ChatGPT Forum - Massey University

 Notes from a zoom presentation hosted by Massey University on ChatGPT - a cross universities' forum.

Professor Giselle Byrnes begins with an overview of the technology and introduced the speakers. Each speaks for 10 minutes and a Q & A session follows.

Dr, Mark Nichols (Open Polytechnic / Te Pūkenga) begins by starting that AI has no ethics, morality, conscience. Therefore, it should not be anthromorphised. AI can be used for good or for evil but has great potential for education. AI draws on two negative traits - one is that we think we know more than we know and the other is that we are programmed to take shortcuts. Therefore, AI needs to introduced carefully with understanding of its potentially and limitations. It is important to realise that although the outputs of ChatGPT look impressive, they are not always correct. It lies and makes up references. 

Undertook an overview of the Polytechnic's learning design process and how AI can be used to augment their work. User education must be undertaken to address deception and ignorance - the enemies of scholarship. AI / not-AI boundaries are now blurred, banning AI is naive. 

Dr. Karaitiana Tairu continues by bring a Māori lens to the discussion. Overviewed the constitutional and legal considerations on data sovereignty. the use of Māori data can be considered as drawing on Māori taonga. Contends that there is a re-colonisation of Mātauranga Māori as it is not part of the ethics, etc. of the algorithms behind - for example - ChatGPT. At the moment, much of Mātaurange is not digitised, draws on Māori data and ignores Māori data soverignty. ChatGPT is creating false Māori histories and produces pepeha / karakia with mistakes!! Intellectual property rights and Te Tiriti are not followed. However, ChatGPT is relatively good at te reo!! could be useful and contribute to learners of Māori. 

Lee Hicken (microsoft) acknowledges the sense of fear and awe with regards to how AI has developed and advanced. Used ChatGPT to synthesis some thoughts. Referred to Atthur C. Clarkes 3 laws to describe what is now occurring. We cannot block or go back. How can we move forward?? AI does not know anything, but has a strong 'grasp' of how language works and therefore uses linguistic patterns to work out 'answers'. Generative AI is now a blank piece of paper, when we ask it questions, we train it. It learns our biases etc. It is therefore our responsibility to ensure that how we use ChatGPT is done in a carefully thought out manner. We are its teacher!! and it will reflect our thoughts. It is important to teach our students how to work and live with AI. In particular to ensure critical thinking is a key to how we use AI.

Then, Dr. Colin Bjork from Massey University presented on AI and cheating. Rather than stop students from cheating, it is important to look into why students are shaped by inequality / access due to issues of unresolved inequities etc. Experiences that shape our perspectives on the world - language, gender, age, ethnicity, social economic status etc. etc. also colour how we may interact with AI, leverage off its uses, and understand and think through the implication of AI. Banning AI in education will likely hurt those who may benefit from its use (those with disabilities etc.). Worries that the language used by AI becomes the status quo and that access/lack of access exacerbates the inequalities that already exists. 

Graeme Smith from Ako Aotearoa. The future is here but it is unevenly distributed. Summarised and discussed the various items introduced by the other speakers. What can teachers working with a class do? ChatGPT will not likely replace a teacher. Working with ChatGPT can be used to augment our work as teacher. AI will only accelerate from this point on. Learn early and be familiar with the tool. Cool stuff can be build using Chat GPT. We need to work in conjunction with AI. When we can 'clone' ourselves with our own customised AI, we may offload the 'boring' stuff and indulge in the creative and interesting things.

The webinar closed with encouragement to continue the conversation, opportunities for research and dialogue. Another channel opened further discussion. 

The age of AI

 A few readings from last week, on the increasing power and acceptance of AI into our lives.

Bill Gates writes on AI and compares the advent of and argies that the arrival of AT chatbots exampled by ChatGPT, heralds a revolution in how humans used digital technology. The arrival of the internet and the ubiquity of mobile phones, are presented as other important milestones. In education, he posits that finally, after decades of desultory application of technology to enhance learning experiences of learners, that AI will finally be usefully deployed to improve access to 'personalised' learning and level the playing field for learners.

A Bloomberg op ad warns that the introduction of GPT-4 could make work even more demanding as AI is used to augment work tasks and drives productivity up higher than normally achieved by mere mortals. AI as players of chess and Go provide some indication of what happens when AI is able to accomplish feats many humans, apart from the top players, hope to aspire to. In some ways, AI could be use to accelerate learning in these games, but also adds some dampening to humans wanting to get to the top of the game. It becomes a case of not only being able to compete against other humans at the top level, but also AI players.

Last up from the week's gleanings, is this article from Quanta magazine. Warning of unpredictable behaviour from emerging large AI models. Therefore, it is important to be wary of the outputs from AI as the capabilities are still emergent and algorithms are still being worked through. Critical evaluation is required, when using AI to generate content!

Adobe Creative Cloud suite - online introductory session

Participated in a presentation, on the Abode Creative Cloud - 'Low-lift, high impact - Adobe pedagogy-focussed workshop. Hosted by Peter Nock from Ara Institute of Canterbury and facilitated by Manuela Franceschini -Adobe pedagogical evangelist.

Mainly a demonstration of what Creative Cloud is with emphasis on digital story telling. 

Began with introducing the post-text future, with the screenage predominating the ways we connect and interact with each other. Story telling is now even more important. However, short form videos (i.e. TikTok), captured, shared and viewed on mobile phones is now predominant.

Being an author means being able to tell the story on many mediums. 

Creative skills are now in higher demand., along with analytical skills, ability to solve complex problems, build and maintain relationships etc. Robot-proof higher education in the age of AI 

Introduced the concept of 'humanics' where by being human is even more important. 

Digital story telling is the creative process of using digital technology as a medium of as a tool of expression. For teaching and learning, not the tools but the skills, not creating media but meaning, not just telling but also contributing a collaboration, not an isolated story but sharing and connecting, not a transfer of knowledge but about amplifying and not substituting analog sources but transforming stories.

Include collecting, connecting and communicating in creating a story. Creative Cloud can be envisaged as a virtual maker space to produce and circulate intellectual work, to critically and creatively create solutions within the context of the 4th industrial revolution. 

Shared examples of student work using various Adobe tools / platforms. 

Important to support learners to become critical digital creators - not just viewers or users but creators, using evaluative and critical thinking skills. 

Demonstrated several examples.- videos, infographics, webpages, etc.

Moved on to focus on Adobe Express - for image/photo editing and Adobe Rush - for video editing - with Jason Grant. Went through the various steps for pre-production, production and post-production to build a story.

Flipped learning - does it work?

 Edsurge summarises and comments on a meta-analysis of how well flipped learning works. 

The study discovered that there were many versions of 'flipped learning' and in the main, there was little shift in pedagogy. Instead, especially in higher education, students watched a videoed lecture and when in-class sessions occurred, were subjected to another lecture!! Even when 'active learning' was undertaken, the learning outcomes did not eventuate, mainly due lecturers not 'closing the loop' to ensure learners had engaged with and learnt the material.

The article's title, summarises recommendations "Fail, flip, fix and feed' that is, there is a need for 'flipped learning' to allow students to 'test their learning, obtain feedback and learn, before moving on to the next concept.

An important article to read, digest, understand and apply to learning design. 

Ai and what it does to our critical thinking

 A cartoon on Planet Warriors sparked this blog post. The cartoon shows pedestrains, all concentrating on their phones whilst on the side, two robots read and learn. The cartoon reinforces contemporary life (see 2017 article by NY Times 'Hooked on our Smartphones) whereby people check their phones over 100 times a day and live a life which revolves interacting with the various messages and items delivered to their phones.

With the ascendency of AI and the present hype around platforms exampled by ChatGPT, it is important to understand the many challenges still faced by AI to 'replace' the essence of humanness. In particular, the ways individuals, with their knowledge-bases collated through life experience and how they comprehend and apply 'research' off the internet to their daily lives (see this techradar commentary for one example). Almost a decade ago, I read Matthew Crawford's book - The world beyond your head - (see here for overview) warning about how the distractions available and bombarding us through various media, creates a barrier for us to have time to reflect, ruminate, and think. The concepts in the book are even more relevant now, as we need to be even more cognisant of what we read, hear and see.

Critical thinking is now, more important than ever. Leveraging off AI is one way to draw on the advantages presented, but with the caveat of always carefully evaluating information presented to us through contemporary media. Cult of Pedagogy  recommends the use of ChatGPT as an 'example machine' to help students learn how to critique information gleaned off the internet. Instead of relying on AI to generate content for completing assignments etc. teachers should use AI to generate various versions of content, and use this to help students learn how to evaluate/judge what is valid and the quality of writing. This approach helps learners to contrast and compare 'good' and 'poor' writing helping them discern 'truth', accuracy of information, track back on assertions to locate collaborating references, learn how to write within disciplinary genres, and attain critical thinking skills which can be generalised to other aspects of their learning.

As usual, it is not the tool to be blamed but how we use the tool which is the important aspect to follow through. 

Professor Laura Czerniewicz on digital equity and education for the greater good

 Today, two presentations by Professor Laura Czerniewicz from the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching (CILT), University of Cape Town, South Africa at the University of Canterbury's Digital Education Futures Lab.

The first is on the topic of Digital inequality in Higher Education -"Problemising digital inequality"

Worked on the topic for many years but the challenge still remains.

Began by asking  ‘what does the digital divide make you think of?

Saw the book - Inequality – A NZ crisis and wondered why, compared to South Africa the issue of inequality is challenging many countries including ones perceived to be egalitarian.

Digital equality is not simple. Access to electricity is not availed to all the world’s people. Connectivity is ubiquitous in urban areas but not so in rural areas. There is a 30,000% difference between the cheapest data and the most expensive. The affordability gap and value-for-money gap is large.

Therefore, digital inequalities are inseparable from social inequalities, technology and inequality are multifaceted, intersects with postdigital datified society and is fluid and emergent.

Summarised the shift from analogue to digital, networked digital and SMART (self-monitoring, analysis and reporting technology).

In general level one digital divide is access to digital devices, then to digital skills and then level 3 whereby the ways lack of access accentuates when 1 and 2 are unavailable.

There are always aspects and challenges of use, participation, benefit, sovereignty, agency and transparency. For many, there is no choice and poor access to information on what platforms / tools they are required to engage with. The pandemic exposed many social inequalities in education and the digital divide. The risks are playing out unevenly and deepen the divides.

Summarised what can educators do to address digital inequalities, through formal/informal and/or individual/group activities. Research is one way to find out what can be done.

Introduced a toolkit to help study digital inequality.

-          For access – Resource Appropriation Theory

-          Theory of practice – Bourdieu – forms of capital

-          Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT)

        Critical pedagogy and digital liberation

2) Her second presentation in the evening was more academic covering the genesis, direction, and overview of a book she is currently working on titled ' Higher Education for Good'.

Set the scene with a check in on how people have experienced the last few years. A variety of responses reinforced her view of the pandemic as ‘the same storm’ but with countries and individuals being on ‘different boats’.

Overall, many in the world have the perspective of a world being in crisis and these are leading to austerity, deepening inequalities, surveillance capitalism, rising authorianism, war, ongoing stability, and multiple challenges and uncertainty within HE.

Shared the need to be more optimistic and to use the opportunities presented. Worked through and wrote the book edited by Catherine Cronin and herself.

Five sections in the book – finding fortitude and hope; making sense of the unknown and emergent; considering alternatives; making change through teaching, assessments and learning design; and remaking HE. Chapters across various genres with critical reflections, poems, conceptual essays, visual/audio dialogue, graphics and artwork. 

While working on the book, also discussed ‘a manifesto for HE for good’ consisting of the following principles:

-          Name and analyse the troubles – need to understand the negatives so as to work toward solutions. Naming and understanding provides power and agency to address them. Check work of Achille Mbembe. Discussed how datafication and surveillance capitalism in HE is often invisible from users. Leading to datafication as a form of coloniality, whereby profit is made, natural resources are exploited, all made on a promise of progress and improvement. 

-          Challenge assumptions and resist hegemonies – reiterated the need to recentre by bringing voices and views from the margins; crossing the borders (geographical, disciplinary, status, genre)[; and challenge the dominant perspectives and views. Encouraged puriversal knowledge in practice by ensuring citations which are diverse and inclusive, otherwise we miss valuable perspectives.

-          Make claims for just, humane, and globally sustainable HE – need to claim and grow theory for good. What is public, social, common good? We need to make claims for regulatory frameworks which support for the good of all. Where does the data collected, for example by various learning platforms going? Who is gleaning the data and what is it being used for!!

-          Courage to imagine and sharing – “Imagination is about remaining human” – Ursula le Guin. We need to imagine a more egalitarian, less extractive world which is supportive of all. Recommended reading some speculative fiction – Ursula le Guin’s the left had of darkness; Tade Thompson’s Rosewater and Kim Stanley Robinson’s The ministry for the future. Also to explore the work on socio-techno-eco futures.

-     - Imagine alternative HE futures – Used Keri Facer’s black elephant (what is being ignored?); the pink swan (outlandish and invisible); and the rainbow jellyfish (everyday and potentially transformative) as a way to envisage and make positive changes here and now. Changes can occur as a ‘shock’ or in small steps leading to a ’slide’. Encouraged us to be ‘streams that become rivers’ 😊

Referenced ‘Utopia for Realists’ by Rutger Bregman on – ‘how we can build the ideal world’ and the need to be ready for change. Stressed the need for communality and coalitions as a way forward.

 A thought provoking presentation followed by interesting Q & A.

Professor Thomas Deissinger - University of Konstanz on

 Professor Thomas Deissinger from University of Konstanz in Germany, is in Aotearoa NZ to look into the NZ VET system, especially post- RoVE. Today, he visited Ara and provided Te Pūkenga kaimahi (people) with an overview of the German VET system. 

Professor Deissinger's visit comes near the end of his travels to Australia (Brisbane, Adelaide) and Aotearoa (Wellington and Christchurch). His research includes study of anglophone VET systems in the UK, Canada and Australia and Aotearoa is now being added to his sphere of research.

I met Professor Deissinger at several of the INAP (Innovative Apprenticeship) conferences and it always good to be able to touch base f2f with someone who is researching in a similar area. 

Notes taken at the presentation this afternoon:

Covered the German VET context; Teacher Education in VET and the University of Konstanz context.

Summarised the German Education and how VET fits into the overall scheme of things. Highlighted different pathways learners may progress through. There are 1.26 million young people in 2021 who undertook apprenticeship through the dual system.

There has been a decline of demand for apprenticeships from school-leavers. Companies and vocational part-time schools train young people in 324 different occupations. Summarised characteristics of the dual system. 'Chambers' of industry bodies are supervising bodies for in-company training. There is no direct progression to HE. Teachers and trainers have formal qualifications. Trainers qualifications are supervised by the chambers.

Described the 5 'sub-systems' of school-based VET and then detailed the various types of vocational teachers - Master / degree in teaching and discipline, other disciplines degree, technical teachers, side entry from employment with degree in discipline. 

For 'scientific teachers' (the ideal) 5 years to complete Master degree, proof of practical work experience (as apprenticeship) and passing a state exam after 18 months of initial teaching. 

In general, students have one major or two in their discipline degree, take on 'seminars' for training and further education (pedagogical knowledge), then 2nd phase of 18 months of internship (teaching 11 lessons instead of 25 a week) before taking the state exams.