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Singularity pronoun
“I love the fact that when you are logging into ChatGPT it asks you to confirm that you are NOT a robot,” Michael Sankey (Charles Darwin U), via Linkedin. But it can easily give you a thousand words explaining you are.
There’s more in the Mail
In Features this morning
The pitch for merging Uni Adelaide and Uni SA is it would, “unlock benefits far beyond collaboration and scale, making transformational investments in both teaching and research,” (CMM December 8). It might well work for research – as Nicholas Fisk and Daniel Owens (UNSW) explain HERE.
plus Robert Vanderburg and Anthony Weber (both CQU) on students as partners against cheating. Sally Kift’s first 2023 selection for her series, Needed now in learning and teaching, HERE.
and Amanda Janssen (Uni SA) and Amy Milka (Uni Adelaide) report on academic integrity experts responding to the challenge of ChatGPT.
What fresh VET hell is this?
The current VET system has 1200 qualifications, 1500 skill sets, and 15,000 Units of Competency – Jobs and Skills Australia will get on to it
According to the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, the peak body will work with the new jobs and skills councils, to “align workforce planning activities for their industry sectors, creating a uniform understanding of the skills landscape and developing appropriate strategies to address workforce challenges and skill gaps.”
It’s all explained HERE. If it is more complicated than it looks it might take time – quite a bit of time
Expanding access to an ancient language
Some 3000 people speak the Warlpiri language of the Northern Territory – now there’s a new way to help them keep it alive
Aboriginal Studies Press has released the Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary: Warlpiri Yimi-Kirli Manu Jaru-kurlu, which also includes a grammar and guide to the country and cultures where it is spoken.
It’s the result of nearly a century of scholarship and experience, including “generous, patient, and insightful input from hundreds of Warlpiri speakers.”
The Warlpiri Encyclopaedic Dictionary, by Mary Laughren with Kenneth Hale, Jeannie Egan Nungarrayi, Marlurrku Paddy Patrick Jangala, Robert Hoogenraad, David Nash, Jane Simpson is available HERE.
Uni path too travelled
Young people thinking about post school study can be pointed towards higher education when there are other options
In the common absence of qualified career advisors in schools “students are mystified by the multiple, state-based pathways they see on-line or in generic fliers. The result is that many Australian students base essential career and study decisions on information from parents, peers, and social media.”
“Australia’s postsecondary pathways are difficult to understand and navigate for people who are familiar with the system, let alone those who are not,” Dawn Bennett and colleagues warn in a new report for the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education.
It’s particularly a problem in low SES schools where, “career practitioners and influencers are … less valued, less experienced, more likely to be unqualified and more likely to report inadequate resources.”
Information is also skewed, “discussions about alternative university pathways and non-university study were largely limited to students at risk of not ‘making the grade’. This deficit approach to study and career pathway decision-making fails to give students a true picture of the myriad opportunities open to them.”
To address this they propose, national policies and resource, including “student-centric information” and career development information in pre-service teacher programmes and career and study guidance “across the student lifecycle.”
It is necessary for low SES students because, “once equipped, these students will be in a better position to engage in a broad range of further studies and to enter the workforce as skilled workers able to sustain meaningful careers across the career lifespan. The result will be greater student retention, enhanced graduate success, more equitable workforce participation, lower work displacement, and improved employee satisfaction and wellbeing.”
Colin Simpson’s ed-tech picks of the week
Well, it appears that 2023 is to be the year of Generative AI in education. In much the same way that we were swamped with newfound experts on epidemiology and public health policy at the start of the pandemic, it is hard to scroll through online content without finding a dozen hot takes on ChatGPT. As someone whose job it is to make sense of this brave new world and contribute to an institutional response, I must admit that it is hard to keep up and separate the wheat from the chaff. Hot tip though – if your piece is partly written by an AI app, it’s more likely chaff.
AI Text Generators and Teaching Writing: Starting Points for Inquiry from Anna Mills
This collection of resources from Anna Mills, a writing teacher at the College of Marin in California has been one of the best I have found so far. I don’t necessarily agree with all her ideas but her tweets have consistently been some of the most thoughtful and practical that I have come across in the maelstrom of discourse. She is also hosting a webinar on the topic on Saturday January 28 at 9am (AEDT).
Webinar – The AI (ChatGPT) Future: What do we do now? Thursday 2nd Feb, 12 noon AEDT from ASCILITE TELedvisors Network and UniSA Centre for Change and Complexity in Learning
If you prefer something at a more sociable time, I have worked with George Siemens (Uni SA) to organise a one hour panel discussion with a focus on practical next steps for educators, leaders and edvisors (learning designers, education technologists, academic developers etc). On the panel we have: * George Siemens – Director: C3L Uni SA Education Futures * Trish McCluskey – Director Digital Learning Deakin University * Aneesha Bakharia – Manager Learning Analytics and Learning Technologies, University of Queensland * Anna Mills – Writing teacher at College of Marin and * Colin Simpson – Education Technologist Monash University, Convenor TELedvisors Network
Examining the Role of Emotions in Learning with Technology from Journal of Digital Life and Learning
And now for something completely different. This article from Robin Kay of Ontario Tech University explores what I feel is an underexamined aspect of education, the impact of emotions on learning. Specifically, learning with technology. Kay surveyed 220 pre-service teachers, gathering data about their emotional responses to learning strategies tied to learning technologies. Social interaction based approaches correlated to anxiety while experimental and authentic strategies were most strongly associated with happiness.
Colin Simpson has worked in education technology, teaching, learning design and academic development in the tertiary sector since 2003 at CIT, ANU, Swinburne and Monash University. He is also one of the leaders of the ASCILITE TELedvisors Network. For more from Colin, follow him on Twitter @gamerlearner (or @[email protected] on Mastodon)
Appointments, achievement
Inga Davis (Research Strategies Australia) is incoming ED of the Australian Academy of the Humanities.
ABC RN journalist Patricia Karvelas is appointed an honorary professor by RMIT.
Simon Morris (Charles Darwin U) receives Chartered Accountants Australia and New Zealand’s Meritorious Service Award.
Tamlyn O’Connor joins the Medtech and Pharma Growth Centre as manager for international markets and engagement.