iPads, MakerEd and More in Education

I love educational technology. When technologies were first available online, I was an early adopter, and often got brutally criticized by administrators and colleagues in my K-6 settings for having students use the internet for research, use web tools, create webpages in wikis, and work virtually with schools in other states and countries (for example, see their work from 2008 at http://weewebwonders.pbworks.com/). Now, similar work is often seen as innovative by colleagues. Boy, have times thankfully changed, but I have not. I still am an early adopter of technologies in that I believe many can benefit students in their learning.

As many in education know, commentary about ChatGPT is appearing on the news, social media, and the internet. As I always do, I am exploring its use in my classes (elementary-level gifted education). This post describes its use in education from the perspectives of ChatGPT, itself, and from a handful of educators. Later, I describe and show the work of my students. I conclude with tools for detecting machine-generated text, and provide a parting shot.

Artificial intelligence is being taught by thousands of office workers around the world. It is not exactly futuristic work

Today, it can be difficult to understand the significance and potential impact that artificial intelligence (AI) has for humanity. From Siri to IBM’s Watson to Hollywood portrayals of killer robots, it’s not clear what we should ultimately expect from this exponential technology.

What is clear: AI-powered products and services have made it into nearly every aspect of our personal and professional lives in just a few years. And as AI solutions continue to emerge and converge, that pace of change will only continue to accelerate. It’s easy to find scenarios of a utopian future of abundance where machines do all the hard work—as well as grim scenarios where unemployment soars as traditional workers are replaced by increasingly capable machines.

With such rapid progress, it’s difficult to make assumptions about the future of AI. But instead of focusing on the unknown, we can examine what we know about AI, its current applications, and potential future impact.

From smartphones to smart home systems, artificial Intelligence (AI) touches our kids’ lives every day, and is rapidly impacting society and the future of industry.

KCJ is at the forefront of building an AI education strategy for kids and their teachers. We’re providing them with the skills to thrive, the knowledge to make informed decisions, and the tools they need to use code and AI for positive change."

"When new technologies become widespread, they often raise ethical questions. For example:

1. Weapons — who should be allowed own them?
2. Printing press — what should be allowed to be published?
3. Drones — where should they be allowed to go?

The answers to these questions normally come after the technologies have become common enough for issues to actually arise. As our technology becomes more powerful, the potential harms from new technologies will become larger. I believe we must shift from being reactive to being proactivewith respect to new technological dangers.

We need to start identifying the ethical issues and possible repercussions of our technologies before they arrive. Given that technology grows exponentially fast, we will have less and less time to consider the ethical implications."

I was having a conversation with an old school teacher who thinks that AI is ruining education. They challenged me to name 26 ways that artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming education for the better, and instead, I came up with. Here they are.

If you keep hearing about artificial intelligence but aren’t quite sure what it means or how it works, you’re not alone. 

There’s been much confusion among the general public about the term, not helped by dramatic news stories about how “AI” will destroy jobs, or companies that overstate their abilities to “use AI.” 

A lot of that confusion comes from the misuse of terms like AI and machine learning. So here’s a short text-and-video guide to explain them:  

In a landmark study, 20 experienced US-trained lawyers were pitted against the LawGeex Artificial Intelligence algorithm. The 40-page study details how AI has overtaken top lawyers for the first time in accurately spotting risks in everyday business contracts.

“Alexa, tell me a story.” “Siri, what is 32 divided by 3?” “Google, why does it snow?”

One in six Americans now owns a smart speaker like Amazon’s Alexa or Google Home, and 75 percent of homes are likely to have one by 2020. That means information and learning opportunities are more accessible to children than ever before, but it also raises unsettling questions for educators and parents. How do children know whether to trust information from these devices’ disembodied voices? Will kids miss opportunities for rich conversation when they ask Alexa a question instead of mom or dad?

Smart speakers are so new that we don’t yet know for sure how they are impacting learning and development. But it’s a question of great interest to many media and child development experts as they, like the rest of us, try to keep up with the ever-evolving technology around us.