OLDaily

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

Machines that draft laws: they’re heeeere
Mohar Chatterjee, Politico, 2023/02/15

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I've talked from time to time about 'deontic AI' - that, AI that does more than just predict or create things, but AI that tells us how things should be. I don't know what people think of this - I have had any comments - but when it gets here I think people will have their questions. Anyhow, we're seeing the first inklings of deontic AI, as evidenced here in this Politico newsletter from today, an interview with staff from XCential, makers of a product called LegisPro. "Software is literally shaping our democracy," writes Mohar Chatterjee. "Like many applications of machine learning — including the ones in the news these days — law-writing tools are a lot more about pattern recognition than 'thinking.'" They don't want to call it 'AI' because "Lawyers get really nervous when we talk about anything bordering on intellectual processing of the law," but it's AI.

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EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: Did ChatGPT Write This Report?
2023/02/15

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This article surveys people at U.S. educational institutions about their experience and perspective on generative AI and chatGPT in particular. "Far from arriving at a consensus, institutional stakeholders are still forming opinions about generative AI." That said, I don't find it plausible that (as the survey reports) people in the C-suite are the most knowledgeable and experienced with the technology; that runs counter to all my other experience involving technology and senior administration. I also found the list of "institutional areas... impacted by generative AI" to be very limited, seeing that it doesn't include things like textbook authoring, instructional design, individual assessment, etc. (and surprisingly 22% of respondents did not think it would affect IT at the institution).

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Introducing the new JupyterLab Desktop!
Mehmet Bektas, Medium, 2023/02/15

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This post announces an update to JupyterLab Desktop,  the cross-platform desktop application for JupyterLab, a tool that lets you read text and work with code in a live interactive environment. Jupyter Notebooks are excellent tools for demonstrating and learning about machine learning algorithms and other advanced applications. Here's the code and installation instructions on GitHub. I downloaded the Windows installer, which was blocked from running by Windows; I had to select 'more information' and then 'run anyway'. I then had to click on the notice at the bottom to run the bundled Python installer (I've never liked Python because you have to mess around with Python environments). It would be nice if it installed with some sample notebooks, but it doesn't, so you'll have more figuring out to do (or you can just admire the nice empty shell).

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The newsletter as RSS
Martin Weller, The Ed Techie, 2023/02/15

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So this is a fun collection of thoughts about the revival of blogging and the question of how people are going to find them now that most of the world has forgotten RSS. Martin Weller also suggests that readers subscribe to his most recent thing: the email newsletter (he's using the WordPress newsletter plugin, though I'd half-expected Substack). "It's odd," he says, "to move from the creative possibilities of RSS to, erm, email." Not so odd as we may think: it's an expression of a desire of people to choose what they read, and read in their own way. So where will this go? Not back to RSS, necessarily, because it will be mostly superseded by some version of ActivityPub. We will choose our own readers (including our existing RSS readers), subscribe to whatever we want, and remain (mostly) unblighted by unwanted advertising, spam, or the whims of media and platform CEOs.

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The case against covering school gun violence - kappanonline.org
Alexander Russo, kappanonline.org, 2023/02/15

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This item is a bit peripheral to edtech, and a bit localized to the U.S., because most other countries don't have "everyday gun violence in homes and communities." But it does raise the question of what ought to be talked about ands what not. And here Alexander Russo is arguing that "reporting on school gun violence generates the possibility of creating a secondary trauma for survivors, witnesses, and the school community," and that therefore we shouldn't do it. Except. Many mass shooting happen in schools in the U.S. (and not elsewhere in the world) and this phenomenon, like it or not, has transformed school culture (and school technology) there and elsewhere. And it is arguable that a mass killing in a school is a particularly heinous act, and that discussion is necessary in order to identify the technology - guns - and the social environment that make it possible. The mass killings in the U.S. should be recognized as unusual and extraordinary compared to the experiences of schoolchildren everywhere else in the world, and to choose not to report that fact (and each of the many times it happens) would be reprehensible. Via Tim Stahmer. Related: "a story touting 'weapons detection screening' tech at K-12 schools", via Doug Levin.

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We publish six to eight or so short posts every weekday linking to the best, most interesting and most important pieces of content in the field. Read more about what we cover. We also list papers and articles by Stephen Downes and his presentations from around the world.

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