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

Can machines have empathy and other emotions?
Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, 2023/06/26

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Donald Clark is sure to raise hackles with this: "All too often we latch on to a noun in the learning world without thinking much about what it actually means, what experts in the field say about it and bandy it about as though it were a certain truth. But trying to induce emotion in the teaching and design process may not be not that relevant or only relevant to the degree that mimicing emotion may be enough." Indeed. But he is not wrong. His argument is essentially that appeals to emotion are based on "loose language" standing in for proper attention to data and signaling, which may well be as effetcively done by an AI as a human. It's also, I think, a short cut to argue that computers cannot be teachers because they lack emotion - this becomes clear when we ask just what it is, exactly, that they lack. Must they have the same feelings as a human? Or just the same response.

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Technical Specification for Digital Credentials and Digital Trust Services
Digital Governance Council, 2023/06/26

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This specification is proposed by the Digital Governance Council, a Canadian organization that lists several government departments along with banks, tech companies (including edtech), cloud services and other important companies as members. It's 'free' for non-commercial use though it will take you through a spamwall if you want to download it (it can be read without a download on the website (this link to the 29 page PDF might work)). It mostly lists a set of requirements for compliance and makes suggestions for external specifications, such as the W3C's DID. In the appendix, where the real work is done, it defines a 'credential' as "an assertion of identity, qualification, competence, authority, rights, privileges, permissions, status, eligibility, or asset ownership (or a combination of these)," identifies two types of information in the credential (information about the credential (including credential proofs), and assertions about the person holding the credential), and types of credentials.  

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Teaching AI Ethics : The Series
Leon Furze, 2023/06/26

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Overall I thought this was a pretty good set of resources, though I would be inclined to call it 'Topics in AI Ethics', since despite wrapping things up pretty well in the final section on Power, the series really is a grab-bag of the most-often discussed issues in the field. And it's more of a curriculum than a course. Each of the nine parts provides an overview of the topic, links to some resources, and suggets some learning activities. What it doesn't do, to my mind, is to get deep into what we mean by ethics, and how our ethical presumptions shape what we think is important and what we accept as outcomes of the use of AI. Even an introductory course needs to talk about this. But if this doesn't bother, this is a good resource to use to introduce people to AI ethics.

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Digital Canadian dollar
Bank of Canada, 2023/06/26

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Not directly related to edtech but I'm sure it wouldhave an impact: The Bank of Canada is "exploring the possibility of issuing a digital form of the Canadian dollar, also known as a central bank digital currency (CBDC)." There was a consultation on the idea last month. This page describes the concept, outlines the research they're doing, and links to social media () where you can follow developments. They add, "For a deep dive into digital currency, have a look at these resources: Understanding money in the 21st century—what money does and how we're handling it in the digital age; and The road to digital money—how you might pay for things in the future." I haven't really handled actual currency for several years (in Holland I did not touch a single actual Euro) so it doesn't seem like a big jump to me. Though: would you have the same privacy as when you use cash? They make promises - but we also say the government very quietly ask Shopify for all its transaction records for the last six years, so maybe not.

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“AI-driven Legal Apprenticeships” [Kubicki] plus other AI & legaltech related postings
Daniel S. Christian, Learning Ecosystems, 2023/06/26

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Daniel Christian compiles some articles on AI and education in law, including AI-driven Legal Apprenticeships by Josh Kubicki: "Here are three scenarios that might illustrate what such a combination could look like: Scenario One – Personalized Curriculum Development; Scenario Two – On-Demand Tutoring and Mentoring; Scenario Three – AI-assisted Peer Networks and Collaborative Learning." Also, AI and lawyer training from Reuters, and 3 ways AI supports the evolution of legal ops from Lexology.

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Analysing educational dialogue around shared artefacts in technology-mediated contexts: A new coding framework
Sara Hennessy, EdArXiv, 2023/06/26

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This article is not written with clarity in mind, but it's a comprehensive background and description of the Tech-SEDA (Scheme for Educational Dialogue Analysis) framewowrk for studying the use of artifacts in online dialogue, where "dialogue  here refers to interaction characterised by building cumulatively on others' ideas to jointly construct knowledge and critically but respectfully challenging and evaluating multiple perspectives and reasons." Be prepared to spend a lot of time with this article; it's densely packed and readers would benefit from expanding it into their own notes on the subject (at least, that's what I do). Hennessy is now develop resources around the framework, including the Toolkit for Systematic Educational Dialogue Analysis to "make classroom dialogue more visible, developing critical awareness that supports pedagogical change and enhances student participation."

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New Reading Tools to the Rescue From Google and Microsoft
Miguel Guhlin, TechNotes Blog, 2023/06/26

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This is what to watch for in edtech: small focused tools with a lot of power. Miguel comments, "it's clear Google wants to improve," writes Miguel Guhlin. "Whether it has achieved that goal in its latest offering, you will need to decide.... their product appears limited to Android and home use." For a school-friendly (his term) tool, he points to Microsoft. " Reading Progress "assists educators in checking student reading fluency." And Reading Coach helps students review unfamiliar words, use text-to-speech, and define unfamiliar words.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

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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