — from drphilippahardman.substack.com Dr. Philippa Hardman
The key to relevance, value & excellence?

The magic school of the future is one that helps students learn to work together and care for each other — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
AI is going to alter economic and professional structures. Will we alter the educational structures?

(e) What is really required is a significant re-organization of schooling and curriculum. At a meta-level, the school system is focused on developing the type of intelligence I opened with, and the economic value of that is going to rapidly decline.

(f). This is all going to happen very quickly (faster than any previous change in history), and many people aren’t paying attention. AI is already here.

“13 Nuggets of AI Wisdom for Higher Education Leaders” [Klitgaard Stricker] + other AI-related items for our learning ecosystems

On 11/10/2023, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, Microsoft, platforms, teaching & learning, trends, universities, by Daniel Christian

A future-facing minister, a young inventor and a shared vision: An AI tutor for every student — from news.microsoft.com by Chris Welsch

The Ministry of Education and Pativada see what has become known as the U.A.E. AI Tutor as a way to provide students with 24/7 assistance as well as help level the playing field for those families who cannot afford a private tutor. At the same time, the AI Tutor would be an aid to teachers, they say. “We see it as a tool that will support our teachers,” says Aljughaiman. “This is a supplement to classroom learning.”

If everything goes according to plan, every student in the United Arab Emirates’ school system will have a personal AI tutor – that fits in their pockets.

It’s a story that involves an element of coincidence, a forward-looking education minister and a tech team led by a chief executive officer who still lives at home with his parents.

In February 2023, the U.A.E.’s education minister, His Excellency Dr. Ahmad Belhoul Al Falasi, announced that the ministry was embracing AI technology and pursuing the idea of an AI tutor to help Emirati students succeed. And he also announced that the speech he presented had been written by ChatGPT. “We should not demonize AI,” he said at the time.

Fostering deep learning in humans and amplifying our intelligence in an AI World — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
A free 288-page report on advancements in AI and related technology, their effects on education, and our practical support for AI-amplified human deep learning

Six weeks ago, Dr. Sabba Quidwai and I accidentally stumbled upon an idea to compare the deep learning revolution in computer science to the mostly lacking deep learning efforts in education (Mehta & Fine). I started writing, and as these things often go with me, I thought there were many other things that would be useful to think through and for educators to know, and we ended up with this 288-page report.

***

Here’s an abstract from that report:

This report looks at the growing gap between the attention paid to the development of intelligence in machines and humans. While computer scientists have made great strides in developing human intelligence capacities in machines using deep learning technologies, including the abilities of machines to learn on their own, a significant part of the education system has not kept up with developing the intelligence capabilities in people that will enable them to succeed in the 21st century. Instead of fully embracing pedagogical methods that place primary emphasis on promoting collaboration, critical thinking, communication, creativity, and self-learning through experiential, interdisciplinary approaches grounded in human deep learning and combined with current technologies, a substantial portion of the educational system continues to heavily rely on traditional instructional methods and goals. These methods and goals prioritize knowledge acquisition and organization, areas in which machines already perform substantially better than people.

Also from Stefan Bauschard, see:

Debating in the World of AI
Performative assessment, learning to collaborate with humans and machines, and developing special human qualities

13 Nuggets of AI Wisdom for Higher Education Leaders — from jeppestricker.substack.com by Jeppe Klitgaard Stricker
Actionable AI Guidance for Higher Education Leaders

Incentivize faculty AI innovation with AI.

Invest in people first, then technology.

On teaching, learning, and assessment. AI has captured the attention of all institutional stakeholders. Capitalize to reimagine pedagogy and evaluation. Rethink lectures, examinations, and assignments to align with workforce needs. Consider incorporating Problem-Based Learning, building portfolios and proof of work, and conducting oral exams. And use AI to provide individualized support and assess real-world skills.

Actively engage students.

Some thoughts from George Siemens re: AI:

Sensemaking, AI, and Learning (SAIL), a regular look at how AI is impacting learning.

Our education system has a uni-dimensional focus: learning things. Of course, we say we care about developing the whole learner, but the metrics that matter (grade, transcripts) that underpin the education system are largely focused on teaching students things that have long been Google-able but are now increasingly doable by AI. Developments in AI matters in ways that calls into question large parts of what happens in our universities. This is not a statement that people don’t need to learn core concepts and skills. My point is that the fulcrum of learning has shifted. Knowing things will continue to matter less and less going forward as AI improves its capabilities. We’ll need to start intentionally developing broader and broader attributes of learners: metacognition, wellness, affect, social engagement, etc. Education will continue to shift toward human skills and away from primary assessment of knowledge gains disconnected from skills and practice and ways of being.

AI, the Next Chapter for College Librarians — from insidehighered.com by Lauren Coffey
Librarians have lived through the disruptions of fax machines, websites and Wikipedia, and now they are bracing to do it again as artificial intelligence tools go mainstream: “Maybe it’s our time to shine.”

A few months after ChatGPT launched last fall, faculty and students at Northwestern University had many questions about the building wave of new artificial intelligence tools. So they turned to a familiar source of help: the library.

“At the time it was seen as a research and citation problem, so that led them to us,” said Michelle Guittar, head of instruction and curriculum support at Northwestern University Libraries.

In response, Guittar, along with librarian Jeanette Moss, created a landing page in April, “Using AI Tools in Your Research.” At the time, the university itself had yet to put together a comprehensive resource page.

From Dr. Nick Jackson’s recent post on LinkedIn:

Last night the Digitech team of junior and senior teachers from Scotch College Adelaide showcased their 2023 experiments, innovation, successes and failures with technology in education. Accompanied by Student digital leaders, we saw the following:

AI used for languagelearning where avatars can help with accents
Motioncapture suits being used in mediastudies
AI used in assessment and automatic grading of work
AR used in designtechnology
VR used for immersive Junior school experiences
A teacher’s AI toolkit that has changed teaching practice and workflow
AR and the EyeJack app used by students to create dynamic art work
VR use in careers education in Senior school
How ethics around AI is taught to Junior school students from Year 1
Experiments with MyStudyWorks

Almost an Agent: What GPTs can do — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick

What would a real AI agent look like? A simple agent that writes academic papers would, after being given a dataset and a field of study, read about how to compose a good paper, analyze the data, conduct a literature review, generate hypotheses, test them, and then write up the results, all without intervention. You put in a request, you get a Word document that contains a draft of an academic paper.

A process kind of like this one:

What I Learned From an Experiment to Apply Generative AI to My Data Course — from edsurge.com by Wendy Castillo

As an educator, I have a duty to remain informed about the latest developments in generative AI, not only to ensure learning is happening, but to stay on top of what tools exist, what benefits and limitations they have, and most importantly, how students might be using them.

However, it’s also important to acknowledge that the quality of work produced by students now requires higher expectations and potential adjustments to grading practices. The baseline is no longer zero, it is AI. And the upper limit of what humans can achieve with these new capabilities remains an unknown frontier.

Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Trick or Treat? — from tytonpartners.com by Kristen Fox and Catherine Shaw
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Two items from the Teaching newsletter out at the Chronicle of Higher Education

On 11/10/2023, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, multimedia, new business models, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telecommunications, tools, United States, universities, vendors, videoconferencing, by Daniel Christian

What happens to teaching after Covid? — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie

It’s an era many instructors would like to put behind them: black boxes on Zoom screens, muffled discussions behind masks, students struggling to stay engaged. But how much more challenging would teaching during the pandemic have been if colleges did not have experts on staff to help with the transition? On many campuses, teaching-center directors, instructional designers, educational technologists, and others worked alongside professors to explore learning-management systems, master video technology, and rethink what and how they teach.

A new book out this month, Higher Education Beyond Covid: New Teaching Paradigms and Promise, explores this period through the stories of campus teaching and learning centers. Their experiences reflect successes and failures, and what higher education could learn as it plans for the future.

Beth also mentioned/link to:

Centers for Teaching and Learning: The New Landscape in Higher Education by Mary C. Wright

How to hold difficult discussions online — from chronicle.com by Beckie Supiano

As usual, our readers were full of suggestions. Kathryn Schild, the lead instructional designer in faculty development and instructional support at the University of Alaska at Anchorage, shared a guide she’s compiled on holding asynchronous discussions, which includes a section on difficult topics.

In an email, Schild also pulled out a few ideas she thought were particularly relevant to Le’s question, including:

Set the ground rules as a class. One way to do this is to share your draft rules in a collaborative document and ask students to annotate it and add suggestions.
Plan to hold fewer difficult discussions than in a face-to-face class, and work on quality over quantity. This could include multiweek discussions, where you spiral through the same issue with fresh perspectives as the class learns new approaches.
Start with relationship-building interactions in the first few weeks, such as introductions, low-stakes group assignments, or peer feedback, etc.

Thinking with Colleagues: AI in Education [Grush & Wagner]

On 10/14/2023, in accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assessment, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), change, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, copyright/ownership/NFTs, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, Microsoft, open courseware and systems, platforms, privacy, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Thinking with Colleagues: AI in Education — from campustechnology.com by Mary Grush
A Q&A with Ellen Wagner

Wagner herself recently relied on the power of collegial conversations to probe the question: What’s on the minds of educators as they make ready for the growing influence of AI in higher education? CT asked her for some takeaways from the process.

We are in the very early days of seeing how AI is going to affect education. Some of us are going to need to stay focused on the basic research to test hypotheses. Others are going to dive into laboratory “sandboxes” to see if we can build some new applications and tools for ourselves. Still others will continue to scan newsletters like ProductHunt every day to see what kinds of things people are working on. It’s going to be hard to keep up, to filter out the noise on our own. That’s one reason why thinking with colleagues is so very important.

Mary and Ellen linked to “What Is Top of Mind for Higher Education Leaders about AI?” — from northcoasteduvisory.com. Below are some excerpts from those notes:

We are interested how K-12 education will change in terms of foundational learning. With in-class, active learning designs, will younger students do a lot more intensive building of foundational writing and critical thinking skills before they get to college?

The Human in the Loop: AI is built using math: think of applied statistics on steroids. Humans will be needed more than ever to manage, review and evaluate the validity and reliability of results. Curation will be essential.
We will need to generate ideas about how to address AI factors such as privacy, equity, bias, copyright, intellectual property, accessibility, and scalability.
Have other institutions experimented with AI detection and/or have held off on emerging tools related to this? We have just recently adjusted guidance and paused some tools related to this given the massive inaccuracies in detection (and related downstream issues in faculty-elevated conduct cases)

Even though we learn repeatedly that innovation has a lot to do with effective project management and a solid message that helps people understand what they can do to implement change, people really need innovation to be more exciting and visionary than that. This is the place where we all need to help each other stay the course of change.

Along these lines, also see:

What people ask me most. Also, some answers. — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
A FAQ of sorts

I have been talking to a lot of people about Generative AI, from teachers to business executives to artists to people actually building LLMs. In these conversations, a few key questions and themes keep coming up over and over again. Many of those questions are more informed by viral news articles about AI than about the real thing, so I thought I would try to answer a few of the most common, to the best of my ability.

I can’t blame people for asking because, for whatever reason, the companies actually building and releasing Large Language Models often seem allergic to providing any sort of documentation or tutorial besides technical notes. I was given much better documentation for the generic garden hose I bought on Amazon than for the immensely powerful AI tools being released by the world’s largest companies. So, it is no surprise that rumor has been the way that people learn about AI capabilities.

Currently, there are only really three AIs to consider: (1) OpenAI’s GPT-4 (which you can get access to with a Plus subscription or via Microsoft Bing in creative mode, for free), (2) Google’s Bard (free), or (3) Anthropic’s Claude 2 (free, but paid mode gets you faster access). As of today, GPT-4 is the clear leader, Claude 2 is second best (but can handle longer documents), and Google trails, but that will likely change very soon when Google updates its model, which is rumored to be happening in the near future.

180 Degree Turn: NYC District Goes From Banning ChatGPT to Exploring AI’s Potential — from edweek.org by Alyson Klein (behind paywall)

New York City Public Schools will launch an Artificial Intelligence Policy Lab to guide the nation’s largest school district’s approach to this rapidly evolving technology.

The Leader’s Blindspot: How to Prepare for the Real Future — from preview.mailerlite.io by the AIEducator
The Commonly Held Belief: AI Will Automate Only Boring, Repetitive Tasks First

The Days of Task-Based Views on AI Are Numbered
The winds of change are sweeping across the educational landscape (emphasis DSC):

Multifaceted AI: AI technologies are not one-trick ponies; they are evolving into complex systems that can handle a variety of tasks.
Rising Expectations: As technology becomes integral to our lives, the expectations for personalised, efficient education are soaring.
Skill Transformation: Future job markets will demand a different skill set, one that is symbiotic with AI capabilities.

Teaching: How to help students better understand generative AI — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie
Beth describes ways professors have used ChatGPT to bolster critical thinking in writing-intensive courses

Kevin McCullen, an associate professor of computer science at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh, teaches a freshman seminar about AI and robotics. As part of the course, students read Machines of Loving Grace: The Quest for Common Ground Between Humans and Robots, by John Markoff. McCullen had the students work in groups to outline and summarize the first three chapters. Then he showed them what ChatGPT had produced in an outline.

“Their version and ChatGPT’s version seemed to be from two different books,” McCullen wrote. “ChatGPT’s version was essentially a ‘laundry list’ of events. Their version was narratives of what they found interesting. The students had focused on what the story was telling them, while ChatGPT focused on who did what in what year.” The chatbot also introduced false information, such as wrong chapter names.

The students, he wrote, found the writing “soulless.”

7 Questions with Dr. Cristi Ford, VP of Academic Affairs at D2L — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

In the Wild West of generative AI, educators and institutions are working out how best to use the technology for learning. How can institutions define AI guidelines that allow for experimentation while providing students with consistent guidance on appropriate use of AI tools?

To find out, we spoke with Dr. Cristi Ford, vice president of academic affairs at D2L. With more than two decades of educational experience in nonprofit, higher education, and K-12 institutions, Ford works with D2L’s institutional partners to elevate best practices in teaching, learning, and student support. Here, she shares her advice on setting and communicating AI policies that are consistent and future-ready.

AI Platform Built by Teachers, for Teachers, Class Companion Raises $4 Million to Tap Into the Power of Practice — from prweb.com

“If we want to use AI to improve education, we need more teachers at the table,” said Avery Pan, Class Companion co-founder and CEO. “Class Companion is designed by teachers, for teachers, to harness the most sophisticated AI and improve their classroom experience. Developing technologies specifically for teachers is imperative to supporting our next generation of students and education system.”

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.

10 Ways Technology Leaders Can Step Up and Into the Generative AI Discussion in Higher Ed — from er.educause.edu by Lance Eaton and Stan Waddell

Offer Short Primers on Generative AI
Explain How to Get Started
Suggest Best Practices for Engaging with Generative AI
Give Recommendations for Different Groups
Recommend Tools
Explain the Closed vs. Open-Source Divide
Avoid Pitfalls
Conduct Workshops and Events
Spot the Fake
Provide Proper Guidance on the Limitations of AI Detectors

ChatGPT meets Pixar’s 22 Rules of Storytelling.

How to turn ChatGPT into the ultimate storyteller (I shouldn’t be giving this prompt away for free): pic.twitter.com/hFt3QTHd9o

— The AI Solopreneur (@aisolopreneur) October 4, 2023

Canva and Adobe are going hard with it re: the use of AI

On 10/09/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, design, digital photography, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, graphics, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, K-12 related, liberal arts, maker movement, multimedia, online media, photography, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, visualizing information, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

Canva’s new AI tools automate boring, labor-intensive design tasks — from theverge.com by Jess Weatherbed
Magic Studio features like Magic Switch automatically convert your designs into blogs, social media posts, emails, and more to save time on manually editing documents.

Canva launches Magic Studio, partners with Runway ML for video — from bensbites.beehiiv.com by Ben Tossell

Here are the highlights of launched features under the new Magic Studio:

Magic Design – Turn ideas into designs instantly with AI-generated templates.
Magic Switch – Transform content into different formats and languages with one click.
Magic Grab – Make images editable like Canva templates for easy editing.
Magic Expand – Use AI to expand images beyond the original frame.
Magic Morph – Transform text and shapes with creative effects and prompts.
Magic Edit – Make complex image edits using simple text prompts.
Magic Media – Generate professional photos, videos and artworks from text prompts.
Magic Animate – Add animated transitions and motion to designs instantly.
Magic Write – Generate draft text and summaries powered by AI.

Adobe Firefly

Addendums on 10/11/23:

We released a new model ?

!!! Firefly Image 2 !!!!

As a scientist I am in disbelief that such model is possible with a small dataset as we had.

We compensated artists for training it.

We worked very hard on it. Please, enjoy! #AdobeMax https://t.co/j2TUiiyjN7 pic.twitter.com/gqABThSBWZ

— Kris Kashtanova (@icreatelife) October 10, 2023

Adobe Releases New AI Models Aimed at Improved Graphic Design — from bloomberg.com
New version of Firefly is bigger than initial tool, Adobe says Illustrator, Express programs each get own generative tools

A few hours ago, Adobe released Firefly 2, their new AI image generator.

But how good is it?

I compared it to Midjourney & DALL-E 3 across 10 very different image categories so you don’t have to.

Here are the results:

— Chase Lean (@chaseleantj) October 11, 2023

As AI Chatbots Rise, More Educators Look to Oral Exams — With High-Tech Twist [Young]

On 10/06/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, Australia, bots, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital audio, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

As AI Chatbots Rise, More Educators Look to Oral Exams — With High-Tech Twist — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

To use Sherpa, an instructor first uploads the reading they’ve assigned, or they can have the student upload a paper they’ve written. Then the tool asks a series of questions about the text (either questions input by the instructor or generated by the AI) to test the student’s grasp of key concepts. The software gives the instructor the choice of whether they want the tool to record audio and video of the conversation, or just audio.

The tool then uses AI to transcribe the audio from each student’s recording and flags areas where the student answer seemed off point. Teachers can review the recording or transcript of the conversation and look at what Sherpa flagged as trouble to evaluate the student’s response.

Student Use Cases for AI: Start by Sharing These Guidelines with Your Class — from hbsp.harvard.edu by Ethan Mollick and Lilach Mollick

To help you explore some of the ways students can use this disruptive new technology to improve their learning—while making your job easier and more effective—we’ve written a series of articles that examine the following student use cases:

Recap: Teaching in the Age of AI (What’s Working, What’s Not) — from celt.olemiss.edu by Derek Bruff, visiting associate director

Earlier this week, CETL and AIG hosted a discussion among UM faculty and other instructors about teaching and AI this fall semester. We wanted to know what was working when it came to policies and assignments that responded to generative AI technologies like ChatGPT, Google Bard, Midjourney, DALL-E, and more. We were also interested in hearing what wasn’t working, as well as questions and concerns that the university community had about teaching and AI.

Teaching: Want your students to be skeptical of ChatGPT? Try this. — from chronicle.com by Beth McMurtrie

Then, in class he put them into groups where they worked together to generate a 500-word essay on “Why I Write” entirely through ChatGPT. Each group had complete freedom in how they chose to use the tool. The key: They were asked to evaluate their essay on how well it offered a personal perspective and demonstrated a critical reading of the piece. Weiss also graded each ChatGPT-written essay and included an explanation of why he came up with that particular grade.

After that, the students were asked to record their observations on the experiment on the discussion board. Then they came together again as a class to discuss the experiment.

Weiss shared some of his students’ comments with me (with their approval). Here are a few:

2023 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Generative AI — from library.educause.edu by Jenay Robert and Nicole Muscanell

Asked to describe the state of generative AI that they would like to see in higher education 10 years from now, panelists collaboratively constructed their preferred future.
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Will Teachers Listen to Feedback From AI? Researchers Are Betting on It — from edsurge.com by Olina Banerji

Julie York, a computer science and media teacher at South Portland High School in Maine, was scouring the internet for discussion tools for her class when she found TeachFX. An AI tool that takes recorded audio from a classroom and turns it into data about who talked and for how long, it seemed like a cool way for York to discuss issues of data privacy, consent and bias with her students. But York soon realized that TeachFX was meant for much more.

York found that TeachFX listened to her very carefully, and generated a detailed feedback report on her specific teaching style. York was hooked, in part because she says her school administration simply doesn’t have the time to observe teachers while tending to several other pressing concerns.

“I rarely ever get feedback on my teaching style. This was giving me 100 percent quantifiable data on how many questions I asked and how often I asked them in a 90-minute class,” York says. “It’s not a rubric. It’s a reflection.”

TeachFX is easy to use, York says. It’s as simple as switching on a recording device.
…
But TeachFX, she adds, is focused not on her students’ achievements, but instead on her performance as a teacher.

ChatGPT Is Landing Kids in the Principal’s Office, Survey Finds — from the74million.org by Mark Keierleber
While educators worry that students are using generative AI to cheat, a new report finds students are turning to the tool more for personal problems.

Indeed, 58% of students, and 72% of those in special education, said they’ve used generative AI during the 2022-23 academic year, just not primarily for the reasons that teachers fear most. Among youth who completed the nationally representative survey, just 23% said they used it for academic purposes and 19% said they’ve used the tools to help them write and submit a paper. Instead, 29% reported having used it to deal with anxiety or mental health issues, 22% for issues with friends and 16% for family conflicts.

Part of the disconnect dividing teachers and students, researchers found, may come down to gray areas. Just 40% of parents said they or their child were given guidance on ways they can use generative AI without running afoul of school rules. Only 24% of teachers say they’ve been trained on how to respond if they suspect a student used generative AI to cheat.

Embracing weirdness: What it means to use AI as a (writing) tool — from oneusefulthing.org by Ethan Mollick
AI is strange. We need to learn to use it.

But LLMs are not Google replacements, or thesauruses or grammar checkers. Instead, they are capable of so much more weird and useful help.

Diving Deep into AI: Navigating the L&D Landscape — from learningguild.com by Markus Bernhardt

The prospect of AI-powered, tailored, on-demand learning and performance support is exhilarating: It starts with traditional digital learning made into fully adaptive learning experiences, which would adjust to strengths and weaknesses for each individual learner. The possibilities extend all the way through to simulations and augmented reality, an environment to put into practice knowledge and skills, whether as individuals or working in a team simulation. The possibilities are immense.

Thanks to generative AI, such visions are transitioning from fiction to reality.

Video: Unleashing the Power of AI in L&D — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
An exclusive video walkthrough of my keynote at Sweden’s national L&D conference this week

Highlights

The wicked problem of L&D: last year, $371 billion was spent on workplace training globally, but only 12% of employees apply what they learn in the workplace
An innovative approach to L&D: when Mastery Learning is used to design & deliver workplace training, the rate of “transfer” (i.e. behaviour change & application) is 67%
AI 101: quick summary of classification, generative and interactive AI and its uses in L&D
The impact of AI: my initial research shows that AI has the potential to scale Mastery Learning and, in the process:
- reduce the “time to training design” by 94% > faster
- reduce the cost of training design by 92% > cheaper
- increase the quality of learning design & delivery by 96% > better
Research also shows that the vast majority of workplaces are using AI only to “oil the machine” rather than innovate and improve our processes & practices
Practical tips: how to get started on your AI journey in your company, and a glimpse of what L&D roles might look like in a post-AI world

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

On 08/28/2023, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, 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.

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 / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, 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

AI 101 for Teachers [Code,ISTE,Khan Academy,ETS,ISTE]; What value do you offer? [Fitzpatrick] + 14 other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 08/15/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Asia, assessment, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, disruption, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, mathematics, personalized/customized learning, platforms, policy, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, science, teachers, teaching & learning, UK, United States, by Daniel Christian

What value do you offer? — from linkedin.com by Dan Fitzpatrick — The AI Educator

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

So, as educators, mentors, and guides to our future generations, we must ask ourselves three pivotal questions:

What value do we offer to our students?
What value will they need to offer to the world?
How are we preparing them to offer that value?

The answers to these questions are crucial, and they will redefine the trajectory of our education system.

We need to create an environment that encourages curiosity, embraces failure as a learning opportunity, and celebrates diversity. We need to teach our students how to learn, how to ask the right questions, and how to think for themselves.

5 Little-Known ChatGPT Prompts to Learn Anything Faster — from medium.com by Eva Keiffenheim
Including templates, you can copy.

Leveraging ChatGPT for learning is the most meaningful skill this year for lifelong learners. But it’s too hard to find resources to master it.

As a learning science nerd, I’ve explored hundreds of prompts over the past months. Most of the advice doesn’t go beyond text summaries and multiple-choice testing.

That’s why I’ve created this article — it merges learning science with prompt writing to help you learn anything faster.

Midjourney AI Art for Teachers (for any kind of teacher, not just Art Teachers) — from The AI Educator on YouTube by Dan Fitzpatrick

From DSC:
This is a very nice, clearly illustrated, free video to get started with the Midjourney (text-to-image) app. Nice work Dan!

Also see Dan’s
AI Generated Immersive Learning Series

What is Academic Integrity in the Era of Generative Artificial intelligence? — from silverliningforlearning.org by Chris Dede

In the new-normal of generative AI, how does one articulate the value of academic integrity? This blog presents my current response in about 2,500 words; a complete answer could fill a sizable book.

Massive amounts of misinformation are disseminated about generative AI, so the first part of my discussion clarifies what large language models (Chat-GPT and its counterparts) can currently do and what they cannot accomplish at this point in time. The second part describes ways in which generative AI can be misused as a means of learning; unfortunately, many people are now advocating for these mistaken applications to education. The third part describes ways in which large language models (LLM), used well, may substantially improve learning and education. I close with a plea for a robust, informed public discussion about these topics and issues.

Dr. Chris Dede and the Necessity of Training Students and Faculty to Improve Their Human Judgment and Work Properly with AIs — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
We need to stop using test-driven curriculums that train students to listen and to compete against machines, a competition they cannot win. Instead, we need to help them augment their Judgment.

The Creative Ways Teachers Are Using ChatGPT in the Classroom — from time.com by Olivia B. Waxman

Many of the more than a dozen teachers TIME interviewed for this story argue that the way to get kids to care is to proactively use ChatGPT in the classroom.
…
Some of those creative ideas are already in effect at Peninsula High School in Gig Harbor, about an hour from Seattle. In Erin Rossing’s precalculus class, a student got ChatGPT to generate a rap about vectors and trigonometry in the style of Kanye West, while geometry students used the program to write mathematical proofs in the style of raps, which they performed in a classroom competition. In Kara Beloate’s English-Language Arts class, she allowed students reading Shakespeare’s Othello to use ChatGPT to translate lines into modern English to help them understand the text, so that they could spend class time discussing the plot and themes.

AI in Higher Education: Aiding Students’ Academic Journey — from td.org by J. Chris Brown

Topics/sections include:

Automatic Grading and Assessment
AI-Assisted Student Support Services
Intelligent Tutoring Systems
AI Can Help Both Students and Teachers

Shockwaves & Innovations: How Nations Worldwide Are Dealing with AI in Education — from the74million.org by Robin Lake
Lake: Other countries are quickly adopting artificial intelligence in schools. Lessons from Singapore, South Korea, India, China, Finland and Japan.

I found that other developed countries share concerns about students cheating but are moving quickly to use AI to personalize education, enhance language lessons and help teachers with mundane tasks, such as grading. Some of these countries are in the early stages of training teachers to use AI and developing curriculum standards for what students should know and be able to do with the technology.

Several countries began positioning themselves several years ago to invest in AI in education in order to compete in the fourth industrial revolution.

AI in Education — from educationnext.org by John Bailey
The leap into a new era of machine intelligence carries risks and challenges, but also plenty of promise

In the realm of education, this technology will influence how students learn, how teachers work, and ultimately how we structure our education system. Some educators and leaders look forward to these changes with great enthusiasm. Sal Kahn, founder of Khan Academy, went so far as to say in a TED talk that AI has the potential to effect “probably the biggest positive transformation that education has ever seen.” But others warn that AI will enable the spread of misinformation, facilitate cheating in school and college, kill whatever vestiges of individual privacy remain, and cause massive job loss. The challenge is to harness the positive potential while avoiding or mitigating the harm.

Generative AI and education futures — from ucl.ac.uk
Video highlights from Professor Mike Sharples’ keynote address at the 2023 UCL Education Conference, which explored opportunities to prosper with AI as a part of education.

Bringing AI Literacy to High Schools — from by Nikki Goth Itoi
Stanford education researchers collaborated with teachers to develop classroom-ready AI resources for high school instructors across subject areas.

To address these two imperatives, all high schools need access to basic AI tools and training. Yet the reality is that many underserved schools in low-income areas lack the bandwidth, skills, and confidence to guide their students through an AI-powered world. And if the pattern continues, AI will only worsen existing inequities. With this concern top of mind plus initial funding from the McCoy Ethics Center, Lee began recruiting some graduate students and high school teachers to explore how to give more people equal footing in the AI space.

InstructureCon 23 Conference Notes — from onedtech.beehiiv.com by Phil Hill

The company is increasingly emphasizing its portfolio of products built around the Canvas LMS, what they call the Instructure Unified Learning Platform. Perhaps the strongest change in message is the increased emphasis on the EdTech Collective, Instructure’s partner ecosystem. In fact, two of the three conference press releases were on the ecosystem – describing the 850 partners as “a larger partner community than any other LMS provider” and announcing a partnership with Khan Academy with its Khanmigo AI-based tutoring and teaching assistant tool (more on generative AI approach below).

Anthology Together 23 Conference Notes — from philhillaa.com by Glenda Morgan

The Anthology conference, held from July 17-19, marked the second gathering since Blackboard ceased operating as a standalone company and transformed into a brand for a product line.

What stood out was not just the number of added features but the extent to which these enhancements were driven by customer input. There has been a noticeable shift in how Anthology listens to clients, which had been a historical weakness for Blackboard. This positive change was emphasized not only by Anthology executives, but more importantly by customers themselves, even during unscripted side conversations.

D2L Fusion 23 Conference Notes — from onedtech.beehiiv.com

D2L is a slow burn company, and in the past eight years in a good way. The company started working on its move to the cloud, tied to its user experience redesign as Brightspace, in 2014. Five years later, the company’s LMS was essentially all cloud (with one or two client exceptions). More importantly, D2L Brightspace in this time period became fully competitive with Instructure Canvas, winning head-to-head competitions not just due to specialized features but more broadly in terms of general system usability and intuitive design. That multi-year transformation is significant, particularly for a founder-led company.

A cam/mic/light/teleprompter remote kit for non-tech-savvy guests, including Shure MV7 [Tépper]

On 08/05/2023, in A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, Australia, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, experimentation, faculty, higher education, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, media/film, mobile technologies, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, remote teaching and learning, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, UK, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

A cam/mic/light/teleprompter remote kit for non-tech-savvy guests, including Shure MV7 — from provideocoalition.com by Allan Tépper

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Inspired by my recent Review: Shure MV7 dynamic hybrid studio microphone – near, far and beyond, Beaker Films of Fairfield, Connecticut, US has developed and deployed a first batch of 10 kits to capture remote conversations from different locations worldwide. Beaker Films is frequently contracted to record remote interviews or testimonials from medical professionals. For this project, Beaker Films’ clients wanted consistent, high quality audio and video, but with 3 additional challenges: they preferred to have no visible microphone in the shot, they needed a teleprompter function and the whole kit needed to be as simple as possible for non-technical guests.

…

Speaking of A/V-related items, also see:

Seven worlds one planet at the BBC Earth Experience — from inavateonthenet.net by Paul Milligan

‘Holographic’ animal-free zoo opens in Australia — from inavateonthenet.net

XR Lab opens in UK college — from inavateonthenet.net

West Suffolk College in the UK has opened its Extended Reality Lab (XR Lab), the facilities comprise of four distinct areas: an Immersion Lab, a Collaboration Theatre, a Green Room, and a Conference Room. The project was designed by architects WindsorPatania for Eastern Colleges Group.

CJP to create virtual studio for Solent University — from inavateonthenet.net

Systems integrator CJP Broadcast Service Solutions, has won a tender to build a virtual production environment for Solent University in the UK.

The new facilities, converted from an existing studio space, will provide students on the film production courses with outstanding opportunities to develop their creative output.

Learning Experience — from inavateemea.com by Tim Kridel

“Some of the stuff we’re doing is creating templates and workflows that capture multiple feeds: not just the teacher, [but also] the white board, an overhead camera,” Risby says.

“The student can then go in and pick what they look at, so it’s more interactive. You might be watching it the first time to listen to the lecturer, but you might watch the second time to concentrate on the experiment. It makes the stream more valuable.”

Some interesting AI-based listings/resources

On 07/17/2023, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital storytelling, digital video, drama/theater, education technology, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, health, 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 agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, music, productivity / tips and tricks, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, UK, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Teaching Assistants that Actually Assist Instructors with Teaching — from opencontent.org by David Wiley

“…what if generative AI could provide every instructor with a genuine teaching assistant – a teaching assistant that actually assisted instructors with their teaching?”

Assignment Makeovers in the AI Age: Reading Response Edition — from derekbruff.org by Derek Bruff

For my cryptography course, Mollick’s first option would probably mean throwing out all my existing reading questions. My intent with these reading questions was noble, that is, to guide students to the big questions and debates in the field, but those are exactly the kinds of questions for which AI can write decent answers. Maybe the AI tools would fare worse in a more advanced course with very specialized readings, but in my intro to cryptography course, they can handle my existing reading questions with ease.

What about option two? I think one version of this would be to do away with the reading response assignment altogether.

4 Steps to Help You Plan for ChatGPT in Your Classroom — from chronicle.com by Flower Darby
Why you should understand how to teach with AI tools — even if you have no plans to actually use them.

Some items re: AI in other areas:

15 Generative AI Tools A billion+ people will be collectively using very soon. I use most of them every day — from stefanbauschard.substack.com by Stefan Bauschard
ChatGPT, Bing, Office Suite, Google Docs, Claude, Perplexity.ai, Plug-Ins, MidJourney, Pi, Runway, Bard, Bing, Synthesia, D-ID

The Future of AI in Video: a look forward — from provideocoalition.com by Iain Anderson

Actors say Hollywood studios want their AI replicas — for free, forever — from theverge.com by Andrew Webster; resource from Tom Barrett

Along these lines of Hollywood and AI, see this Tweet:

Hollywood is BROKEN.

Striking alone won’t fix it.

A whole new business model is required? pic.twitter.com/qmRyw5FFUj

— Misha (@mishadavinci) July 16, 2023

Claude 2: ChatGPT rival launches chatbot that can summarise a novel –from theguardian.com by Dan Milmo; resource from Tom Barrett
Anthropic releases chatbot able to process large blocks of text and make judgments on what it is producing

Generative AI imagines new protein structures — from news.mit.edu by Rachel Gordon; resource from Sunday Signal
MIT researchers develop “FrameDiff,” a computational tool that uses generative AI to craft new protein structures, with the aim of accelerating drug development and improving gene therapy.

Google’s medical AI chatbot is already being tested in hospitals — from theverge.com by Wes Davis; resource via GSV

Ready to Sing Elvis Karaoke … as Elvis? The Weird Rise of AI Music — from rollingstone.com by Brian Hiatt; resource from Misha da Vinci
From voice-cloning wars to looming copyright disputes to a potential flood of nonhuman music on streaming, AI is already a musical battleground

Learning Ecosystems

AI Pedagogy Project, metaLAB (at) Harvard + other AI-related items in our learning ecosystems

“13 Nuggets of AI Wisdom for Higher Education Leaders” [Klitgaard Stricker] + other AI-related items for our learning ecosystems

Two items from the Teaching newsletter out at the Chronicle of Higher Education

“NYC District Goes From Banning ChatGPT to Exploring AI’s Potential” [Klein] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

Universities are rethinking their streaming strategies. [Kridel]

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