tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84554688438335250662024-03-14T05:26:07.752-04:00Multilitteratus IncognitusPondering what my next degree should be 😂Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.comBlogger976125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-36154803492272845832023-12-31T14:37:00.002-05:002023-12-31T14:37:00.128-05:002023 Academic Year in Review<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcvq2u7C-m7ntScfqgB-1EeGMiHnAwtT0zv-LRthi1S2FOx6qI2i38E8-wcaidjs_IFTwXtc3Z8uUbGB_LJNm33vtMIhbHRJqNG9ZuMNLYq0x2_JEad1eOWqHDvbqqhQMGKkaVuHuGz2LNjI5VdBcLVZmZP5BHB33JXNLH18xTU5eqfSehWw6el6bKcmY/s1024/OIG-1.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="A Dall-E created image showing a presenter on stage, behind a podium, giving a year in Review presentation" border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcvq2u7C-m7ntScfqgB-1EeGMiHnAwtT0zv-LRthi1S2FOx6qI2i38E8-wcaidjs_IFTwXtc3Z8uUbGB_LJNm33vtMIhbHRJqNG9ZuMNLYq0x2_JEad1eOWqHDvbqqhQMGKkaVuHuGz2LNjI5VdBcLVZmZP5BHB33JXNLH18xTU5eqfSehWw6el6bKcmY/w320-h320/OIG-1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div>[warning - a bit of long post] Well, here we are! The end of 2023! It seems like only yesterday that we were starting to hear some whispers about this thing called "ChatGPT," but it was in fact about a year ago, and as you know we moved pretty quickly through that hype cycle. Don't worry, this entire YIR (year in review) won't be about ChatGPT 😂. </div><div><br /></div><div>As I was pondering other academic-y things over the start of my winter break, I was looking back at the year to see how things moved along. I think I've written (or at least said) this before, but before I started my doctorate I felt like I had a rhythm so far as academic communities, activities, and outputs go, and things got disrupted while I was pursuing my EdD. Coming out of that doctoral process, I felt like I took one exit off the freeway, while many of my other colleagues and friends took another. It feels like the end of a doctoral program is about rediscovering who you are and where things fit. It seems like 2023 was the year for that, even though I finished my EdD in 2021.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anywhooooo 🧐 Here's a bit of a look back to 2023...</div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Spring 2023</h3><div>I kicked off the spring looking to get some work done on a paper I wanted to write in 2021-2022 called "MOOCs Ten Years Later." The "10 years" was a bit of a callback to my "<a href="https://jolt.merlot.org/vol7no4/koutropoulos_1211.htm" target="_blank">Digital Natives: Ten Years After</a>" but the "ten years" bit really depends on where you're counting from. The "real" ten-year mark for me would have been 2018, but I was otherwise busy then. Then again, 2022 was the ten-year mark from "the year of the MOOC" (in North America at least). I kind of lost steam on this paper, so I kind of dropped this project. To be honest, I feel like I am sort of "done" with MOOCs, but I wanted a kind of closure; and a look back at the last 15ish years to examine the innovations, the stagnation, and the ultimate "who cares?" feeling that seems to exist these days would have provided that. While xMOOCs had some innovation, I think things really went south around 2015 and have never looked up since then. So, I put this paper idea in the freezer. To be clear, I still participate in MOOCs from time to time, and my edx, coursera, and futurelearn queues have things I want to explore, but I don't find researching MOOCs all that interesting any longer. </div><div><br /></div><div>At the same time, I was writing and editing a book chapter on Emergency Remote Teaching for a SAGE Handbook (thank you colleagues for inviting me to participate! I appreciate the call!🥰) ERT was one more of these closure things that I wanted to get off my plate. During 2020-2022 (the height of ERT IMO), I was otherwise occupied, and I decided to lurk, and not actively participate in what was being discussed. Not because there wasn't value in some elements of ERT, but rather because I was tired of reading bad research and having to defend online learning (I suspect neither the former nor the latter will ever go away 😅) Doing a retrospective on ERT and engaging in that discussion this way was both informative and a good way to move ahead. I think ERT has its place in online learning and building resilience into the educational ecosystem is important, but I have my doubts that we'll actually be like the scouts and be prepared for the next unexpected thing to disrupt us (or that we'll use what we learned to really improve physically-proximal learning). Maybe I'm a bit of a pessimist, but time will tell. This chapter is the second academic thing I did after completing my dissertation and it felt rather good to complete.</div><div><br /></div><div>Around the beginning of the semester, I decided to take two graduate courses. One course was on a whim, <b>Archival Methods and Practice </b>(on-campus) and the other was intentional, <b>Negotiations </b>(Online) because I was (and still am) on my union's contract bargaining team and thought that a theoretical review might be useful. I was going to skip the Archival methods course, but it was the last semester that the course was being offered at my institution (the program is winding down), and the course started at 16:00 which meant that I wouldn't be too late in getting home. While I prefer online courses and have <a href="https://hybridpedagogy.org/affinity-asynchronous-learning/" target="_blank">an affinity for asynchronous courses (like Maha</a>), I see the reasons for this course to have a physically present component: we processed a donated collection of materials that would (ultimately) find its way into the university archives (somewhere out there is a finding aid with my name in the version history! 😇). That said, the first half of class (an hour or so) was a bit wasted in my view. While I did enjoy some of the conversations we had, I felt like that component could easily have been done asynchronously while keeping some of the on-campus time for hands-on archival processing and other Q&A and archival banter. Even with a course that ends at 18:45, that is one long day to be on campus. If the program were continuing, and if I were wearing my instructional design hat, I'd recommend that this course be blended. This way there is some on-site component for the physical processing, while keeping the overall duration of the on-site visit shorter.</div><div><br /></div><div>The negotiation course was interesting too. From a meta-perspective, it's interesting to see group work in action (again) within a graded course setting. My dissertation work was about group work (but notably it was ungraded work), and things from my literature review came back to mind as I was doing an instructional design analysis of the course. At the time, I thought the groupwork component failed to be big enough to be something appropriate for a group. In other words, I thought one person (me) could do this on their own. That said, in reflecting upon it, I was wondering if <i>I</i> could do it alone, whereas the average graduate student starting their studies in the field might not (this was one of the first courses for the Conflict Resolution MA program). I have no answer to this one, but it does make me pause and ponder about the different backgrounds and ability levels that students bring to the classroom. In the end, the group project was fine (I think we did a good job), but it could have gone smoother. If any of my group mates are reading: you can probably tell which parts could have gone smoother, that one person who <i>seemed</i> to ghost us 😬.</div><div><br /></div><div>During this term we also had the AI Panic. Sort of like ERT, I decided to lurk from the sidelines. It's not that I wasn't interested in it, but between work, the classes I was taking, and writing (and some workshop teaching), I just had no mental energy for the public discourse around it (especially people who saw cheaters everywhere, and I was dealing with this on my campus too!). I am happy, and thankful, that Aras invited me to participate in a collaborative article titled <a href="https://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/709" target="_blank">Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Collective Reflection from the Educational Landscape</a>. It was just the right size of engagement for what I wanted to do, thinking through things, and engaging in a process that was new to me and kept me learning while engaging with the subject of GenAI.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, in the spring, a book chapter I had written for a <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/books/edit/10.4324/9781003376378/new-directions-rhizomatic-learning-myint-swe-khine?refId=d583e5a0-fd49-4f1c-9121-37930668f9dd&context=ubx" target="_blank">book on Rhizomatic Learning </a>came out. This was a request that came from someone I didn't know. I was initially reluctant to participate because the last time I did the author totally ghosted me and my coauthor and the book never came out 🙄. We posted our chapter on <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343341464_Gamification_in_Education" target="_blank">Gamification on ResearchGate,</a> so the work wouldn't go to waste, but honestly, that experience left a bad taste in my mouth. Since the Rhizo stuff was fresh in my mind because of my dissertation, I thought I'd capitalize on the opportunity and see what happens. I am happy that this book came to fruition and that something of my dissertation is now. published. My thanks to Myint who invited me, and anyone else who might have recommended me as a contact!🥰</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Summer 2023</h3><div>Summer was back to tinkering with ChatGPT and other kinds of LLMs. During the spring term (and early summer for that matter), a lot of conferences on teaching and learning seemed to focus on the potential for using AI to create course syllabi and other such materials. I started experimenting with this premise over the summer, but in July I ran out of steam on it (ha! recognize a pattern here? 😂). The results really seemed sub-par and I honestly thought that the results seemed so self-evident that no one would bother publishing this. I kept all my data just in case I changed my mind. I switched gears to another call for papers that Sarah H. had shared with us, this one about the demise of the platform formerly named Twitter. We got a ragtag crew together to put write a paper (currently in review) on platform migrations, with a special emphasis on Twitter. We had a good group of folks working on this, some people were new to me, and others old acquaintances from MOOCs past. I think we had a lot of fun writing this paper and we learned a lot in the process. </div><div><br /></div><div>One thing that might have gotten lost in the AI Hype of early 2023 was that Twitter was bought by nutty billionaire Elon Musk and it (pretty quickly, IMO) went to 💩. By June I think about half my network had migrated to something else (mastodon🐘, bluesky🦋 for those who had special invites, and Threads🧵 later on) but Twitter was still hobbling along. In 2022, as I was getting back to "normal" after the doctorate, I had hoped to get more active on Twitter to try to re-establish those academic connections I lost track of during the dissertation years, but I guess (womp-womp🎺)🤷🏻♂️</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, this summer I earned the PSM-I (professional scrum master level I) credential. While it's nothing to write home about, it was an interesting experience trying to earn a credential that doesn't expire (the competing CSM certification from the Scrum Alliance requires a course, an exam, and it needs to be renewed every two years) and get a sense of how things work. I think theory alone didn't cut it for this one. In my first attempt at the test, I failed by a few points; as prep for it, I took practice tests and read the scrum guide - which seems to be the general advice on the matter. Once I did some more work on it (by completing the <a href="https://www.scrum.org/pathway/scrum-master" target="_blank">Scrum Master learning path</a> and doing some more prep tests), I passed but barely. I think experience in this instance seems more relevant to theory 😂.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Fall 2023</h3><div>So, here we are. Fall semester! This past fall I was supposed to be on vacation in October, but COVID had other plans. I decided to not teach longer courses in the fall, <i>except</i> for the instructional design capstone course which is less of a course and more of a mentoring opportunity (everyone is progressing at a similar but different pace, so feedback is probably the most critical component). This term reminded me about not making assumptions. Yes, it's the capstone and folks should be able to put all the component parts together, but making sure that everyone is on the same page in understanding the expectations (and workload) is an important aspect of designing and teaching. I think everyone from my flock this term made it through unscathed, but I have ideas about how to make things a bit smoother next fall (assuming I am teaching next fall).</div><div><br /></div><div>On the AK-as-Learner side of things, this term I took an <a href="https://www.td.org/education-courses/coaching-certificate" target="_blank">ATD certificate course on Coaching</a>. Some professional development moneys were left over in a partner department, so I thought it might be a good idea to use them to learn something new, so I applied for it and was approved. The workshop was in vILT format, it met for six half-days on WebEx. Not a huge fan of WebEx, and this experience just provided further evidence ;-). The workshop was good. I got out of it what I needed to get out of it, and I'd recommend it. Corporate training is different from what we do in higher education, so it's always interesting to see how things are designed and delivered in that field. I am wondering if it's worthwhile going the extra step and seeing if it's worth looking into <a href="https://coachingfederation.org/credentials-and-standards/credentials-paths/acc-credential" target="_blank">ICF-ACC certification</a>, but that's something for 2024 (or 2025)...If there are any certified coaches out there, feel free to chime in in the comments.</div><div><br /></div><div>Finally, as I was wrapping up this term, there was the siren call for a MOOC special issue through JIME (due in about a month), titled <i>Open Learning and Learning at Scale: The Legacy of MOOCs</i>. I think this is going to be an opportunity to dust off my half-started work from 2021 and 2022; and maybe get together with other folks and have some fun writing a researched retrospective on MOOCs. I know that the call is focused on FLAN (futurelearn), but maybe this is the opportunity for that closure I was talking about earlier in this post.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><h3 style="text-align: left;">Looking back, looking forward</h3><div>Looking at what I've written, I guess I've done a lot of academic things this year. One of the nagging things about working as a staff member with a doctorate is that you sometimes start to feel like you are not doing enough academic stuff (or that the doctorate is "wasted on you" because you choose to not do academic things). Keep in mind academics of this sort are more of a hobby since I don't really plan on applying for full-time tenure positions, so with that caveat, I think that as a hobby I did pretty well in 2023.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think my big decision in 2024 is whether or not to adopt CIEE? CIEE is the journal that Alan G. and I co-founded back in 2012(ish?) but one that I stepped away from to focus on the dissertation. Since Alan has moved on, workwise, to other positions, the journal needs someone new at the helm. This is something I've been thinking about since the spring, but I am reluctant to make a decision either way. Maybe a pondering best saved for another blog post.</div><div><br /></div><div>Happy New Year Folks! :-) </div><div><br /></div><div>See you in 2024!</div><div><p></p><p><br /></p></div>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-86411374254514741862023-09-25T18:30:00.001-04:002023-09-25T18:30:00.148-04:00Changing mental gears and putting yourself in student's shoes<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7SNfORb3TfwuhiDPaJHcFQRV8lqnyMtV1Hs91wH0Zyd1IEnhignUDdZCodamyiwzDixiJW7qm4qOd_C8TUX5YzPbHPiopOSa1UkLFE_2dY5BGP1_mlvvgPqJ2jtHA74oXBM5fnTeNoy5fAVSllUg-qidBFPzXWhTQdbU6MjOyPo5k3nEdSG_0C3wAOgM/s1024/5euE9JQ0TRf9tDFavm7C--1--ne6fb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="NightCafe AI image of male professor returning to be a student" border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7SNfORb3TfwuhiDPaJHcFQRV8lqnyMtV1Hs91wH0Zyd1IEnhignUDdZCodamyiwzDixiJW7qm4qOd_C8TUX5YzPbHPiopOSa1UkLFE_2dY5BGP1_mlvvgPqJ2jtHA74oXBM5fnTeNoy5fAVSllUg-qidBFPzXWhTQdbU6MjOyPo5k3nEdSG_0C3wAOgM/w320-h320/5euE9JQ0TRf9tDFavm7C--1--ne6fb.jpg" title="NightCafe AI image of male professor returning to be a student" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Gazing at Learning</td></tr></tbody></table><br />The other day I was doing some reflecting on my own "return" to being a learner after my doctoral journey ended. Last semester I took a course on negotiation, which I saw relevant to both work and also for my role as a member of our union's contract bargaining team this round. This course was a graduate-level course, and is typically taken either in the first or second term of a graduate student's journey in the Conflict Resolution program at my university. While the semester was busy, I rarely broke an (academic) sweat. The course was challenging, don't get me wrong, but I found the number of readings manageable (since I have my TTS routine), and the number of words that I had to write for papers was 5,000-6,000 <i>cumulatively</i> in the semester (and maybe another 8,000 across the forum posts throughout the term).</p><p>In the grand scheme of things, this feels normal for a graduate course (from a design point of view), but it <i>feels</i> easy having gone through the experience of completing a doctorate. I think classmates who were in their first master's program and may have just returned to school either right from undergraduate studies or after a hiatus, probably found it a bit more challenging. This reminded me of the <i>many times</i> that colleagues don't put themselves in the student's shoes when designing (or teaching) a course. They think that something is <i>easy</i> because they can produce a 6,000-word paper in a month (not a term) so they might think that this is acceptable to ask of learners who are just learning the ropes. It seems like we often superimpose our current skills and capabilities on our younger (less experienced) selves, and that doesn't help serve our learners.</p><p>Last term I completed the negotiation course (yay!), so I saw that experience through. Now, as I am pondering what else to learn (I did say I was a lifelong learner), I am wondering if others have experienced that kind of shift in mental gears, whereby if they have completed a higher degree (e.g., Master's) they find undergrad courses (e.g., a sophomore level course) too boring. Do you roll with it and enjoy the change of pace? Do you challenge yourself with your own challenges? Do you not sign up for those courses? And, how does being a learner again impact your ways of being in the teaching (or designing) role you have?</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-84297586888671383392023-08-22T17:30:00.001-04:002023-08-22T17:30:00.138-04:00Preferences for learning modality following COVID19<p>Yesterday evening<a href="https://www.tonybates.ca/2023/08/21/faculty-preferences-for-mode-of-delivery-following-the-covid-19-pandemic/" target="_blank"> I came across a post by Tony Bates where he shared some findings from some recent reports on faculty (and student) preferences for learning in a post-pandemic world</a>. I haven't read the reports yet, but I had some initial thoughts based on Tony's high-level overview of those three reports. </p><p>Two big things jumped out at me. The first is that students and faculty aren't on the same page (for the most part), and faculty still overwhelmingly prefer on-campus. Tony notes that, at least in the EDUCASE case, compared to pre-covid numbers, more faculty have expressed an interest in something other than purely face-to-face (about 79% pre-covid, with 50% now).</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX1cB3XteHjHavtjWsoJR1ac_KNjzosdgUr0pjM6rbvxpRV54mOWp7AIf9usoe3xHhcJTdRBppfD1ePOfbyzaW58gzSRExaHaS62cmh9zAoUw8TY5tbbutDmbvVkBVGaFrCpRab8pf83eBcd1u8JFdJi5ef5k2_tbUVwbX6PY5xdKRrHLfSje0P-0Vmmc/s1604/Faculty-and-student-preference-for-mode-of-delivery-Tyton.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1286" data-original-width="1604" height="514" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX1cB3XteHjHavtjWsoJR1ac_KNjzosdgUr0pjM6rbvxpRV54mOWp7AIf9usoe3xHhcJTdRBppfD1ePOfbyzaW58gzSRExaHaS62cmh9zAoUw8TY5tbbutDmbvVkBVGaFrCpRab8pf83eBcd1u8JFdJi5ef5k2_tbUVwbX6PY5xdKRrHLfSje0P-0Vmmc/w640-h514/Faculty-and-student-preference-for-mode-of-delivery-Tyton.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Tyton Partner's Analysis of Modality Preferences</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>The first thing I noticed above is where students and faculty fall in their respective preferences. If taken together, something other than purely face-to-face is a clear winner for student preferences. Now, what that something else actually is...well, that's up for debate. I honestly don't like how they've broken up Blended and Hybrid. In their definition of Hybrid we seem to be using a kind of Allen & Seaman definition of 30-80% online (the traditional definition of blended/hybrid), whereas the Blended definition here appears to be somewhat of an inverse: 80-90% on-site with some online. This seems like the worst of both worlds, sort of like having a job that's "Hybrid" but requiring you to go into the office four days per week 😅. The numbers on Hyflex surprise me on the student side, but not the faculty side. The various *flex approaches require A LOT of work for the instructor without requiring a lot of skin in the game for students: they can choose to be virtual at any time without much warning to the instructional staff to allow them to prep for the changing classroom dynamics. I sometimes feel like *flex courses are students responding "maybe" to an invitation when they clearly want to decline it but feel bad about doing so 😂</p><p>Back in 2014, when I started my EdD at Athabasca, I had a chat with Pat Fahy (now retired) during one of our breaks from orientation. This was about the reason why students choose distance education over physically proximal education, and his response was "It's always the parking, stupid!" Of course, it goes beyond parking. In Boston parking is one thing ($15 per park on-campus!), plus traffic, plus coming after work, plus gas money, plus tolls for some people coming from farther away. The monetary and time costs add up. Of course, pre-pandemic not everyone thought about this. We were all in a routine, so when the idea of DE came up, the usual (and very automated) response was "Oh, Online is fine, but I learn better on campus"🤷♂️. I think what we are seeing in a post-pandemic world is that when students have had a break from their routines, and they can step back and do a compare/contrast critically, they may choose other options. In fact, we see from the data above that most students picked some option other than purely face-to-face, which is telling IMO.</p><p><br /></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVrg_hXX51uuS6bFBWgOj-9BlvbPakdlRoy0Ma28O4YeMsBcaqXDtG51zuXEObj0cGW3hTcMqzJ2YydIakCXKXjIb9zNhVUmBrk3pThsUyMcMkmjFMS0PaFv07J259kf-XCwZ2rtLSRQgiKb8fnJoAvCTyOaq_-wUOkf2uzUY6DILdFtOpeY6kGQ0chc/s1740/Screen-Shot-2023-08-21-at-12.21.21-PM.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1260" data-original-width="1740" height="464" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyVrg_hXX51uuS6bFBWgOj-9BlvbPakdlRoy0Ma28O4YeMsBcaqXDtG51zuXEObj0cGW3hTcMqzJ2YydIakCXKXjIb9zNhVUmBrk3pThsUyMcMkmjFMS0PaFv07J259kf-XCwZ2rtLSRQgiKb8fnJoAvCTyOaq_-wUOkf2uzUY6DILdFtOpeY6kGQ0chc/w640-h464/Screen-Shot-2023-08-21-at-12.21.21-PM.png" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">EDUCAUSE analysis of faculty preferences</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p>In EDUCAUSE's report, one of the reasons why faculty prefer on-campus is to have a connection with their learners. Again, having taught folks how to teach online (for over 12 years now... oh how does time fly...) this is something I've heard frequently: I prefer teaching on-campus because I can see my students, get a temperature read in the classroom, connect better (whatever that means), etc. I think this may be true for <i>some</i> folks, but it's not true for all, and certainly not in all cases. It definitely privileges students who are extroverts and engage more in those social spaces. Assuming you can read people's facial expressions can also bring you to incorrect conclusions: I often went to class, for example, after work - so by that time I was away from home for about 10 hours already. Any apathy or boredom on my face was probably fatigue, otherwise, I wouldn't be in class. I am not convinced that we can accurately read people's faces and determine their level of engagement (maybe a lit review I should dive into one of these days). </p><p>Ultimately what this need to connect points me to is this: instructional staff are replicating their own classroom experiences in their own teaching and they have never learned new ways of being. Most folks who've been active in virtual spaces (chatrooms, BBS, IMs, Social Media) can tell you that they've felt those kinds of closeness in virtual spaces that people express having felt in physically-proximal spaces (yes, there are probably a lot of asterisks in this claim). It's something that's learned and experienced, but it requires practice (just as F2F requires practice...and most of us have been practicing for a long time). I think it's important to cultivate additional ways of being that are geared toward virtual spaces. This doesn't mean that F2F is bad, but it also doesn't mean that F2F is the only way.</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-13661399043292447552023-06-26T16:03:00.004-04:002023-06-26T16:03:57.453-04:00Analyzing the Synthetic Syllabus<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSwfznK3ofmhZgdgFFAEhti1JRAbgjNAvHOnZYC32Jqe1ULeyNmbKvHCjE7yv0qAOPe7kOzFH-P0SM4b6Wpbd__U7k5Kz20K73ttEYhU2Ti2GohOjfJfRfsOTSTouvJQU1run4ITUu4r9JbrfjJON9HzJoQC6aEn04FUFpN5sQ_XjicyRYbiZQziwg_0/s1024/_21955cb6-b760-414a-84ec-998384d6e9ff.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheSwfznK3ofmhZgdgFFAEhti1JRAbgjNAvHOnZYC32Jqe1ULeyNmbKvHCjE7yv0qAOPe7kOzFH-P0SM4b6Wpbd__U7k5Kz20K73ttEYhU2Ti2GohOjfJfRfsOTSTouvJQU1run4ITUu4r9JbrfjJON9HzJoQC6aEn04FUFpN5sQ_XjicyRYbiZQziwg_0/s320/_21955cb6-b760-414a-84ec-998384d6e9ff.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bing Image Creator: A Syllabus</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Wow...it's been almost two months since I started this post! It's hard to believe that it took <b>this long</b> to return to this thought experiment. Just to remind the diligent reader of this blog, this came out of not one, not two, but multiple places on the web (including professional development conferences!) whereby instructional designers (and other professionals) were demonstrating the use of GPT to put together quick and dirty course outlines for the busy adjunct. While I've got issues with this framing, I'll put those aside for now. I thought that it might be interesting to actually go through the process to create a course outline and syllabus for a course that I used to teach often before I started my doctoral journey. The course is <a href="https://www.umb.edu/course_catalog/course_info/grd_INSDSG_all_684" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">INSDSG 684: The Design and Instruction of Online Courses</a>, a graduate course in the MEd program of Instructional Design at UMass Boston.</p><p>I think it's important to start with a course that you know so that you can <i>both</i> critique the design "decisions" that GPT makes and also leave yourself open to being pleasantly surprised by what an LLM produces. The three AI services I tested were <a href="https://www.smartie.dev/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">SMARTIE</a>, <a href="https://chat.openai.com/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ChatGPT 3.5</a>, and <a href="https://gamma.app/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gamma</a>. I won't comment on SMARTIE extensively because I chose to run another course that I used to teach frequently (<a href="https://www.umb.edu/course_catalog/course_info/grd_INSDSG_all_601" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">INSDSG 601: Foundations in Instructional Design and Learning Technology</a>) through it so I could do a compare/contrast, but I got a bit bogged down enough to just junk that attempt. If you're curious as to how far I got, <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1F5L1gWJhaAhAzxfDp8-QJRm28Grjp-qVHHSsfw5YfnY/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here's the unannotated Google doc of the SMARTIE 601 syllabus/outline</a>.</p><p>So, back to 684. Here's the <a href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1T36ylejpJm1NKzjeWea9TPm0_QUmfVk3JOzv6h6sn_A/edit?usp=sharing" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ChatGPT syllabus with my comments</a>, and here's the <a href="https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1Xi6VvCg-lqqBLd0FDa47Nh9Lg0q6UZfC/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=101406749336591473692&rtpof=true&sd=true" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Gamma PowerPoint output (which is still in beta)</a>. Feel free to go through and make your own annotations.</p><p>Some big-picture things I've noticed:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>It took me over 90 minutes to prompt CGPT for everything, copy it into the Google Doc, and format it. This doesn't delete duplicates, critically analyze the syllabus, and address duplications and inconsistencies. If I were called upon to teach this course again, with no current syllabus or list of learning objectives from the department, it would take less time than prompting CGPT to produce something for me.</li><li>CGPT produced a list of required and optional texts for the course, and while most were legitimate (i.e., they exist), it really did incorporate some made-up stuff in that list, which means that anyone using this really, really, really needs to fact-check those books and articles.</li><ul><li>It's worthwhile noting that GAMMA did the same thing with the course text. It totally made up a textbook. How do I know? I couldn't find it on Google, on IGI's website, and it's not listed on the faculty profile of the supposed author.</li></ul><li>CGPT produced a plan which made for both an uneven, and an unreasonable workload for learners. For example, just for Week 1, the assigned readings were around 450 pages in two assigned books. This pattern continued through Week 10, while Week 11 only had 2 articles (maybe 40 pages between both). Alignment between learning objectives for the course, the weekly topic, and the readings was there in a way, but boy was it a lot!</li><li>Speaking of additional resources, CGPT recommended videos, podcasts, and articles (at my prompting), but didn't include any URLs. I know that this is an issue, but when specific resources are given, resources that have defined URLs and DOIs (e.g., <a href="https://teachinginhighered.com/" target="_blank">Teaching in Higher Ed</a> Podcast and <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/sal_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education" rel="nofollow">Sal Khan's TED talk - Let's Use Video to Reinvent Education</a>) should be no brainers</li><li>It seems like CGPT has a weird fascination with pairs. If you skip down to the Activities section of the syllabus, you'll see that every week basically has two activities for students to complete. While CGPT gets points for keeping things interesting and varied, I am having a hard time seeing how the learning community gels if they're jumping from task to task.</li><li>The criteria points for graded assignments were basic and repetitive for all assignments. For what it's worth, I felt the same way about rubrics produced in SMARTIE for the other class.</li><li>Going back to student overload for a moment, I don't think the activities and the course deliverables were really all that integrated (or at least it seems like CGPT didn't consider what had come before from past prompts when it provided me with activities) because the grading breakdown for the course not only didn't consider the activities and assessments that came before, it added to them!</li><li>In terms of course policies, was pleasantly surprised that the camera policy for live sessions is "camera optional"</li><li>Also, in policies, I think that many things that were presented as a "policy" seemed more like classroom norms to discuss and engage with learners about</li><li>GAMMA did produce some headscratchers - such as "screen recording" being used in the design of the course. I don't know how germane that is to learners in the course.</li><li>Finally, with the exception of a hiccup in CGPT, it seems like a lot of final projects for this course are an online course designs, which is to be expected. In fact, I think both all 5 instructors for this course (going back to 2008) have had this as a final deliverable.</li></ul><div>Overall, I think that if you're a subject expert, and have taught the course many times, LLMs won't really save you that much time. You're better off going with your gut, or asking a colleague who teaches a similar course to see if you can build off their syllabus - if you're really in a crunch.</div><div><br /></div><div>Your thoughts?</div><p></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-19197343577162404462023-05-23T17:30:00.001-04:002023-05-23T17:30:00.146-04:00ChatGPT to address faculty burnout<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4oMtnXLzGGg_tUvD1-XvULEfHVzTyinkCwhYFZrttVlidI7HOcSrgs6uEm_UUWsuD7kWXB_ki29pRpQ32wKfFJ93K8B3HYjQFPawZaCTMzGQ8D7IoND0FDB12xkgnWZIaAZwW3bFr9NhpYrR_rxNTBvKGifhNPwQtLsxJLnGtW4rSQFsP4biAa6Nj/s512/kEdhIfA0oAscC5pBzv5t--3--q455m.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="A nightcafe AI image creation using the prompt: A professor dealing with digital burnout and attempting to address it." border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4oMtnXLzGGg_tUvD1-XvULEfHVzTyinkCwhYFZrttVlidI7HOcSrgs6uEm_UUWsuD7kWXB_ki29pRpQ32wKfFJ93K8B3HYjQFPawZaCTMzGQ8D7IoND0FDB12xkgnWZIaAZwW3bFr9NhpYrR_rxNTBvKGifhNPwQtLsxJLnGtW4rSQFsP4biAa6Nj/w320-h320/kEdhIfA0oAscC5pBzv5t--3--q455m.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">NightCafe: Professor dealing with Digital Burnout</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> It seems like I am operating in Greek Time for #etmooc2 😅. This is a post for the second session of #etmooc which dealt with ethical issues around AI in education (and maybe AI broadly). Since the third session record has not been posted yet, I'll make the argument that I am still "on time" for some commentary on this 😂. This post has been in my drafts for 2 weeks now. With the end of the term upon us, I guess I have a little more time to process some thoughts.<div><br /></div><div>In any case, when I started to put together this blog post a couple of weeks ago, I was signed up for a symposium (or mini-conference?) hosted by a notable LMS provider, and of course, AI was the hot topic du jour. One of the sessions that I attended was hosted by instructional designers, using ChatGPT, to assist in getting started with course development. Especially if that course development came at the 11th hour when an adjunct finds out that they are teaching a course next week! eek!</div><div><br /></div><div>In this scenario, an adjunct is asked to create an "INTRO101" course that starts in 2 weeks. As an adjunct, you need to create a syllabus, rubric, discussion, lecture notes, and quizzes. It's noted in this case that this course design may be on top of your current full-time work, so time is at a premium (as is probably the case with most adjuncts). As someone who's worked as an instructional designer, I appreciate the "let's make the best of it" kind of approach to this, but using generative AI (gAI) to ameliorate a busted system is really problematic! It's also instructional design 101! As part of a needs analysis, faculty don't necessarily need a faster/more efficient way to course design, but rather they need the systematic issues to be addressed. For example:<div><p></p></div></div><div>1) If the course is an INTRO101 course (not an actual course, just a placeholder for a common course, required of majors, and usually taught by many instructors), the adjuncts should not need to scramble to put together course materials for this course. The readings, activities, assessments, and rubrics for such a course should already exist, and an instructor should walk in and "turn on the lights" metaphorically. They should be free to adjust the settings and the materials, but ultimately these should be minor tweaks, not major development work!</div><div><br /></div><div>2) Hiring for upcoming semesters should not be a "shit's going down in two weeks! Let's roll!" kind of moment. Adjuncts should know at least a few months in advance if they are likely to have a course, and they should be compensated for any additional training required, and any prep they do outside of their contractual period.</div><div><br /></div><div>3) Faculty are hired as subject experts. Assuming that someone is hired for their specific subject knowledge (and they're not just another warm body), having gAI create outcomes, course outlines, and assignments (the entire skeleton of a course) really takes away from that subject expertise and starts to frame a course in a way that takes away human agency. Humans fill in the gaps in what the gAI produces but don't necessarily question it. How do I know? We see this already with publisher-provided course materials. I've had more than one professor in my time as a learner that basically used the slides from Publisher, and structured the modules around the textbook, and basically used assignments around the text. Throw in products like My___Lab, and you've removed agency from a human but making it convenient to just go with it.</div><div><br /></div><div>4) Finally, the material that a gAI produces aren't that great. I have downloaded some ChatGPT outcomes and activities for a class I used to teach (future post), but for this one I'll focus on an experiment I ran with <a href="https://www.codebreakeredu.com/chat/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ByteAI</a>. I asked it to give me eight learning objectives for a course titled "Artificial Intelligence in Human Education, Development, and Society." This is what it produced: </div><div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Understand the basic concepts and principles of artificial intelligence and its applications in human education, development, and society.</li><li>Analyze the ethical and social implications of using artificial intelligence in education, development, and society.</li><li>Evaluate the potential benefits and limitations of using artificial intelligence in education, development, and society.</li><li>Develop critical thinking skills to assess the impact of artificial intelligence on human learning, development, and society.</li><li>Explore the different types of artificial intelligence technologies and their applications in education, development, and society.</li><li>Identify the challenges and opportunities of integrating artificial intelligence into educational and developmental practices.</li><li>Develop practical skills in designing and implementing artificial intelligence-based educational and developmental interventions.</li><li>Collaborate with peers to design and present a project that demonstrates the use of artificial intelligence in education, development, and society.</li></ul></div></div><div><br /></div><div>If you'll notice, the objectives are basically like fill-in-the-blanks. The same starting text can be used for any kind of course. As an aside, it would be interesting to see what it does with other course titles, so I might feed ByteAI some course titles from various university courses. Maybe subject to further experimentation.</div><div><br /></div><div>Next, I asked ByteAI to provide me with three substantive graduate class assignments for a course titled "Artificial Intelligence in Human Education, Development, and Society." This is what it gave me: </div><div><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Research Paper: Students will be required to write a research paper on a topic related to the use of artificial intelligence in human education, development, and society. The paper should be based on a critical analysis of the literature and should include a discussion of the ethical and social implications of using artificial intelligence in these contexts.</li><li>Case Study Analysis: Students will be required to analyze a case study that involves the use of artificial intelligence in human education, development, and society. The case study should be selected from a list of examples provided by the instructor or chosen by the student with instructor's approval. Students will be required to analyze the case study from multiple perspectives, including ethical, social, and practical considerations.</li><li>Project Proposal: Students will be required to develop a project proposal that involves the use of artificial intelligence in human education, development, and society. The proposal should include a detailed description of the project, including its goals, methods, and expected outcomes. Students will be required to present their proposals to the class and receive feedback from their peers and the instructor.</li></ul></div></div><div>Again, this is very much a magnetic poetry/fill-in-the-blank kind of output IMO. This kind of output can apply to any class. Just change "Artificial Intelligence in Human Education, Development, and Society" to your course title 🙄</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, that's what I have for session 2 of #etmooc2. If I have the energy, I'll go through the output of ChatGPT to see what it thinks about what my Intro to Instructional Design & Educational Technology should be ;-)</div>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-88377999784981885792023-05-05T13:20:00.001-04:002023-05-05T13:20:00.137-04:00ETMOOC2 Session 1 Ponderings - Part III (the outtakes)<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_2c7DqJbLpNFSYGyD77_QeMkfguzoV85Ekok1Od4Jk4-be80arfC1DtM8q6lT-m265RB4_l7KJegFzZjGQxco32f0kgT2scSXvOEIHQegmp0Kv8zdgdjKi1PJbB1By9TdJHG023aWQ__dTRvIJnQRt1BRAw1N6FpsCYUg3sVuoZo2WYWu-wEF3ew/s512/7bU7FuywPsL410sh0QW6--4--ry1u6.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Me in AI generated Star Trek themed image" border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgb_2c7DqJbLpNFSYGyD77_QeMkfguzoV85Ekok1Od4Jk4-be80arfC1DtM8q6lT-m265RB4_l7KJegFzZjGQxco32f0kgT2scSXvOEIHQegmp0Kv8zdgdjKi1PJbB1By9TdJHG023aWQ__dTRvIJnQRt1BRAw1N6FpsCYUg3sVuoZo2WYWu-wEF3ew/w320-h320/7bU7FuywPsL410sh0QW6--4--ry1u6.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Me again, anime-style AI (or at least what<br />nightCafe thinks I look like in this setting)</i></td></tr></tbody></table>Alright, so here's my final post on session one of #etmooc2. You can find <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/05/etmooc-session-1-ponderings.html" target="_blank">post 1</a> and <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/05/etmooc2-session-1-ponderings-part-deux.html" target="_blank">post 2</a> on this blog. For this post, I thought I'd post some prompts and responses from my playing with ChatGPT. Fair warning, I tried to write a profanity-laden email (it sounds badly written IMO, but still has lots of profanities). I tried to channel the r/antiwork subreddit. I guess a content warning is appropriate.<div><br /><p></p><p>Here are some more ChatGPT prompting...about me. I have <u>underlined</u> all of the information I think is wrong This can be wrong either to a small extent - i.e., it's exaggerated; or to a large extent - i.e., it's factually wrong.</p><p><br class="Apple-interchange-newline" /><b>Prompt: Please give me an author biography for Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos that is 200-300 words</b></p><p>Attempt 1:</p><p>Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos is an educator, researcher, and advocate for open education and open technologies. He was born in <u>New York City</u> and raised in Greece, where he developed a passion for teaching and learning. He earned his <u>Bachelor's degree in Education</u> from the <u>University of Athens </u>and later moved to the United States, where he completed his <u>Master's degree in Education</u> at the <u>University of Massachusetts Amherst.</u></p><p>Dr. Koutropoulos went on to earn his <u>Ph.D. in Educational Technology</u> from the <u>University of Massachusetts Boston</u>, where his research focused on open education and open technologies. He has since <u>become a leading voice in the open education movement</u>, advocating for the use of open educational resources (OER) and open-source software in education.</p><p>In addition to his work as an educator and researcher, Dr. Koutropoulos is also an active member of the <u>open-source community</u>. He has <u>contributed to several open-source projects, including the Moodle</u> learning management system, and has <u>organized and participated in numerous open education events</u> and conferences around the world.</p><p>Currently, Dr. Koutropoulos serves as the <u>Director of the Online Learning and Instructional Design program at the University of Massachusetts Boston</u>. He continues to research and promote the use of open education and open technologies, and his work has been published in several academic journals and presented at conferences worldwide.</p><p><b>Attempt 2 ("regenerate response")</b></p><p>Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos is an educator and researcher in the field of instructional technology and e-learning. He holds a <u>Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Connecticut</u> and has taught at various institutions including the <u>University of Massachusetts Amherst, the University of Illinois Springfield, and the Open University of Catalonia.</u></p><p>Dr. Koutropoulos is known for his work in open education, specifically in the areas of open educational resources and open online courses. He has been involved in various open education initiatives and has authored and co-authored several research articles and book chapters on the subject.</p><p>Aside from his work in open education, Dr. Koutropoulos has also conducted research on the use of technology in education, including the design and implementation of online learning environments and the use of mobile devices for learning. He has <u>published extensively</u> on these topics in peer-reviewed journals and presented his work at various national and international conferences.</p><p>Dr. Koutropoulos has also been involved in various projects related to educational technology, in<u>cluding the development of an online learning management system </u>and the creation of multimedia educational resources. He has been recognized for his contributions to the field of instructional technology, r<u>eceiving awards for his work from organizations such as the Association for Educational Communications and Technology and the Sloan Consortium.</u></p><p>Overall, Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos is a <u>highly respected figure in the field of instructional technology</u> and e-learning, known for his contributions to open education and his research on the use of technology in education.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Prompt: If I were making an RPG character sheet for Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos, what would his stats be?</b></p><p>As an AI language model, I don't have access to Dr. Koutropoulos' personal attributes or abilities. However, based on his professional background and accomplishments, here are some potential stats for an RPG character sheet:</p><p>Intelligence: 18 - Dr. Koutropoulos has a Ph.D. in Educational Psychology and has conducted extensive research in the field of instructional technology and e-learning.</p><p>Wisdom: 16 - Dr. Koutropoulos has experience teaching at various institutions and has been involved in numerous open education initiatives, demonstrating practical knowledge and insight.</p><p>Charisma: 14 - Dr. Koutropoulos has presented his work at various national and international conferences and has received awards for his contributions to the field, indicating a level of influence and respect.</p><p>Dexterity: 10 - While not specifically related to his professional background, this score represents average physical agility and coordination.</p><p>Strength: 8 - Again, not related to his professional background, but this score represents below-average physical strength.</p><p>Constitution: 12 - Dr. Koutropoulos has been recognized for his contributions to the field of instructional technology, indicating a level of resilience and perseverance.</p><p>Of course, these are purely hypothetical and subjective scores based on one interpretation of Dr. Koutropoulos' professional background. An actual RPG character sheet for Dr. Koutropoulos would depend on the game's mechanics and rules.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Prompt: If Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos were a character in a collectible card game, what would his stats, special abilities, and character history be?</b></p><p>Card Name: Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos</p><p>Stats:</p><p></p><ul><li>Intelligence: 90</li><li>Wisdom: 80</li><li>Charisma: 75</li><li>Dexterity: 40</li><li>Strength: 30</li><li>Constitution: 50</li></ul><p></p><p>Special Abilities:</p><p></p><ul><li>Open Education: Dr. Koutropoulos can create and utilize open educational resources to enhance his abilities and those of his allies. When he is played, he can draw an extra card from his deck.</li><li>E-Learning Expert: Dr. Koutropoulos can use his expertise in e-learning to gain an advantage in battle. When he attacks, he can deal extra damage to opponents with lower Intelligence or Wisdom stats.</li><li>International Recognition: Dr. Koutropoulos' contributions to the field of instructional technology have earned him international recognition. Once per turn, he can draw a card from his opponent's deck and add it to his own hand.</li></ul><p></p><p>Character History:</p><p>Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos is a renowned expert in the field of instructional technology and e-learning. He has spent his career researching and promoting open education, creating and utilizing open educational resources to benefit learners around the world. Dr. Koutropoulos has also been involved in various projects related to educational technology, including the design and implementation of online learning environments and the development of multimedia educational resources. His contributions to the field have earned him international recognition and <u>numerous awards</u>. In battle, Dr. Koutropoulos utilizes his knowledge and expertise to gain an advantage over his opponents, using open education and e-learning to enhance his own abilities and those of his allies.</p><p style="text-align: center;">⚠️🚫🚨 profanity ahead!⚠️🚫🚨 </p><p><b>Prompt: </b></p><p>Can you please write this in a less angry and more professional voice. It's going to my manager: "Hey Mike! You know, you're just one increadibly dull fuckwit who has absolutely no idea how to do his job, you don't give a fuck about your employees, and you're just looking our for yourself you selfish prick! In all seriously, I wonder how this restaurant hasn't been shut down by the health department; because if we treated the customers like you treat your employees, the food would be a shitty health hazard! So as to retain what little I have of my mental and physical health, I say fuck you to you, fuck your "mandatory overtime" that's not actually overtime because you pay us shit - which by the way is against employment laws. I QUIT."</p><p><b>Response:</b></p><p>Dear Mike,</p><p>I hope this message finds you well. I wanted to discuss some concerns I have regarding my employment with the restaurant. I have been feeling increasingly frustrated with the lack of support and attention to employee needs, and I believe that some changes need to be made in order to create a positive work environment.</p><p>One area of concern for me has been the issue of mandatory overtime. I have noticed that this is a frequent occurrence, and I believe that it is important for us to follow employment laws regarding fair compensation for overtime work. Additionally, I have felt undervalued and underpaid for the work that I do.</p><p>I would appreciate the opportunity to discuss these issues with you further and work together to find solutions that benefit both the restaurant and its employees. Thank you for your time and attention to this matter.</p><p>Sincerely, [Your Name]</p><p>~~~~</p><p>So...what are your observations of these outputs?</p><p>~~~~</p><p>Image prompt for NightCafe, used in this post: please create a character card for a star trek themed collectible card game where the character's name is Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos</p></div>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-42914620480502265272023-05-04T10:11:00.002-04:002023-05-04T10:11:10.888-04:00ETMOOC2 Session 1 Ponderings - Part Deux<p></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwhq4Ny4DFRmg56wakzn2Obv00I6Z2Qegm8nlr6EkvebiQ_n26Hbjw70W7fgEHb1JI23wro185fM8oIKL9MqVZlS7yZ3MevikNx08vuLYkD20yKorofM4U_8uSvABweQIHWxQFW6RcHbaw_axUJqZP_HR8xoT7f2CGjBc6-BEYC_ePDU_Rr6SifNiq/s512/7bU7FuywPsL410sh0QW6--1--6pqwr.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="NightCafe generated image of me in star trek setting" border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwhq4Ny4DFRmg56wakzn2Obv00I6Z2Qegm8nlr6EkvebiQ_n26Hbjw70W7fgEHb1JI23wro185fM8oIKL9MqVZlS7yZ3MevikNx08vuLYkD20yKorofM4U_8uSvABweQIHWxQFW6RcHbaw_axUJqZP_HR8xoT7f2CGjBc6-BEYC_ePDU_Rr6SifNiq/w320-h320/7bU7FuywPsL410sh0QW6--1--6pqwr.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Another me in a Star Trek setting, by NightCafe</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />This is a continuation of <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/05/etmooc-session-1-ponderings.html" target="_blank">my previous post from the other day</a>. I didn't want to leave things in all negative terms, so here's part II with some thoughts on how AI <i>might </i>be used (or at least areas of AI that I am warming up on). This isn't a posting about the current state of AI, but rather a 5 (or 10) year look out. This is mostly inspired by a recent tweet by <a href="https://twitter.com/timbocop" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Tim Fawns</a>, who asked folks to think not about the just present, but the near future.<p></p><p>So...with that in mind, here are some use-cases that I can think of (some of which have been borrowed and adapted from the first #etmooc session).</p><p><b>Use Case 1: Getting your biography starter pack from ChatGPT. </b></p><p>I like writing. I don't like writing <i>about myself</i>. It feels very <i>toot your own horn</i>-like, and I've always never liked <i>those people</i>. I acknowledge that to get ahead in life, and in academia, you have to do some of that self-promotion. Still, I don't like writing about myself. So, I can foresee using something like ChatGPT to give me an author biography for me, something that is between 200-300 words because I hate writing those. I could feed it my academic CV, and it could trawl the internet to see what's been said about me (including LinkedIn testimonials), and it could produce something that I could use whenever I need a bio. This is something that doesn't work well at present time. I have asked ChatGPT to give me a bio and it just makes stuff up. I've asked it a few times over the last two months, and it still gets things wrong about me. Could I train it to have the correct info? Probably. Do I want to? No! The most recent wrongisms about me will be posted in Part III of Session 1 ponderings.</p><p><b>Use Case 2: Generating a character sheet for an RPG. </b></p><p>I can foresee AI being used as a way to create a randomized character sheet though (or a character sheet based on a made-up bio from example 1). This kind of character sheet can be used in gaming, but it can also be used by students throughout the term if we want to make the classroom a kind of RPG experience. Another use, blending use-case 1 and use-case 2 is the creation of a CCG (collectible card game) card with you as the character. Think of this as a kind of playful business card.</p><p><b>Use Case 3: Using AI to change the format of a paper.</b></p><p>I usually write with APA in mind. Yes, I know that I can use a citation manager like zotero to update all my citations on the fly, but that doesn't account for other elements (like spacing, use of footnotes, making all footnotes endnotes, and vice versa, and so on). Citation managers also ask you to do A LOT of work up front to make sure that your citation data isn't garbage, whether you end up using those sources or not. I could foresee a future where AI processors are "smart" enough to take a paper written in one format (APA, MLA, IEEE, ACM, etc) and convert the entirety of the paper into another format.</p><p><b>Use Case 4: De-escalating writing</b></p><p>We sometimes write emails when we're mad or upset. It's usually not a good idea to send those. Maybe you need some time to cool down. Perhaps a use of AI could be to put some of those emails in a penalty box for review after some time has passed. GMail gives me nudges for follow-up emails, so why not a nudge to check to see if I <i>really really really</i> wanted to send that nastygram? Or, perhaps Grammarly (or ChatGPT) can help me rephrase it or edit it to make it sound more professional but still register one's discontent with the situation.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-79477445112074690312023-05-02T13:12:00.001-04:002023-05-02T13:12:04.507-04:00ETMOOC Session 1 Ponderings<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UdfYeK8exGXdKpeEfyXvw9PByHlnvJbyfvIRnpZSFLZdQInL48WebvX_nTPGWt6EMD4k0nfoCPqA0ugIUboPv90dwcKeHiclm3dphKd8OAEC0t_tP4pq-JQsz-78TapLxbQzV6mJoTyxsOtrAtHVr-fpbDJG3HBbOQ6xkzXq1PNCcNyG2HC5p8eX/s512/7bU7FuywPsL410sh0QW6--2--0vfm6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="An image generated with AI generator "nightcafe"" border="0" data-original-height="512" data-original-width="512" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0UdfYeK8exGXdKpeEfyXvw9PByHlnvJbyfvIRnpZSFLZdQInL48WebvX_nTPGWt6EMD4k0nfoCPqA0ugIUboPv90dwcKeHiclm3dphKd8OAEC0t_tP4pq-JQsz-78TapLxbQzV6mJoTyxsOtrAtHVr-fpbDJG3HBbOQ6xkzXq1PNCcNyG2HC5p8eX/w320-h320/7bU7FuywPsL410sh0QW6--2--0vfm6.jpg" title="What NightCafe thinks I look like in a Star Trek themed anime image" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Me in a Star Trek-themed anime AI image</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Just as session 2 of #etmooc2 is scheduled for this evening, I just caught up with the first session over the last few days. The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-IAlHaUS9w" target="_blank">recording can be found here</a>, and it's funny that it took me 3 days to complete. Part of it was because I could only really do 20-minute increments (with notes and reactions), and part of it was because I paused to experiment with things mentioned.</p><p>Part of the session was really dedicated to identifying ways in which this kind of technology can help with what we do. Essentially flipping the script and going from "ZOMG! ChatGPT is used for cheating" getting to "how to use ChatGPT to help us with learning?" </p><p>There were a number of examples used in this brainstorming session which present for red flags for me. I did think of a few examples of my own that may (or may not) be good examples of what you could use tech like this for. I'll start with my concerns though.</p><p>Example 1: Using ChatGPT to grade. This is a use case of having a kind of machine-human collaboration. It was acknowledged that the machine can't really accurately grade everything, and the instructor should have a look-over to correct or supplement the machine output, but this would be a potentially revolutionary use of this tech. I'm not convinced. First, I have issues with both feeding student submissions into such a system without appropriate guardrails for student submissions. We've seen, from past actors in this space, that they take student submissions and appropriate them for their own use. Students should not have to consent to having a "smart" machine grade their submission as part of their learning experience. My second issue here is that such machine grading takes away Teacher Agency to some extent, and it may be taken away as a means to being more "efficient" or "less burned out." Teachers and course facilitators are in a classroom for a reason. If grading submissions is becoming an issue it's important to interrogate why they are becoming an issue instead of throwing some LLM at it.</p><p>Example 2: Continuing on with that thread of human-machine collaboration, when working with ChatGPT it's like you're working in a group, but instead of other humans, your team-mate is an AI. Maybe if AIs were like Mr. Data on Star Trek, I might have a different opinion. Right now LLMs are like dumb appliances. They can "learn" but they are essentially machines. Collaboration requires agency, scope definition, goals, and drive, which machines simply do not have. In Connectivism, you can have interactions between human and non-human/appliance nodes, but I would not go so far as to say that they are collaborating. It's not even a one-sided "collaboration" for the human in that equation. When you're collaborating in a team you don't have to fact-check your team-mates submissions. You can have sufficient overlap between areas of expertise so as to have more than one pair of eyes on claims made, and people who are more expert at something can ELI5 things to other team members, but ultimately there is a back and forth. In a human-machine "collaboration" you have the issue whereby the human needs to be an expert in the subjects to be able to know where the machine goes wrong and correct it. In a learning context, I think that this is potentially detrimental to the learning process. It's not <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=umJsITGzXd0" target="_blank">the knowledge navigator future we've dreamed of </a>- at least not yet.<br /></p><p>The question that came to my mind is this: why are some folks thinking of LLMs as a "collaborator" and not looking at Google search as a collaborator?</p><p>Example 3: OK, final critique here. One of the things I've heard over the last few weeks is something along the lines of: <i>if you are a good prompt engineer you can get some amazing information, which you have to fact-check.</i>" There are just too many conditionals here to be that kind of study buddy that was mentioned above in example 2. Now, this reminds me of my undergraduate days when I learned about library databases and how to search for resources using Boolean logic. Yes, you needed to play around with your logic and your search terms (and sometimes you needed to learn controlled vocabulary), but you got <i>actual sources</i> that you could read and evaluate (and cite). I think prompt engineering is less of a sign of things that learners need to learn and more of a sign of a system that is still half-baked ;-). That said, I come back to the fact that you need to know how things work in order to assess whether the output is of any use (or even factual). An example that comes up is people learning another language. You would write something in English (assuming English is not your native language) and pop it into an LLM to have it convert that output to something more "native sounding." Amongst other issues, it's useful to know <i>why</i> something sounds <i>more correct</i> than other options when you're learning a language. An LLM could do it for you, but that doesn't help you progress as a learner. We had an example of why it's important to know your stuff (even if machines help) in Star Trek Picard this season. The short version is that the ship's captain is brought to sick bay with some symptoms. The veteran doctor realizes that he has internal bleeding that the younger doctor's medical imaging devices failed to catch. If the veteran doctor didn't know her stuff, the captain would be dead 🤷🏻♂️</p><p>Anyway, this post is getting too long, so I'll save my ideas for using ChatGPT/AI for another post ;-)</p><p><br /></p><p>Thoughts? </p><p><br /></p><p>~~~~~~</p><p>Just for documentation purposes, here are the objectives of the first session:</p><p>By participating in the synchronous Zoom session and any additional activities you pursue as part of your own learning experience, you will see how your colleagues are responding to ChatGPT. By the end of the live session and completion of any other activities you pursue, you will be able to:</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Identify at least three ways ChatGPT might be of benefit to you and those you serve in your section of our lifelong learning environment</li><li>Anticipate at least three challenges ChatGPT may pose to you and those you serve</li><li>Describe at least one way you may begin incorporating ChatGPT into your work or describe at least one step you can take to overcome a challenge you face in incorporating ChatGPT into your lifelong learning efforts</li></ul><p><br /></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-84264180693561723662023-04-26T10:32:00.000-04:002023-04-26T10:32:03.664-04:00Assessment in a Generative Connectivist Future<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLxGudte3o-tyW7OBHD_ODSheo836bidJMnuuYpOXUTcQG0BZilj-qqdnDRpLP8lqM0OOMggGSHm78KnyvYVUX6QDdDqOZrp0lauyKhdNeuyAyJtHf-ZTafTYfVWRCu0nE8hK5smGansp_XdQBTBo_N14UILgw_2t4jCtIs5aOZjoi3w8mT5SMH2A/s1280/photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="image of me (from what in the day) in a pondering pose" border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="1280" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiLxGudte3o-tyW7OBHD_ODSheo836bidJMnuuYpOXUTcQG0BZilj-qqdnDRpLP8lqM0OOMggGSHm78KnyvYVUX6QDdDqOZrp0lauyKhdNeuyAyJtHf-ZTafTYfVWRCu0nE8hK5smGansp_XdQBTBo_N14UILgw_2t4jCtIs5aOZjoi3w8mT5SMH2A/w320-h240/photo.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Hey! Blogging two days in a row! Who would have thunk it? Well, <a href="http://davecormier.com/edblog/2023/04/21/adapting-your-syllabus-to-an-online-content-ai-generated-content-world/" target="_blank">I did tell Dave I'd read his post</a>, and it did move some gears in the ol' noggin' so I guess something is still working upstairs ;-)<p></p><p>I think you should go and read Dave's post, since I'm just going to reflect and react on a few select points. Dave introduced me to <a href="https://www.lifescied.org/doi/10.1187/cbe.cbe-14-03-0054" target="_blank">an article by Schinske and Tanner (2014)</a> where they describe four purposes for assessments, those purposes being feedback, motivation, student ranking, and the objective evaluation of knowledge. </p><p>There were two things that jumped out at me: (1) the objective evaluation of a learner's knowledge and (2) ranking learners. </p><p>From a philosophical perspective, I don't think that it's the instructor's job to rank learners. As an instructor, I am not there to indicate whether Tom is marginally better at X than Dick. My job is to help learners go get through a particular corpus of knowledge that they should be able to use to do something with. This type of assessment only really exists on a one-to-one basis. As an undergrad I had a professor, let's call him Hans, who really believed in the bell curve. 🙄 On the first day of class, he announced that there would be so many As and most people would fall in the B/C range. I don't know what his feelings or beliefs were about the other end of the bell curve (the D and F), but I don't know if we ever found out. The knowledge that no matter how well you do, you are ranked against others is demotivating. If I know that my grade is most likely going to be in the B-range, I'll most likely <i>nope out of most things</i> in class and strategically choose what to participate in. If I were a student in an AI-world (assuming the AI generation was worth anything) I'd most likely be tempted to just autogenerate whatever garbage since assessments were more about a belief that anything is actually useful. As an aside, I still, to this day, wonder what a belief in a statistical probability chat is 🤷♂️. As an aside, as an instructional designer, I also must have missed the cID lass where it was my job to help devise assessments to rank people, instead of actually...assessing their knowledge and application of that knowledge 🤣</p><p>The other thing that jumped out at me was the objective evaluation bit. The more time I've spent teaching, the more I've come to the conclusion that I cannot objectively evaluate the entire corpus of the class I teach. Well, I could, but it would take a very (very very) long time. Instead, what I've observed happening is that we use snapshots of concept evaluation as a proxy measure for the entirety of the corpus of knowledge that we try to cover in our classes. We pick concepts that may be more "important" than others, or concepts that can be used like key puzzle pieces so that students can fill in that negative space with concepts and knowledge that's adjacent to what we're testing. Ultimately one cohort of CLASS101 is not going to be evaluated the same was as another cohort from CLASS101.</p><p>This reminded me a little bit of a conversation I had with one of my doctoral professors at Athabasca. We were discussing comprehensive exams at the Master's level. He was telling me that AU moved from a comp exam to a portfolio because, ultimately, their comp exam was neither <i>comprehensive</i> nor an exam.</p><p>In any case, back to course design. Dave writes that the internet (over the past 30 years) has changed the educational landscape. The way I see it, these represent some different <i>eras</i> of the web. Here's what Dave wrote (a bit paraphrased and expanded) - learners have...</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The availability of connections to other people to support learners in their education journey - examples being SMS, group chats, and various IM chat clients (Yahoo, ICQ, MSN, etc.) and so on. I would say that this was my generation of college undergrad. It wasn't everyone who did this (there is a certain amount of access privilege associated with this), but it seemed like classmates were a good source of peer learning whenever we got stuck.</li><li>The availability of pre-created content available through sites like Chegg and also through google searches. Content that can be used to respond to any existing assessments. This is just a digitalized version of the ol' sneaker net of years past where an someone who had taken the course before could share an exam with others. This was the mode of concern up until the ChatGPT paranoia hit in early 2023. </li><li>The availability of generative systems that can create responses to assessments, whether they are "correct" or not. This is where we are now with things like ChatGPT</li></ul><p></p><p>While reading Dave's original post, I was reminded of conversations about <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectivism" target="_blank">connectivism</a> over the past 10+ years. This is, in fact, an instantiation of connectivism. We connect to human and non-human nodes, "learning" seems to be residing in non-human appliances, and decision-making is itself a learning process. This last point I want to focus a little bit on because I think it has implications for design, teaching, and of course - assessment. If we take decision-making as the center of our learning experience, what kind of content is our <i>sine qua non</i> (SQN) content? These are the minimum elements that we need to begin to make decisions, and also allow us (as learners) to unravel connections to other learning that we need to do. Dave writes that "with the plethora of options for students to circumvent the intent of our assessments this require the rethinking of the way we design our courses." I agree. The question is what is that the core of that learning experience? Not necessarily content (although it is important to some extent), but rather the ability to be lifelong learnings, get new inputs, assessment, and perhaps use them to make decisions for an ever-evolving ill-formed set of problems that come our way in our personal and professional lives.</p><p>Whaddyathink?</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-78940875018642895092023-04-24T19:30:00.001-04:002023-04-24T19:30:00.223-04:00Experimenting with NightCafe<p> Another AI-based image tool shared in ETMOOC that I thought I would try out. This one is called <a href="https://creator.nightcafe.studio/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">NightCafe</a> and it creates images based on a prompt and a particular style from its styles list. My prompt for this one was: Show me a small group of Greek students huddled around a cafe table, drinking caffeinated beverages, while vigorously discussing philosophy.</p><p>It's interesting that in my mind I had "college students" but these images remind me a lot of Rennaissance Italy (Assassin's Creed II time period) rather than a more modern Athenian Cafe with Freddo Cappucino and Frappe coffees...</p><div><br /></div>
<a data-flickr-embed="true" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/admiralak/52843583763/in/dateposted/" title="NightCafe AI image - College students"><img alt="NightCafe AI image - College students" height="500" src="https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/52843583763_34e3f1ce77.jpg" width="500" /></a><script async="" charset="utf-8" src="//embedr.flickr.com/assets/client-code.js"></script>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-12178464839282892372023-04-24T14:05:00.002-04:002023-04-24T14:05:26.942-04:00To catch a supposed plagiarist<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCDwqiUx9b_zgsWlY7blYR7T4VlD2cURYYTq2ECAgD0tORvcLnmDOiC5KC_fIKy-u5527z01gJjGJc7F6-jYaJZsaZZemXswRgPX8sOdM9aAp1DrwplFhfxAQqf5S276y1S_oioLrP_az_vxXA23M30vu3DqTGIXMhrKmYAUD3yT7kOu8pFP8-kZhS/s350/StatlerandWaldorf(2).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Statler and Waldorf from the Muppers" border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="350" height="208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCDwqiUx9b_zgsWlY7blYR7T4VlD2cURYYTq2ECAgD0tORvcLnmDOiC5KC_fIKy-u5527z01gJjGJc7F6-jYaJZsaZZemXswRgPX8sOdM9aAp1DrwplFhfxAQqf5S276y1S_oioLrP_az_vxXA23M30vu3DqTGIXMhrKmYAUD3yT7kOu8pFP8-kZhS/w320-h208/StatlerandWaldorf(2).jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br />I don't often read IHE, but when I do it usually bubbles up from my Twitter feed 😂. The gem that popped up this morning is <a href="https://www.insidehighered.com/opinion/career-advice/2023/04/20/how-chatgpt-bested-me-and-worsted-my-students" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">one professor's lament about how ChatGPT bested him</a> and his Critical Pedagogy practices. While I am happy that someone's attitudes have been adjusted by this experience, I was surprised to read, near the end of the opinion piece that he was familiar with at least some of the principles of critical pedagogy...🙄. Getting sucked into the paranoia of "Cheaters! Cheaters everywhere!" doesn't sound like someone who's been practicing critical pedagogy for very long.<p></p><p>Anyway - I thought I'd share some of my reactions to the article which I jotted down as I was reading it...(sometimes I feel like these would be better as TikTok Takes 😂)</p><p><i>"I shared with colleagues that “All we have to do is ask ‘Did you write this?’” and then copy and paste the student work into the prompt box."</i></p><p>My first question is: did you actually research how ChatGPT works? With follow-up questions about the ethics of using a student's submission to feed to the system? And...why did you share with your colleagues that you're doing this experiment as if it's a done deal? I mean, I'd personally run the experiment first and see what happened before broadcasting something potentially embarrassing...🙄</p><p><i>"My inkling was that somebody created a shared study guide using ChatGPT and then, one by one, students took pieces word for word that they included in their short essays. Was this an issue of plagiarism or crowdsourcing—and is there a difference?"</i></p><p>If you don't have a good and solid definition of academic dishonesty, then that's your first problem. Crowdsourcing is (most likely) not the same as plagiarism (depending on what your definition of plagiarism is). You really should know for yourself what you're looking for <i>before you go looking for it</i> because you also need to clue in your learners as to what is and is not academically dishonest in your setting.</p><p><i>"While I was wrestling with the haste of my initial response, I received six frantic student emails, each professing their honesty, fear and dismay. Another student stopped by in tears. She rushed out of her house to catch me early in order to explain that she’d worked really hard on her study guide and the subsequent essay question. Yet another student sent me an example of how ChatGPT took credit for writing an article that we read as a class. By now, I knew that the tools at my disposal were flawed. Those 20 students in my class did not cheat on their essays, despite my confidence in my sleuthing skills."</i></p><p>Congrats my man! You managed to instill in students the fear of God, for no reason. You brought students to tears. I. Hope. You're. Happy! 🙄 You have no sleuthing skills, I think that's now a given. Listen, I don't mean to be harsh on this person, but before you accuse anyone of anything, you best get your facts straight (unless of course, you're Fox "news" and have money to burn in courtrooms and settlements). I genuinely feel bad for the students, and I hope you do too!</p><p><i>"I lamented to the students that I had made a mistake. Instead of focusing on student growth and innovation, I invested too much time into surveillance strategies. Instead of focusing on my commitment to developing strong personal relationships with students, I let a robot tell me what I should believe. Instead of trusting my students, I had trusted an online tool."</i></p><p>I think hindsight is 20/20, and I am glad you've learned from this experience, but did you really have to put students through this so that you could learn? Why not start with care and believing students, and working on mentoring rather than trying to catch supposed plagiarists?🤔</p><p><i>"The scenario in my class, however, also reminded me of some basic principles of critical pedagogy that we must consider as we are ushered into the new AI era. First, we must trust students, foremost because they are real people. They bring to the classroom their values, livelihoods and traumas. We must be mindful of the ways in which academic surveillance dehumanizes the very people we signed up to nurture"</i></p><p>We've been through this (at least) once before with remote proctoring "solutions" during the three years we were in the height of COVID and people were not in classrooms. Why did we need to re-learn this lesson so soon? It begs the question - did we really learn it the first time around? or did we just pay lip-service?</p><p><i>"if I were to continue to subscribe to the belief that it’s an educator’s job to catch and punish plagiarists, then everyone in the class would lose."</i></p><p>I don't get paid to be on the lookout for potential plagiarists and cheaters. That's not the job of the faculty member. Yes, I think if you voluntarily find yourself in that position (because you'd have to consent to doing it), it would be a lose-lose proposition. So...why bring yourself into that position to begin with? 🤔</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-47537826510931720502023-04-20T12:08:00.004-04:002023-04-20T12:08:44.734-04:00A future of couch potatoes<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiW-sV24Bw4oEkoizEWMrOIVdyHbINoQh1-rkwStxl0uv5NO7QIMFxOZnwDgHzWCR_SdkuynoZhrT5YZqYmraDwFU12FoGou-7iLxQoYIu9AnUk8VXDKzM2RZPpp21YzYpIUETOUS1xmfVoJ_aP_gPplwbL9L-HDymlL96qoO-fbkf2znNC3xNRoxJ/s267/images.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="Meme from the Umbrella academy where student is using ChatGPT to do homework, and professor has used ChatGPT to generate homework" border="0" data-original-height="267" data-original-width="189" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiW-sV24Bw4oEkoizEWMrOIVdyHbINoQh1-rkwStxl0uv5NO7QIMFxOZnwDgHzWCR_SdkuynoZhrT5YZqYmraDwFU12FoGou-7iLxQoYIu9AnUk8VXDKzM2RZPpp21YzYpIUETOUS1xmfVoJ_aP_gPplwbL9L-HDymlL96qoO-fbkf2znNC3xNRoxJ/s16000/images.jpg" /></a></div><br />I've been a bit "behind" in my participation in <a href="https://sites.google.com/view/etmooc-two/home" target="_blank">ETMOOC 2.0</a>. I've been enjoying keeping an eye on Discord, but I haven't really been participating as much as I would like to. In a couple of weeks, the semester ends, so mental bandwidth should be freed up a bit ;-).<p></p><p>This past week one of the streams that crossed my little part of Twitter was about teachers using ChatGPT to give feedback to learners on the homework/essays that they've submitted for grading. I managed to avoid most of this discussion - probably a symptom of having rolled my eyes so hard I almost knocked myself senseless 😂. </p><p>When I stopped for a moment to consider the possibility of this thing being useful for teaching (assuming we put aside any ethical or legal issues that come with uploading a student's paper into this kind of platform), I was reminded of a comic meme that I saw on the ChatGPT subreddit last week (or was it two weeks ago). While it is more focused on the workplace environment, I think it has applicability to education:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVY8mCKzdfGtxTI7McVdL1XxzqfAdd_vpiOS0Xw363Ji-lHWPKV_9dZPJzv9dVrLukdZdcyLXO3d_xuJluVfLucy4lgdmptxSWs-3_tFhuj9lGgzK26_Ay283mr51Qt1iT2tXGJmiUD3pDjeXDwyXbs7-JvNUSze71TZKbhix1Uvdy4Iwe15UTJ9Lm/s1200/s-7ZG5LK.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="628" data-original-width="1200" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVY8mCKzdfGtxTI7McVdL1XxzqfAdd_vpiOS0Xw363Ji-lHWPKV_9dZPJzv9dVrLukdZdcyLXO3d_xuJluVfLucy4lgdmptxSWs-3_tFhuj9lGgzK26_Ay283mr51Qt1iT2tXGJmiUD3pDjeXDwyXbs7-JvNUSze71TZKbhix1Uvdy4Iwe15UTJ9Lm/w400-h209/s-7ZG5LK.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p>This whole discussion brings a few questions to mind:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>If we're so bothered by students using AI to do their work, why aren't we bothered by having AI do our work?</li><li>If teaching is essentially a kind of caring task, doesn't it signal that we don't care about the people who submitted their work to us for comment when we outsource it? I understand that there is an issue with workload and increasing adjunctification of academia, but AI is not the way to solve this, rather it's leaning into it.</li><li>If learners need to use AI to write their assignment for them what does this say about our assignments? Might they be boring? Missing making a relevant connection? Might it be a workload issue for students? Or, might it be a skills-related gap that prevents them from doing what they need to so? Or all of the above? Creating more make-work for learners isn't the way to solve this issue.</li></ul><div>OK, so you might be wondering where the whole couch potato thing is coming from. Many years ago, when I was in high school, I had a math teacher (Mr. Erhardt). He has a banner in his classroom that read "Math is not a spectator sport." In my memory this thing was printed on a dot matrix printer sometime in the late 80s, even though my high school experience was in the mid-late 90s ;-). In any case, when we did math problems in Mr. Erhardt's class he always pointed to the banner when he wanted to solicit class participation. When I became an instructional designer and I was thinking about active learning, Mr. Erhardt and his banner came to mind. </div><div><br /></div><div>I adapted this by saying that "Learning is not a spectator sport" and I started using the analogy of the course instructor/facilitator/teacher as a personal trainer. Students go to class for the same reason they go to the gym - they want to get something out of it, but that something only comes when they do the thing that they need to do (push-ups, squats, burpees, 30 minutes on the treadmill, whatever). The personal trainer is there to demonstrate, to spot, and to give feedback so that you do the activities correctly and you don't injure yourself. Ultimately it's the learner who needs to sweat and feel the burn. If the learner's goal is to watch someone else sweat, then there is a mismatch. They shouldn't be at the gym. They should be courtside at basketball games, or a hockey arena, or on the sidelines as people run a marathon.</div><div><br /></div><div>If learners are using AI to not (metaphorically) sweat, and if we're using AI to not (metaphorically) spot and correct our learners, then why don't we just all agree to be couch potatoes?</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSM3iK6q7ROldsp21A8TcBRd9ZoBjQA1PHXVaGnbCJpNwa1gmFOoHI6vXX-YoGVl46GPxo5znRaYdSF4ztTTxZ_egJU1m1NYE3-Mfi8EE8ILksvjalz-m3lX8A73WpyZuscQsCC0oVXJ-eMYdxfEgRma3_nSSqeUF8pa4kSzlXuM22wcWw2qqymt80/s1024/Coupotatoes%20of%20AI4.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSM3iK6q7ROldsp21A8TcBRd9ZoBjQA1PHXVaGnbCJpNwa1gmFOoHI6vXX-YoGVl46GPxo5znRaYdSF4ztTTxZ_egJU1m1NYE3-Mfi8EE8ILksvjalz-m3lX8A73WpyZuscQsCC0oVXJ-eMYdxfEgRma3_nSSqeUF8pa4kSzlXuM22wcWw2qqymt80/s320/Coupotatoes%20of%20AI4.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Couch Potatoes of AI (Generated by Bing)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div><p></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-89520848708634389432023-04-02T12:59:00.002-04:002023-04-02T12:59:53.788-04:00Detecting AI "plagiarism" and other wild tales<p> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeQ8mpP8GALwzgQmyYW6YRNspc4zrmxbgMhQjDzoJ3sO1harZ7BdV1ruRwTg5DbU4v8hFktAZmBeQTIA_DbntYYzE9dAHcO2k8ic84ukb4rBK4w5RgFsWik_m1mfPn-jUzQWW_YTumYNWsVN8syHl5O6vHtHB2uuBKR3GzPelJ02JkapfMdA-odseK/s666/773x0r.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="popular Scooby Doo meme where the professor (Fred) unmasks the evil doer (cheatrers) to find out that the cheaters where the professor's own insecurities" border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="500" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeQ8mpP8GALwzgQmyYW6YRNspc4zrmxbgMhQjDzoJ3sO1harZ7BdV1ruRwTg5DbU4v8hFktAZmBeQTIA_DbntYYzE9dAHcO2k8ic84ukb4rBK4w5RgFsWik_m1mfPn-jUzQWW_YTumYNWsVN8syHl5O6vHtHB2uuBKR3GzPelJ02JkapfMdA-odseK/w240-h320/773x0r.jpg" title="If only it weren't for those darned kids!" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">If only it weren't for those darned kids!</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Admittedly I haven't been blogging a lot these days. I keep meaning to come back and actually get into the habit of writing more frequently, but as one of my Twitter acquaintances once observed, you make a note of it to come back to, but then lose motivation (loosely paraphrasing Matt Crosslin - I think). In any case, à propos of TurnItIn's announcement this past week that they will now have an <a href="https://www.turnitin.com/press/turnitin-announces-ai-writing-detector-and-ai-writing-resource-center-for-educators" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">AI writing detector and AI writing resource center for educators</a> as part of their offerings (wooooo! /s), I thought I'd spend a few minutes jotting down some thoughts. Warning: I am a bit of a Dr. Crankypants on this one...</p><p>If you haven't been paying attention, the early research is out on these kinds of detector schemes. People have been playing around with ChatGPT and AI author detectors and the results are in. These detectors just aren't good. Even GPTZero "The World's #1 AI Detector" (🙄) isn't all that accurate. Change some words around, paraphrase, change a bit of the syntactic structure, and boom! Something that was flagged as likely to be AI-generated is no longer marked as AI-generated. Furthermore, texts that aren't AI-generated, are falsely flagged as AI text for...reasons. Who knows how the system works? 🤔🤷♂️.</p><p>All this really rubs me the wrong way, as an instructional designer, as an EdTech person, and as someone who works in higher ed. For reasons that I won't go into too much detail, my work requires students to submit their capstone examinations through TII. The capstone examination is a culminating analytical essay (with citations and appropriate argumentation) that is undertaken once students have completed their MA coursework. You must pass this exam to earn your MA. As my department's EdTech Guru Extraordinaire, I administer this exam twice a year, so I get to set everything up in the LMS. </p><p>The capstone exam is a stressful time in the lives of students because even though many complete their courses with flying colors, they cannot graduate until the capstone essay is deemed acceptable (based on the assessment rubric that is shared with learners ahead of time). Students have two chances to pass, or they never receive a degree. Even if you are confident in your knowledge (like I was back in 2010 when I took the exam), you still feel the jitters and nervousness. My hands were shaking going into the computer lab. Back then you had four hours to answer four essay-style questions, so restroom breaks were also on a real "must go!!!" basis. Questions such as What if I don't pass? What if I fail twice? Two (or more) years wasted swirl through your mind. Luckily the exam today is a bit different than my days, so students have more time, open books, and more opportunities to write something broader with more authentic prompts. Still, those questions about "what if I don't pass?" remain. TII, the run-of-the-mill, non-AI-enhanced variety, still provides false positives. it frikkin' flags the name of the university because it...(wait for it) appears in other students' submitted papers in the institutional repository! 🤦♂️</p><p>Now, as the exam gatekeeper, I view these results before I anonymize the exams for grading. I have to make a call as to whether someone plagiarized, and I always come to the conclusion that TII is full of 💩. On the plus side, because the exam is longer than it was when I was a student, students have access to the report and they can modify/update their submission to get rid of any inadvertent plagiarism (i.e., they forgot to cite something), but some folks get stressed out at seeing a 20% plagiarism report and they've cited everything properly. I'd be stressed out too if I only had two chances at an exam that determined if I would graduate or not and I got these reports! Now, add to it some black box "likelihood of AI writing this" where you don't know how the mechanism works, and you have no idea how to evaluate such an output. Even though my default stance is to <i>trust the student</i>, it still takes energy to reassure students when they see this kind of junk output...</p><p>It annoys me that such "tools" increase stress upon learners, and add to the workload of care that professionals have to add to their schedule to reassure students who are, rightfully, freaked out.</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-32732669912403713922023-03-15T11:40:00.002-04:002023-03-15T11:40:36.908-04:00New Article out: Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI)<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfigmMG_Y0v_bcHc71jVeCBDauC0-YEim60YmKF7itUDgXnGJ0rH8oX4Rg3hszDqU-voFumHuS5TCGXcFJe-d4Q4fVP_lXYzLwxudlUYwotbXZ4oL3fsjmAwZCsjgxHQOuZb73e2s2JNwll6JDcyWjpyriOQOqsE6hb3JsUM6k-c2hBssRZP__XWoG/s1489/News.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="black and white drawing of a paperboy holding a newspaper whose cover says "extra! extra!"" border="0" data-original-height="1489" data-original-width="1343" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfigmMG_Y0v_bcHc71jVeCBDauC0-YEim60YmKF7itUDgXnGJ0rH8oX4Rg3hszDqU-voFumHuS5TCGXcFJe-d4Q4fVP_lXYzLwxudlUYwotbXZ4oL3fsjmAwZCsjgxHQOuZb73e2s2JNwll6JDcyWjpyriOQOqsE6hb3JsUM6k-c2hBssRZP__XWoG/w289-h320/News.jpg" width="289" /></a></div><br />This week a new collaborative article was published in the Asian Journal of Distance Education titled "<a href="http://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/709" target="_blank">Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Collective Reflection from the Educational Landscape</a>." Our friend and colleague Aras Bozkurt invited us to participate in a piece using speculative methodology, something new to me, to explore positive, and not so positive, narratives around the use of AI in education. I love collaborating on this type of output because I learn so much both from engaging in the experience as well as from other participants (and there were 36 of us in this endeavor). It was great to be in the same academic and social mindspace with old friends and acquaintances from past collaborations, as well as work with new folks. The published document is 78 pages long, so a short book if we consider page breaks between stories and perhaps some illustrations, which the original article doesn't have, but someone in our collaborative suggested - and which I think is a nifty idea. The last big collaboration like this (that I remember) was around Emergency Remote Teaching which I missed out on because of the dissertation work I was doing at the time, so this was a great way to get re-started with collaborative work now that school's done.<p></p><p>In writing my positive and negative stories I tried to be a bit gray in both of them. Depending on your lens and your predispositions you might see either as a positive or a negative. Either way, I hope they make you think 😁</p><p>I need to do a deeper dive into speculative methodologies. For this round, I read enough to be conversant and get my brain going, but a big part was a kind of moshpit learning. This approach reminds me a bit of another project I wanted to start a few years back, one that also stalled due to dissertation work, the "Modern Day Aesop" (or better name TBD) where modern animal-based fables could be crafted with an eye toward teaching, learning and technology. Similarly, another friend, Lance Eaton, had proposed a book a few years back called "Bring Me My Chisel: The Resistance Manifesto to the Cyborg Takeover of Academia" which also seemed to engage in a fictionalized approach to discussing teaching, learning, and technology in academia from a (perhaps) Luddite perspective.</p><p>Anyway, here are the deets on the new article :-)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Abstract</b></p><p>While ChatGPT has recently become very popular, AI has a long history and philosophy. This paper intends to explore the promises and pitfalls of the Generative Pre-trained Transformer (GPT) AI and potentially future technologies by adopting a speculative methodology. Speculative future narratives with a specific focus on educational contexts are provided in an attempt to identify emerging themes and discuss their implications for education in the 21st century. Affordances of (using) AI in Education (AIEd) and possible adverse effects are identified and discussed which emerge from the narratives. It is argued that now is the best of times to define human vs AI contribution to education because AI can accomplish more and more educational activities that used to be the prerogative of human educators. Therefore, it is imperative to rethink the respective roles of technology and human educators in education with a future-oriented mindset.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Check it out:</b></p><p>Bozkurt, A., Xiao, J., Lambert, S., Pazurek, A., Crompton, H., Koseoglu, S., Farrow, R., Bond, M., Nerantzi, C., Honeychurch, S., Bali, M., Dron, J., Mir, K., Stewart, B., Costello, E., Mason, J., Stracke, C. M., Romero-Hall, E., Koutropoulos, A., Toquero, C. M., Singh, L., Tlili, A., Lee, K., Nichols, M., Ossiannilsson, E., Brown, M., Irvine, V., Raffaghelli, J. E., Santos-Hermosa, G., Farrell, O., Adam, T., Thong, Y. L., Sani-Bozkurt, S., Sharma, R. C., Hrastinski, S., & Jandrić, P. (2023). Speculative Futures on ChatGPT and Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Collective Reflection from the Educational Landscape. Asian Journal of Distance Education. Retrieved from <a href="http://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/709">http://www.asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/709</a></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-22676934225538428282023-03-05T14:24:00.001-05:002023-03-05T14:24:26.230-05:00Would I lie to you?<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9n7RRJuYE_kR47N-HPaoAq7T75EUiSe6QsZPJr-30nMPpgm8MVn28G-d9c8qdORkI57OhKrQ0eRQ_z9f0oMF1fTE8HZ7bl4mpwzwPjW23UtEcI2FvlAXsNuOKo21enmgNDo40o-lfGSgXWHGJn30dUYRxXah-dlqZ6Sypom4lpQiqtWERysA7XqFV/s250/WILTY.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="Logo for the BBC show "Would I lie to you"" border="0" data-original-height="140" data-original-width="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9n7RRJuYE_kR47N-HPaoAq7T75EUiSe6QsZPJr-30nMPpgm8MVn28G-d9c8qdORkI57OhKrQ0eRQ_z9f0oMF1fTE8HZ7bl4mpwzwPjW23UtEcI2FvlAXsNuOKo21enmgNDo40o-lfGSgXWHGJn30dUYRxXah-dlqZ6Sypom4lpQiqtWERysA7XqFV/s16000/WILTY.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#wilty</td></tr></tbody></table><br />A few weeks ago I decided to ask ChatGPT to tell me a little bit about myself. Part of it was curiosity, while part of it was because I needed to write a short bio and I just felt uninspired. The first time the query ran, ChatGPT told me that it didn't know who I was. That's fine, I thought to myself, because it would be weird to be known like that. After all, I don't really consider myself to be anything big in academia.</p><p>This past week I decided to try again just to see if anything had changed in the world of ChatGPT. And lo and behold it had! Now ChatGPT seems to know who I am...sort of...</p><p><b>Prompt: </b>Who is Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos?</p><div><b>Response:</b> Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos is an educator, researcher, and entrepreneur who has worked in various fields related to technology and education. He is currently an<i> Associate Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Massachusetts Boston</i> and the <i>founder of several EdTech companies</i>. Koutropoulos has published numerous papers and articles on online learning, open education, and emerging technologies in education, and has presented at many international conferences. He is also an advocate for open education and has been <i>involved in several initiatives aimed at promoting</i> the use of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP). Overall, Koutropoulos's work has focused on the intersection of technology and education, with a particular emphasis on online learning and open education.</div><div>~~~~</div><div><br /></div><div>OK... Now it thinks it knows something about me, but it's just slightly off, as it's talking about me from an alternate universe. So far as I know, I haven't founded any EdTech companies, and I am not a tenured professor.</div><div><br /></div><div>I decided to prompt a bit deeper to see what else it would say (or make up) about me...</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div>~~~~</div><p><b>Prompt: </b>Please give me a synopsis of Dr. Apostolos Koutropoulos's work.</p><p><b>Response: </b>Apostolos Koutropoulos is an educator, researcher, and entrepreneur who has worked in various fields related to technology and education. He is currently an Associate Professor of Instructional Technology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the founder of several EdTech companies.</p><p>Koutropoulos's research interests include online learning, open education, and emerging technologies in education. He has published numerous papers and articles on these topics and has presented at many international conferences.</p><p>One of his notable contributions to the field is the development of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) called "Digital Citizenship," which is designed to help learners develop critical digital literacy skills. The course has been taken by thousands of learners from around the world and has received widespread acclaim for its innovative design and pedagogical approach.</p><p>Koutropoulos is also an advocate for open education and has been involved in several initiatives aimed at promoting the use of open educational resources (OER) and open educational practices (OEP). He has served as a board member for the Open Education Consortium and has been involved in the development of several open education projects, including the OpenCourseWare Consortium and the Open Education Week.</p><p>In addition to his work in academia, Koutropoulos is also an entrepreneur and has founded several EdTech companies. These include Experiential Simulations, which develops immersive learning simulations, and Epignosis, which develops learning management systems (LMS) and e-learning solutions.</p><p>Overall, Koutropoulos's work has focused on the intersection of technology and education, with a particular emphasis on online learning, open education, and emerging technologies. His contributions have had a significant impact on the field and have helped to shape the way we think about teaching and learning in the digital age.</p><p>~~~~</p><p>I guess it doubled down on the <i>entrepreneur </i>aspect and <i>edtech</i> company founding. I don't know where it got. the part of creating a MOOC called Digital Citizenship. The first thing that came to mind is that this sounds more like an Autumm kind of thing (as well as other folks I am friends with online). I guess my friends' interests provided me with a halo effect.</p><p>I mean, this AK sure seems. interesting, but he isn't quite me. I really wish I could see a source for all of these claims to get a sense of how the machine develops these synopses. </p><p>As an aside, reading all this made me think of the BBC show "Would I lie to you." I could see an "all academia" version of this show ;-) Maybe ChatGPT can create the short stories!</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-21910419106518634662023-01-29T13:45:00.005-05:002023-01-29T13:46:24.663-05:00ChatGPT Poetry Jam<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJed23TNsRm6eSVJ1WgliG0rEuFPFjPLazmAxlKGCSXbFJ-PLw7fCh8kFcUWBpfVOcKINzLt_Ahx347uXK4QPfmj7DF19e4qd8r0sYnJgLXsFIKS-_RSgK_vJKULR3ngcBoIG93R0HATsAKG0LmwkyXjgLcrnqj4gslZN84rYaZVqAy4UB0QnC6U6K/s1024/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-01-29%2013.39.49%20-%20a%20robotic%20poet%20in%20the%20style%20of%20robots%20from%20futurama.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="An AI image creation using the prompt "robotic poet in the style of robots from futurama"" border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJed23TNsRm6eSVJ1WgliG0rEuFPFjPLazmAxlKGCSXbFJ-PLw7fCh8kFcUWBpfVOcKINzLt_Ahx347uXK4QPfmj7DF19e4qd8r0sYnJgLXsFIKS-_RSgK_vJKULR3ngcBoIG93R0HATsAKG0LmwkyXjgLcrnqj4gslZN84rYaZVqAy4UB0QnC6U6K/w320-h320/DALL%C2%B7E%202023-01-29%2013.39.49%20-%20a%20robotic%20poet%20in%20the%20style%20of%20robots%20from%20futurama.png" title="Robotic Poet (Dall-e created)" width="320" /></a></div><br />I thought I'd post a little comic relief before the week begins. I decided to play a little bit with ChatGPT this week as well as DALL-E. I've been thinking about AI in Education, connected with an upcoming project, and I was thinking about the history of the pondering and discourse around AIEd.<p></p><p>My goal here was to see what ChatGPT does when it is presented with prompts to produce something in a language other than English and to assess the quality of the non-English output. It's not great, but it is rather humorous...</p><p><b>Prompt:</b> please give me a poem in greek about how yummy gyro souvlaki are</p><p><b>Output:</b><br />Γυροσουβλάκι, πικάντικο και νόστιμο<br />με τη ζωή να σε δουν, δε θα σε στοιχειώσω<br />πλάτη στο σκεύος, και μπριάτσα στο παράθυρο<br />παραδειγματικός για την ελληνική κουζίνα ο κύρος.</p><p>(Translation: Gyro souvlaki, succulent and delicious<br />With life to see you, I will not enumerate<br />Loin in the dish, and tomatoes in the window<br />An example of Greek cuisine, the lord.)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Prompt:</b> write a poem in greek in iambic pentameter about a teenager searching for the best souvlaki</p><p><b>Output: </b><br />Νεανικός και απόψεις με δυνατές επιθυμίες,<br />συνεχώς ζητώντας το καλύτερο σουβλάκι<br />σε όλους τους τόπους, και σε όλες τις λειτουργίες<br />με σκεψές πλούσιες, και μυαλό δυνατό.</p><p>Περπατώντας δρόμους, και διασχίζοντας δρόμους<br />σε κάθε γωνιά, σε κάθε καταστήματα<br />ερευνώντας πάνω από τα παραδείγματα<br />της ελληνικής κουζίνας, και της γεύσης.</p><p>Και με την ώρα που πέρασε, και με την προσπάθεια<br />ευτυχώς βρήκε στην καρδιά της πόλης<br />το πιο νόστιμο σουβλάκι, και στην επιτυχία<br />ευχαριστεί τον Θεό, και την καλή τύχη.</p><p>(Translation: A teenager, with strong desires and opinions,<br />|constantly searching for the best souvlaki<br />in all places, and in all functions<br />with rich thoughts, and a strong mind.</p><p>Walking streets, and crossing roads<br />in every corner, in every store<br />exploring examples<br />of Greek cuisine, and taste.</p><p>And with time passed, and with effort<br />happily found in the heart of the city<br />the most delicious souvlaki, and in success<br />thanked God, and good luck.)</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Prompt:</b> write a mantinada about a greek student desperately seeking a freddo cappuccino at 3am after a long night's marathon exam preparation session</p><p><b>Output:</b><br />Πολύ σκληρά δουλεύω και σπουδάζω,<br />Για να πετύχω ό,τι θέλω να έχω,<br />Αλλά στο μεσημέρι και στο βράδυ<br />Έχω πολλά όνειρα για καφέ.</p><p>Μα και στην αρχή της νύχτας<br />Έχω έναν καφέ που με θυμίζει,<br />Έναν freddo cappuccino που μου αρέσει<br />Και που με κάνει να νιώθω καλά.</p><p>Και στην ώρα που ο διάλογος μου ξεκινά<br />Και πολλά βιβλία κλείνουν τους σελίδες τους<br />Εγώ σκέφτομαι πώς να πάω για ένα freddo<br />Και να σταματήσω να σκέφτομαι για τους εξετάσεις.</p><p>(Translation: I work hard and study,<br />To achieve what I want to have,<br />But in the middle and in the evening<br />I have many dreams for coffee.</p><p>But at the beginning of the night<br />I have a coffee that reminds me,<br />A freddo cappuccino that I like<br />And that makes me feel good.</p><p>And when my dialogue starts<br />And many books close their pages<br />I think about how to go for a freddo<br />And stop thinking about the exams.)</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-47340534442988439912023-01-22T16:54:00.003-05:002023-01-22T16:54:52.135-05:00A look back to 2022 - Part V<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiREwcMPRIxLRW-voCxKbWI-pHrT7RcTj_TCJ-RmQ09xINZEP03uXlZqwik1zyTKq_Dz4Yk8rWdBPQOeuZ6li59dQL8zaIna2BE79TU3crRobPfvISaMK27m4EZ6tJqefrA8IedDMq1NA0XOnynMCZy-LkUAPOs2UWxkt7bmEjadEFXlsoHOxhiDjxk/s640/day-picture-id1163588010.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="640" height="170" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiREwcMPRIxLRW-voCxKbWI-pHrT7RcTj_TCJ-RmQ09xINZEP03uXlZqwik1zyTKq_Dz4Yk8rWdBPQOeuZ6li59dQL8zaIna2BE79TU3crRobPfvISaMK27m4EZ6tJqefrA8IedDMq1NA0XOnynMCZy-LkUAPOs2UWxkt7bmEjadEFXlsoHOxhiDjxk/s320/day-picture-id1163588010.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p>This is Part V of V of a look back to 2022. The <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-at-2022-part-i.html" target="_blank">first part discussed peer review requests in 2022</a>, and the <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-at-2022-part-ii.html" target="_blank">second part discussed professional development more broadly</a>. The third part branched off a bit from the second part,<a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-to-2022-part-iii.html" target="_blank"> discussing professional development a bit more from an academic development frame</a>. The <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-to-2022-part-iv.html" target="_blank">fourth part reflected a bit on research and publishing</a>. Concluding this look back at 2022, part V will explore some of my ponderings about...</p><p><span style="font-size: 18.72px; font-weight: 700;">Determining where teaching fits in for me...</span></p><p>This was an interesting point to ponder. My entry into teaching was about as predictable as my educational path: in other words, it really came out of nowhere! I was an average high school student and an average college student. It was during my first Master's when the change from <i>average</i> to <i>academician</i> began. When thinking about my foray into teaching, looking back on it, I honestly think it was done <i>on a dare</i>! I was advocating for a couple of courses to be offered in the MEd program that I had just graduated from a few years prior. After graduation, I kept in touch with the program folks and became a bit of an unofficial archivist trying to document the history of the program. After a bit of lobbying, I was asked if I wanted to design and teach that course. I was a bit surprised that they would ask me, but I jumped at the opportunity. That class (<i>research methods for instructional designers</i>) only ran once, but another course (<i>the design and instruction of online courses)</i> became available because the previous instructor decided to step down and pursue other opportunities. I jumped on that next opportunity and taught it every semester for a few years. Over the years, I jumped into teaching other courses, and I definitely spend more time designing, prepping, teaching, and grading than the <i>10 hours/week </i>that I was contractually compensated for. During the first few years putting in all the extra hours didn't even register. I was high on excitement, and I wanted to try <i>ALL THE THINGS.</i> As I was getting into the thick of my own doctoral studies, however, I started to get burned out and something needed to give. For me, those two things were research & publishing (see previous blog post) and teaching.</p><p>I dubbed my break from teaching my <i>sabbatical</i> (even though I wasn't paid 😂), and once my dissertation was on a better path and I had recharged <i>some </i>of my batteries, I returned to teaching. I think my break was about a year. The thing I've noticed since my return (circa 2018) is that my excitement for teaching does wane precipitously the closer the semester is to starting. I really like the subject matter that I teach, and I like the students, but teaching sometimes leaves me a bit <i>m'eh</i>. I am not really sure what it is.</p><p>In thinking about it, it seems like my feelings toward teaching seem to be related to how close my course is to cancelation, or sometimes how close a colleague's course is to cancelation, which invariably bumps me from my teaching spot. That level of uncertainty makes planning for course changes and updates an issue because you may end up sinking a lot of time into course updates and your course might get canceled, or reassigned. If courses do end up running, and I am still teaching what I was scheduled to teach, then there really isn't much time left to do course updates, so the course ran as it ran in the previous term 🤷🏻♂️. This isn't optimal, but it is what it is. It feels like procrastination, but it isn't. Even developing a new course (or redeveloping an old derelict course) has been mired with bureaucracy these past few years due to university-wide re-orgs. The joy of creation feels snuffed out by heavy bureaucracies 😬.</p><p>Another thing that I started pondering in 2022 had to do with my teaching title. Now, I'm a staff member and I teach as an adjunct, so I don't expect some crazy title at my teaching gig, but I came to the realization in late 2022 that no matter how long I've taught (since 2012) and/or been involved with the department in a voluntary capacity (member of the faculty committee since 2010) my rank (and thus pay per course) will always be Associate Lecturer, which is the same as someone who is just walking off the street teaching their first course. I've been involved with this department since 2010 🤦♂️, and I am probably the second in seniority (as measured by continuous time in the department). I acknowledge that this is not the department's fault, but rather a result of a set of institutional processes, procedures, and norms that don't account for someone in my position, but the adjunct nature of academia does tend to wear you down over time. There really ought to be ways of recognizing the longevity of employees, even part-time ones, in ways that are both tangible (pay/benefits) and intangible (titles).</p><p>All these things considered, over the winter break I decided that I probably will only teach courses that are already developed by someone else, and will only probably take on graduate courses that are sort of guaranteed to run. While it's fun to design courses from scratch, it is time-consuming and I feel like institutions need to pay for that kind of work, in some way. It seems like this kind of work is expected of tenure-stream faculty (which makes sense), but adjuncts seem to fall in between the cracks in a system that <i>appears to</i> be increasingly relying on contingent labor. Course creation, updates, and in some cases general department business can't rely on contingent labor. This is not good long term for anyone involved :-)</p><p>Thoughts? 🤓</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-63038850984003262742023-01-18T17:30:00.001-05:002023-01-18T17:30:00.201-05:00A look back to 2022 - Part IV<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpkXxRQxIgGnY7aTe2LDVmBnUmrf-RhPXSjZxxIYWdjsZaJoCfMulyLLPggyAN1CMD8EIFTlhR4Yvj2rNUcQLgblo5UXAMA9aBP4D-WNHzpcJYIfRaAOlrrnoTrR6m2254xh_caZDbHCL1nmQ8dygItZIsEKTNyo821m5RoARI55zEGlWcvpyxV6p/s2560/Types-of-Research-Design.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="2560" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYpkXxRQxIgGnY7aTe2LDVmBnUmrf-RhPXSjZxxIYWdjsZaJoCfMulyLLPggyAN1CMD8EIFTlhR4Yvj2rNUcQLgblo5UXAMA9aBP4D-WNHzpcJYIfRaAOlrrnoTrR6m2254xh_caZDbHCL1nmQ8dygItZIsEKTNyo821m5RoARI55zEGlWcvpyxV6p/s320/Types-of-Research-Design.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />This is Part IV of V of a look back to 2022. I know, my blogging is lacking a bit of urgency LOL 😂.<div><br /></div><div>The <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-at-2022-part-i.html" target="_blank">first part discussed peer review requests in 2022</a>, and the <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-at-2022-part-ii.html" target="_blank">second part discussed professional development more broadly</a>. The third part branched off a bit from the second part,<a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-to-2022-part-iii.html" target="_blank"> discussing professional development a bit more from an academic development frame</a>. Continuing with that academic framing, part IV will explore some of my ponderings about...<h3>Determining where research fits in for me...</h3><div>At the end of last year I was reflecting on where research fits into my professional and hobby life; keeping in mind that my job does not require, nor does it make provisions for, me to do research - thus it's mostly a hobby. My relationship with doing research, and where it fits in for me, has really evolved over the last decade. When I was attending my last Master's degree (before completing the degree), I had a hard time even <i>imagining</i> writing 7000 words, let alone publishing something in a book or journal! That is something <i>other people did, </i>but certainly not me. I did find three topics that piqued my interest enough to polish up into something resembling a journal article. I was never mentored on how to do this, so much of it was mimicking what I had seen in my classes and filling in gaps from conversations I had with professors. I might have read an intro textbook on doing research on my own at some point - I don't remember 😬. Anyway, I lucked out, in a sense, because my first two works were published in collected volumes that were about teaching and learning on campus and I got feedback and encouragement from people I had known in my day-to-day work setting over the preceding decade. Their feedback was <i>not</i> "reviewer 2" style 😜</div><div><br /></div><div>When MOOCs came along and I got sucked into that whirlwind, I found interesting folks who extended and expanded my thinking, and together we did some great work. The things researched around this time were things that piqued my interest, and the interactions with journals were mediated across a group of us. If revise-and-resubmit was the result, we worked on it and we did it. Here, I'll admit that the citation metrics were a bit inebriating as well. I never really cared about citation metrics, and I still don't to a large extent, but it does leave me in awe to see over 1500 people have cited publications that I was part of. The citation counts were something that kept me motivated to continue on new projects even though they don't really do much for my present career path. I had kept an eye out at tenure track style jobs, but due to pay and job security in your pre-tenure years, I don't feel like making that jump makes sense for me (if anyone wants to hire me with tenure, let's talk 📞😉).</div><div><br /></div><div>When I started working on my dissertation, for better or for worse, a lot of momentum was lost when it came to these kinds of collaborative research experiences that had given me so much energy. I needed to finish my dissertation so I could graduate, so I dropped off a lot of potential collaborations. Now that I am done with that, I am left pondering: <i>Should I return to that previous path? Should I not? Should I just be more selective about what I do? </i> It's not like I've rested on my laurels these past couple of years, but the publication process does leave A LOT to be desired. For example, in the past 4 years, I've completed four book chapters and one article. The article is basically <i>dead on arrival</i> because as I was finishing it, the journal I had in mind for publication had a moratorium (and still seems to be closed for business). I honestly don't have the energy to redo it, so <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/361265746_Not_quite_Childsplay_-_Video_Game_Archiving" target="_blank">I just released it in the wild for people who might find it useful</a>. One of the book chapters was a collaboration with a member of my EdD cohort, and that book editor seems to have gone dark...publishing that chapter now would require a lot of work to bring it up to date, so I am not sure it's a useful way to spend one's time. <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/343341464_Gamification_in_Education" target="_blank">That chapter was also released to the wild in case people find it useful.</a> The other three book chapters appear to be moving along and hopefully be out on in 2023. A sixty percent completion rate might not seem bad, but considering that I do this as a hobby, it seems like I best choose higher throughput means of publishing to make my hobby worth it.</div><div><br /></div><div>I could simply write, and not pursue peer-reviewed publishing, of course, but while citation metrics don't really matter as much to me it does make me ask (and ponder) what is the benefit of writing if you're not going to be viewed and/or cited? There is a concurrent strand in my head pondering about blogging when the number of your views per post is in the single digits (as is the case for my old blog). Part of me is wondering whether citation metrics have ruined part of this hobby for me 🤔</div><div><br /></div><div>What are your thoughts on research and publishing? I am especially curious to know if you are an itinerant/unaffiliated scholar and/or an adjunct faculty somewhere.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div></div>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-26383922867788081732023-01-09T16:54:00.003-05:002023-01-09T16:54:31.828-05:00A look back to 2022 - Part III<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVL934V_D7wNGorlFbEUlL_CN5Aq5TUFl0ZUqsyxM_ErToiYfT0XdwX_8TL2yWwsQDeUAc5QUG_M4RGv7hA-NP-qCNK-G5fbmi3oKh4NhF_Gg69siJt9CBKo_0UJd_JlWFlHaaAlAGmxwWhiFkX4T8jRL8DaprmQPmYu7D1uhCsNVoR2WRGuQOWXk/s600/professional-development-3.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="337" data-original-width="600" height="180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihVL934V_D7wNGorlFbEUlL_CN5Aq5TUFl0ZUqsyxM_ErToiYfT0XdwX_8TL2yWwsQDeUAc5QUG_M4RGv7hA-NP-qCNK-G5fbmi3oKh4NhF_Gg69siJt9CBKo_0UJd_JlWFlHaaAlAGmxwWhiFkX4T8jRL8DaprmQPmYu7D1uhCsNVoR2WRGuQOWXk/s320/professional-development-3.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />This is part III of V of a look back at 2022. The <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-at-2022-part-i.html" target="_blank">first part discussed peer review requests in 2022</a>, and the <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-at-2022-part-ii.html" target="_blank">second part discussed professional development more broadly</a>. As I was pondering professional development, a branch from that thread started vining out and sort of developing in my mind as related to, but distinct from, professional development. Thus, part III will be dealing with...<h3>Charting out the next phase of academic development</h3><p>As I was pondering professional development in my previous post, I started to veer into the area of academic development. I continued to write my previous post, but I decided to stop myself and separate this section out because I realized that I think of PD and AD as two different (but sometimes overlapping) entities. In my view, PD tends to relate much more closely to one's work. What you learn is usually applicable to your work environment sooner rather than later. Professional Development is also something that you might be able to do on company time (at least to some extent), with examples of this being going to a conference, attending time-bound workshops, or being given some unstructured time every month (as is the case with my IT colleagues) to explore some topic that interests you professionally.</p><p>Academic development, on the other hand, tends to be a little more of that geeky side that I mentioned in my previous post; the reason I studied Applied Linguistics even though I didn't have any concrete plans to become a language teacher (or teach in K-12 for that matter), or the reason I jumped into cMOOCs back in the day. It's also something that tends to be more of a hobby and "off the clock," so you don't do these kinds of activities during your day job. In my dissertation, I called this kind of learning <i>kefagogy.</i> I think one of my RhizoMOOC co-participants framed it best when they said something like: the learning experience being about what it made them think rather than getting through some content (yes, I am really paraphrasing here). Ultimately these kinds of ponderings make their way into my more academic pursuits, like teaching and writing, but they start off with mere curiosities. </p><p>I think my biggest challenge is really picking a topic (or a <i>narrow</i> set of topics) to explore. While I was working on my dissertation I had mentally bookmarked a lot of topics that seemed of interest: ludology, games in education, developing a TTRPG to run as a class on instructional design, stuff about lurking in educational settings, stuff about networked learning, broad topics on distance learning, I wanted to do a deeper dive into communities of practice, go back into linguistics-related topics, heck even some stuff about XR in education settings (I know there are XR geeks out there reading this!😜). My bookshelves are full (and my "to-read" folder on my desktop is bursting with academic articles📂), but I find myself in a sort of <i>m'eh mood</i> 🙄. It's not like these topics are not interesting, but I think they've gotten a bit dusty on the shelf while they've been waiting for me to be "done with school." This has got me pondering: <i>Has the sheen worn off these topics for me? or do they need a bit of a dusting off?</i></p><p>One of my friends from my EdD program messaged me the other day and suggested seeking a research associate position (something part-time) to get those academic neurons firing again. This isn't a bad idea! For a few years now I've been thinking about asking a friend in the field of linguistics if they'd be willing to have me tag along on a research project of theirs so I can learn more and dive deeper into the linguistics side of things dealing with corpus and computational linguistics while taking a "break" from (or slowing down a bit in) distance education research. After two waves of "OMG, online learning is the new hotness but it's so good/bad that it's good/bad" these past 10 years (once with MOOCs and then again with ERT), I feel like I'm living in groundhog day. I am not sure I want to dive deeper into topics relating to distance education just yet. IDK...maybe all fields have this issue, but it's exhausting at times 😅</p><p>What are your thoughts? How do you differentiate PD and AD? What do you do with those topics that you've bookmarked that seem like cool rabbit holes, but when you return after a while you have no energy for them? 🤔 </p><p>Also, as a fun and irreverent side-question: I have a tagline in this blog "Pondering what my next degree should be 😂". Pitch me your ideas! What field should I study next? What BA, MA, or PhD should I pursue? No answer too silly (or too serious)!</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-79131048878526847402023-01-05T13:18:00.001-05:002023-01-05T13:18:00.229-05:00A look back at 2022 - Part II<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyftt7MZMx0DkZgK2NhSz37yS4UPA2eV2eqSBZrdFi95r83aRlMx_SvLvZkzkekZYFRqjt50UqRBWZhkIVgfDlrZHn5WZudJ136cafJEeg-wo8oJKgy5zjrd7AkPQ-pDfEc9097AuMet7LwA2KcMP2Nq7Rr4kb9UVygncyCNusAfPWqEV1b7yRjDfb/s672/segue-blog-Professional-Development-MAIN.png" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="532" data-original-width="672" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyftt7MZMx0DkZgK2NhSz37yS4UPA2eV2eqSBZrdFi95r83aRlMx_SvLvZkzkekZYFRqjt50UqRBWZhkIVgfDlrZHn5WZudJ136cafJEeg-wo8oJKgy5zjrd7AkPQ-pDfEc9097AuMet7LwA2KcMP2Nq7Rr4kb9UVygncyCNusAfPWqEV1b7yRjDfb/s320/segue-blog-Professional-Development-MAIN.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />This is part II of V of a look back to 2022. The first part of this series did a bit of reflecting on professional expectations in the form of <a href="https://idstuff.blogspot.com/2023/01/a-look-back-at-2022-part-i.html" target="_blank">peer review requests that I received in 2022</a>. This next section is all about retooling, pondering, and...<h3>Figuring out what PD means for me</h3><p>I think that 2022 was really about <i>recovering</i> from my doctoral work. I completed my defense in July 2021, and all edits were accepted and published, and the degree was granted by October 2021. This, in essence, left me the entirety of 2022 to just let my brain air out a bit and recalibrate. Looking back, 2011-2016 were my MOOC years (free-range learning), and 2014-2021 were my Doc years (structured learning), and lots of time and brain bandwidth were allotted to that endeavor. While there were bumps in the road, I am really happy with the committee I had in the end, and they supported me in reaching that finish line. The completion of a doctorate means that I "won" at academia-ing right?😂 I've reached the end of the track and there are no higher degrees (and no, I don't consider post-docs to be a continuation).</p><p>Up until this point, much of my professional development was guided by the question of "<i>what's next?</i>" and more specifically<i> what's next for work (or my career)</i>. This question really guided me in most of my academic work. In fact, I think that my only truly geeky and "just for the love of learning" degrees were my degrees in Applied Linguistics and my EdD in Distance Education (although this latter one had applicability to work). I would also say that much of my MOOC-based work was also just geeky fun which I didn't have any immediate use for (even for things like learning analytics and connectivism), but without a certificate to certify some natural end point, does it count?† </p><p>This kind of "<i>what's next?</i>" thinking has also led me down the path of various certifications for things like digital and social media marketing (free through places like Hubspot), various education-related certs (like QM and Google educator), or stuff from past work roles (like the Avixa CTS). These certs dealt more with the present (the immediate future needs of the current job), whereas degrees were seen as a bit more medium-term (what's the next job after this one?). I think that much of my "what's next?" frame of mind was predicated upon going up the rungs of the professional ladder. Getting that next pay bump, that next title, or that next workplace challenge, something for which I needed to be in a different department, hence the necessity for job hopping.</p><p>What's changed over the last few years (beyond our uninvited guest, COVID...) is that I've reached a level on that metaphorical ladder where I can't go up any higher from my current rung. To reach new heights (in the grand scheme of things within the university), I'd need to Tarzan my way over to another ladder, which invariably would involve higher degrees of uncertainty. It would also involve leaving my current department (which I actually like), applying for jobs and interviewing (which I dislike*), and taking on a degree of uncertainty with regard to job security. One of those ladders is that of a tenure-track position, but the job (in)security aspects while you're pre-tenured don't seem worth the risk IMO when you've been at an institution for close to 25 years.</p><p>Thus, since my major goal isn't <i>what's next in my career</i> but rather <i>what cool things can I learn?</i> my mindset has changed, and my PD now has a new focus: <a href="https://jasonzweig.com/structured-serendipity/" target="_blank">Structured Serendipity</a> (Zweig), which I came across during my dissertation work while reading some of <a href="https://ds106.us/author/cogdog/" target="_blank">@cogdog's work on DS106</a>. The basic idea behind structured serendipity is that you expose yourself to fields that you wouldn't normally expose yourself to and maybe that will develop into some future <i>aha!!!! moment</i> wherein ideas from one field help you rethink your current structures and help you become more innovative.</p><p>Restructuring your PD from a highly structured goal-oriented focus into a fuzzier serendipity-based focus does pose some problems. First of all you have the question of abundance: what do you pick from? Being at a university means that there are a lot of structured courses that I could take, in addition to opportunities outside of the confines of my institution's walls. Do you pick something totally random that piques your interest? Do you pick something you know nothing about? Do you pick something related to what you've already done? Since PD funding comes from the employer, how do you convince goal-oriented (and ROI-minded) upper managers to permit loosey-goosey learning paths and embrace the unknown? Documentation is another point to ponder (which I brought up above). A degree or certificate program leaves you with something tangible at the end that you can show off, whereas more free-range paths to learning do not. How do you document your learning and present evidence of it? While I prefer free-range learning, kefagogy learning opportunities, and geek-based learning, I am aware of the need to document things with major milestone <i>just in case of an unexpected downturn. </i>These are the questions that I'm still pondering.</p><p>What do you think? How do you approach your PD opportunities?</p><p><br /></p><p>Marginalia:</p><p>† Don't answer that! Or do! It's actually an interesting topic to ponder!</p><p>* It's not that I dislike applying for jobs. What I dislike is the performative aspect of job interviews which seems to stretch on and on and on. The best interview I had (IMO) was for my current department where I just sat down and had a conversation with the department about my vision for the job, listened to where they wanted to go, and we mutually decided whether this partnership would work for both of us.</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-50702275240389964582023-01-02T13:27:00.015-05:002023-01-02T13:27:00.203-05:00A look back at 2022 - Part I<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhagAI95hNfHepCy1VpSMtSsUlG_ts3VKqeS5GAEPDvoOLJqIQzEcIXwIQofLYpOFawYdQ9AQFb8NPOGXqZoqFnY-BHScslOpTRQ8NVi46NnxGQVWcIseHffuwZBWa6EiN3EZG_vAPZ3brJfYGZ_W1tAzacvIZYcANZOsicp2xVBbErFFnM6G1HYTkH/s2400/guide-cover.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1072" data-original-width="2400" height="143" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhagAI95hNfHepCy1VpSMtSsUlG_ts3VKqeS5GAEPDvoOLJqIQzEcIXwIQofLYpOFawYdQ9AQFb8NPOGXqZoqFnY-BHScslOpTRQ8NVi46NnxGQVWcIseHffuwZBWa6EiN3EZG_vAPZ3brJfYGZ_W1tAzacvIZYcANZOsicp2xVBbErFFnM6G1HYTkH/s320/guide-cover.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />Happy New Year fellow learners and ponderererers (that's spelled right, right? 😜)<p></p><p>Looking back, 2022 seems like an academic blur. I know that lots of things happened, and I've jotted all of them down on a notepad so I can add them to my CV as some point in the future, but as I look back five distinct threads (points of pondering) come up as trends that emerged, or became more clear, in 2022. As I started writing this, it seemed like the length was getting out of hand, so I decided to break it up into many different blog posts. My first point of pondering is...</p><h3 style="text-align: left;">A deluge of peer review requests...</h3><p>Alright, maybe "deluge" might be a bit overdramatic, but it does feel like requests for peer review increased in 2022. I've been peer reviewing since 2012 and I am not sure what exactly changed. Did someone see my publons/WoS/ORCID profiles and decided to add me to their regular reviewer's circle? Did the addition of a doctorate to my credentials make me more visible? Was it the reported crisis in peer review that was making the rounds in 2022 that impacted those who were still reviewing? Was it all or some of the above? I don't know! What I do know is that the number of requests I received increased, and the number of declines on my part also increased. My two most common causes were "lack of time" and "I am not able to adequately assess this". </p><p>For the second reason, I noticed that I was getting requests for things that I am not necessarily an expert (or familiar) with, but they do fall under the general heading of "pedagogy." Hence, I received requests like one asking me to assess papers that dealt with PE class (aka "gym class") which isn't something I feel confident reviewing. I also received requests for reviews for papers that seemed to be Media Comparison Studies, or papers authored by folks new to online education (usually in a non-western context) that seemed to be rehashing research from the past 20 years. These latter two categories I totally <i>noped </i>out of. Prior to 2022, I would have entertained these two kinds of papers (keeping in mind that I didn't get that many requests) so I could at least give people some feedback. </p><p>This past year, for better or for worse, my relationship with peer reviewing changed, and I think that I started thinking about it more selfishly. If I saw an article that piqued my interest, I'd agree to review it (provided that I had time). If I saw something that I would most likely reject (based on the abstract), I decided to not review. I think that if folks are in a tenure track position this kind of <i>service to the profession</i> is paid for by the university. In my case, as an occasional adjunct, I am not compensated for this effort, so my only compensation is choosing things to read and review that are of personal interest to me (which happens in my non-work time). I don't think paying reviewers for reviews would do the trick. I honestly don't know how that would even be calculated. Peer review has issues, something which I have brought up in the past, and<a href="https://experimentalhistory.substack.com/p/the-rise-and-fall-of-peer-review?utm_source=pocket_reader" target="_blank"> something that recently resurfaced in my social media threads</a> (a blog topic for another day), so I don't know how adding payment for reviews would solve anything. It may, in fact, make things worse because the economic incentive to undertake reviews, even when you might not be an expert in the field, just muddies things up.</p><p>In any case, looking ahead at 2023, it seems like I'll need a better game plan for peer review requests and figuring out where this kind of activity fits in my professional and academic life. I do wonder, how do non-tenure folks deal with such requests for peer review?</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-24358399035034989822022-12-18T13:23:00.001-05:002022-12-18T13:24:07.465-05:00My semester on FutureLearn<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSLFmGWQGD1BmnIFt9lKeKI2UrbSIcRoFii5VuXIxf_xeiipElMj4bxdOMD1Wl-oy-upDqPX-CGDIiSkDk_nINlUorNUrAxfxUpjcrs_Mx98HJQGy0EiYQZrG9DIRt6q98DaxHoIfN3yMTtVaB9Xvj2B_ymn9uNLtA9q0TGMRgJ-jbEOBd6edjqlxq/s729/large_hero_12a45be6-a1a9-4d70-81e5-6e9a1a33e8d5.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="People hold large puzzle pieces putting a puzzle together" border="0" data-original-height="486" data-original-width="729" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSLFmGWQGD1BmnIFt9lKeKI2UrbSIcRoFii5VuXIxf_xeiipElMj4bxdOMD1Wl-oy-upDqPX-CGDIiSkDk_nINlUorNUrAxfxUpjcrs_Mx98HJQGy0EiYQZrG9DIRt6q98DaxHoIfN3yMTtVaB9Xvj2B_ymn9uNLtA9q0TGMRgJ-jbEOBd6edjqlxq/w320-h213/large_hero_12a45be6-a1a9-4d70-81e5-6e9a1a33e8d5.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />It's the end of the year, and the end of the term, so I look back at my own learning this past fall semester. This fall, I decided to revisit FutureLearn. Over the past few years (since 2018ish?) I've been signing up for FutureLearn courses so that I can have them in my queue (in case they disappear). I guess I was optimistic in 2019...and 2020...and 2021 that I would get to these, so the queue of courses kept getting larger and larger 🤣. So, with the queue so long I decided to do something about it:<p></p><p>The total number of courses I went through this fall (August through December was 36. Some courses were outside of my wheelhouse but seemed interesting, while others are peripheral to what I am doing, so things were not always new. Unsurprisingly, the courses that were on subject matters that I already knew something about went by rather fast since past information kept coming up, both my own previous knowledge and things that came up in previous FutureLearn courses. Being able to binge courses in this manner really highlighted the duplication of information across related courses on the platform (which isn't necessarily a bad thing). The courses where I didn't have any background in went a little slower, but they were quite interesting nevertheless. The one that stands out to me is the <i>Business of Film</i>. I don't know when I'm going to use this information in my life, but it was interesting to learn more about how this industry works.</p><p>One of the interesting things that I observed is that instead of having courses retracted from the platform (as seems to be the case with coursera, for example), in FutureLearn, if you're enrolled in a course that is no longer maintained you get a warning of when the last update was, and that information in the course may no longer be accurate. I prefer this approach to simply booting users who registered for it.</p><p>In terms of pacing, I was able to get through two or three short courses per week (short = 2-3 modules), or 1 longer course per week (long = 6-10 modules). I have noticed that compared to when FutureLearn launched, a lot of courses on the platform appear to be on the shorter side (2-4 modules) rather than 10-14 module courses that seemed to be the norm when the platform launched.</p><p>One annoying thing about all xMOOCs is the assessment piece. Most courses that I undertook just had Quizzes peppered throughout the course. For some, if you got over a certain score you'd also get a certificate of completion (nice!) The quizzes rely mostly on MC questions but every so often you get a "fill in the blank". Let me tell you that I absolutely hate fill-in-the-blanks! If you mistype something or put a synonym...you miss out on a point. Another poor assessment use was using "pick as many as are correct" (aka checkboxes), when there is only one right answer in the list. That should be a radio button. I think we've all been conditioned by the heuristics of computers to expect more than one box to be ticked when you have more than one correct answer 🙄. Since I wasn't doing this for a grade it doesn't really matter (I could have skipped the quizzes altogether), but it as a designer this kind of stuff irks me at times. Another poorly thought of element of usability: If you do end up getting less than the minimum score on a quiz, you have to email FutureLearn support to rest a quiz for you. It seems like a user should be able to reset quizzes after a certain amount of time has elapsed, and the server should be keeping track of how many times a user has reset a quiz.</p><p>I have another dozen or so MOOCs on my wishlist on FutureLearn which I might sign-up for early in 2023 to go through. The problem with new courses is that there is a time limit to complete them. One of the ways of monetizing the platform is giving participants the option to keep the course by subscribing, or having access to it for a limited time. I guess I need to start courses one at a time from now on ;-)</p><p>Is anyone still on FutureLearn?</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-31305154487612624792022-10-31T16:24:00.002-04:002022-10-31T16:24:43.484-04:00Sticking with the fail whale... for now<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdexzUJnS-k1Z2VyMyXbmMiqE8Vqc5T0bSr4TLkGhOhmyMdw0QM1C6liTHtbdgwqdtIAk7sSfzhDr2BLtS3ymyqBznoY48bywTtIkLZvphYVRDL2O06IsG7hs51XuhM5iGM1SbtqvoiKGI9hRBDy68GBB14hn2CLJJ6oiy2W88xHq1w7j62Y0OIcI/s600/lifting-a-dreamer-2009.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="424" data-original-width="600" height="226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdexzUJnS-k1Z2VyMyXbmMiqE8Vqc5T0bSr4TLkGhOhmyMdw0QM1C6liTHtbdgwqdtIAk7sSfzhDr2BLtS3ymyqBznoY48bywTtIkLZvphYVRDL2O06IsG7hs51XuhM5iGM1SbtqvoiKGI9hRBDy68GBB14hn2CLJJ6oiy2W88xHq1w7j62Y0OIcI/s320/lifting-a-dreamer-2009.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>A lot of digital ink has been used up in the past few days with <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2022/10/28/23428132/elon-musk-twitter-acquisition-problems-speech-moderation" rel="" target="_blank">Elon's purchase of the big blue bird</a>, both in blogs and Twitter itself, and news outlets (not that I think of it) To be fair, it is a little concerning when your social network changes hands, but then again other things are concerning in the land of social media (where "you're the product"), like most social media ownership, privacy, uptime, and what companies are doing with user data. However, is this most recent panic enough of a cause to move over to another platform (or protocol) like Mastodon?🤔 Perhaps...or perhaps not. Earlier this year I created an account on <a href="http://Scholar.social">Scholar.social</a> (based on where colleagues seemed to be moving)- which took forever to verify - because their servers were kneeling under the weight of the many people who were "leaving" Twitter after the last Elon scare. I see today that <a href="http://Scholar.social">Scholar.social</a> no longer accepts new members. Just for giggles I also created a <a href="http://mastodon.social">mastodon.social</a> identity because I was having issues logging into Scholar after months of not logging in. I did end up logging into scholar eventually, but I haven't really "tooted" much. What to does one say when creating an identity on new network? "Hello, world? I am eating a ham sandwich!"😜<p></p><p>Migrating is a such pain...😕</p><p>Having multiple social media accounts isn't the issue. What is the issue is the ability to follow conversations and have an opportunity to be part of the community. Accounts are easy to create, after all, I still maintain accounts on discord (which I rarely use), several slacks (which I also rarely use), Facebook (mostly for family), Instagram (just for photos...although that's been changing lately thanks to Meta🙄), Swarm (for location-based stuff), Untappd and TV Time (to keep track of things), and two Twitter accounts (one of which isn't as active). Heck...<a href="https://www.plurk.com/foveros" target="_blank">I am still on Plurk</a> (not that I use it...😂)! </p><p>The social platform is just a means to an end. The biggest thing about social media is the <i>social</i>, and it's where your communities are available to connect and share. The nice thing about Twitter is that the main timeline has everything from edtech, learning, higher ed, VR/AR, language and linguistics, and even silly pet videos. I don't need to go into separate communities to get different sorts of content. I know, that in theory the Fediverse (the mastodon protocol) allows for bringing together such various communities, but only if your communities are part of a service that uses this federated connection. The other thing about Twitter (as it stands) is that I don't get sucked into it the same way Discord and Slack tend to drain your time. There are no "unread messages" on Twitter. Just jump in and engage from whatever point.</p><p>In any case, over the years I've experienced a few migrations of the various communities I am (or was) a member of. Every migration hop is a chance to lose connections, and every connection lost basically makes the new tool less useful. Sure, some connections are more valuable than others based on your rate and quality of interaction with them, but every so often a connection surprises you (in good or bad ways), Here are three personal examples of migrations from the last 20 years:</p><p><b>MacOS Forums:</b> Back in ye olde days, before social media... at least as we know it and understand it today, there was a time when the public beta for MacOS X came out (ca. 2000). At this time, there was a forum that sprung up for enthusiasts and professionals to discuss the next big thing from Apple. The community had a lot of members, and along with technology, software, hardware, and other geeky discussions, there were off-topic forums that hosted general discussions. These kinds of phpBB-based forums still exist today for various communities around the web. This forum was basically the Twitter/discord/slack of its day because in addition to all the tech news discussions we ended up making friends online over the years. One year the owner of the forum was vocal about something that was non-tech related (something politically conservative if I remember correctly). People got temp-banned for voicing concerns about this (you know, the "owner" exercising power over the community to promote their views), and ultimately it made a lot of members jump ship and join another apple-focused community. The owner of the community did change his tune and members came back, but I did see a breakup of the discussions across two or more online forums at the time, which really changed the tune and feel of the community. The community has rebounded, it seems, over the last 20 years, and the forums are still going strong, but much of my own network seems to have moved on (and from visiting today, I see that some people have passed onto the next realm of existence). While I still maintain my logon info there, it's not a place I frequent much. It's fun, and nostalgic, to see that some threads that started 20 years ago are still active! To be fair, around this time I also changed jobs, so the forum was less relevant in my day-to-day work life, but I would have stuck around for the off-topic threads if the vibe of the community was different 🤷♂️.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>RSS & Google Reader:</b> The third big wave (yes third, I skipped #1) of migrations really came when Google Reader was killed off, and more and more social sites (like Facebook and Twitter) entered the scene. The social web brought together individual authors/publishers via their blogs and RSS. I used to read a lot of Greek blogs back in the day, left comments on the author's posts (and some left comments for me), and discussions were had over distributed means and digital places. In Google Reader, you were also able to follow others and see the items that they shared with others from their RSS feeds. In this way, you were able to discover the blogs they were reading, get an opportunity to subscribe to those blogs yourself, and have a kind of serendipity in content discovery. This made Google Reader more than just an RSS reader, it was also a social network in its own right. When microblogs came out (Twittr, Pownce, Jaiku, Plurk, etc.) I do still remember the discussions questioning why one would use a microblogging service to post something that was 140 characters long. Their regular blog (Blogger, Wordpress, LiveJournal, etc...) would handle 140 characters just as well 1000 characters. Of course, we know how that ended. Many people did gravitate to services like Twitter, Pownce, and Jaiku. While they maintained blogs, the quicker discussion was happening on microblogs. With the loss of Google Reader, however, I ended up following a small subset of the people I followed on Reader on Twitter (and to a lesser extent Facebook). I still use RSS, but that social component is lacking in Feedly, and <a href="https://theoldreader.com/" target="_blank">The Old Reader</a> replicates google reader's look and feel, but the paywall means that my community isn't there.</p><p><br /></p><p><b>Dead Socials, Abandoned Socials, & Various Messengers:</b> There's no dearth of digital tumbleweed and social tombstones. Like any self-respecting techie, I've tried a lot of services over the years. Some that come to mind over the past 20 years of social: MySpace, Friendster, Hi5, Orkut, Jaiku, ICQ, Google Allo, Yahoo! Messenger, MSN Messenger, Apple iChat, AIM, Google+, Whrrl, GoWalla, Raptr, Pownce, StumbleUpon, Vox blogs, Yahoo! 360, Yahoo! Chat, Edmodo, HelloTxt, Path, Meerkat, Del.icio.us, Ning, SocialGO, various IRC channels, and the list goes on... Sometimes platforms just go away, I guess that's the nature of things. Sometimes people migrate platforms. That's also the nature of things. The one thing that seems different now, compared to then, is that there is a lack of discoverability when switching platforms. Over the past 20 years, the way to find your contacts had been their email (or in some cases their phone number) in your contacts list. So, when you joined a new service, it was fairly easy for that service to harvest your contacts and point you to who's using their service (yes, I know, there are issues with this). These days, I have no idea what people's emails are any longer (never mind their phone numbers). Perhaps for some colleagues that I connect with on a regular basis by email - sure, I have that - but for the most part, people's digital identities are their Twitter or Instagram handles. When switching services, there's no way to link up one identity with another. Switching services for the sake of making a point about a rich dude's purchase of the company seems counterproductive. My network is here...at least for now. A network developed through conference backchannel tweets, MOOCs, and serendipitous discoveries.</p><p>Looking back, I don't fret too much about my lost connections on ICQ, Yahoo Messenger, iChat, or any of those other platforms that shut down. The same goes for social networks and forums that I stopped using, and blogs that I used to read that have since gone dark and whose author's real names I never knew. Ultimately, for me, the big blue bird is about one thing: discussion and discovery. So long as it fulfills those functions and the majority of my community remains there, I'll most likely stick around. After all, there is little use in spending a lot of time migrating and trying to rediscover people on the new platform who might just end up remaining on the old platform anyway. If and when Twitter becomes a ghost town (or has a spectacular implosion), then it would be worthwhile to expend the effort to find other spots to hang, sip my real life coffee, and engage in discussion over the next MOOC or whatnot.</p><p>Just my 2c. What about you?</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-35605919391927491762022-09-16T14:03:00.001-04:002022-09-16T14:03:41.535-04:00An Alt-Ac's publishing dilemma<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnAJmOkuSnEqfBrPfkhwfqMjl5u9fWdPZahaXq3Yc2WQxAtzQzNnJt6t6qMZjkgOw8ZO8Z3vv6xTlPY29tPbG0lBywMv3OAPG06PFI5MDWpuITO7GsNJqXj56fqvJbvzjLwODf9LkYbmTnRnhumn_N_Mk4e5NBpnfp5ZlbSKgGrOO7laQ1krH5_z7/s1834/Creative-Writing-Topics.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1147" data-original-width="1834" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAnAJmOkuSnEqfBrPfkhwfqMjl5u9fWdPZahaXq3Yc2WQxAtzQzNnJt6t6qMZjkgOw8ZO8Z3vv6xTlPY29tPbG0lBywMv3OAPG06PFI5MDWpuITO7GsNJqXj56fqvJbvzjLwODf9LkYbmTnRnhumn_N_Mk4e5NBpnfp5ZlbSKgGrOO7laQ1krH5_z7/s320/Creative-Writing-Topics.png" width="320" /></a></div><br />A couple of blog posts ago I was pondering my dilemmas about peer reviewing as an alt-ac. This week I've been pondering actual publishing as an alt-ac. Here's how my pondering started (after a long couple of weeks at the beginning of the semester)...<p></p><p><b>Given that...</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>As an alt-ac I do not need to have published articles to be promoted in my professional work;</li><li>As an alc-ac I do not get professional recognition for works published (except for some internal delight when I see my citation numbers😅)</li><li>As an alt-ac I don't get "work release" time from my dayjob to work on this research, so any research work I do eats into my hobby/free time;</li><li>As a hobby, research publications don't pay (whereas other gigs do, providing an incentive to give up some of your free time in exchange for my expertise);</li><li>Publication of research is hitting bottlenecks, both with peer reviews and periodic journal moratoria;</li><li>Even without the bottlenecks, getting through peer review can be a challenge (thanks to Reviewer 2😂) and even with good publications it's been a challenge at times to get published;</li><li>I have at least two publications (ca. 2018 and 2021 respectively) that I completed but have yet to publish because of journal moratoria or book editors ghosting me after the work was completed - and don't feel like doing the reformatting work (or updating work) to resubmit elsewhere...</li></ul><div><b>The question is</b>: Does it make sense that I continue down this path of research and publication? </div><div><br /></div><div>Don't get me wrong. I do like reading and writing, and I could very likely get a couple of 8000-word manuscripts out each year, I don't think I <i>see</i> the value of submitting these to peer-reviewed publications. I see a bit more value in pursuing book chapters (after all, that process is a bit more staged, and at least there's a book contract in hand!) but getting completed research into peer-reviewed research in journals feels very administratively taxing for something that is essentially a hobby. It's that last mile that feels insurmountable at this point; or at the very least yes it's possible to get over that hump, but the reward for such an effort doesn't seem worth the inputs it needs in terms of time and effort.</div><div><br /></div><div>Any fellow alt-acs out there? What do you think of the peer-reviewed pub lifecycle? Do you find it fundamentally worth it? If not, at what point did it lose the luster for you? 🤔</div><p></p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8455468843833525066.post-74064473203522911732022-09-01T14:45:00.005-04:002022-09-01T14:45:52.284-04:00Faculty CPD: The View from the Bleachers.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54Aaz6kp1tgONOKQjWyhEvIir1XuaeeRcda3Mnq9362es9kdaUhD-TJx-QK8QGO9vLJq0b4WNBnalVAPx_lwFllRIZegaMbavGguB3XLcgwVokaa-cYB0lsizCA-_AMeIe9CaLvvrzDGC2EwTkUeTfgW2vS53M-PrDtIRZSTKmQs_buJpkyoL8EzG/s800/training-areas.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="decorative image" border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="800" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg54Aaz6kp1tgONOKQjWyhEvIir1XuaeeRcda3Mnq9362es9kdaUhD-TJx-QK8QGO9vLJq0b4WNBnalVAPx_lwFllRIZegaMbavGguB3XLcgwVokaa-cYB0lsizCA-_AMeIe9CaLvvrzDGC2EwTkUeTfgW2vS53M-PrDtIRZSTKmQs_buJpkyoL8EzG/w320-h200/training-areas.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>This particular post has been in my drafts folder for a while now. The post started off as some ponderings, based on tweets from fellow instructional designers (over the summer), that lamented the fact that faculty members really didn't attend professional development opportunities that they had worked so hard to put together. With the start of the new academic year just ahead of us (at least for my campus) it seemed like a good opportunity to return to this post. This is my local view, framed chiefly from my experiences where I work, but also from chatting about this with local colleagues at other institutions nearby over the last 15 years. Yes...the problem ain't new!<p></p><p>One thing I've seen over the years is the <b>reliance on bad metrics</b> and other various bad indicators like foot traffic through the ID offices, the number of workshops offered, and butts in seats at the workshops. This isn't new. Even as far back as when I was a training manager for our academic library, what the administration wanted was butts in seats, in-person, during the hours of our employment (9-5). The same was true when I was an educational technologist. Here's the thing: it's not 1999. People who want to learn how to do something can't necessarily come when you're scheduled to work. You can either adapt your hours of operation and/or offer more virtual offerings. In a post-emergency pandemic world, the same constraints exist as before, but people are even more reluctant to go to campus to sit in a room to learn <i>whatever</i>. So, what sorts of metrics make sense for the services that we're offering? And, who is deciding these metrics? Is it managers who are disconnected from the process? (as was the case with me all those years ago?) Or is it people who are on the front lines of training?</p><p>Second, it's summertime, or at least it was when the flurry of those tweets occurred. <b>Summertime is like Schrödinger's Training Period</b>: It's both the best time to offer workshops and the worst time to offer workshops. When you do offer workshops, you will find out that it's actually not a good time to offer workshops and other sorts of CPD. Why is that you might ask? Well, faculty are 9-month employees. They are compensated from September to May. In the summer months, they are not paid (or they are paid from a grant fund for specific grant tasks). Expecting them to partake in our wonderful workshops is not fair. It's even more unfair if you have to go to the campus where you're charged for parking. Unless your faculty are 12-month employees, or you're compensating faculty for their time, summer CPD shouldn't be a thing. This kind of stuff should be in the "analysis phase" of the workshop design process 😉.</p><p>Next, I'll mention something that fellow instructional designers, especially new ones, might find controversial: <b>CPD for teaching isn't something that faculty care about</b>, at least not enough to add it to their calendar and make a plan for it. The requirement to be a college/university professor is a terminal degree like a doctorate (or in the case where a terminal doctorate is not an option, a terminal master's, like an MFA). What your terminal degrees prepare you for is either research (as is the case with the doctorate), or some sort of practice (e.g., various kinds of art as is the case with the MFA). Teaching isn't what you're prepared for. In fact, it's most likely the case that you're basically just mimicking what you've seen done in classes in your previous educational experiences. Teaching should be valued, but it's usually something that doctors aren't prepared for, and are not rewarded for once they start teaching. If you look at a tenure-track faculty member's annual evaluation a big component of the evaluation is weighted toward research and service. Yes, teaching is there, but it's there as a token item IMO. For non-tenure instructors, they are compensated only for teaching, nothing more and nothing less, which means that they aren't compensated for the hours they spend on professional development.</p><p>When there is some value attached to teaching CPD by faculty, I would say that <b>instructional designers and their expertise is really undervalued (or not valued at all)</b>. At least at my institution there seemed to be a bit of tension between what instructional designers offer and what grassroots faculty-led initiatives (like centers for the improvement of teaching) organize. Even in my own context, another entity, the office for faculty development is led by a tenure-track faculty member, showcases resources by faculty, and instructional designers and librarians are basically not included. This on top of most resources for faculty development seem to be tenure related. In any case, I would argue that institutions are complicit in the undervaluing and sidelining of instructional designers (and librarians)🤷♂️. When your own institution doesn't support you in this endeavor, are you just part of an elaborate façade?</p><p>Finally, I would say that there is another element that's really inhibiting the participation of faculty in CPD, and leading to a bit of burnout amongst instructional designers. That factor <b>is the lack of collaboration amongst campuses</b>. I'll focus specifically on Massachusetts State Colleges and Universities. In our state, we have 15 community colleges and 14 colleges and universities (if I lump the UMasses together with other state schools). While there have been instances of sharing materials with one another (at least between personal contacts in the UMass schools), that only includes the training materials. Why not foster cross-institutional collaboration between state schools? A more comprehensive training calendar can be developed and offered. I also think that cross-institutional faculty acquaintances can be valuable beyond training. By working together, instructional designers at every campus don't have to provide all the trainings. Rather, training can be shouldered by many institutions, in cross-functional teams, and after training is done, instructional designers on individual campuses can act more like coaches. I don't understand why this is rocket science. 🙄</p><p>Finally, I think the elephant in the room that no one is acknowledging is the <b>fatigue from the past 5 years </b>In our case it's three years of COVID that came after a few years of austerity. Austerity looks differently depending on where you look on campus, but often it means that lines that were previously tenure-track are now not replaced and everyone needs to do more with less. That kind of stuff does tend to wear one out, and when you're tired you aren't in a prime spot for CPD.</p><p>I say that this is not rocket science, but it really depends on where you're viewing the field. Having worked in IT, and in ID, and for the Library, and now in an academic department (and as an adjunct for the last 10 years...), these different frames serve to show a more holistic picture of what's going on. I think instructional designers usually only have one view, and it's hard to break away from the butts-in-seats "let's offer more training and hope they come" model. You need cross-department and cross-functional teams to do better, but those aren't always available.</p><p>Just my 2c. Your thoughts?</p>Apostolos K. ("AK")http://www.blogger.com/profile/02198465120131968928noreply@blogger.com0