Yet there is little evidence that classroom use of these previous technologies forced classroom teachers to rethink, much less reshape, instruction. Nor have I found convincing evidence that these technologies altered fundamentally how teachers teach, increased student engagement, or raised test scores.
So I have concluded that those pushing AI use in classrooms fail to understand the complexity of teaching.
Yes, there have been any number of technological revolutions meant to forever change the landscape of teaching and learning. Most of these revolutions have fallen by the wayside or have never seen their true potential realized. I’m looking at you, 1:1 computing initiatives.
I’m of the mind that the failures of these technologies to revolutionize teaching and learning don’t fall on the technologies. They are, after all, just tools with no consciousness, no agenda, and no determination of how best to use them.
That part is up to us, the human implementors of said tools. When we can’t figure out how to leverage tools properly or, as is far more often the case, refuse to implement the tools, failure is assured.
Far too often, I hear the argument from some teachers that, “What I’m doing works, and I don’t need to learn anything new,” or the ever-so-sinister, “I only do my learning in the summer and don’t have time for this.”
Perhaps most damnable is this statement: “Technology has never been shown to increase test scores, so we don’t need to use it.”
Because all we’re worried about is test scores. And that’s the real problem.
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OpenAI has partnered with the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School to launch a new course titled “AI in Education: Leveraging ChatGPT for Teaching.” This initiative aims to empower educators to effectively integrate generative AI into their teaching practices, enhancing learning experiences.
The class is just as much about what you as a teacher can do with AI to make your life better and make you a more effective educator, a less stressed out educator, as much as it is about how do you create assignments for your students? – Ethan Mollick
Professors Lilach and Ethan Mollick, co-founders of Wharton’s generative AI lab, co-teach the course. They emphasize the program’s dual focus: assisting educators in using AI to improve their teaching efficiency and developing assignments that engage students with AI tools.
Ethan Mollick notes that while discussions about AI in education often center on concerns like cheating and plagiarism, the course aims to highlight AI’s positive transformations to pedagogy. By embracing AI, educators can create more dynamic and personalized learning environments.
This collaboration reflects a broader trend in higher education to adapt to technological advancements and prepare educators and students for the evolving landscape of AI in the classroom.
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The debate about AI usage in schools rages as some educators want to block all AI access, and some want to embrace the new technology and leverage it for learning.
A core tension has emerged: Many teachers want to keep AI out of our classrooms, but also know that future workplaces may demand AI literacy.
What we call cheating, business could see as efficiency and progress.
A new book, Teaching with AI: A Practical Guide to a New Era of Human Learning, aims to help teachers discover how to harness and manage AI as a powerful teaching tool.
AI is a fabulous tool for getting started or unstuck. AI puts together old ideas in new ways and can do this at scale: It will make creativity easier for everyone.
Where are you on the AI in schools debate? Fan or foe?
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It’s mid-July, and the sun is beating down on my old Kentucky home with an intensity that I don’t have the words to describe. The new school year is coming, and already, the calendar fills with meetings, conferences, and all the usual trappings.
The past weekend provided what may prove to be the turning point in the 2024 US presidential election.
I still don’t know how to describe my religious upbringing. While I’m not sure it was a full-blown cult, it certainly echoed many of the telltale signs of Christian cults. And those groups have only grown in size and number in the past twenty years, especially since a black man was elected president.
I am disturbed by the growing number of people who are assigning former President Trump almost godlike status, emphasizing that he is untouchable and ordained to lead.
It sounds an awful lot like what good Christians are supposed to be on watch for to know the arrival of the Antichrist, if you believe such things.
A dark cloud hangs over this country, and my mind turns to my daughter and all the students I serve. What will happen next, and how will it affect their future?
Quote of the Day
“But most of the terrible things that happen in this land don’t happen because of evil men, not really. They happen because of people who just don’t know any better.” (Sebastien de Castell, Traitor’s Blade)
Musical Interlude
This summer’s Dave Matthews Band tour has seen the resurrection of several older songs from the band’s catalog. One of those making regular appearances is one of my favorites, The Last Stop.
Here’s a live version from this past May:
Long Read of the Day
Last week at a conference, an interesting session asked two teachers to dribble a basketball for 30 seconds without stopping. When they failed, the only feedback given was “try harder.”
How many times have we heard that? How many times have we been the ones telling students that? Does it really work? Can’t they just be more resilient and try harder?
They can, but trying harder doesn’t always accomplish the goal, and, more often than not, it just frustrates you. Resiliency isn’t always what it’s cracked up to be. Soraya Chemaly talks more about The Resilience Myth…
Over years I had really absorbed the idea that resilience was 9/10th the ability to persevere, be gritty, try to stay optimistic, etc. and 1/10th having a supportive social circle. When my family was thrown into the deep end of a crisis, it became clear that nothing I could do as an individual could compare to what we all needed, which was a combination of love, friendship, compassionate listeners, and actual material resources, such as access to good health care and medicine.
Artistic legend Brian Eno is featured in a unique documentary that changes every time it’s watched. The film uses special software to create countless versions of Eno’s story, a story that the producers are constantly adding more content to. I’m sure it’s a trip, as most anything associated with Eno always has been. But, the ideas behind the film’s creation echo much of Eno’s own ideas about the constantly changing nature of the world around us.
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Microsoft’s ambitious climate goal is at risk due to its focus on artificial intelligence. The company’s carbon emissions have increased by 30%, making it harder to reach its carbon-negative target by 2030. Microsoft plans to invest in green technologies to balance the environmental impact of its AI expansion.
Steven Downes from the Digital Technologies Research Centre of the National Research Council of Canada.
Dr. Valerie Irvine from the University of Victoria.
Brian Lamb, Director of Learning Technologies at Thompson Rivers University.
Dr. David Wiley, Chief Academic Officer at Lumen Learning.
Key Topics and Insights
Current State of Open Education
Steven Downes kicked off the discussion by emphasizing the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on open education. He argued that generative AI has the potential to create and enhance open educational resources (OER), moving beyond traditional static resources to dynamic, AI-generated content that can adapt and respond to student needs in real time.
Challenges and Opportunities
Valerie Irvine highlighted the significant challenge of institutional culture change. She stressed that despite the proven benefits of open education, widespread adoption requires a concerted effort to shift mindsets at administrative and faculty levels. She also pointed out the potential for open education to support social justice and equity in learning, advocating for open access to research and teaching resources to foster broader educational impacts.
Brian Lamb expressed concerns about the commercialization and centralization of digital platforms, which can stifle the creative and collaborative spirit of open education. He reminisced about the early days of the open web, where blogs and wikis fostered a rich exchange of ideas and resources. Brian emphasized the need to build capacity for open practices within educational institutions to reclaim some of that lost potential.
David Wiley provided a perspective from the U.S., discussing how generative AI could transform access to expertise. He noted that while the initial focus of open education was on access to materials, the future could see AI providing real-time, personalized support to learners, thereby expanding educational opportunities even further. He also touched on the importance of integrating open practices with AI to ensure that educational tools remain accessible and beneficial.
Future Directions
The panelists agreed that integrating AI into education presents both opportunities and challenges. They discussed the need for robust systems to ensure the accuracy and reliability of AI-generated content. Steven Downes pointed out that, while AI can be a powerful tool, it must be developed and used within ethical frameworks to avoid perpetuating existing biases and inequalities.
Institutional Support for Open Education
A key theme was the role of institutions in supporting open education. The panelists called for more institutional support for open educational practices, including funding, resources, and recognition of the value of openness. Valerie Irvine and Brian Lamb highlighted the successful models of BCcampus and eCampusOntario as examples of how institutional collaboration can drive the adoption of open education.
Conclusion
The session concluded with a call to action for educators, administrators, and policymakers to embrace the potential of open education and AI. The panelists urged a collective effort to foster a culture of openness, support innovative teaching practices, and ensure that the benefits of these advancements are accessible to all learners.
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Living in the Southern United States during the months of April and May is, to be quite honest, one of the most ill-informed choices a human being can make, especially for those of us suffering from seasonal allergies.
I mean, when you can wash your car and come back out to it a few hours later to be greeted by a powdery covering of yellowish-green stuff that is often a little sticky and definitely irritating, you know that you’ve made poor life choices.
But that same yellowish-green stuff is the sign of life returning to the world. My grass is the greenest of greens right now, thanks to more than enough rain and the nearly perfect fertile ground that covers much of Kentucky. I love looking at the world around me, but OH MY GOD, CAN WE GET SOME SUPER-SIZED AIR FILTERS FOR ALL THE POLLEN?
Ah well, such is the life of a Kentucky boy. All allergies and longing for time spent in the woods. Time for more nasal spray…
Quote of the Day
“The world only cares about—and pays off on—what you can do with what you know (and it doesn’t care how you learned it).” (George Couros, The Innovator’s Mindset)
Musical Interlude
It’s September 1986, and I’m just nine years old. My summer had been absolutely destroyed by two things: my family moved from Campbellsville, KY, to Elizabethtown, KY (there’s a movie about this place that is great, but not because they portrayed E-town properly), and Optimus Prime died in the Transformers movie.
Even now, it’s difficult to say which event was more traumatic.
Regardless, this song hit the radio waves, whether it was Q104 in Campbellsville or WQXE in E-town, and I loved it. The simple melodies combined with the incredible piano lead hit me. Of course, I didn’t understand the lyrics then, but they stuck with me.
Hornsby has said he wanted to create a sense of place with the song lyrics, providing a snapshot of small-town life in Virginia. Much like Springsteen with New Jersey or Mellencamp with Indiana, Hornsby wanted to take listeners to Virginia and talk with them about racism.
I’m quite certain that’s exactly what he accomplished, and given the song’s enduring legacy in the nearly 40 years since its release, many millions have had the chance to talk about it and its meaning.
And that enduring legacy has reached beyond the pop and rock genres with many artists covering or sampling portions of The Way It Is for their own hits, most famously done by Tupac Shakur with Changes.
There’s not a version of The Way It Is that I don’t enjoy, but this one from BBC 2 Radio is quite good. The orchestra adds something special to Hornsby’s iconic piano.
Long Read of the Day
In the late 18th century, officials in Prussia and Saxony began to rearrange their complex, diverse forests into straight rows of single-species trees. Forests had been sources of food, grazing, shelter, medicine, bedding and more for the people who lived in and around them, but to the early modern state, they were simply a source of timber.
So-called “scientific forestry” was that century’s growth hacking. It made timber yields easier to count, predict and harvest, and meant owners no longer relied on skilled local foresters to manage forests. They were replaced with lower-skilled laborers following basic algorithmic instructions to keep the monocrop tidy, the understory bare.
Information and decision-making power now flowed straight to the top. Decades later when the first crop was felled, vast fortunes were made, tree by standardized tree. The clear-felled forests were replanted, with hopes of extending the boom. Readers of the American political anthropologist of anarchy and order, James C. Scott, know what happened next.
It was a disaster so bad that a new word, Waldsterben, or “forest death,” was minted to describe the result. All the same species and age, the trees were flattened in storms, ravaged by insects and disease — even the survivors were spindly and weak. Forests were now so tidy and bare, they were all but dead.
The Internet as we know it now has become a little too well-maintained and planned. We’re not seeing the true purpose of this amazing tool; in fact, we’re moving further and further from that original purpose.
Not to get into a huge debate here, but I will talk about AI. As a tech guy, I know all sides of every argument around the arrival of Generative AI tools like ChatGPT, DALL-E, and more. Yes, there are some very clear ethical issues attached to the usage of these tools, especially in the creative world.
However, there are very valid uses of the technology, provided we operate on the assumption that we are human beings and should treat everyone as such. We should only use AI tools to better ourselves or our work and NOT use AI as some all-encompassing replacement for the creativity of the human spirit.
This week on CBS Sunday Morning, Randy Travis got a feature. Travis, an award-winning, massively successful, Hall of Fame country music artist, suffered a stroke in 2013. Given only a 2% chance to live, Travis has battled against the odds and is still with us more than a decade later. However, the portions of his brain tasked with speech and singing were the most damaged by the stroke. His singing career was essentially over.
Until some folks thought about all the voice-generating tools powered by AI that create something that sounds a little like a famous artist but without any of the heart, passion, or humanity behind their voice. They decided that there must be a way to use these tools responsibly and help Randy Travis get his voice back.
Trust me, you’re going to need Kleenex for this one.
Final Thoughts
Admittedly, I’ve switched to publishing daily thoughts as a bit of an experiment. I’m trying to force myself to push out more content to continue developing my writing practice. However, I don’t ever want to get to a place where I’m publishing just for the sake of publishing. Veteran web publisher and all-around genius Om Malik recently talked about excessive activity leading to average quality, especially in the online world as the almighty algorithms continue to dominate. Cory Doctorow talks about the ‘enshittification’ of everything and I certainly see that on every social platform out there.
So, I’ll keep publishing daily but promise to remain vigilant about content quality. Yes, I like to share my thoughts, but I don’t want to share without providing value or insight. Only add good things to the world friends, never take away.
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In this interview, Professor Rose Luckin, a pioneer in integrating artificial intelligence (AI) with education, shares insights on the ethical dimensions of AI deployment in education, emphasizing the importance of ethical AI and its potential to support learner-centered methodologies. She discusses the challenges and opportunities generative AI presents in assessment, learning, and teaching, highlighting the need for robust partnerships between educators and technology developers.
Professor Luckin stresses the importance of integrating AI into education with carefully crafted ethics and governance frameworks to maximize its potential benefits while mitigating risks. The paper discusses AI’s evolving role in education and the critical need for lifelong learning. It underscores the imperative of ongoing research and collaborative efforts to navigate AI’s significant dangers and opportunities in education.
Here’s another interview with Professor Luckin on AI and Education in the 21st Century:
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
The Eclectic Educator is a free resource for everyone passionate about education and creativity. If you enjoy the content and want to support the newsletter, consider becoming a paid subscriber. Your support helps keep the insights and inspiration coming!
