OLDaily

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

Canadian Independent Media
Unfettered, 2023/09/01

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A little off-topic, but this resource is useful to me, so I'm including it. This is a "continually updated list of independent Canadian professional, digital-first news outlets." I've read a bunch of these, and subscribe to some. Not all of them are open access. Some of them are objectionable (to me, at least). But in a country where news media are basically controlled by a small number of very self-interested corporations, these outlets provide a valuable alternative. (p.s. student media, as well, should be praised for writing the stories commercial media won't write).

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A New Perceptual Theory of Introspection
Uriah Kriegel, PhilPapers, 2023/09/01

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What is introspection? A way of thinking, certainly. An awareness of oneself. But what sort of thing is it. This paper (18 page PDF) outlines two possibilities: "'psychological perceptualism' is the view that introspective states have the same kind of functional role as perceptual states; 'phenomenological perceptualism' is the view that  introspective states have the same kind of phenomenal character as perceptual states." In other words, introspection is either a type of thinking or it is a type of sensing. Most people would suggest it is the former, but the author suggests, and I agree, that it is rather more like the latter. Specifically, "he introspective attitude (1) shares with the perceptual attitude the feature of representing-as-occurring-now its contents, and (2) resembles the perceptual attitude in representing-as-occurring-in-me its content." Image: Berkeley.

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How to Tell Whether an AI Is Conscious
Jonathan Simon, Robert Long, Daily Nous, 2023/09/01

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Some people may take exception to my assertion in my previous post that AI thinks more or less in the same way a human does. But what is it to 'think like a human does'? If it is 'to be conscious' or something like that, then this article (and the report it is based on) offers a nice starting point for a discussion. "We proceed by investigating whether AI systems perform functions similar to those that scientific theories associate with consciousness," write the authors. What are those functions? The authors provide a list, and provided such a list, "We can apply scientific rigor to the assessment of AI consciousness, in part because... we can identify fairly clear indicators associated with leading theories of consciousness, and show how to assess whether AI systems satisfy them." We can debate about the list, but this approach is much better (to my mind) that blanket assertions that 'AI doesn't think like humansd do'.

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KinderLab Robotics Debuts AI Curriculum for Young Learners
eSchool News staff, eSchool News, 2023/09/01

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I liked seeing this report (more accurately, a reprinted press release) about Thinking with KIBO: Introducing Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Early Grades, released by KinderLab Robotics. I'm less enthusiastic, though, on seeing that two of the four learning objectives are factually inaccurate. One of them says "AI systems (and robots!) make decisions based on input and rules," but modern AI is manifestly not rules based, and it's misleading to say that it is. Second, it states, "AI systems don't really 'think' the way we do at all," but again, the neural networks used by modern AI are in many ways similar to human neural networks, and it is not at all clear that they represent two distinct ways of thinking, as opposed to variations on the same general theme.

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"You have to know about it because your students will be using it." An Interview with Helen Crompton - AACE
Stefanie Panke, AACE, 2023/09/01

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My argument in favour of AI is similar to my argument in favour of online learning. Here's Helen Crompton making the point: "These students might want to get into college, but they don't have the same opportunities. Programs like ChatGPT can act as a literal one-to-one tutor. So imagine that—imagine having the money to pay for a one-on-one tutor, very knowledgeable, with infinite patience, available 24/7. That's what ChatGPT is now providing these students, leveling that playing field. The parents can sit alongside the student while they use ChatGPT and say, 'Oh, that's great. I didn't know that. I've learned something.'" I see a lot of fear, uncertainty and doubt in the educational blogosphere about the ethical implications and all the rest,and these concerns are valid, but they need to be held up against the benefit this technology will provide. Good interview.

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Expanding scope of Kirkpatrick model from training effectiveness review to evidence-informed prioritization management for cricothyroidotomy simulation
Victor Kai-Lam Cheung, Nam-Hung, Chia Sze-Sze So, George Wing-Yiu Ng, Eric Hang-Kwong So, Heliyon, 2023/09/01

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The Kirkpatrick scale is a method for assessing the effectiveness of (online) learning activities. Most evaluations address the first level - the student reaction, as typically measured using a course evaluation. This paper (14 page PDF) describes expanding the evaluation using a modified scale in a very specific instance of medical education (as indicated in the title). The authors write, "it was a breakthrough to examine potential impacts on monetary and societal values at Level-4 and Level-5 and successful organization change in healthcare simulation training at Level-0." Of most interest to educational researchers, to my mind, will be the organization and presentation of this research, which is very different from what we would find in a typical education research journal.

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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