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Innovative Insights: AI success stories from the community
Catherine Barker, JISC, 2024/04/16

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This article offers three examples of the use of AI in a learning concext (it's a bit too early to call them 'success stories' since we don't really have a story of what counts as 'success' in this context). In one example, students are provided "with customisable prompts that they can cut-n-paste from a shared GoogleDoc to save them typing the prompt in." In the second, a 'learning lead' "used Microsoft Copilot to create imaginative discussion prompts for students." In the third, a senior lecturer aims "to normalise the use of GenAI" by putting it in the handbook and offering training sessions.

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My Uber Driver Just Doesn’t Get Student Loan Forgiveness
Frederick Hess, Education Next, 2024/04/16

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Since one assumes the 'President & Fellows of Harvard College' know better, we must conclude that their publication of articles like this is deliberately deceptive. Here's the set-up: Frederick Hess imagines himself in a conversation with an Uber driver about the plan to forgive billions in student debt. "I pay for this car," she (the Uber driver) said. "I paid for community college. These people borrowed money to go to college. They promised to pay it back. Why am I supposed to pay their bills, too?" Well, first, because living in a society isn't a quid pro quo. Second, at tax time an Uber driver is declaring business expenses like car payments, which offset the cost. Third, it is recognition that without addressing tuition fees college is something that could never be accessed by the working class, as used to be the case. And finally, neither students nor Uber drivers should be paying more in taxes than they get back: in a just society, those with the means (including Harvard and its $50 billion endowment) who benefit the most from society should be paying the freight.

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Can Philosophy Be Justified in a Time of Crisis?
Nathan J. Robinson, Current Affairs, 2024/04/16

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"I take the position that a large portion of contemporary academic work is an appalling waste of human intelligence that cannot be justified under any mainstream normative ethics," writes Nathan Robinson. He's writing about philosophy but he could be writing about a lot of academia generally (not all, though, and that's an important distinction). I have asked this question of myself, and knew I'd never be able to just teach philosophy at an institution. It's more important than that. We discussed this morning how we achieve a 'work-life balance' and I replied that I don't have one: my life is my work, and my work is dedicated to making the lives of people better. Singer resonates with me: "we all know it would be wrong to watch a child drown in front of you and do nothing, so why is it okay to let children die far away from you and do nothing?" (P.S. I feel very self-conscious saying stuff like this so mostly I don't, but it's there, behind all my work.)

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New: First Generation Philosophers - Daily Nous
Justin Weinberg, Daily Nous, 2024/04/16

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Justin Weinberg, writes about "anew website features autobiographical essays by philosophers who were first-generation college students" called First Generation Philosophers. It's of interest to me because I also fall into that category of 'first generation philosopher', though I'm uncomfortable with the division of the world into academics and non-academics and of the suggestion that one is of a better class than the other (though of course I'm not from Oxford, Cambridge or Harvard, which 4/5 of the writers here are). Still, it's interesting to see their success at navigating a thin sliver of opportunity afforded by progressive governments during their time and how they are for the most part opposed to the class-based system inherent in traditional academia (even while benefiting from it, though I don't begrudge them that).

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Any Technology Indistinguishable From Magic is Hiding Something
Jason Velazquez, from jason, 2024/04/16

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It's so tiring reading stuff like this: Jason Velazquez writes "Somewhere between the death of our favorite aggregator websites and the world surviving a pandemic, the modern internet was reduced to four companies in a trench coat. You don't have to visit those websites. RSS still exists, aggregators still work. Blogs are still being published by thousands of people around the world." The only person stopping you from stepping outside a paywall-defined and/or toxic meta-site is you. That other internet exists - you have just conditioned yourself to pretend it's not there. Via Dan Gillmor.

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Meta wants to put students and teachers in Quest VR headsets
Jennifer A. Kingson, Axios, 2024/04/16

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"Meta is searching for a killer app for its Quest headsets, which today are primarily used for gaming," writes Jennifer Kingson. "Could it be education?" Um, no. At least, not as the headsets are currently designed, and not for (as illustrated) simulating a meeting across a table (we really don't need more than Zoom for that, or possibly, just a table). As this story makes clear, the real problem being addressed here is Meta's desire to sell more units. That's not a problem education needs to solve. Via Doug Levin, who comments, "it is apparently silly season in edtech."

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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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