OLDaily

Welcome to Online Learning Daily, your best source for news and commentary about learning technology, new media, and related topics.

Introducing watsonx: The future of AI for business
Kareem Yusuf, IBM Blog, 2023/05/09

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This isn't as splashy as chatGPT but probably no less important. This post announces watsonx (no capitalization for no good reason) its "next-generation" AI, consisting of three components (take a breath now): "the watsonx.ai studio for new foundation models, generative AI and machine learning; the watsonx.data fit-for-purpose store for the flexibility of a data lake and the performance of a data warehouse; plus the watsonx.governance toolkit, to enable AI workflows that are built with responsibility, transparency and explainability." The directly address GPT's shortcomings: "businesses need to feel confident that their models can be relied upon not to "hallucinate" facts or use inappropriate language when interacting with customers." There are tools and such, but there's also a pretty steep learning curve. Just reading all the blog posts that came with this release will fill your afternoon.

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How are HE leaders responding to generative AI? - HEPI
Mary Curnock Cook, Nic Newman, Higher Education Policy Institute, 2023/05/09

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According to this article, most of the Jisc-Emerge HE Edtech Board are "ready to understand and use generative AI in the education mission rather than ban it." For example, it "could offer breakthroughs for students with disabilities," write the authors. Also, "many in the meeting welcomed the opportunity to consider more authentic assessment approaches." There was criticism of a "fundamental lack of openness about how ChatGPT, for example, ensures the quality of the judgements it makes and the quality of the information informing those judgements,": which is quite fair. p.s. I've added the Jisc National centre for AI blog to my RSS reading list. Related: Generative Artificial Intelligence Ban or replace?

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Digital Learning Strategy
British Columbia, 2023/05/09

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British Columbia has released its new digital learning strategy document "intended to provide a provincial synthesis of priorities and recommended actions for the post-secondary system." There are three major elements: policy, which includes things like digital literacy and ed tech ethics; collaboration, including joint licensing and open access resources; and digital equity, which takes into account device access, indigenous IP, and pilot projects. The document isn't intended to create new policy or requirements, just to offer a roll-up of those that are already out there. A useful exercise. Via Rajiv Jhangiani.

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UDL Forward
Wisconsin Statewide UDL team, 2023/05/09

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So this is pretty interesting, described as an "AI-powered bot is designed to answer all your burning Universal Design for Learning (UDL) questions using carefully curated responses from our own library of materials. It's like having a UDL expert at your fingertips!" I tried it out (pictured) and found it to be really narrow - probably too narrow - in scope. But the concept is intriguing. It was created using an app called WisdomAI and Searchie. "WisdomAI extracts the most important points from multiple sources in your content library, and distills it down into one conversational, fully referenced response."

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The open-source AI community
wemsyn, Reddit, 2023/05/09

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Wondering whether "the open-source AI community could exclude 'closed AI' players from taking advantage of community-generated models and datasets?" This Reddit writer asked chatGPT to suggest "a license that is completely permissive (like Apache 2.0 or MIT), except to certain companies, which are completely barred from using the software in any context." In response, chatGPT came up with this: "The Software may only be used for non-commercial purposes." The proposed licensed also listed the companies to be banned, but I would suggest the list of potential bad actors is a lot longer than the four listed. I can see an NC  license for the input data, but for the models or algorithms? I'm not so sure.

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Why I Retired My Webmention Server
Wouter Groeneveld, Brain Baking, 2023/05/09

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As readers know, I've tinkered with implementing things like WebMentions and Microformats and Indieweb and Brid.gy over the years. Readers will also know my general lack of success, partially (I argue) because of significantly poor documentation, and partially because it's overly cumbersome. I do love the concept of #indieweb and won't let that go, though. But there has to be a better way. In this post, Wouter Groeneveld offers a number fo reasons why he's giving up on it, citing everything from spam to maintenance issues to privacy concerns to the dearth of good comments coming from anywhere.

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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