OLDaily

The lady vanishes
Ann-Sophie Barwich, Aeon, 2022/04/20

This article asks the question of why Mary Hesse, author of the now-classic Models and Analogies in Science (and the Encyclopedia of Philosophy article of the same name) seems to have been omitted from the history of the philosophy of science. It's a good question, and as someone who studied precisely this subject at university, I would also ask why she was in no way mentioned in the curriculum. I looked to the Standford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, which I frequently cite here, and despite the importance of her work there's no article (though she is at least given due credit by Frigg and Hartman in an article on scientific models and by Bartha in an article on analogical reasoning). The Wikpedia article is a stub. "The use of historical figures and lineages can never be more than shortcuts to point at one's own understanding and field of vision," writes Barwich, "But when the shortcuts bypass all the women, they begin to look like deliberate detours."

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The Cruelty of the Adjunct System
Alexandra Bradner, Blog of the APA, 2022/04/20

This opinion article is a strongly worded denunciation of a system that is, according to author Alexandra Bradner, unjust and dishonest. "Colleges are paying people with the same credentials drastically different wages for the same work, and colleges are not paying individuals what they deserve," she writes, and "families do not pay $20–40K a year to have their kids take classes from a rotating series of newly minted PhDs on five-month gigs whose attention is consumed by their low salary and job insecurity." I think she has a point on both counts. For completeness, I checked on conditions in Europe for comparison and found numerous similarities. Academia in general has an ethics problem, I would say.

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Artificial intelligence applications in Latin American higher education: a systematic review
Sdenka Zobeida Salas-Pilco, Yuqin Yang, International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education, 2022/04/20

From the abstract: "this review examines AI applications in three educational processes: learning, teaching, and administration... the main AI applications in education are: predictive modelling, intelligent analytics, assistive technology, automatic content analysis, and image analytics." Ah, I love a well-written abstract. Anyhow, as the title suggests, this article (20 page PDF) approaches the subject from a Latin American context, where higher education "has shifted toward massification and universalization after initially providing access only to the elite" and faces "challenges, such as educational inequality, delays in graduation, and high dropout rates among students with low socioeconomic status." AI is being adopted in the region, albeit more slowly in education than in other fields, and suffers from "a lack of attention to ethics and data privacy." Good report. Brief. Clear. Image: Wikipedia.

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2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report | Teaching and Learning Edition
Kathe Pelletier, et.al., EDUCAUSE, 2022/04/20

The EDUCAUSE Horizon Report (58 page PDF) is harder to criticize than its NMC predecessors because it takes a much broader approach, offering fifteen trends spread across five categories. But it still has its signature list of "those key technologies and practices they believe will have a significant impact on the future of postsecondary teaching and learning":

• AI for Learning Analytics
• AI for Learning Tools
• Hybrid Learning Spaces
• Mainstreaming Hybrid/Remote Learning Modes
• Microcredentialing
• Professional Development for Hybrid/Remote Teaching

Or, if I had to summarize: AI, hybrid, and skills. Which gives the report a surprise factor of exactly zero, though there is a value I suppose in not taking a risk on any of the more interesting future tech trends ranging from the metaverse to web3 to the decentralized learning economy.

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Intel calls its AI that detects student emotions a teaching tool. Others call it 'morally reprehensible.'
Kate Kaye, Protocol, 2022/04/20

This article describes a partnership between Intel and and a company called Classroom Technologies, which sells Class, virtual school software that runs on top of Zoom, to integrate an AI-based technology "which Intel claims its system can detect whether students are bored, distracted or confused by assessing their facial expressions and how they're interacting with educational content." If you're wondering why a startup would gain such traction, its co-founder and CEO is Michael Chasen, formerly of Blackboard fame. The usual criticisms are raised, including the assertion that emotions are too complex to classify with one-word labels, and that their expression varies from culture to culture. To me, it's more important to ask whether the company would conduct itself ethically, which could be a challenge. This article offers a good thorough look at the plan, which is still in the vaporware stages.

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I brought my childhood imaginary friend back to life using A.I.
Lucas Rizzotto, Threadreader, 2022/04/20

I have no idea of knowing whether even one word of this thread is true, but it also doesn't matter. It tells the story of Lucas Rizzotto and his imaginary friend Magnetron, a microwave oven. As an adult, Rizzotto programmed the microwave with a 100-page back story and @OpenAI's #GPT3. According to the story, the experiment worked, but then Magnetron went into some dark places. Did it happen? Don't know? Could it happen? Don't know. Is it a good cautionary tale? Absolutely.

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OER Sustainability Business Models
encore+, 2022/04/20

This post begins with what Konkol et al. (2021) call the paradox "that generating revenue out of OER is not intended, but ignoring income can make OER unsustainable". Well, maybe, but ignoring income can may anything unsustainable, and it is equally important to consider the other side of the equation: expenses. Anyhow, this post provides a quick survey of sustainability models from Konkol, then offers some alternatuive formulations, including (from Belleflamme & Jacqmin, 2015) some commercially focused models. Nothing really new here, but the article does signify the recycling of the same core ideas for a new generation.

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