OLDaily

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

Introducing Gemini: our largest and most capable AI model
Google, 2023/12/06

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Google has announced its competitor to GPT4, called Gemini, "available to select customers, developers, partners and safety and responsibility experts for early experimentation and feedback." It will be added to Bard for wider access next year. Via Gary Marcus, who suggests that large language models may be reaching a plateau. "GPT-5 isn't here after a year despite immense commercial desire (and) the fact that Google, with all its resources, did NOT blow away GPT-4 could be telling."

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Non-Indigenous Instructors Teaching about Indigenous Content: Reflections and Recommendations from Indigenous Ways of Knowing and Pedagogy
Manu Sharma, Peggy Shannon-Baker, International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 2023/12/06

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This article (11 page PDF) discusses four foundations of indigenous ways of knowing and pedagogies: the relationship between the land and pedagogies; a pedagogy based in reciprocity and stewardship; oral and storytelling traditions; and learning from elders as "essential to preserving and maintaining Indigenous culture, language, and knowledge." What's important here (to my mind) is to ensure that both Indigenous and non-Indigenous students experience for themselves an Indigenous way of seeing and being in the world. For Indigenous students, especially, this helps them see their own values and culture reflected in what they learn, and not only a dominant western European philosophy of colonialism and exploitation of land and people. The authors "stress the importance of (1) acknowledging land as a conduit for domination, (2) recognizing all who teach us, and (3) Indigenous guest lecturers and intergenerational learning." Image: Zidny, et al.

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Better Images of AI
2023/12/06

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These are indeed better images of AI. They're also human-made. "We are a non-profit creating more realistic and inclusive images of artificial intelligence. Visit our growing repository available for anyone to use for free under CC licences, or just to use as inspiration for more helpful and diverse representations of AI." Via Alan Levine.

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The fediverse is an opportunity learned societies can’t ignore
Björn Brembs, London School of Economics, 2023/12/06

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Scholarly society often derive much of their income from pulishing and have often sided with commercial publishers against scholarship, writes Björn Brembs. But "there is a reason these organisations were called 'societies' before they became publishers." It's in the name: "supporting scholars in making connections to like-minded individuals, exchanging ideas and promoting their respective fields of scholarly interest – in short 'socialising'." We're a long way from those days. But maybe a return is possible: "where scholarly societies have seriously engaged with social technologies, they are using them not just for broadcasting, but for scholarly exchange and to facilitate social interactions, such as debate, discussion and critique among all persons interested in their research, not just their members."

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TB872: Critical Social Learning Systems (CSLS)
Open Thinkering, 2023/12/06

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As Doug Belshaw says, this is an extremely practical concept. A Critical Social Learning System (CSLS) (no Wikipedia page) "implies viewing the world from as many different perspectives as possible and from a systemic perspective to use those different worldviews to inform the other."  (From Blackmore, p. 35). I would note it was practically impossible to find an actual definition online. According to Belshaw, ChatGPT informs us that "Richard Bawden's work... integrates systems thinking with critical reflection in addressing complex social and environmental issues, particularly in agriculture." The image is from Richard Bawden, p. 45 in the same volume, probably behind a paywall (I have access in my office (but access to a simple blog post on the same subject is blocked)). But it's all good stuff.

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The Indian Challenge to Blockchains: Digital Public Goods
Alex Tabarrok, Marginal Revolution, 2023/12/06

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This article describes an Indian alternative to blockchain networks called 'digital public goods', an open source set of applications composed of "the India Stack, a collection that includes identity (Aadhaar), payments (UPI) and digital data sharing (e.g. digital lockers)." It's almost the opposite of corporate-driven data networks: "The development of digital public goods relies on funding from non-profits, governments, and private consortiums, raising questions about long-term sustainability. These goods need regular maintenance and updates, and some require backend support." It's something that governments elsewhere may want to look at to ensure access and security for everyone in a digital economy. Via O'Reilly.

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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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