Stephen Downes

This is a fast-moving story that begins with Google removing search from schools that ban AI and ends uncertainly as it's set against the background of a dramatic election that completely shifted the balance of power in the U.S. "In a blog post titled "Designing responsible AI for learning," Google said it's bringing AI into its Classroom offering with a product called Guided Learning. The New York Times published a story saying that the company will turn off search for schools that reject AI entirely." Google says it intended to give schools more choice, but this sounds like the opposite.

Maha Bali is of two minds in this post. On the one hand, when it comes to talking about AI in education, she writes, "I have to focus more on supporting others to reach their own conclusions, rather than try to enforce my own, through dialogue and experience and reflection." On the other hand, there's the whole list of problems of AI use, which she lists again in this article. She would like to see collective action, "and yet we can't get everyone to agree on one thing, because not only are harms and benefits of AI different per discipline, it is also different per human being using it."

What strikes me about Tim Klapdor's six dimensions of learning is how much overlap there is with my own critical literacies (note that I am not suggesting anything wrong here; I appreciate the similarity, nothing more). The middle four especially. I like the idea of a 'perceptual' dimension of learning; I want to think about that more. And I'm not sure I'd make 'creating' a separate dimension; to me, read-write are just two sides of the same coin. Overall, the broader system Klapdor is constructing is a useful frame (paraphrased): the dimensions and domains provide the structural framework; the learning types translate that framework into a learner-centred perspective; and then the learning patterns then provide building block.

Good discussion of micro-credentials, and in particular, how we trust that a micro-credential is worth anything in the first place. After all, anyone can issue a micro-credential (I actually built it into some of my MOOCs years ago). But why trust them? Wendy Palmer looks to food lables as an analogy. "I keep coming back to the food certification example. We have different standards and certification arrangements for different purposes, whether that's organic production, food safety or country of origin. Each tells us something different about the product. We don't expect one certification to cover everything, but we do need to understand what each certification means, who is responsible for it and what standards have been met."

Lance Eaton describes a ChatGPT skill he's working on to create audiobooks out of plan text versions of those books (being clear that he's doing so only for audiobooks that don't exist and never will. I like this concept; I've also tried ElevenLab Reader (and even paid for it once) but wasn't impressed. And there's tons of stuff I'd like to listen to while driving, cycling or in the evening. Eaton also reviews ElevenLab's "full cast" production of Frankenstein (you can listen for free but you have to sign up - hang on to your wallet). I have a deep love for Old Time Radio and can see how well this could play - but there's a long way to go before matching the innovation and creativity of Philip Marlowe or Johnny Dollar.

I've referenced articles in Rest of World numerous times and so find itunfortunate toreport that it "faces a January shutdown after six years as founder Sophie Schmidt searches for a new home amid declining web traffic." It was started with $60 million of seed money, which was probably what made it unsustainable, though its own decisions probably didn't help: "Rest of World attempted to strengthen its readership by prioritising Western audiences, increasing its focus on markets such as China and introducing a free registration requirement for regular readers." Most articles I've looked at on this attribute the decline to Facebook's changing piorities. "News publishers contend with declining referrals from search engines and social platforms, alongside the emergence of AI tools that answer questions without directing users to news websites." Related (via Alan Levine): Global Voices "is an international, multilingual community of writers, translators, and human rights activists." They're also facing a funding shortfall.