Matt’s Notes
Hello & good day! We’re glad you’re spending some of your time with us, as we move further into the holiday season!
For all you audio #ednontech listeners… we salute you!
I have quite a few of these emails to self! Lots of memos… what should/could/would I be doing? What am I doing?
As per all the awesome Stoic writers… the only thing that matters, ultimately, is the future! Because the present and the past are one at the same, at the end of the day!
So… those dudes figured that much out a couple of thousand years ago, which is ultimately not very much time whatsoever in the grand scale of… uh… cognitive evolution! Or something!
ANYWAY…
Your Scheduled Payment for Camtasia 2022
I bought the product. I use the product a lot. A LOT! So what’s one hundred dollars for a year of updates and maintenance and whatnot? Fact: a hundred bucks is a lot more today than it was this time last year. Maybe I’ll just go without paying until it glitches out… and then pay? And maybe it just won’t glitch out? Nothing ventured, nothing gained says I!
UNESCO: How are learners being taught and informed about climate change around the world?
One of my favorite newsletters is the UNESCO Highlights on LinkedIn. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’ve got real ambivalence towards LinkedIn but it is good at what it does. This particular edition is chock full of high-level info, descriptions of some innovative and compelling educational initiatives around the world, and a veritable Internet Tonne of timely weblinks. I can’t think of much email I actually enjoy on a regular basis… this is one of those!
New Brunswick town declares state of emergency due to ‘unprecedented’ homelessness – The Globe and Mail
I found this on the Google news panel that seems to appear with search on my phone.
Saint Stephen, NB is pretty close to Saint John, where I live, as far as it goes.
And so, I’ve held onto this article which describes a situation some estimated 70 are homeless in a town of around 4,510 people… or approximately 1.55% of the population. In terms of Canada, as a whole it is estimated that there are approximately 235,000 homeless… or, of a population of 40,097,761(StatsCan), approximately 0.59%. I’m no stats genius, but my reading of this is that St. Stephen has more than 2.5 times more homeless, as a percentage of the population, than Canada as a whole. This is more pronounced when you look at the provincial numbers… of 776,827 (StatsCan), an estimated 1100 are homeless, or 0.14% of the population as a whole. That means the homeless population in St. Stephen is more than 11 times higher than average for the province. Unless I’m completely reading these numbers wrong. Which I don’t think I am!
I’ve seen a wide range of homeless contexts over the past 10 years, particularly while living in BC. And while I get the sense the numbers and percentages here are lower, it’s only been since living in Saint John that as the weather turns I’ve noticed tents in public spaces… notably the Loyalist Cemetery and also in a Waterloo Street vacant lot. There is some good information, along with some shrill rhetoric, over at the Reddit Saint John page…
Surprise, You Have Cancer! (Podcast)
I saw this on Instagram, first. My podcasting partner Dan over at Today New Brunswick, Tomorrow the World, hit the like button… and so it made it into my feed… and from there, the email inbox!
Ryan is somebody I knew of from high school. We didn’t travel in the same circles… but people from one another’s circles overlapped. Like Dan, from the podcast!
So… he’s around my age. And we kind of grew up around some of the same people. And we both live in New Brunswick… and he’s an educator…
I jumped into episode three… quite arbitrarily… and found that what landed immediately is the warmth between and among the two hosts… Ryan, particularly, is engaging even as he describes experiences I would be challenged to go through…
Plus it’s really funny!
Teaching with AI (OpenAI)
I’m an office worker these days, as far as my educational practice goes.
As such, many of these strategies shared by OpenAI… and many of the FAQ’s… are of limited immediate practical value… as in: will I use these tomorrow or next week? Unlikely.
What I find noteworthy here is that as AI becomes increasingly “normalized”, it’s good to see one of the major players in the space taking its responsibility to educators seriously! I mean, there’s always more you can do… and no doubt there is much critical discourse to be had on the presentation and curatorship of these strategies and questions…
What’re the odds that this time next year we’re hearing this much hype about AI? I’m not a gambling man… but I’d say slim-to-nil!
Doug’s Notes
Ghosts of EdTech Present
The tech part of the phrase “walks taller”.
Although technology has been the dominant force in ed tech, its prevalence in society now means the educational component needs to come to the fore.
Weller, M. (2020). 25 years of ed tech. Athabasca University Press.
Platformization … can be defined as ‘the penetration of infrastructures, economic processes, and governmental frameworks of platforms in different economic sectors and spheres of life’.
… the Covid-19 pandemic has served as a catalyst worldwide for the further platformization, datafication, privatization, and commercialization of educational technology or ‘edtech’—the combined use of hardware, software, administrative services and online educational resources to facilitate learning.
Kerssens, N., & Van Dijck, J. (2023). The platformization of primary education in the Netherlands 1. In The New Digital Education Policy Landscape (pp. 9-28). Routledge.
Sustainable development
The introduction of new technology-assisted learning tools such as mobile devices, smartboards, MOOCs, tablets, laptops, simulations, dynamic visualisations, and virtual laboratories have altered education in schools and institutions.
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Qadri, M. A., & Suman, R. (2022). Understanding the role of digital technologies in education: A review. Sustainable Operations and Computers, 3, 275-285.
Most work within Artificial intelligence in Education (AIEd) can be divided into four main subdomains.
- Reducing teachers’ workload
- Contextualized learning for students
- Revolutionizing assessments
- Intelligent tutoring systems (ITS)
Chaudhry, M. A., & Kazim, E. (2022). Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd): A high-level academic and industry note 2021. AI and Ethics, 1-9.
Best school picnic ever…
Basically, education is facing two options to continue after the pandemic. … Many teachers and officials—often implicitly—follow this view of post-pandemic education as a “shift back to normal”—a pre-digital view.
Another view perceives the introduction and extended use of educational technology during the pandemic not only as a temporary “emergency tool” to bridge the distance between teachers and students but as a fast-track to move the educational system into a digital age.
Kerres, M., & Buchner, J. (2022). Education after the pandemic: What we have (not) learned about learning. Education Sciences, 12(5), 315.
Word of the Podcast
AI PivotTM
Phrase of the Podcast
Have a few different solutions, not just one!
Question of the Podcast
What is the current state of Ed Tech in professional practice?
Thanks being here today! Here’s to an unstressful early winter and pre-holiday!
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