reinvent

“This isn’t a cheating crisis. It’s an identify crisis [for higher education].” + numerous other items re: AI in our LE’s

On 11/05/2025, in active learning, apprenticeships, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business side of he, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, dangers of the status quo, education technology, emerging technologies, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, pedagogy, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, trends, UK, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

…the above posting links to:

Higher Ed Is Sleepwalking Toward Obsolescence— And AI Won’t Be the Cause, Just the Accelerant — from substack.com by Steven Mintz
AI Has Exposed Higher Ed’s Hollow Core — The University Must Reinvent Itself or Fade

It begins with a basic reversal of mindset: Stop treating AI as a threat to be policed. Start treating it as the accelerant that finally forces us to build the education we should have created decades ago.

A serious institutional response would demand — at minimum — six structural commitments:

Make high-intensity human learning the norm. …
Put active learning at the center, not the margins. …
Replace content transmission with a focus on process. …
Mainstream high-impact practices — stop hoarding them for honors students. …
Redesign assessment to make learning undeniable. …

And above all: Instructional design can no longer be a private hobby.

Teaching with AI: From Prohibition to Partnership for Critical Thinking — from facultyfocus.com by Michael Kiener, PhD, CRC

How to Integrate AI Developmentally into Your Courses

Lower-Level Courses: Focus on building foundational skills, which includes guided instruction on how to use AI responsibly. This moves the strategy beyond mere prohibition.
Mid-Level Courses: Use AI as a scaffold where faculty provide specific guidelines on when and how to use the tool, preparing students for greater independence.
Upper-Level/Graduate Courses: Empower students to evaluate AI’s role in their learning. This enables them to become self-regulated learners who make informed decisions about their tools.
Balanced Approach: Make decisions about AI use based on the content being learned and students’ developmental needs.

Now that you have a framework for how to conceptualize including AI into your courses here are a few ideas on scaffolding AI to allow students to practice using technology and develop cognitive skills.

80 per cent of young people in the UK are using AI for their schoolwork — from aipioneers.org by Graham Attwell

What was encouraging, though, is that students aren’t just passively accepting this new reality. They are actively asking for help. Almost half want their teachers to help them figure out what AI-generated content is trustworthy, and over half want clearer guidelines on when it’s appropriate to use AI in their work. This isn’t a story about students trying to cheat the system; it’s a story about a generation grappling with a powerful new technology and looking to their educators for guidance. It echoes a sentiment I heard at the recent AI Pioneers’ Conference – the issue of AI in education is fundamentally pedagogical and ethical, not just technological.

What today’s students really want — and what that means for higher ed — from highereddive.com by Ellucian

Cost is too high. Pathways are unclear. Options feel limited. For many prospective, current, or former students, these barriers define their relationship with higher education. As colleges and universities face the long-anticipated enrollment cliff, the question isn’t just how to recruit—it’s how to reimagine value, access, and engagement across the entire student journey.

Ellucian’s 2025 Student Voice Report offers one of the most comprehensive views into that journey to date. With responses from over 1,500 learners across the U.S.—including high school students, current undergrads, college grads, stop-outs, and opt-outs—the findings surface one clear mandate for institutions: meet students where they are, or risk losing them entirely.

What Are Learners Asking For?
Across demographics, four priorities rose to the top:
Affordability. Flexibility. Relevance. Clarity.

Students aren’t rejecting education—they’re rejecting systems that don’t clearly show how their investment leads to real outcomes.

“Provosts Are a ‘Release Valve’ for Campus Controversy” [Whitford] + a variety of items re: higher education in general

On 09/19/2025, in adjunct faculty, apprenticeships, business, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, faculty/staff, funding / grants, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, innovation, instructional design, leadership, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, liberal arts, pace of change, parents/guardians, participation, pedagogy, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, student-related, teaching & learning, traditional / tradition, trends, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Provosts Are a ‘Release Valve’ for Campus Controversy — from insidehighered.com by Emma Whitford
According to former Western Michigan provost Julian Vasquez Heilig, provosts are stuck driving change with few, if any, allies, while simultaneously playing crisis manager for the university.

After two years, he stepped down, and he now serves as a professor of educational leadership, research and technology at Western Michigan. His frustrations with the provost role had less to do with Western Michigan and more to do with how the job is designed, he explained. “Each person sees the provost a little differently. The faculty see the provost as administration, although, honestly, around the table at the cabinet, the provost is probably the only faculty member,” Heilig said. “The trustees—they see the provost as a middle manager below the president, and the president sees [the provost] as a buffer from issues that are arising.”

Inside Higher Ed sat down with Heilig to talk about the provost job and all he’s learned about the role through years of education leadership research, conversations with colleagues and his own experience.

Brandeis University launches a new vision for American higher education, reinventing liberal arts and emphasizing career development — from brandeis.edu

Levine unveiled “The Brandeis Plan to Reinvent the Liberal Arts,” a sweeping redesign of academic structures, curricula, degree programs, teaching methods, career education, and student support systems. Developed in close partnership with Brandeis faculty, the plan responds to a rapidly shifting landscape in which the demands on higher education are evolving at unprecedented speed in a global, digital economy.

“We are living through a time of extraordinary change across technology, the economy, and society,” Levine said. “Today’s students need more than knowledge. They need the skills, experiences, and confidence to lead in a world we cannot yet predict. We are advancing a new model. We need reinvention. And that’s exactly what Brandeis is establishing.”

The Brandeis Plan transforms the student experience by integrating career preparation into every stage of a student’s education, requiring internships or apprenticeships, sustaining career counseling, and implementing a core curriculum built around the skills that employers value most. The plan also reimagines teaching. It will be more experiential and practical, and introduce new ways to measure and showcase student learning and growth over time.

Tuition Tracker from the Hechinger Report

“…students to use AI to help businesses solve ‘real world’ challenges” [McVicar] + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 09/09/2025, in adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, curriculum, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, multimedia, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, real-world assignments, reinvent, skills, society, staying relevant, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

GRCC students to use AI to help businesses solve ‘real world’ challenges in new course — from www-mlive-com.cdn.ampproject.org by Brian McVicar; via Patrick Bailey on LinkedIn

GRAND RAPIDS, MI — A new course at Grand Rapids Community College aims to help students learn about artificial intelligence by using the technology to solve real-world business problems.
…
In a release, the college said its grant application was supported by 20 local businesses, including Gentex, TwistThink and the Grand Rapids Public Museum. The businesses have pledged to work with students who will use business data to develop an AI project such as a chatbot that interacts with customers, or a program that automates social media posts or summarizes customer data.

“This rapidly emerging technology can transform the way businesses process data and information,” Kristi Haik, dean of GRCC’s School of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, said in a statement. “We want to help our local business partners understand and apply the technology. We also want to create real experiences for our students so they enter the workforce with demonstrated competence in AI applications.”

As Patrick Bailey said on LinkedIn about this article:

Nice to see a pedagogy that’s setting a forward movement rather than focusing on what could go wrong with AI in a curriculum.

Forecast for Learning and Earning in 2025-2026 report — from pages.asugsvsummit.com by Jennifer Lee and Claire Zau

In this look ahead at the future of learning and work, we aim to define:

Major thematic observations
What makes this moment an inflection point
Key predictions (and their precedent)
Short- and long-term projected impacts

The LMS at 30: From Course Management to Learning Management (At Last) — from onedtech.philhillaa.com; a guest post from Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D.

As a 30 year observer and participant, it seems to me that previous technology platform shifts like SaaS and mobile did not fundamentally change the LMS. AI is different. We’re standing at the precipice of LMS 2.0, where the branding change from Course Management System to Learning Management System will finally live up to its name. Unlike SaaS or mobile, AI represents a technology platform shift that will transform the way participants interact with learning systems – and with it, the nature of the LMS itself.

Given the transformational potential of AI, it is useful to set the context and think about how we got here, especially on this 30th anniversary of the LMS.

LMS at 30 Part 2: Learning Management in the AI Era — from onedtech.philhillaa.com; a guest post from Matthew Pittinsky, Ph.D.

Where AI is disruptive is in its ability to introduce a whole new set of capabilities that are best described as personalized learning services. AI offers a new value proposition to the LMS, roughly the set of capabilities currently being developed in the AI Tutor / agentic TA segment. These new capabilities are so valuable given their impact on learning that I predict they will become the services with greatest engagement within a school or university’s “enterprise” instructional platform.

In this way, by LMS paradigm shift, I specifically mean a shift from buyers valuing the product on its course-centric and course management capabilities, to valuing it on its learner-centric and personalized learning capabilities.

AI and the future of education: disruptions, dilemmas and directions — from unesdoc.unesco.org

This anthology reveals how the integration of AI in education poses profound philosophical, pedagogical, ethical and political questions. As this global AI ecosystem evolves and becomes increasingly ubiquitous, UNESCO and its partners have a shared responsibility to lead the global discourse towards an equity- and justice-centred agenda. The volume highlights three areas in which UNESCO will continue to convene and lead a global commons for dialog and action particularly in areas on AI futures, policy and practice innovation, and experimentation.

As guardian of ethical, equitable human-centred AI in education.
As thought leader in reimagining curriculum and pedagogy
As a platform for engaging pluralistic and contested dialogues

AI, copyright and the classroom: what higher education needs to know — from timeshighereducation.com by Cayce Myers
As artificial intelligence reshapes teaching and research, one legal principle remains at the heart of our work: copyright. Understanding its implications isn’t just about compliance – it’s about protecting academic integrity, intellectual property and the future of knowledge creation. Cayce Myers explains

The School Year We Finally Notice “The Change” — from americanstogether.substack.com by Jason Palmer

Why It Matters
A decade from now, we won’t say “AI changed schools.” We’ll say: this was the year schools began to change what it means to be human, augmented by AI.

This transformation isn’t about efficiency alone. It’s about dignity, creativity, and discovery, and connecting education more directly to human flourishing. The industrial age gave us schools to produce cookie-cutter workers. The digital age gave us knowledge anywhere, anytime. The AI age—beginning now—gives us back what matters most: the chance for every learner to become infinitely capable.

This fall may look like any other—bells ringing, rows of desks—but beneath the surface, education has begun its greatest transformation since the one-room schoolhouse.

How should universities teach leadership now that teams include humans and autonomous AI agents? — from timeshighereducation.com by Alex Zarifis
Trust and leadership style are emerging as key aspects of teambuilding in the age of AI. Here are ways to integrate these considerations with technology in teaching

Transactional and transformational leaderships’ combined impact on AI and trust
Given the volatile times we live in, a leader may find themselves in a situation where they know how they will use AI, but they are not entirely clear on the goals and journey. In a teaching context, students can be given scenarios where they must lead a team, including autonomous AI agents, to achieve goals. They can then analyse the situations and decide what leadership styles to apply and how to build trust in their human team members. Educators can illustrate this decision-making process using a table (see above).

They may need to combine transactional leadership with transformational leadership, for example. Transactional leadership focuses on planning, communicating tasks clearly and an exchange of value. This works well with both humans and automated AI agents.

The Rise Of AI Agents: Teaching At Scale [Sivalingam]

On 09/05/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, curriculum, digital learning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, personalized/customized learning, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, tools, training / L&D, United States, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From Content To Capability: How AI Agents Are Redefining Workplace Learning — from forbes.com by Nelson Sivalingam

Real, capability-building learning requires three key elements: content, context and conversation.

The Rise Of AI Agents: Teaching At Scale
The generative AI revolution is often framed in terms of efficiency: faster content creation, automated processes and streamlined workflows. But in the world of L&D, its most transformative potential lies elsewhere: the ability to scale great teaching.

AI gives us the means to replicate the role of an effective teacher across an entire organization. Specifically, AI agents—purpose-built systems that understand, adapt and interact in meaningful, context-aware ways—can make this possible. These tools understand a learner’s role, skill level and goals, then tailor guidance to their specific challenges and adapt dynamically over time. They also reinforce learning continuously, nudging progress and supporting application in the flow of work.

More than simply sharing knowledge, an AI agent can help learners apply it and improve with every interaction. For example, a sales manager can use a learning agent to simulate tough customer scenarios, receive instant feedback based on company best practices and reinforce key techniques. A new hire in the product department could get guidance on the features and on how to communicate value clearly in a roadmap meeting.

In short, AI agents bring together the three essential elements of capability building, not in a one-size-fits-all curriculum but on demand and personalized for every learner. While, obviously, this technology shouldn’t replace human expertise, it can be an effective tool for removing bottlenecks and unlocking effective learning at scale.

How HR is adapting as AI agents join the workforce — from hrexecutive.com by Jill Barth

Business leaders across the world are grappling with a reality that would have seemed like science fiction just a few decades ago: Artificial intelligence systems dubbed AI agents are becoming colleagues, not just tools. At many organizations, HR pros are already developing balanced and thoughtful machine-people workforces that meet business goals.

At Skillsoft, a global corporate learning company, Chief People Officer Ciara Harrington has spent the better part of three years leading digital transformation in real time. Through her front-row seat to CEO transitions, strategic pivots and the rapid acceleration of AI adoption, she’s developed a strong belief that organizations must be agile with people operations.

‘No role that’s not a tech role’
Under these modern conditions, she says, technology is becoming a common language in the workplace. “There is no role that’s not a tech role,” Harrington said during a recent discussion about the future of work. It’s a statement that gets at the heart of a shift many HR leaders are still coming to terms with.
…
But a key question remains: Who will manage the AI agents, specifically, HR leaders or someone else?

“We’re witnessing the biggest shift in education since the textbook—and most institutions are still deciding whether to allow it.” [Kilgore]

On 08/26/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, bots, business, Canada, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, culture, curriculum, education technology, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, learning spaces, liberal arts, pedagogy, platforms, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, student-related, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The AI Education Revolution — from linkedin.com by Whitney Kilgore
We’re witnessing the biggest shift in education since the textbook—and most institutions are still deciding whether to allow it.

AI and Higher Ed: An Impending Collapse [Niebuhr]

On 07/30/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, face-to-face, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, productivity / tips and tricks, reinvent, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

AI and Higher Ed: An Impending Collapse — from insidehighered.com by Robert Niebuhr; via George Siemens; I also think George’s excerpt (see below) gets right to the point.
Universities’ rush to embrace AI will lead to an untenable outcome, Robert Niebuhr writes.

Herein lies the trap. If students learn how to use AI to complete assignments and faculty use AI to design courses, assignments, and grade student work, then what is the value of higher education? How long until people dismiss the degree as an absurdly overpriced piece of paper? How long until that trickles down and influences our economic and cultural output? Simply put, can we afford a scenario where students pretend to learn and we pretend to teach them?

This next report doesn’t look too good for traditional institutions of higher education either:

No Country for Young Grads — from burningglassinstitute.org

For the first time in modern history, a bachelor’s degree is no longer a reliable path to professional employment. Recent graduates face rising unemployment and widespread underemployment as structural—not cyclical—forces reshape entry?level work. This new report identifies four interlocking drivers: an AI?powered “Expertise Upheaval” eliminating many junior tasks, a post?pandemic shift to lean staffing and risk?averse hiring, AI acting as an accelerant to these changes, and a growing graduate glut. As a result, young degree holders are uniquely seeing their prospects deteriorate – even as the rest of the economy remain robust. Read the full report to explore the data behind these trends.

The above article was via Brandon Busteed on LinkedIn:

Osgoode’s new simulation-based learning tool aims to merge ethical and practical legal skills — from canadianlawyermag.com by Tim Wilbur
The designer speaks about his vision for redefining legal education through an innovative platform

The disconnection between legal education and the real world starkly contrasted with what he expected law school to be. “I thought rather naively…this would be a really interesting experience…linked to lawyers and what lawyers are doing in society…Far from it. It was solidly academic, so uninteresting, and I thought it’s got to be better than this.”

These frustrations inspired his work on simulation-based education, which seeks to produce “client-ready” lawyers and professionals who reflect deeply on their future roles. Maharg recently worked as a consultant with Osgoode Professional Development at Osgoode Hall Law School to design a platform that eschews many of the assumptions about legal education to deliver practical skills with real-world scenarios.

Osgoode’s SIMPLE platform – short for “simulated professional learning environment” – integrates case management systems and simulation engines to immerse students in practical scenarios.

“It’s actually to get them thinking hard about what they do when they act as lawyers and what they will do when they become lawyers…putting it into values and an ethical framework, as well as making it highly intensively practical,” Maharg says.

And speaking of legal training, also see:

AI in law firms should be a training tool, not a threat, for young lawyers — from canadianlawyermag.com by Tim Wilbur
Tech should free associates for deeper learning, not remove them from the process

AI is rapidly transforming legal practice. Today, tools handle document review and legal research at a pace unimaginable just a few years ago. As recent Canadian Lawyer reporting shows, legal AI adoption is outpacing expectations, especially among in-house teams, and is fundamentally reshaping how legal services are delivered.

Crucially, though, AI should not replace associates. Instead, it should relieve them of repetitive tasks and allow them to focus on developing judgment, client management, and strategic thinking. As I’ve previously discussed regarding the risks of banning AI in court, the future of law depends on blending technological fluency with the human skills clients value most.

Also, the following relates to legaltech as well:

Agentic AI in Legaltech: Proceed with Supervision! — from directory.lawnext.com by Ken Crutchfield
Semi-Autonomous agents can transform work if leaders maintain oversight

The term autonomous agents should raise some concern. I believe semi-autonomous agents is a better term. Do we really want fully autonomous agents that learn and interact independently, to find ways to accomplish tasks?

We live in a world full of cybersecurity risks. Bad actors will think of ways to use agents. Even well-intentioned systems could mishandle a task without proper guardrails.

Legal professionals will want to thoughtfully equip their agent technology with controlled access to the right services. Agents must be supervised, and training must be required for those using or benefiting from agents. Legal professionals will also want to expand the scope of AI Governance to include the oversight of agents.
…
Agentic AI will require supervision. Human review of Generative AI output is essential. Stating the obvious may be necessary, especially with agents. Controls, human review, and human monitoring must be part of the design and the requirements for any project. Leadership should not leave this to the IT department alone.

The type of functionality found in MyNextChapter.ai could work very well in a next-gen learning platform [Christian]

On 07/24/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Alternatives, apprenticeships, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communications, community colleges, corporate / business world, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, passions, pathways, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, reinvent, skills, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, vocational / trades, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
In looking at MyNextChapter.ai — THIS TYPE OF FUNCTIONALITY of an AI-based chatbot talking to you re: good fits for a future job — is the kind of thing that could work well in this type of vision/learning platform. The AI asks you relevant career-oriented questions, comes up with some potential job fits, and then gives you resources about how to gain those skills, who to talk with, organizations to join, next steps to get your foot in the door somewhere, etc.

The next gen learning platform would provide links to online-based courses, blogs, peoples’ names on LinkedIn, courses from L&D organizations or from institutions of higher education or from other entities/places to obtain those skills (similar to the ” Action Plan” below from MyNextChapter.ai).

Tech Layoffs 2025: Why AI is Behind the Rising Job Cuts — from finalroundai.com by Kaustubh Saini, Jaya Muvania, and Kaivan Dave; via George Siemens
507 tech workers lose their jobs to AI every day in 2025. Complete breakdown of 94,000 job losses across Microsoft, Tesla, IBM, and Meta – plus which positions are next.
.

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I’ve Spent My Life Measuring Risk. AI Rings Every One of My Alarm Bells — from time.com by Paul Tudor Jones

Amid all the talk about the state of our economy, little noticed and even less discussed was June’s employment data. It showed that the unemployment rate for recent college graduates stood at 5.8%, topping the national level for the first and only time in its 45-year historical record.

It’s an alarming number that needs to be considered in the context of a recent warning from Dario Amodei, CEO of AI juggernaut Anthropic, who predicted artificial intelligence could wipe out half of all entry-level, white-collar-jobs and spike unemployment to 10-20% in the next one to five years.

The upshot: our college graduates’ woes could be just the tip of the spear.

I almost made a terrible mistake last week. — from justinwelsh.me by Justin Welsh; via Roberto Ferraro

But as I thought about it, it just didn’t feel right. Replying to people sharing real gratitude with a copy-paste message seemed like a terribly inauthentic thing to do. I realized that when you optimize the most human parts of your business, you risk removing the very reason people connect with you in the first place.

Reflections on “Find Your Next Great Job with AI” [Caplan]

On 05/18/2025, in career development, Daniel S. Christian, Google, intelligent systems, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Open AI, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, tools, vendors, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

Find Your Next Great Job with AI — from wondertools.substack.com by Jeremy Caplan

1. Explore career directions

Recommended tool: Google’s Career Dreamer

What it is: A career visualization tool. See a map of professional fields related to your interests. (See video demo below)

How to use it: Start by typing in a current or previous role, or a type of job that interests you, using up to five words. Then optionally add the name of an organization or industry.

The free service then confirms job activities of interest and shows you a variety of related career paths. Pick one at a time to explore. You can then browse current job openings, refining the search based on location, company size, or other factors you care about.

Example: I’m not job hunting, but I tested out the service by typing in “journalist, writer and educator” as roles and then “journalism and education” as my industries of interest.
…
Why it’s useful: I appreciate that Career Dreamer not only suggests a range of relevant fields, but also summarizes what a typical day in those jobs might be like. It also suggests skills you’ll develop and other jobs that might follow on that career path.

Next step: After exploring potential career paths and looking at available jobs, you can jump into Gemini — Google’s equivalent of ChatGPT — for further career planning.

From DSC:
This is the type of functionality that will be woven into the powerful, global, Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based, next-generation, lifelong learning platform that I’ve been tracking. AI will be constantly used to determine which skills are marketable and how to get those skills. The platform will feature personalized recommendations and help a person brainstorm about potential right turns in their career path.

Another ‘shock’ is coming for American jobs — from washingtonpost.com by Heather Long. DSC: This is a gifted article
Millions of workers will need to shift careers. Our country is unprepared.

The United States is on the cusp of a massive economic shift due to AI, and it’s likely to cause greater change than anything President Donald Trump does in his second term. Much good can come from AI, but the country is unprepared to grapple with the need for millions — or perhaps tens of millions — of workers to shift jobs and entire careers.

“There’s a massive risk that entry-level, white-collar work could get automated. What does that do to career ladders?” asked Molly Kinder, a fellow at the Brookings Institution. Her research has found the jobs of marketing analysts are five times as likely to be replaced as those of marketing managers, and sales representative jobs are three times as likely to be replaced as those of sales managers.

Young people working in these jobs will need to be retrained, but it will be hard for them to invest in new career paths. Consider that many college graduates already carry a lot of debt (an average of about $30,000 for those who took student loans).What’s more, the U.S. unemployment insurance system covers only about 57 percent of unemployed workers and replaces only a modest amount of someone’s pay.

From DSC:
This is another reason why I think this vision here is at least a part of our future. We need shorter, less expensive credentials.

People don’t have the time to get degrees that take 2+ years to complete (after they have already gone through college once).
They don’t want to come out with more debt on their backs.
With inflation going back up, they won’t have as much money anyway.
Also, they may already have enough debt on their backs.

Reflections on “Are You Ready for the AI University? Everything is about to change.” [Latham]

On 04/10/2025, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accreditation, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, Blockchain, bots, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, culture, curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, Design Thinking, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, Emotion, engagement / engaging students, expectations, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, Google, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, leadership, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, MBA, Michigan, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, organizational change, pace of change, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, reinvent, skills, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, tools, trends, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

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Are You Ready for the AI University? Everything is about to change. — from chronicle.com by Scott Latham

Over the course of the next 10 years, AI-powered institutions will rise in the rankings. US News & World Report will factor a college’s AI capabilities into its calculations. Accrediting agencies will assess the degree of AI integration into pedagogy, research, and student life. Corporations will want to partner with universities that have demonstrated AI prowess. In short, we will see the emergence of the AI haves and have-nots.
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What’s happening in higher education today has a name: creative destruction. The economist Joseph Schumpeter coined the term in 1942 to describe how innovation can transform industries. That typically happens when an industry has both a dysfunctional cost structure and a declining value proposition. Both are true of higher education.
…
Out of the gate, professors will work with technologists to get AI up to speed on specific disciplines and pedagogy. For example, AI could be “fed” course material on Greek history or finance and then, guided by human professors as they sort through the material, help AI understand the structure of the discipline, and then develop lectures, videos, supporting documentation, and assessments.
…
In the near future, if a student misses class, they will be able watch a recording that an AI bot captured. Or the AI bot will find a similar lecture from another professor at another accredited university. If you need tutoring, an AI bot will be ready to help any time, day or night. Similarly, if you are going on a trip and wish to take an exam on the plane, a student will be able to log on and complete the AI-designed and administered exam. Students will no longer be bound by a rigid class schedule. Instead, they will set the schedule that works for them.

Early and mid-career professors who hope to survive will need to adapt and learn how to work with AI. They will need to immerse themselves in research on AI and pedagogy and understand its effect on the classroom.

From DSC:
I had a very difficult time deciding which excerpts to include. There were so many more excerpts for us to think about with this solid article. While I don’t agree with several things in it, EVERY professor, president, dean, and administrator working within higher education today needs to read this article and seriously consider what Scott Latham is saying.

Change is already here, but according to Scott, we haven’t seen anything yet. I agree with him and, as a futurist, one has to consider the potential scenarios that Scott lays out for AI’s creative destruction of what higher education may look like. Scott asserts that some significant and upcoming impacts will be experienced by faculty members, doctoral students, and graduate/teaching assistants (and Teaching & Learning Centers and IT Departments, I would add). But he doesn’t stop there. He brings in presidents, deans, and other members of the leadership teams out there.

There are a few places where Scott and I differ.

The foremost one is the importance of the human element — i.e., the human faculty member and students’ learning preferences. I think many (most?) students and lifelong learners will want to learn from a human being. IBM abandoned their 5-year, $100M ed push last year and one of the key conclusions was that people want to learn from — and with — other people:

To be sure, AI can do sophisticated things such as generating quizzes from a class reading and editing student writing. But the idea that a machine or a chatbot can actually teach as a human can, he said, represents “a profound misunderstanding of what AI is actually capable of.”

Nitta, who still holds deep respect for the Watson lab, admits, “We missed something important. At the heart of education, at the heart of any learning, is engagement. And that’s kind of the Holy Grail.”

— Satya Nitta, a longtime computer researcher at
IBM’s Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, NY
.

By the way, it isn’t easy for me to write this. As I wanted AI and other related technologies to be able to do just what IBM was hoping that it would be able to do.

Also, I would use the term learning preferences where Scott uses the term learning styles.

Scott also mentions:

“In addition, faculty members will need to become technologists as much as scholars. They will need to train AI in how to help them build lectures, assessments, and fine-tune their classroom materials. Further training will be needed when AI first delivers a course.”

It has been my experience from working with faculty members for over 20 years that not all faculty members want to become technologists. They may not have the time, interest, and/or aptitude to become one (and vice versa for technologists who likely won’t become faculty members).

That all said, Scott relays many things that I have reflected upon and relayed for years now via this Learning Ecosystems blog and also via The Learning from the Living [AI-Based Class] Room vision — the use of AI to offer personalized and job-relevant learning, the rising costs of higher education, the development of new learning-related offerings and credentials at far less expensive prices, the need to provide new business models and emerging technologies that are devoted more to lifelong learning, plus several other things.

So this article is definitely worth your time to read, especially if you are working in higher education or are considering a career therein!

Addendum later on 4/10/25:

U-M’s Ross School of Business, Google Public Sector launch virtual teaching assistant pilot program — from news.umich.edu by Jeff Karoub; via Paul Fain

Google Public Sector and the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business have launched an advanced Virtual Teaching Assistant pilot program aimed at improving personalized learning and enlightening educators on artificial intelligence in the classroom.

The AI technology, aided by Google’s Gemini chatbot, provides students with all-hours access to support and self-directed learning. The Virtual TA represents the next generation of educational chatbots, serving as a sophisticated AI learning assistant that instructors can use to modify their specific lessons and teaching styles.

The Virtual TA facilitates self-paced learning for students, provides on-demand explanations of complex course concepts, guides them through problem-solving, and acts as a practice partner. It’s designed to foster critical thinking by never giving away answers, ensuring students actively work toward solutions.

The Gen X Career Meltdown [Kurutz]

On 03/31/2025, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, changing business models, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, creativity, culture, design, digital photography, digital storytelling, economics, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, graphics, internet, journalism, lifelong learning, love of learning, media/film, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, music, new business models, online media, photography, reinvent, skills, social learning / networks, society, sociology, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, technology (general), television, trends, United States, workplace, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

It’s the end of work as we knew it
and I feel…

powerless to fight the technology that we pioneered
nostalgic for a world that moved on without us
after decades of paying our dues
for a payday that never came
…so yeah
not exactly fine.

The Gen X Career Meltdown — from nytimes.com by Steeven Kurutz (DSC: This is a gifted article for you)
Just when they should be at their peak, experienced workers in creative fields find that their skills are all but obsolete.

If you entered media or image-making in the ’90s — magazine publishing, newspaper journalism, photography, graphic design, advertising, music, film, TV — there’s a good chance that you are now doing something else for work. That’s because those industries have shrunk or transformed themselves radically, shutting out those whose skills were once in high demand.

“I am having conversations every day with people whose careers are sort of over,” said Chris Wilcha, a 53-year-old film and TV director in Los Angeles.

Talk with people in their late 40s and 50s who once imagined they would be able to achieve great heights — or at least a solid career while flexing their creative muscles — and you are likely to hear about the photographer whose work dried up, the designer who can’t get hired or the magazine journalist who isn’t doing much of anything.

In the wake of the influencers comes another threat, artificial intelligence, which seems likely to replace many of the remaining Gen X copywriters, photographers and designers. By 2030, ad agencies in the United States will lose 32,000 jobs, or 7.5 percent of the industry’s work force, to the technology, according to the research firm Forrester.

From DSC:
This article reminds me of how tough it is to navigate change in our lives. For me, it was often due to the fact that I was working with technologies. Being a technologist can be difficult, especially as one gets older and faces age discrimination in a variety of industries. You need to pick the right technologies and the directions that will last (for me it was email, videoconferencing, the Internet, online-based education/training, discovering/implementing instructional technologies, and becoming a futurist).

For you younger folks out there — especially students within K-16 — aim to develop a perspective and a skillset that is all about adapting to change. You will likely need to reinvent yourself and/or pick up new skills over your working years. You are most assuredly required to be a lifelong learner now. That’s why I have been pushing for school systems to be more concerned with providing more choice and control to students — so that students actually like school and enjoy learning about new things.

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