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Feature Article
21 Answers
Stephen Downes, Half an Hour, 2024/02/23

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Ben Williamson argues that the 21 arguments he summarizes "demonstrate how AI cannot be considered inevitable, beneficial or transformative in any straightforward way." Of course, nobody is actually proposing this. Similarly, nobody disagrees that AI "requires public deliberation and ongoing oversight." It would of course be wrong to speculate on any perceived actual intents behind the posting of these 21 arguments, but the suggestion that emerges is that they appear to tip the scale against the use of AI in education. But they are, for the most part, easily addressed, and that is the purpose of this post.

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Collaborative Vs Cooperative Learning: Detailed Comparison 2024
Alizey Usman, TaughtUp, 2024/02/23

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Think this is a bit of a misrepresentation of cooperative learning, though I admit that it is my own view that might be idiosyncratic. What I think the article gets right is that it depicts collaborative learning as students working in a group to accomplish a task together, while in cooperative learning students work independently on separate tasks that only later come together. But this article also suggests cooperative learning involves greater teacher control, where students work "to achieve a goal set by a specific instructor or teacher under specific rules" and that "cooperative learning requires more supervision and direction from the instructor." That's not how I see it. My version of cooperative learning has each student (or small group of students; it's up to them) working on their own self-defined tasks, and coming together to share resources or exchange ideas that are mutually beneficial.

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There is More to Reliable Chatbots than Providing Scientific References: The Case of ScopusAI
Teresa Kubacka, The Scholarly Kitchen, 2024/02/23

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A subhead states the main point of the post: "suboptimal performance of ScopusAI reveals the real complexity of creating a reliable AI assistant." This is demonstrated through the use of questions about a term used in text, 'electromagnons', that is typically abbreviated as 'magnons' in abstracts. So, sure, you can generate suboptimal results using AI as a search interface (and you would also generate suboptimal results using an abstract search). You can't (yet) find stuff that isn't there. What the search really needed is the thing Elsevier doesn't want to provide: free and open full text access. This is ironic give that Elsevier's own Responsible AI Principles declare that "transparency creates trustworthiness". So, sure, the Scopus AI searchbot is still a work in progress. But so, it would appear, is the system of scholarly publishing as a whole. Via Paul Pival.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]

Moore's Scofflaws
Bryan Cantrill, Oxide, 2024/02/23

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If I had the money I'd just install my own cloud computing system. I could put it in the basement. Or the attic. Of course, I'd have to pay for a persistent internet connection, and the way things are today, I'd probably have to hire someone to manage it for me. But the dream (my dream, at least) is to be able to have this sort of thing at a price people can afford with everything set up. That's why I'm interested in products like Oxide, which arrives in a single box, pre-configured, with all the (open source) software you need, already set up. Now it's still a bit beyond me to either pay for or set up such a system , but I can see it incrementally getting closer, and gradually (one hopes) putting money-farms like AWS out of business. Image: Oxide-Fundzilla.

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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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