OLDaily

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

AI and the collapse of a shared reality
David Truss, Daily-Ink by David Truss, 2024/08/14

---

So here's the troubling truth: "our shared reality has collapsed. AI generated fakes spread like wildfire through echo chambers of like-minded groups, and even when discovered to be fake, there is no effort to make corrections if the fake fits the group's narrative… and any real media that doesn't fit that same reality is easily dismissed as a fake." But I am more sanguine. I don't think we ever had a shared reality to begin with - my reality, for example, growing up as a working class labourer in eastern Ontario, is very different from that of, say, the Harvard educated author writing news and magazine articles. Their view of the world was deemed to be 'shared reality' but it never squared with mine, and goodness knows, I never did trust anything they had to say about it. News media have always misrepresented the world (to wit); they didn't need AI to do it. Once we embrace this - the idea that we can't trust media at face value - we will be prepared to move forward. Related: first bilingual team fact checking network in Canada.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Our Vanishing Internet: Pirate Wires Interview with Dr. Larry Sanger
Mike Solana, Pirate Wires, 2024/08/14

---

This article interviews "Larry Sanger on the establishment takeover of wikipedia, corporate control of online knowledge, why information disappears from the internet, and more." Sanger says, "They started cracking the whip, actually... I actually saw the wokeness revolution, or whatever you want to call it, happen right before my eyes while I was there." To be clear, Sanger's view was that Wikipedia should have been much more controlled in what content it accepted and who it should allow to be editors. Read my coverage of the evolution of his views: here, here, here and here.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Exploring how teaching assistants powered by AI can understand and support students
Elvis Ortega, Marta Arguedas, Thanasis Daradoumis, BERA Blog, 2024/08/14

---

This post reports on a study that looked at research on AI-powered teaching assistants. "These assistants can help students manage feelings such as anxiety and to build confidence, making learning more engaging," write the authors. It's important to look at more than just test results when evaluating the assistants, including "how students feel about the assistant and their learning experience, assessed through surveys and interviews." For a service like, say, Duolingo, engagement and retention matter much more than test scores.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Paris 2024: The AI tech aiming to identify future Olympians
Peter Ball, BBC, 2024/08/14

---

According to this article, "Olympics fans are trying a new AI-powered system to see if they may be able to win a gold medal one day... This information is then analysed to assess a person's power, explosiveness, endurance, reaction time, strength and agility." This of course is just a toy, but it is a powerful demonstration of the idea that AI could be used to assess not only actual performance but also potential for future performance. Sure, this raises any number of ethical and technical questions - but no more so than sending sports talent scouts to high schools.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Automattic launches AI writing tool that aims to make WordPress blogs more readable and succinct
Paul Sawers, TechCrunch, 2024/08/14

---

This is interesting. Automattic, the owner of WordPress.com, has launched an AI tool called Write Brief with AI to help bloggers write more clearly. To be clear, this isn't part of open access WordPress - rather, users will need to purchase a Jetpack subscription. As Paul Sawers writes, "the tool joins a swathe of writing assistants launched lately by the likes of privacy app maker Proton, as well as the mighty Google" (the flowery writing in this article feels like it's taunting 'write brief' style applications).

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Astonishing figures and insights from Harvard Undergraduate Survey on Generative AI
Donald Clark, Donald Clark Plan B, 2024/08/14

---

It's Harvard, so we obviously should be wary of drawing any generalizations, but it's hard to disagree with Donald Clark here: "The impact on undergraduates is clear and cannot be ignored. They're using it. That use will not go away. It is often said that engagement is a problem in learning. That appears to be true in this case but the lack of engagement is with faculty and administrators.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

Heeyo built an AI chatbot to be a billion kids' interactive tutor and friend
Rebecca Bellan, TechCrunch, 2024/08/14

---

Here's another application designed to use AI to interact with young people. "The narrative isn't about giving lonely kids an AI to be friends with," said Qu. "It's more about helping the kids learn about what they're interested in learning about. We also want kids to develop interests in certain things, so we use their favorite character to help them cultivate that interest or teach them something in a way that doesn't feel like teaching." Again, we might raise ethical or practical considerations, but if it works we need to rethink our attitudes. The question isn't "is something like this the best possible solution" for a young person, the question is "is this better than nothing?" Because my focus, at least, is on the many many children who have nothing. Via Doug Levin.

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post][Share]

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.

There are many ways to read OLDaily; pick whatever works best for you:

• Read in your web browser on this web page, updated weekdays
• Receive a daily or weekly email newsletter by subscribing here
• Subscribe to the RSS feed using your favourite feed reader
• Follow @OLDaily@mastodon.social on Mastodon or elsewhere in the fediverse
• Follow @OLDaily on Twitter
• Integrate the open API using the JSON feed