OLDaily

Philosophers on Philosophy: The 2020 PhilPapers Survey
David Bourget, David Chalmers, PhilPapers, 2021/11/05

This article is pretty dry reading and you'll need a background in philosophy to know what's being asked, because entire schools of thought are being summed up in a single word or short phrase. I reference it here because I took this survey (I am registered with publications on PhilPapers). Looking at the results, I can safely say that my responses mapped out a distinctively minority position, though I would be lying if I said I were surprised.

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Top 15 AI-driven EdTech startups in 2021
Xenoss, 2021/11/05

This is a list of AI-driven educational applications sorted into four categories: AI-driven language learning, adaptive learning, assessment, and AI software for kids. Readers of OLDaily will know that there are many more applications of AI in teaching and learning. Probably the most interesting statistic for each of these is the amount of funding, usually in the millions and often in the the tens of millions. Via Reddit.

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Being a subversive teacher educator
Pete Boyd, BERA Blog, 2021/11/05

I think this post adopts a very narrow meaning of 'subversive' which mostly boils down to this: opposing a "a top-down view that favours the development of ‘evidence-based’ rather than ‘research-informed’ practice." This ‘research-informed’ practice embodies three elements: "values-based rather than complying with institutional accountability pressures"; "include administrators and students as well as academics"; view teaching and research as "inseparable parts of a single process." This to me (admittedly as an outsider) feels more like replacing one form of authoritarianism with another. See also Neil Postman's Teaching as a Subversive Activity (185 page PDF), this interview of Melinda Anderson by Jennifer Gonzalez. Or this post by Kulamakan (Mahan) Kulasegaram where we read, "Our desire for subversive pedagogy must inevitably contend with an equally strong discourse: standardization of practice and outcomes." Or Subversive Teaching: the TED talk.

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What the Near Future of Artificial Intelligence Could Be
Luciano Floridi, Philosophy & Technology, 2021/11/05

"AI is best understood as a reservoir of agency that can be used to solve problems" which it accomplishes "by detaching the ability to perform a task successfully from any need to be intelligent in doing so," writes Luciano Floridi Viewed from this perspective, "understanding the future of AI also means understanding the nature of problems where such a detachment may be technically feasible in theory and economically viable in practice." This can be determined by considering the complexity of the problem to be solved. "In short, we will seek to create hybrid or synthetic data to deal with complex problems, by ludifying tasks and interactions in enveloped environments." Good article, well reasoned, by someone who has thought deeply about these issues.

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Lrnkey
Hayk Hovhannisyan, Product Hunt, 2021/11/05

When we talk about learning resources, people usually think in terms of content and multimedia. But to a learner, people are a resource as well. Lrnkey is a startup that provides access to tutors at an hourly rate. I can't vouch for the quality of the tutors (and this would seem to me to be a big unknown). And there would need to be a way of ranking tutors (by quality, availability, price) as the number increased (it's currently very small). Still, why wouldn't you provide access to tutors this way?

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