Cancelling in-person Congress wounds humanities research #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78023 Let me preface this post by saying I have been super-privileged to be able to go to so many academic events around the world. But therein lies the exact problem with Congress (and similar events). Michael Holden writes, in defence of Congress, that "Congress isn’t just an event, it’s a community." Right. Exactly.

The Forge #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78022 According to the email announcement, this platform "enables instructors to design renewable, collaborative long-form assignments and gives students meaningful opportunities to produce public-facing, openly licensed work...

How Do You Build a Learner-Centered Ecosystem? #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78021 This article appears to be advertorial content for Education Reimagined (I can't tell from their web page whether they're a company, advocacy group, or something else) and while I agree with the core premise that education should be learner-centered, everything else seems to work against that.

Empower Your Community with Digital Badges #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78020 This of this as digital badges meets the fediverse. BadgeFed is "designed for communities to create and manage their own badge ecosystems with full autonomy." There's no single point of control. "Badge issuers maintain their own systems while staying connected." I haven't tried it yet but it seems like a natural for a decentralized learning ecosystem. Via Alan Levine..

Exploring AI’s Role in Education: A Balanced Perspective from Six Think Pieces #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78019 There's a bunch of stuff on AI and education collected into this one post. It begins with a set of responses to a UNESCO's call for think pieces (which sadly I didn't hear about until after it had passed), which are linked here: contributions are from Bryan Alexander, ​Helen Beetham, ​Doug Belshaw, ​Laura Hilliger, ​Ian O'Byrne, and ​Karen Louise Smith.

The Ten Warning Signs #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78018 Doc Searls references this article that is a bit over-the-top but not completely wrong. "The knowledge structure that has dominated everything for our entire lifetime - and for our parents and grandparents - is collapsing," writes Ted Gioia. There's an element of truth to this, but Gioia conflates widely disparate phenomena - the weird sort of scepticism expressed by Robert F.

Designing Inclusive Instruction with UDL and AI #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78017 This shortish post arrives in the context of the author "using AI to help make the Canvas LMS more accessible" as well as "preparing our mini-conference, AI+OER Institute", which raises the question of "what AI’s role in UDL might look like." It makes sense to me. "UDL transforms what might once have been “accommodations” into routine options for all.

A Values-Based Approach to Using Gen AI #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78016 I can see why someone might want to adopt a values-based approach to AI (even if only as a shorthand for the more intuitive approach we take on a case-by-case basis... but I digress). My question for Heather Hans, though is this: are these the values your use of AI rests on? They are listed as follows: originality, transparency, collaboration, scholarship, sustainability and critical thinking.

Ethical Framework for Educational Technologies #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78015 Yet another educational institution ethical framework for technologies, this one from Brock. It has the usual (accessibility, algorithmic bias, digital literacy, environmental impact, etc). It's worth mentioning because it has some useful links to background literature and relevant policies, guidelines and standards. 11 page PDF..

Seeing the Politics of Decentralized Social Media Protocols #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78014

The Beautiful Betrayal #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78013 What I like about this post is the inverse of the argument that 'AI impairs learning by doing the thinking for you'.

AI, Energy Use, and the Coffee Dilemma #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78012 I've mentioned the ChatGPT-vs-coffee dilemma based on my own calculations in the past, and in this article Sarah Downey uses actual vetted numbers to compare the energy cost of ChatGPT with a number of other activities, including coffee and airline flights (nothing like someone blogging about the energy cost of a ChatGPT query from their in-flight wifi).

Networks, Dynamics and Explanation #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78011 When describing 'connections' in connectivism, I typically add the phrase "...such that a change of state in one node may result in a change of state in the connected node'. From my perspective, this paper explains why. The author argues, essentially, that "variation in network structure explains variation in outcomes, for a given dynamics." The 'given dynamics' are what describe the way changes of state can happen.

Trusted reporting is needed more than ever, so let’s have school newspapers pave the way for the next generation #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78010 As long-time readers know, newspapers are in my blood. I delivered them for years as a kid, created my own paper in grade five, dedicated most of my undergraduate years to writing and editing one, and to this day produce this here newsletter. So I love the idea of promoting student journalism.

The U.S. had the blueprint for a high-class education--but abandoned it #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78009

Expert in the loop - Learnlets #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78008 I'm linking to this post just for this sentence: "I think that just a 'human in the loop' could be wrong. Having an expert in the loop, as Markus suggested, may be a more appropriate situation." Image: Guo, et al..

Trusting your own judgement on 'AI' is a huge risk #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78007 This is a lovely argument based on the following live of reasoning: "What 'AI', homeopathy, naturopathy, and psychic cons have in common isn’t just that they tap into a number of biases and 'effects' that the human mind is vulnerable to." And fair enough, we have no real protection from being scammed. As Baldur Bjarnason writes, "Intelligence is not a defence.

The AI workspace that works for you #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78006 From the website: "This prompt turns AI into an expert AI instructor who crafts interactive, stepwise courses on any subject, tailored for learners of all backgrounds. It starts by asking users about their topic, learning goals, prior experience, and interests." It's set up for use on Notion, an AI workspace. I tried it out (asking for a refresher course on modal logic) and it's ok.

Academy Online #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78005 From the email launch announcement: "Part of our larger Academy Center for Open Instructional Innovation and Professional Development,  Academy Online offers a number of professional development opportunities to help grow your open education programs, develop ZTC pathways, and curate OER.... a series of free, asynchronous courses designed to introduce you to (the) Open Education toolbox...

Meta and Yandex are de-anonymizing Android users’ web browsing identifiers #oldaily https://www.downes.ca/post/78004 One thing that should be clear about presenting one's identity to a web service or application is that it should be voluntary (defined more formally as 'informed consent'). The tracking deployed here by Meta and Yandex are exactly the opposite of that. "Browsers access (localhost ports on the 127.0.0.1 IP address) ports without user notification.