Unpicking Te Pūkenga - commentary on what is happening and what may work

 Roger Smyth  has had a long association with Aotearoa NZ tertiary education and his occasional blogs  provide viewpoints from his background as a policy analyst. He draws from both his experiences, scholarly work and his networks, to provide commentary on contemporary issues affecting tertiary education.

His latest blog, discusses a 'where to next' with regards to Te Pūkenga' as the process of its disestablishment begins. He summarises the reasons for the formation of Te Pūkenga, as a solution to the challenging financial position almost all of the country's polytechnics faced before merger. Discussion is had on the many facets of the reform of vocational education (RoVE) and the problems with combining the two arms of VET, the polytechnics with the industry training organisations (ITO).

He then discusses a few options for the creation of a network of regional polytechnics, how to try to bring some synergy between the objectives of polytechnics and the work-based support provided by ITOs, what do do with the funding system, and how to ensure employer and industry representations on skill needs is carried through to the standards setting function, currently held by Work Development Councils (WDCs).

It will be interesting to see how prescient some of his suggestions are, given that to date, little information has been available on what the post-Te Pūkenga landscape might look like going into the future. 

Sociomaterial design: Bounding technologies in practice - book overview

The book - Sociomaterial-Design edited by P. Bjorn and C. Osterlund was published in 2014 by Springer. 

There are 9 chapters, including the first chapter which introduces the concepts of sociomateriality and design.

The precepts of sociomateriality are argued to be useful in better understanding complex interactions. Design is brought in as to how processes are developed, and planned, initially impact on how people and things interrelate and interact. Therefore there are connections and commonalities between the two. How sociomateriality is affected by design and in turn feeds back on the efficacy of design, is a basis for better understanding intricate human associations, reactions and responses. 

5 chapters follow the introduction, reporting on a project (the emergency department in a hospital) and using it as a way to further illustrate the principles of how sociomateriality impinges on work. The last three chapters bring the various threads together with a chapter specifically on 'boundaries' and how actions affect these, how the findings can be applied to contexts beyond the healthcare sector and the overall implications on the discipline.

The concepts are now even more relevant as humans and machines' interactions and even the intertwining of the two into 'enhanced' entities become reality. 

AI tools for instructional designers

 The number of Gen AI supported apps/tools available is increasing rapidly. Here is a list from the eLearning Coach of recommendations for instructional designers. Many of these are also useful for teachers and learners.

The tools are organised into categories of animation, audio enhancement or improvement, audio text-to-speech tools, chatbot builders, classroom instruction, content search and generation, course creation, image editing, meeting apps (record, transcribe, summarise etc.), presentations, productivity, scholarly research, translation, video, and writing. 

In all, a good collation, showing the versatility of Gen AI incorporation into many tools that already existed but now 'enhanced'. 

ILO reports - Towards lifelong learning and skills for the future of work: global lessons from innovative apprenticeships AND promoting apprenticeships to meet the needs of the digital and knowledge economy

 Two recent reports from the International Labour Organisation (ILO) of relevance to future skills, digital skills and the role of apprenticeships.

Firstly, A report titled 'Towards lifelong learning and skills for the future of work: Global lessons from innovative apprenticeships"published in 2022 and authored/edited by McCoshan, A, and Markowitsch, J. with several chapters based on a collection of reports written by other authors. Most of the discussions centre around 'formal' apprenticeships. The first 4 chapters cover future skills needs including digital and green economy. There are two chapters on increasing apprenticeship participation. Then two chapters on emerging approaches to increase work-based learning including strengthening work-based learning in VET institutions and adapting apprenticeships to support the reskilling and upskilling of adults. a couple of chapters discuss how to make apprenticeship systems more flexible, inclusive and digital. The report closes with policy messages for the future of apprenticeships.

Secondly, with relevance to digital skills is the report on "Promoting apprenticeships to meet the skills needs of the digital and knowledge economy" authored by Perryman, S. and published in 2022. The report is part of the ILO Apprenticeship Development for Lifelong Learning and Training (ADULT) project.

The report overviews the effects of the digital and knowledge economy on jobs - including aspects of labour market polarisation and types of future work (platform-based, hybridisation of work and skills, pandemic effects, importance of targeted education and training); summarises the skills needs of digital and knowledge economies; discusses how apprenticeships may meet some of the challenges; provides some recommendations to meet strategic and policy, curriculum, accreditation, inclusion and funding/delivery challenges; and closes with a case study. 

Overall, both reports summarise some of the key future skills needs and postulates how apprenticeships may be modified to meet the oncoming and rapid changes in work. Mostly macro discussion with some ideas for implementation at the micro level. 

Digital Skills Framework - for Aotearoa NZ - a discussion paper

 A discussion paper commissioned by Ako Aotearoa and written by Dr. Anne Alkema provides a timely piece of work from which our 'AI in foundation studies' project can draw from. Digital skills are prerequisites to being able to make use of AI tools/apps as presently, all are reliant on text input - although users could dictate the prompts into speech to text if the relevant plugins were enabled. 

The paper discusses the various definitions of digital literacy and skills and overviews several examples from overseas (UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, EU, US of A) to inform the development of an Aotearoa NZ version. 

Recommends 4 options - align with the current adult learning progressions (which is what we currently have at Ara); develop an essential skills framework; develop a standalone digital skills framework; and work with potential partners.

AI in learning: Designing for the future - book overview

Open access book, published 2023 by Springer on AI in Learning with Hannele Niemi, Roy, D, Pea, and Yu Lu as editors with authors mainly from China, Finland and the US of A.

The book takes an overarching viewpoint on the application of AI into educational contexts. The book sections indicate the types of ways, AI can be deployed to improve learning and support teaching. Most chapters are useful in informing the ways AI can be implemented across various sectors and levels of educations. As the studies were conducted across 3 countries, social and cultural perspectives are also considered as what is considered to be acceptable in one country (i.e. AI surveillance), may not be in another. 

Sections include AI in expanding learning and well-being through life; AI in games and simulation; AI technologies for education and intelligent tutoring systems; and AI and challenges in new learning environments.

As such, the broader perspective, beyond just Gen AI, is described, explored, and evaluated. Of note is that chapters not only introduce the advantages of AI but also critique AI systems (including surveillance technologies) and argue for the importance of ensuring the voice of teachers and learners are included when AI technologies are implemented into education. worth a browse through the relevant chapters to learn more about the larger educational issues impacted on by AI and how application of digital technologies using AI can be of use to support learning and teaching.               

Plans for 2024

 Back at work today, after an exciting trip down to the Sub-Antarctic Islands, followed by a camping trip into the Canterbury high country. We await the next steps and details on how the disestablishment of the recommendations from RoVE pan out.

From the usual business as usual perspectives, it looks like we will be back to being a singular institute with campuses across Canterbury and the West Coast. I assume that the usual work of supporting departments and learning design will continue to ensure the institute fulfils its many functions and obligations to students, NZQA and government.

The six AI in VET projects will need to be written up by all the researchers involved and I need to finalise the chapters I author by the end of March. The process of editing everything before we submit the manuscript to the publishers at the end of April will keep me busy for the first quarter of 2024.

Additionally, there is the work to begin the four projects on AI in foundational VET, funded by Ako Aotearoa. Semester one will see each of the projects introduce AI to their students and to evaluate the tools/apps or platforms most appropriate to the programmes' contexts.

In all, semester one will roll by quite quickly with so much to accomplish in a short timeframe!! Alongside will be the following through of whatever process is pronounced with regards to the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga. I will miss the collegial interactions with colleagues from throughout the VET system but the relationships have now been kindled. It will be important to prioritise the nurturing of these despite the move back to individual institutional silos.

Therefore, I am looking forward to an interesting year. Let's see what happens and what can be done to ameliorate some of the disadvantages of disestablishment and to capitalise on the collaborations and networks formed through the last two years.

2023 review

This year has been a bit of a roller coaster. There have been several highs and a few lows with the movement between each providing some exhilarating or challenging emotions.

Across the year, Te Pūkenga moved along towards establishing its organisational structure. The upper levels of management were to be in place by April 2024. However, we have had a change in government and the new centre-right coalition government has implemented, within their 100 day plan, to disestablishment of Te Pūkenga. There have been little detail as to what will replace the current situation. Hopefully, there will be more information in the new year. Meanwhile, Te Pūkenga has halted all work on the organisational structure and awaits instructions from the Minister.

On a brighter note, I launched a series of projects to better understand how we can integrate AI into vocational education courses / programmes. These projects began in June and we are now in the process of data analysis. The main output will be a book, to be published by Springer mid-2024.

The above projects involve courses, students and teachers at levels 4 to 7 - certificate to bachelor degree. We drew on the research allocation of teachers teaching on degrees, to carry out the participatory action research studies. In October, I recieved an invitation from Ako Aotearoa to put in an expression of interest, for research project which cover AI, foundation and Māori learners with equity focus. We will now have funding to bring in foundation and career/study skills courses from levels 1 to 4 into the project. We hope to identify ways AI can be usefully deployed to support learners, attaining foundational academic study skills. Then, the findings may be used to develop 'bespoke' AI tools or apps to localise, customise and indigenise AI support. All something to look forward to in 2024.

My work team has been considerably stretched as several of our colleagues have moved to other organisations due to the uncertainties with Te Pūkenga structuring. For the moment, we are in a 'holding area' until the main organisational structures are put in place. Now, we may likely revert to the management lines existing pre-Te Pūkenga. Last week, our ex-CE, who was appointed rohe four (area or sector) director for Te Pūkenga, reverted back to his role as our institute CE. This provides an indication of the move back into individualised institutions. 

Bringing 25 organisations into one large entity is no mean feat. Yet, the incoming government has decided not to progress the formation of one large VET organisation. A large organisation brings some economies of scale, especially with IT, information systems, student and learning mangement systems etc. along with more holistic approaches with regards to curriculum and learning development. As an example, AI holds great possibilities for supporting personalised learning environment. Developing these systems is resource hungry. With the disestablishment of Te Pūkenga, we will perhaps have lost the opportunity as devolving back into individual institutes will not provide the economies of scale, collaborative / shared workflows, leveraging off the expertise of many, and the large student pool to test and refine the system. 

So let's see what 2024 brings and regroup, restrategise to meet the requirements of the new VET world in Aotearoa NZ. 

International Handbook on Education Development in the Asia-Pacific

 The final version of this book - International Handbook on Education Development in Asia-Pacific - is now complete. The book is edited by W.O. Lee, P. Brown, A.Lin Goodwin and A. Green. As a 'living book' papers have been uploaded over the course of a year and there have already been high access and citations.

The book has 13 sections with 127 chapters covering many topics in the education development sphere. Worth dipping in and out of for specific contemporary references.

OPSITAra - Day 2

 Day two dawns fine but cloudy, after a drizzly day yesterday.

The conference begins with presentations across three streams. I attend and present within the teaching and learning 2 stream. 

First up, Bruno Balducci from Otago Polytechnic presents on 'meeting the challenges of AI and assessment security'. Aims to develop strategies for assuring the integrity of assessments. Control measures include preventing AI misuse through well-designed tasks. Used a pragmatic research design to find out what aspects were more vulnerable to AI. Research questions included - could AI be used to 'cheat' in selected assessments now and into the future. If so, in what ways? What are the common features. Semi-structured interviews with tutors (25), reviewing assessments (30+), checking AI use by students and running trials with ChatGPT to see what could be achieved. Identified strategies of specificity, practicality, process, personalisation and information flow to design and manage assessment tasks. Provided examples and discussed pros and cons.  Good summary of how good assessment design is usefully deployed to ensure assessments are personalised, authentic and locally contextualised.

Then, Rehan Masood with Maria Grace, James Flanders and David Finnie also from Otago Polytechnic, on 'Are we prepared for assessing AI content?'. Presented an overview of AI including the differences between discriminative and generative AI. Summarised the ways in which AI could be used in education. In assessments, there is a need to move away from stop-test approach towards meaningful learning activities. Summarised the ways teachers can use prompts for AI content creation. Study investigated how to us AI to generate content for assessments (in a construction courses context). Summative, formative assessments and rubrics generated. Missing from AI is contextual understanding, creative innovation, common sense/intuition and ethical considerations. Therefore, assessing these is one way forward. When creating questions using Gen AI, prompt literacy important. Recommended framework to improve assessment and assessment submission design.

I then present interim findings from our AI@Ara project. Provide summary of the project including what each of the 6 sub-projects did to integrate AI into their learning activities as framed by Sharples, 2023 concepts of social Gen AI for education. Then, preliminary findings reported which include interim framework for embedding AI literacies and recommendations.

Lastly, presentation from Lesley Brooks with Michael Greaves, Megan Kitching and Leoni Schmitd (Otago Polytechnic) on 'alternative modalities of postgraduate research assesssment'. Questioned why there are limitations to written thesis. Māori and Pacific learners have strong oral cultures, learners with disabilities disadvantaged and professional practice uses a range of methodologies that do lend themselves to thesis format. Investigated alternatives, their issues and risks and to find and offer solutions wherever possible. Interviews with 29 stakeholders. Caveats included modality being grounded in existing research; documentation, timeline with gateways to manage risks, institutional supports and awareness of the equivalence across the different modalities. Delphi technique then launched into with survey to 49 stakeholders. A key concept was the definition of assessibility - including availability of suitable assessors, ability to assess to the criteria, ability of programme to support the process and approach - Schmidt, L., Greaves, M. Brook, L. abd Kitching, M. (2022). Modalities of assessment matrix workflow. 

Recorded teaching and learning presentations follow morning tea. There were 10 recorded presentations across a range of disciplines. 

After lunch, a series of short presentations in the communities and institutions stream. There are presentations on local food growers, cyber security, prompt engineering and ChatGPT, performance-based research funding on accounting academics, and virtual exchange programme in environmental management. Presenters are from SIT, OP, and Wintec)

Then attend the last group of Teaching and Learning 3 presentations. 

Beginning with Ana Terry from Otago Polytechnic presenting 'the big picture: visual literacy in teaching and learning'. Defined visual literacy in teaching and learning as ability to design robust visually-led tasks and assessments, using visual thinking tools and methods, visual design principles to clearly communicate, select and /or create relevant graphics, and ethical, social and cultural issues in using and sharing visual media. Visual content often an 'add-on' and often not used to support the text, just as an aesthetic. Shared findings of a survey to find out how ITP teachers understand visual literacy and to use the findings to improve visual literacy professional development for teachers. Teachers generally confident with basic creation of graphics etc. but less so when integrating into the teaching objectives - support other literacies and discussing ethical and cultural issues. Indicates a text based biased to teaching and learning. As people progress through education, visuals reduce becoming dominated by text. In vocational education and training, graphics are more acceptable. Especially useful for diverse learners, to provide better representation across various media, rather than just text. Proposed the formation of a Visual Literacy community of practice to continue work in this area.

Followed by James Mackay and Helen Jeffrey with Hana Cadzow, Ema Tokolai & Rita Robinson reporting on progress of degree apprenticeships with 'the tale of two degree-apprenticeships: embedding work integrated learning degrees'. Two degree apprentices - one in Bachelor of Engineering Technology on Infrastructure Asset management (now in its fourth year) and Bachelor in Occupational Therapy (OT) (first delivery in semester 2 2024). Each shared the challenges. Both had skill labour shortages, and with OT there was a high demand for Māori occupational therapists. Generally, effective school and community liaison important, marketing and employer relationship development, collaborative programme development, developing institutional readiness and ongoing evaluation. Also, addressing local, regional and national skills shortages, institution has capability, clear employer demand, career progression pathway and the institution must have competitive advantage. Differences in each criteria between each degree apprenticeship. see guidelines - Gorb, E. (2022). Guiding principles for Degree apprenticeship - Manchester Metropolitan University. 

Last up, Danny Friburg with Amy Benians and Kath Danaher presented on 'Communities in the mist: Exploring CoP model for professional development. Reports on phase 3 on -neurodiversity CoP outcomes, established in 2022 with teachers working in the context. Defined CoPs (see Wenger & Snyder, 2000 and Alison Viskovic's 2005 work).  Study to understand the value of CoPs to individual PD; what are the percieved benefits and how to better support CoPs. Check Kennedy, 200f on increasing capacity for professional autonomy from transmissive (training, award bearining, cascade), to transitional,  standard based, coaching, CoP) and transformative (action research and transformative). Surmised that 6 year threshold signals a shift from transmissive to more transitional teaching approaches. 98 participants in pre-survey and 96 in post-survey. Shared findings. In general, teachers saw value in partcipating in the CoP. Awareness, knowledge increased including ability to find solutions , develop community and profesisonal networks and contribute to equity across the institution and meeting institutional values. Correlation between years of teaching and confidence in teaching neudivergent ākonga in post-survey but not in pre-survey. 

Video played of Jamie Smile - who is the recently appointed Ragahau and Research Director for Te Pūkenga. 

Various conference awards close the conference. 

OPSITAra - Day One

 At the local research forum ) OPSITAra, held this year at Invercargill and hosted by Southern Institute of Technology (SIT). The forum is an opportunity for researchers from Otago Polytechnic, Ara Institute of Canterbury and SIT to share research findings and to network across the three institutes. As we are all now Te Pūkenga, we also have participation from researchers across Aotearoa with researchers travelling from the North Island and the North of the South Island to also present.

The conference opens with Mihi Whakatau (welcome) hosted by Reniera Dallas, Daryl Haggerty, and Drs. Sally Bodkin Allen and James Savage. Dr. Megan Potiki, Executive Director Te Pūkenga Rohe 4 (which includes OP, SIT and Ara) provided an overview of her story and the mission required going forward to work with iwi. 

There is then a series of research Community of Practice (CoPs). Each meeting to discuss the possibilities for collegial and cooperative work and to network across the three institutions in the rohe.

After lunch, I attend the session with presentations on Teaching and Learning. There are two other streams (one pre-recorded) with presentations of research on construction/infrastructure and health well-being.

First up in the teaching and learning sessions, Dr. William Jenkins from UCOL talks about 'the impact of 2 COVID-19 lockdowns on NZ tertiary education students studying at a regional polytechnic. Reviewed the pandemic and the NZ response. Shared some NZ-based studies on the topic. Mixed responses from studies conducted at NZ universities and 2 ITP-context studies. In general, lock-down was stressful but all studies small and difficult to generalise. His study looked at the effects of the 2nd lockdown compared to the first. What was the difference between those who were more stressed and those less so. Survey at the end of 2021 with 68 analysed. In general students handled the second lockdown better. Divided data into 3 groups, 1/3 negative experiences, 1/3 neutral and 1/3 positive. In general, does with family had a more positive experience. 

He is followed on by Rachel van Gorp from Otago Polytechnic presenting on 'lecturing for neurodiversity: a guide to inclusive teaching'. Presented on the findings from her Master in Professional Practice where she interviewed 13 students and used these data to form practice recommendations. Neurodivergent brain functions differently. Challenges include difficulties understanding a following instructions, staying focused maintaining social interactions and high sensory overload. Important to build relationship with learners and make visible teachers' awareness and understanding of neurodiversity. Teaching methods need to be flexible and adaptable - use simple language and avoid jargon, check colours on visual resources, remember it is the first time learner is coming across the topic (even if you have taught it many times). Be aware of the need for breaks. Use support and resources. Ensure environment is inclusive. Connection between teacher and learner is critical. Teacher need to have access to resources and know how to use them. Be neurodiverse centred. Keep current with evidence-based practice on the topic. Draw on institutional support. For teachers, give learners extra time, provide visual aids, break complex tasks down, over one on one tutor support. 

Helen Mataiti and Amy Benian with Rach MacNamara from Otago Polytechnic are next on 'learning for all: designing learning in our work-based context'. Introduced the principles of Universal Design of Learning (UDL). Began with the socio-cultural history of the UDL framework and how it can be translated into our Aotearoa NZ tertiary and vocational education context. UDL backed up by neuroscience research to ensure there is good design of representation (recognition networks, - visual, aural etc. what we learn), action and expression (strategic networks - how we learn) and engagement (affective networks - why we learn). Used a qualitative, storying and empowerment method to find out how UDL help to reduce barriers to learning and that it is not a reinvention of 'learning styles'. Provided examples as to how to apply the UDL principles. 

The last session in this collection is with Rachel Byars with Greta Bauer, also from OP who presents on 'creating a sense of community and wellbeing through events'. Outlined the project carried out by Greta with the OP Student Association. OPSA events were impacted by Covid. The aim was to find out how students felt about student events and their impact on wellbeing. Summarised importance of these events, wellbeing and how each intersects with the other (lit. review). Survey of all students and then interviews with 6 event organisers and students as target groups. In general, survey revealed the importance of events to socialise with friends, entertainment, take a break, improve wellbeing, gain knowledge and for individual and community rewards. Overall, events are important to students, helping to build a sense of belonging, community and wellbeing. Important to create an events representative on the OPSA executive committee,  increased coordination within OP schools and survey each year to gauge student perpectives on events.

I attend the Research CoP on the Scholarship of teaching and learning, convened by Sonja Swale (SIT) and Claire Goode (OP). 

Short 'lightning talks' then occur across teaching and learning, construction, and health and well-being themes. 7 presentations, each 7 minutes long! Topics covered include 'reimaging Bourdieu'; assessment practice, psychological safety, personal experiences on teaching practice; how to communicate the unknown. and big ideas with students. Presenters from SIT, OP, Nelson-Marlborough Polytechnic - Selena Coburn, Fiona McLaren, Mark Wilson, Andrea Jones, Wendy Olsen, Maria Grace and Tim Lynch. 

The evening ends with a networking event, allowing everyone to few posters and creative exhibits. There are also several presentations from researchers in the creative industries.

ASCILITE - Bringing Australasian Technology and Practice Trends into Focus - 2022-2023 Contextualising Horizon report

 ASCILITE publication - provides a contemporary reporting of the digital technology and practices across Australasia. 

Porter, D. B., Campbell, C., Logan-Fleming, D., & Jones, H. (Eds.). (2023). Bringing Australasian Technology and Practice Trends Into Focus: The 2022–2023 Contextualising Horizon Report. ASCILITE. 

The practices are thematic organised into: hybrid and flexible learning; AI literacy; mental health and well-being; the evolution of mobile learning; and integration of indigenous knowledges.

STEEP (social, technological, economic, environmental and political) trends affecting how technology is availed and practices resources and supported, are discussed.

Social trends, post-pandemic, mean there are new ways of working, both within industry and academia. However, the pandemic also revealed the many challenges of digital equity and inclusivity, which have not been solved. The main technological influence presently, is Gen AI which requires workforce capability to be built. Advances in augmented and virtual reality, also require capability to be resources. The current rise in the cost of living, the reshaping of the higher education workforce, and a move towards skills-based hiring, all affect economics. Environmental concerns include the design of physical spaces to provide for more flexible work, learning and teaching, initiatives to support diversity, equity and inclusion, and the need to maintain and meet future sustainable development goals, are all important. Political forces include current and possible/impending global disruption, changes in government funding models, and the inclusion  of first people's.

Of note in the exemplars for the hybrid/flexible learning theme is the Ara midwifery programme's networked-distributed model.

All in, a good update on where the sector is at with digital technology approaches towards tertiary education. 

ASCILITE - transforming assessment site

This year's ASCILITE (Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education) conference is being held in Christchurch in early December. Some of my colleagues will attend.

ASCILITE itself maintains good resources to informvarious pedagogical and technology enhanced learning endeavours. 

Of note is their site on assessments  on 'transforming assessments'., which also archives webinars on the topic and has a collation of past events as well. 

Of interest, is one on 'guiding the use of Gen AI for assessment' head in September. 

Agency by Design - Derek Wenmouth

 This book -  Agency by Design: An Educator's Playbook -by Derek Wenmouth with Marsha Jones, George Edwards and Annette Thompson, provides strategies to help provide learners with the skills to be self-directed learners. The book is free to download.

The book is pitched at the school context but many of the ideas and resources, are relevant across all education sectors. The book begins with a 'how to use the playbook' section, including an overview of the framework proposed to help activate agency in learners.

Then it moves to the implementation section which has 7 suggested conditions that can be created by teachers to increase learner agency and the characteristics (rubrics) observed in students which signal their learners' agency.

In a world of rapid and continual change, schools need to prepare their students, for a VUCA world. Learning the fundamentals are important (i.e. reading, writing and arithmetic). Beyond that, the real role of education, is to provide students with the confidence in their own abilities and to encourage and support the attitudinal qualities -resilience/ grit, curiosity, multimodal communication, flexibility and agility in learning and continual learning etc.

In all, a good summary, with practical examples for teachers, of not only encouraging, but building self-efficacy, leadership and continual adaptability in learners. 

AI in education - two sides to the coin

 There is a large corpus of literature on AI and its contributions or its deleterious effects on education. Most report on the school or higher education context. The number of articles commenting on AI in education has increased markedly across 2023, much of which  being the reactions towards the advent of Gen AI. 

The article by Hamilton, William and Hattie (2023)  -the future of AI in education: 13 things we can do to minimise the damage - paints a dystopian picture, positing that school education especially, needs to do a major rethink as to its purposes and roles given the ways AI could replace the need for human thinking. There is also the need to evaluate how AI/human synthesis will work, and what needs to be done to prepare the children today, for the future where synergistic relationships between non-human and human intelligences, are the norm.

This op ed by Oxford University Press - AI in education, where we are and what happens next - takes on a more pragmatic view. Firstly doing an overview of where things are now with regards to the global picture, Ai's impact on teachers, possible impacts on learning, the challenges of the digital divide and AI, and  outlines recommendations for going forward. These include: supporting, not substituting teachers, seeking the highest quality resources to back AI, empowering teachers to use technology in the classroom, equipping students with the skills to be able to complement the affordances of AI, with a priority on ensuring there is good understanding of how AI can or cannot contribute to learning. A pragmatic viewpoint.

Therefore, going forward, there is a need to ensure Gen AI literacy becomes part of academic / digital literacies. Only then can educators and learners understand and use AI rather than have AI foisted on us by the powerful corporations developing the tools/apps that make Gen AI accessible. 

Neurodiversity - chunking is a simple hack: great for academic skill acquisition - with Dora Roimata Lngsbury - Ara / Te Pūkenga

 Notes from a lunchtime session with Dora Roimata Langsbury, Kaiako Ako - academic learning support. She presented this paper at the recent Neuroability symposium conference in Dunedin. 

Focused on supporting written assessments in this iteration of her presentation. Began by sharing her background - where she was diagnosed with dyslexia when she first started at Teachers College to train as a primary school teacher. Introduced the 8 steps for writing an assessment and then went through each one with strategies at each to support neurodiversity.

Summarised some of the concepts from the book 'Studying with Dyslexia' by Janet Goodwin - 2012. Then shared student perspectives to support these concepts.

Then went through the importance of time management for all students. Need to be clear so students create a doable timetable that includes sufficient study time. Working backwards from assessment targets is also helpful.

Ensure students understand the question, Sometimes learners need help to deconstruct the instructions and to understand the connections between the assessment and the marking rubric. All a lot of text and helping learners break down the larger task into smaller chunks helps learners focus and not be overwhelmed.

Then help students create a writing plan. Help them keep one main idea per paragraph with the structure of topic sentence, supporting ideas, example and then a linking sentence to the next paragraph. 

The next step is to help them bring about a research plan to help them gather the literature and select which parts are relevant.

Then introduced the need to help students attain notetaking/ paraphrasing skills. Students need to understand the role of each sentence, use words from questions to create sentence starters and use keywords from sources to complete the first draft of sentences. This helps build paragraphs and the whole assignment, one sentence at a time.

Reference/cite as you go or APA as you go by using an APA reference guide. There is a need to scaffold learners towards understanding how to use the guide as a way to ensure APA referencing is accurate.

Editing can be undertaken in 3 steps - sentence level, paragraph level and then proofreading and formatting. At sentence level, separate each with white space so that it is easier to 'switch and trim'. Paragraph editing is to check flow and linking and to map these to the marking guide. The proof 'clean' read makes easier to see the small errors. 

Shared the impact on students of using the above framework and also how the 'tuakana teina' or 'older brother/sister with younger brother/sister' peer learning which is framed with attaining the 8 steps have improved engagement, learning and outcomes for learners. 

Q & A followed from an interested audience.

Whāki webinar Oketopa23 Āhau approach to Māori Data Sovereignty - Notes

Notes taken at webinar offered through the University of Waikato on the topic of Māori data sovereignty for whanau (family) data. 

The host Paul Brown, University of Waikato welcomed everyone. Introduced Kaye Maree Dunn as the guest. The webinar discussed issues related to Māori data sovereignty through korero (a conversation)  between Paul and Kaye.  

Kaye shared her experiences as a Māori moving into the role of commerce, digital environments, business organisations etc. which often have little recognition of indigenous perspectives.

Paul posed the first question as to the types of businesses Kaye has worked with. She shared the organisation she represents and information on the objectives and background of this organisation. Also shared her whakapapa (life history) and how her parents had to move away from their ancestral place and to grow up far away from her ancestral home. Her better understanding of colonisation and its historical context and the political context things have to work in at the University of Victoria. Had a varied range of work across many government agencies, the training ground for learning and networking across the civil service. 

Summarised the entrepreneurship role with its strong connections to digital technologies. Currently, leverages off the alternatives to standard organisations, to bring better outcomes for Māori. What is the role of bitcoin / indigecoin, block chain, cryto currencies, (see this tvnz show for Kaye's presentation) time banks, alternatives to banks etc. Banks at present, do not represent indigenous interests and alternatives are required. Hypothesis of what will currency look like if it is linked to doing good things - voluntary work, looking after family, etc. 

Settled on using whakapapa (genealogy) as a basis for economical operation. Use the information in the developing site to see how it works and what has been envisaged and it's enactment.

Interesting concepts and how digital alternatives should be considered as alternatives to the status quo. 

Paul provided clarification as to data sovereignty. In Mātauranga Māori, whakapapa and mana are important in that the data should be traceable as to its origins and balances must be in place so that power relationships between corporations and users are ameliorated. 

Kaye spoke of how whakapapa is a useful way to understand how data is treated. Over time concerns include safety / ownership of the information, and what happens to this - who modifies it, updates etc. Provided many examples of how Mātauranga is affected and needs study when indigenous customs and expectations have to move into a world where processes and technologies are developed without consideration of the multiple perspectives of all people. Call to be conscious of these practices and how to translate them into practical applications which work for the people the technology is to support. 

Good overview of a different worldview on a modern technology and how it is interpreted using important customs (tikanga), and how culture and the technology it informs, can shift given sufficient information, consultation and reciprocal discussion. 

Work and Learning in Difficult Times

Open access book published by Sense Publishers (now Brill) in 2015 titled 'Work and Learning in Difficult times. 

The book is volume 4 in a series on research on the education and learning of adults, in turn affiliated to The European Society for Research on the Education of Adults (ESREA)

The book is edited by S. Bohlinger, U. Haake, C. H. Jorgensen and H. Toiviainen.

The introductory chapter by the editors is followed by 15 chapters and a closing concluding chapter by the editors.

Chapters are organised into 3 sections covering the micro, meso and macro levels of working and learning.

The Micro level has 5 chapters beginning with H. Toiviainen on 'Configurations of learning in global work'. The chapter reports on a study of how a multinational engineering company, embarked and changing the ways its many global units worked. The study focused on how new networked ways of work practices development and evolved. CHAT (cultural historical activity theory) is used to unpack the complicated relationships, tasks and objectives of the diverse and distributed workforce. Learning for work was found to be undertaken 'under control', through meaningful work and through participation. 

Chapter 3 by S. Kondrup covers 'worker and learner identity: developing an analytical framework'. Uses Archer's critical realist approach and ideas on personal identity with the influences of natural, practical and social concepts, to understand how worker and learning identities develop. Proposes learner identity as being made up of life (historical) experiences, immediate experiences from specific work situations, and objectified (cultural) knowledge.

Then M. Gessler and A-C Hinrichs with a chapter on 'key predictors of learning transfer in continuing vocational training'. Undertakes a thorough examination of the origins, pros and cons of 'transfer of learning'. Proposes a model based on synthesis of the current understandings in the field.

The next chapter is ' Knowledge development in internships: a case study of students' access to tacit and explicit knowledge in blended learning' by S. Dau. Unpacks the foundational understanding of tacit and explicit knowledge and proposes how blended learning provisions opportunities for attaining both.

The last chapter in the section is by G. Sparrhoff  on 'leaderships in times of globalisation and uncertainty'. Summarises understandings of leadership and proposes principles required to lead in a global world.

The next section has 5 chapters.

T. Back covers 'police students values of competence related to professional career' based in Sweden.

Another one in a similar context to the previous chapter with 'police leadership practice in times of uncertainty and organisational turmoil' by O. Linberg, O. Rantatalo and U. Haake.

Then a chapter by K. Kallio on 'Dilemmas in automation engineers' daily work and changing form of learning'. Studies the changing nature of work and learning for automation engineers using CHAT. Outlines the many challenges and requirements to change and adapt across all aspects of engineering including administrative (i.e. accounting) services. 

R. Ronnqvist, A. Wallo, P. Nilsson and B. Davidson contribute to the chapter 'employee resourcing in elderly care: attracting, recruiting and retaining the right competence'

Followed by another chapter by A. Fejes and P. Andersson in a similar context ' recognition of prior learning within elderly care work'

The last section also has 5 chapters.

Beginning with C. H. Jorgensen on 'challenges for work-based learning in VET in the Nordic Countries'

Then 'Vocational education and school to work transitions in Norway by T. Nyen, A. Skaholt and A.H. Tonder

C. Quesada-Pallares, A. Ciraso-Cali, P.Pineda-Herero and A Janer-Hildalgo write on 'training for innovation in Spain: Analysis of its effectiveness from the perspective of transfer of training'.

Another Spanish context chapter with R. M Hernanxes Carrera and E. Lucio-Villegas with 'VET from the perspective of employer associations in Spain.

The last chapter is by S. Bohlinger on 'governing VET in Europe'. Bases discussion on Germany but the chapter undertakes an outline of European VET policy to find out how these impact on VET. 

The conclusion 'contested field of working and learning' by the editors, closes the book.

All in, a good book to consult for key principles in a range of workplace learning concepts. Most of the chapters, utilise authentic studies to build a contemporary evidence base, albeit within a mainly European context, to inform our continued understanding of work and learning. 

Rethinking Workplace Learning and Development - link to book

 This book published by Elgar Press and written by two well known American researchers on workplace learning - Professor Karen Watkins and Professor Victoria Marsick has the introductory chapter available as pdf. The short chapter provides an overview of the book and each of the chapters. The book's focus is on how the world is now more complex and the need for organisational learning and development to keep up with the times, and to continually prepare the workforce for the present and future challenges.

The book provides a summary of the American perspective on workplace learning, which is founded in Human Resources Management (HRM) as compared to the European / Australian workplace learning scholarship with its more humanistic slant.

C0nCOVE / Tūhura hui - notes taken during the day

 Attended the Construction and Infrastructure Centre of Vocational Education  (ConCOVE) conference today. Missed most of the first keynote in the morning but was able to get to the venue in time to pick up the end of Kaila Coblin's scene setting session to 'build bridges- collaborating for vocational education excellence'.

The next session with 'unlocking potential: systems change for our vision' with  ConCOVE's George Makapatama. Provided the ConCOVE perspective with how the organisation is approaching the important 'systems changes' -firstly to try to identify the problem, before launching into solutions. His presentation drew on his story - growing up in Niue and how his culture grounds his thinking. Connections are important in a collective society. Introduced the concept of 'servantship' which drives his life. Both mean we are all part of a larger whole and draw on this support to progress towards contributing to a better society. Shared the 6 conditions for systems change from the work of Kania, Kramer and Senge (2018) - from structural to transformational change. 

The after morning tea session was with Suzette Dyer from the University of Waikato, who followed on with 'Developing a bystander Theory of Change' for the sector. Shared a ConCOVE project to develop new anti-harassment guidelines - reducing bad behaviour on worksites. Traditional responses are individualised, difficult, may worsen the situation and most often, the victim leaves the workplace. Recommended a collective /whole workplace response which is supportive and leads to fewer negative outcomes. 

Then Eve Price updated on 'Navigating the challenges in Degree Level Apprenticeship'. Introduced the concept. TEC thinks of degree apprenticeships as a way of delivery. For industry, apprenticeship occurs on-job. The term does not exist for NZQA. At the moment WDCs look after qualifications to Level 6. Level 7 degrees are in the university and ITP space. Discussed the pros (equity, retraining, earn and learning, addressing skill shortages etc.). Unpacked using 'systems change' introduced by George and applied to how degree apprenticeships can be promoted and established. ConCOVE is contributing to a pilot next year. 

An update on ConCOVE project fund process with Katherine Hall and Jackie Messame and an overview of the ConCOVE PMO, bookended a 'relationship accelerator - speed idea generation' activity.

After lunch there was a short ConCOVE challenge using slido.com - featuring 11 questions VET, construction industry, rugby, Mātauranga Māori and ConCOVE concepts.

Dr. Kylie Taffart then presented on 'Futures in NZ quarrying'. Introduced the industry - big rocks into small rocks', including sustainability initiatives. Main challenges around health and safety, aging workforce, inclusive workforce, and technology adoption to increase productivity. There are strong connections between quarrying and civil construction. Currently unit standards are too technical. Study is to evaluate what training programmes are available and inform future programmes and industry professional development. Described research method and objectives of the project. Findings from Delphi study indicate the challenges of the need for leadership, health and safety, and legislation and regulations. Recommended set up of advisory group, complete analysis of data, develop a future of quarrying futures scenario and publication of report.

 Josh Williams and Jackie Messame shared a project on 'Transitioning to kaiako (teacher)'. Josh began with stating that high quality VET requires high quality teachers. The world of work and education are still far apart. How do these two worlds come together, especially through industry workers moving into teaching. What are the supports that help the shift people from work into education. Then how do currency and future professional development occur. How can the dual roles and dual professions work together, one informing / drawing from each other between the two identities. VET delivery is complex and in a continual transition/change. Common competencies are technical, education, stakeholder engagement and professional values and commitment. Call for participants to contribute to the project. 

Jackie covered the comparison between on-job and off-job learning. Interviewed, trainees, trainers (supervisors, assessors etc.) to find out what a good were the qualities of a good workplace trainer. Some technical skills but much in the leadership, learning, supervision, and mentoring quadrants. 

After afternoon tea, an activity session with Callum McKirdy on 'inspiration, reflection and action: A journey forward' to gather contributions on how ConCOVE can meet needs of the participants, what was of most interest, and what did we get out of the day. 

The conference then closed with final remarks. Good to meet new people, touch base with familiar kindred spirits, and see how COVEs have developed and their direction.

IADIS CELDA library of conference proceedings

13 years ago, I attended and presented at the IADIS CELDA conference in Timisoara, Romania.I have wonderful memories of the conference. There were about 100 plus attendees / presenters and everyone was very collegial. 

CELDA maintains many useful resources for research in various fields related to education and digital learning. 

Their present site includes a list of Springer books, published as an outcome of papers from their annual conferences. 

Proceedings of all CELDA conferences found at this link .

Journals with affliations to CELDA are listed in this link.

Creative AI tools and ethical implications in teaching and learning (very brief overview of chapters)

This book, edited by J. Keengwe and published 2023 by IGI Global is one of many currently available on AI and education. The book is aimed at practitioners and covers a range of articles, with a focus on ethical issues.

There are 13 chapters.

The first three cover ethical responsibilities and issues as they pertain to education, the second chapter focuses on higher education.

Chapter 4 relates to literacy development in the school sector.

The fifth chapter looks into the ethical issues when AI is used to help optimise student learning.

Chapter 6 has an interesting approach that discusses the rise of ChatGPT and how it has affected Bloom's taxonomy's learning stages.

Chapter 7 returns to ethical issues, specifically to Gen AI tools.

The eighth chapter introduces and discusses AI game activities and how these may be integrated into teaching and learning.

The next chapter covers how Gen AI can be used in higher education.

Then chapter 10 reports on challenges and risks.

Chapter 11 covers the processes of responsible implementation of AI into education.

chapter 12 is on the impact of Chatbots on student engagement and learning outcomes.

The last chapter brings the various discussions together and proposes ethical guidelines for using AI in education. Overall, a 'one-stop' shop for reference on AI and its ethical implications on education.

Monash University - 10 minute chats on AI

Monash University's (Melbourne, Australia) Teach HQ which supports teaching and learning, has a series of on-line chats on Gen AI.  The presenters include learning specialists, researchers and thought leaders (from the UK, US 0f A  and Australia) in teaching and learning, technology-enhanced learning and on assessments..

The first video in with Mike Sharples from the Open University in the UK recorded in May. The videos are labelled by presenter name but the drop-down menu, indicates the topic presented. Worth dipping in and out of as the talks range across many aspects of AI including ethics, impact from the sustainability point of view, the many dimensions of AI literacy, and tensions / power relationships through the use of Gen AI. 

Worth the time to listen to relevant recordings as they drill down dipper into the hype of Gen AI, the press to integrate AI into education (there are pluses, minuses and consequences), and the broader social issues that cannot be solved through utilising Gen AI. 

 

WATTLE forum 2023 (Wollongong Academy for Tertiary Teaching and Learning Excellence

 Dropped in and out of presentations convened by the University of Wollongong's WATTLE. The forum centred around 'InspirED Horizons': Embracing educational innovation and Gen AI. I attended the Gen AI streams, which occurred in the early evening NZ time (afternoon in Australia). 

Missed most of the beginning as I was facilitating a workshop. began with the sessions just after 4.30pm NZ time on 'assessment and academic integrity. There were 3 short 5 minute presentations followed by a Q & A session. 

Firstly with Dr. Vinod Gopaldasani et al. on 'empowering academics' assessment feedforward using an agile chatbot'. Created, trained chatbot which was adaptable and scalable across all subjects. Goal to reduce 'redundancies' i,e, repeated questions from student email. Used dialogflow (similar to Google Bard), piloted with one assessment (undergraduate first year course with quiz, reflection and essay). Able to link the chatbot to course Moodle site. Showed examples of 'training' and presently collecting data, identify language nuances, continued training and asked for collaboration with other courses.

Followed by Dr. Jane Al Kouba et al. with 'unrestricted data exploration and plagiarism-resistant assessments during a 'lab data generator'. Create opportunity for students to learn through failure. The sessions mitigate plaigiarism as the lab data generator simulations replicates lab activity with various permutations and unique datasets for each student. Feedback from students of process being easy to use, and enhanced learning. 

Then 'UOW age of integrity -gamifying academic integrity' with Dr. Zeenath Reza Khan (recorded presentation). Summarised concerns around plagiarism. Some lag and problems with sound in this presentation :( Introduced game-based training as a solution. The GAIV project created a game-based system to educate students about plagiarism. 

A Q & A and networking /afternoon tea session followed.

Then watched the keynote at 5.30pm NZ time by Professor Michael Sankey via zoom on 'embracing student innovation in the age of Generative AI'. Both Covid and Gen AI have challenged academic integrity. Gen AI has revolutionised the way we write and work. Argues that adopting a disposition that embrased innovation is the only option. Gen AI is now here, it might morph but will not go away. Important to re-evaluate how we go about teaching and assessing. Students need to be helped to process information in different ways - how do we scaffold students to use Gen AI?? This approach provides opportunities to contribute to the growth of knowledge. 

Challenged the audience to imagine how our students can be more productive, from the beginning of their degree. Not only find knowledge but to extend it. Shared the model of contemporary technology-enhanced learning (TEL) ecology and went through how it interacted. Proposed AI has another tool on top of the current TEL tools accept that it can be integrated (e.g. LMS) to support learning more effectively. Summarised the progress of digital ecology, into the cloud, through better interfaces between the various systems (e.g. LTI$xAPI connecting student and learning management systems - walled to open garden etc.). Learning also shifting towards more participatory creation (sort of). 

Proposed we do not need a new LMS but that learning has evolved beyond what LMS can provide. Shared the key technologies and practices in the 2023 Educause Horizon report - particularly AI-enabled applications for predictive and personal learning, Gen AI, blurring boundaries between learning modalities, hyflex, microcredentials etc. Discussed the uses of Anthology - which is integrated into Blackboard LMS. Current challenge shows low attendance, a hangover from Covid and need of students to work to finance their studies. micro-credential have a place but do not provide full solution. 

Also shared the progress with the metaverse and AI will only increase its expansion and reach. Teams chat is used across industry, not discussion forums like LMSs. Study time for students has to be flexible and some pay others to complete their course work (see chegg)

Moved on to Gen AI (see weforum)- pluses and minuses. Argued for the need to teach students how to use Gen AI. AI literacy a key to ensure students understand Gen AI limitations and the need to fact check its outputs. Proposed the need to support students to become creators and be productive. Ai can provide instant feedback on students' writing, simplify complex information and scaffold information on specific tasks. Useful for neuro-divergent and second language learners. Not just to consume but to also be creators of new learning resources. Shared results of Charles Darwin U survey with academic staff. Use of AI still emergent. Then shared the 10 CDU priorities for assessment. Reduce emphasis on final high stakes exams. reduce propensity for wide-spread quizzes for important assessments. Look for opportunities for course wide assessments. Weight assessments aligned to level of learning. Increase emphasis on formative feedback 'for learning'. Design active, collaborative, authentic assessments. Increase use of work integrated learning. Assessments for inclusion and use of multimodal assessments. Reduce essays and long form text.

Drew on work of Anders Sorman-Nilsson to move the brain from the menial and mundane, to the creative and innovative. Therefore, continue to design 'authentic assessments' which are relevant to students'' future careers - see this blog for details.Therefore, set personalised, complex and topical assessment tasks. Shared many examples, 

The key note was followed on by a series of 5 minute presentations on Gen AI from both academic staff and students.

Industry Practices, Processes and Techniques adopted in Education - book overview

 This book edited by K. MacCallum and D. Parsons and published in 2022 by Springer Link, brings some thoughtful concepts into the educational sphere.

The book has 18 chapters, categorised into 5 secsions. 

The first section, with three chapters, covers broad themes from industry in education

An introduction by the editors, opens the book with discussion around 'from the workplace to the classroom: how ideas from industry can inspire new kinds of learning'. The overall approach of the book, is to look at industry practices, especially from the IT and design areas, and how these may inform various aspects of school and tertiary education.

Then the second chapter 'can teaching the future of work make the future of work less uncertain?' is written by T. Butlser, M. Rorich, H. Sparks and M. Wadasinghe. Here, one of the rationales for the book is presented as education and workforce participation are interlinked. The rapid shifts through technological advances, places the onus on education to be better aligned to how the world of work is enacted.

Chapter 3 discusses 'from industry to academia: case studies of innovative practices in a digital context' with L. Antonczak, M. Neukam and S. Bolinger. Draws on case studies in France which highlight 'learning by doing', project-based learning and the development and support of heutagogy through mixed modes of learning. The advantages and challenges of each are derived from the cases to inform better development of digital teaching and learning.

The second section focuses on bridging industry approaches into the academy.

First up with G. J. Smolski and F. S. A. Brendolan on 'hybrid project management in post-secondary research and education'. The study looks into the introduction of a Gaming community of practice (CoP) into university teaching and learning. The CoP undertook the adoption and utilisation of Game development e.g. Agile etc, lean thinking, etc. and the chapter evaluates ths CoPs effectiveness.

Then a chapter on 'a systems engineering approach to blended learning design' by A. Mckay, D. B. Trowsdale, S. A. Carrie, G. Duff and C. E. Goodburn. Another example of applying industry models, in this case systems engineering to curriculum and learning design.

The last chapter in this section is by Y. Hoggarth on ' ambidextrous approaches to postgraduate programme development in higher education'. The development of post-graduate programmes is aided by the use of organisational ambidexterity which applies the work of March's concepts of exploitation and exploration. 

Section 3 centres around education and industry working together. The three chapters, describe ways in which industry standard operating processes, are incorporated into higher education curricula. 

L.Griffin, B. O'Farrell, C. Dunphy, P. Windle and E. de Lestar contribute on 'the agile semester, how we used agile as an engagement mechanism'.

The T. Cochrane and D. Sinfield present 'STUDIO602: A model for designing real world collaborations between higher education and industry'

Followed on by L. Major, A; Twiner and R. Wegerif with a chpater on 'simulated internships in schools: engaging learning with the world of work to promote collaborative creativity,'

The last chapter in this section is by S. McCotter on 'bringing the human resource management experience to the letcure hall through dramatic arts'.

Two chapters in the section on Agile learning in the school classroom are presented in this section. 

W. Wijnands and K. Fritsch with 'experience the 'flows' with eduScrum: about the why, how, and what of the empowerment of students and teachers.

Then N.Cosgrove, T. Cosgrove, S. Graham and P. Magnuson on 'agile in the Alps: stories of agile classroom for teaching and learning to administration.

The next section covers bridging experiences from the creative industries into teaching and learning

Begins with M.S. Howarth and A. Baslei on 'production of the 70:20:10 webinar.

Then M.Thorley contributes on 'developing music production expertise through virtual collaboration.

S. Mann, R. Mitchell, P. Eden-Mann, D. Hursthouse, M. Keretai, R. O'Brien and P. Osbourne present on 'educational design fictions: imagining learning futures'. Six educational design fictions are presented and the chapter then undertakes a discursive process to reflect on the processes and how these may inform and promote further discussion on the future of education.

The last three chapters revolve around industry-focused software engineering in the classroom

V.H. Grisales-Palacio, U/ Garcia-Zaragoza and H. Forero-Correa write on 'connecting industry and the academy through cyber-physical systems for disruptive education in machine automation.

The next chapter is by P. Kamthan on 'a framework for analysing and comparing software projects in academia and industry'.

The last chapter covers 'FDD, Crystal, DSDM- an educational perspective by V. Hurbungs and S. D. Nagowah.

In all, the book seeks to investigate how industry practices, may be used, not only in a vocational approach to replicate industry practices in the related disciplines, but how industry practices may be applied across diverse aspects of education to improve administrative tasks and processes, develop and meet strategical objectives, and contribute to teaching and learning from school to higher education. 

AI and education

Ai is still the flavour of the month. There is a plethora of sites on the topic. For example, this one, summarising 6 ways to leverage Gen AI in education which although written in April, is already dated in the tools/platforms presented. Another, written in July, lists 43 examples of AI in education and provides several good resources with examples.

 A working paper, published in August, by Hamilton, William and Hattie (2023), discusses the future of AI in education. The paper posits several future scenarios based on a premise that AI will be ascendant and be able to replace humans in many cognitive activities. They postulate 4 scenarios whereby we ban AI now, work side by side with AI, upgrade our brains using brain-computer interfaces, or provide universal basic income to a populace, largely 'retired'. Each has implications for education with the authors suggesting that accept for the first option, all the other three lead to a reduction in humankind's motivation to be educated! 

An insights report from the US of A provides a less intimidating prediction, taking the perspective of AI as business as usual and making recommendations around trust, equity, fairness and the adoption of guidelines and guardrails. 

My Scholar Alerts for 'artificial intelligence in education' generates around a dozen articles every 2-3 days. So this topic is still very much up front for many. The project we have started in the second semester (June) to study the planning, development and implementation of AI supported learning activities across 6 programmes is starting to reveal the baseline literacies required to be able to work with AI tools. AI literacy is an important foundation before learners are able to embark on using AI in a fruitful manner to inform their learning. As AI tools require good academic literacies as well, we are working with programmes from level 4 (Certificates) to level 7 (degree). It has been interesting observing learners get to grips with the technology, with some quite hesitant and others keen to get stuck in. We start collating data from observations and initial surveys next month, followed by summative focus groups in November. The project has been good learning for everyone involved, including the ethics behind how AI is introduced to learners and the important ethical issues with regards to using AI that have to discussed with learners. 

Workskills data and insights - Aotearoa NZ

 The Tertiary Educaiton Commissiont (TEC) announces the launch of a common platform for sharing Ohu Mahi (Work Development Councils (WDCs) date.

Te Mata Raraunga has been created by the Workforce development councils (WDCs) to collect, integrate and organise vocational education and workforce data on a central platform. Data from each of the WDCs is collated. Trends and analysis across the industries each WDC represents on workforce demographics and regional distribution and information on learners is represented. WDC plans, information on their council and a workforce information platform for some WDCs plus access to various resources are featured. The site is thus a 'one-stop' shop for information on each WDC, their strategic direction over the short term and news. 

CEDEFOP report - future of VET

The European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training's latest report focuses on the future of vocational education and training in Europe.  A 'stock-take' is undertaken across Europe to identify trends and recommend future research to inform VET.

The report summarises the macro processed influencing VET. These include institutional, curricula, and assessment trends and the need to include adult VET into the mix, given the rapid changes wrought on occupations, work and jobs by digital, social and economic shifts. 

In general, there are 'pendulum effect in VET' creating 'return to basics' exampled by assessments moving towards greater standardisation whilst maintaining the need for authentic assessments which reflect the true skills required to perform job tasks; increasing institutional diversification, autonomy and expansion to meet the growing range of industry needs; the recognition that general knowledge, and skills require focus (rather than specialised occupational skills); the growing need for all individuals to continue professional development beyond initial school/formal tertiary/VET education; and the tensions inherent in diversifying rapidly but needing to ensure 'convergence' towards the main goal of VET. 

Future research proposed for VET include improving the gathering of data to create a research-base for VET institutions; encouragement to undertake the development of methods and contents to undertake research on VET curricula; VET pedagogy; and the need to adopt transdisciplinary approaches to researching VET.

There are several important lessons which Te Pūkenga could draw on to build the evidence base for Aotearoa VET and to inform the institution as it moves forward beyond the current restructure of its organisational structure. What we now need is to ensure on-going commitment to resourcing a Centre for VET research to undertake strategic baseline work and to support the scholarship of ako (teaching and learning) across the institute. 

Bill Gates podcast (Unconfuse) with Sal Khan on the integration of AI into Khan Academy

 A half-hour episode (11th August 2023) of Unconfuse with Bill Gates who speaks to Sal Khan on the integration of AI into Khan Academy as Khanmigo.

Discussed origin of Khan Academy and summarised how Khan Academy is now used in schools to provide for learning. Teachers assist with initial working through, focus on sorting out pinch points and supporting the reflective learning process.

Also discussed the rapid improvement of Gen AI with its possibilities for supporting education and how Sal worked through to realise its application. Promoted the use of AI to further support individualised / personalised learning. 

Also presented the challenges, cost, inaccuracies etc. and the work undertaken in the development of Khanmigo. This has 'parameters' to make it safer for use in schools along with reflecting on how to best use it to encourage learner engagement and deeper learning. Khanmigo is able to work with individuals, and groups (to increase social constructivism). Allows for teacher directed learning activities along with the learning analytics to understand learner progress. Khanmigo is therefore a teacher assistant in a classroom, the teacher being a 'conductor' and learners working to their own learning journey. 

AI improves feedback more thoroughly to improve writing for learners. However, learners will need feedback literacy to leverage off AI capabilities. 

Good to listen to the human dimension from leading thinkers in IT and hear how both consider the merits, challenges and possibilities of AI and its contributions towards personalised education for all. 

Using AI to support research - Dr Fiona Beals

 Notes from a lunch time presentation by Dr. Fiona Beals (Principal Lead on teaching, innovation and research at - Weltec/Whitireia/Te Pūkenga) on Research & AI: When your friend is your foe.

Welcome from Dr. Lee Smith who looks after the section. 

Presentation began with a overview of the landscape right now. There are a whole raft of resources. What you get from AI, is determined but what data it draws on. Prompts are very important, an open prompt does not usually yield useful outputs. Referencing of AI is fraught as it is not possible to go back to the AI to get the same output - using AI is more like an communication. There have been articles written that names AI as an author but this is not really legal as AI is not a person and unable to take responsibility for their share of the work. It works on a predictive algorithm and cannot predict the unpredictable. Predicated on data and critical literacy on the part of the user.

Moved on to do a show and tell with some of the AI tools which are usable for research. Moved from the ones which she has found to not be relevant/applicable, to the one she now uses most.

1) Perplexity - based on ChatGPT. Described as a search engine on steroids. It generates summary and provides a range of 'references'. Note that with ChatGPT, only mines data before 2021, so not always up to date. Triangulation takes time and feels the output is not as good as what is produced by scholarly databases.

2) Paperbrain - currently does not work. and an example of the rapid flux in the landscape with tools coming up and disappearing.

3) PaperDigest - has the functions to do lit review or be a text rewriter. In the text rewriter, the functions include wikify & justify, paraphase, quesionly and summarise. The lit review searches for papers and provides a summary. Only finds literature that is accessible on the internet, not those behind paywall. Therefore, limited lit review rather than comprehensive.

4) elicit - this is the one she recommends to be useful. Demonstrated how she uses this to overview a topic. Ability to collect and overview many articles quickly. Scholarly database will still yield more reliable results. 

There are Ai tools that will allow up of pdf articles but need to be careful with regards to copyright as once the pdf is uploaded, the database will have access.

5) Litmaps - able to pick up from your ORCID account, your work and trace the whakapapa of your or a piece of work. Provides a visual representation of how various papers are related and bring up patterns of themes.

Demonstrated how ChatGPT could be used to help modify an existing spreadsheet to change its function for purposes of quantitative analysis. Prompt engineering is a key, along with existing knowledge of concepts. Without that, it is difficult to evaluate/ triangulate / or verify the AI generated outputs for accuracy. 

Demonstrated how to use BingChat. Firstly uploaded paper/book via EBcoHost database search and ask BingChat to summarise the pdf/page, or as questions of the content and use it to help work out overall gist of the article. Might not work if database has block in it to prevent articles being gleaned. 

Concluded with caveats including the ethical aspects. Important NOT to enter own personal data or to ask it to do data analysis with it! Also remember the implicit biases etc. that are present in the data sources. 

Good session to see how others use AI tools to support research, especially these initial efforts to test and understand how to use these tools to help our work. 

Practical AI for instructors and students - A Wharton interactive crash course

 This series of five videos, from the Wharton School, provides good overviews of integrating AI into education. Each video is around 11 minutes. The contexts are for higher and compulsory education. 

The first video introduces the important concepts of AI. The second covers Gen AI and large language models.

The next three videos provide demonstrations, examples and discussion on prompt engineering, how to use AI as a teacher, and how AI can be used as a personal tutor by students. All emphasise the importance of prompt engineering which in turn relies on learners' foundational literacies and subject conceptual knowledge to be able to evaluate AI outputs and then work out the correct prompts to use, to improve the relevance and quality of outputs. The ability of 'personalised tutors' utilising AI will need to be examined with respect to the academic and foundational literacies required to access the power of AI to support personalised learning environments (PLEs). 

The two presenters Associate Professor Ethan Mollick (faculty director) and Dr. Lilach Mollick (Director of Pedagogy) provide quick overviews and encourage teachers to draw on their experience to make the most that Gen AI offers. 

Two recent papers summarise the work undertaken which are applied in the videos:

Mollick, Ethan R. and Mollick, Lilach, Using AI to Implement Effective Teaching Strategies in Classrooms: Five Strategies, Including Prompts (March 17, 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4391243 

Mollick, Ethan R. and Mollick, Lilach, Assigning AI: Seven Approaches for Students, with Prompts (June 12, 2023 http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.4475995

Eportfolios and AI tools: webinar notes

 Attended the Eportfolio workshop - how to get started with AI tools for portfolios. The session was delivered both online and f2f (La Trobe- Melbourne) and organised by ePortfolios Australia and ePortfolios Ireland. 

The session was presented by Dr. Megan Mize who is Director of ePortfolios and Digital Initiatives in the Digital Initiatives Success Centre at Old Dominion University. 

Alison Miller welcomes everyone and acknowledges Country and the various organisations who have contributed towards this webinar. Helen Chen introduces AAEEBL - Association for authenic, experiential and evidence-based learning. Megan begins with overviewing the AI tools that are already part of eportfolio practice. Slide deck of presentations are found at google docs. 

AI's current role could be to support grammar/syntax, accessibility, colour design and content generation. All of these have been available even before advent of ChatGPT. Introduces ideas of how to leverage Gen AI for faculty to provide more individualised support to learners. Proposed the Riff chatbot as a tool which has potential (as discussed with Leticia Britos Cavagnaro).

Riff chatbot can be useful to help learners how to practice reflection. A demo /try out of Riff chatbot followed for participants to evaluate the tool. The chatbot provides some good prompts on statements which were presented to it - a bit similar to 'ask watson' it repeats back what you contribute but pushes the user to 'dig deeper'. Riff chatbot has option of linking with Moodle. Check this blog for using chatbot to support reflective activity and up-coming book by Cavagnaro.

Then provided an opportunity to try another chatbot - Poe chat. Difficulties getting in through institutional and gmail :( (but did arrive in my institutional after about 10 minutes). Demo undertaken to show capabilities of the chatbot. Prompt engineering is important. Tried the 'colour my site' chat which was set up to provide more targeted information to users. Demonstrated how to set up the chatbot to undertake more targeted responses. An authentic activity not only for teachers but also across many occupations. For example, setting up a bot for a business to answer client enquiries etc. Testing the bot is important to see how it responses to a range of inputs. 

Then provided opportunity to 'build a bot' on Poe. Straight-forward process. Also accessible as IOS or Android app. Poe uses ChatGPT and Claude, so not sure how different the outputs are to just using ChatGPT. Claude has a better privacy policy when compared to many other Gen AI tools. 

Discussed the challenges and the need to test extensively, ensure learners triangulate the outputs, and be aware that 'input = output' holds, and the privacy and ethical issues around using the chatbots. Possibilities for learner driven personalised learning are many. 

Then discussed the ethical concerns with regards to AI and eportfolios, summarised in this blog. Q & A followed with most focusing on practicalities and logistics of using chatbots to support personalised learning.

A good session, providing good examples of how to better use AI to support learning, especially for reflective learning. 

A grammar of the visual - website of the work of Kalantzis and Cope

 As AI advances towards being able to provision outputs across text and images, it is important to better understand, the principles underlying human literacy. Not only text based literacies, but the range of multiliteracies which contribute to daily living.

Kalantzis and Cope's website summarise the precepts attained through several decades of work on literacies. Their interest has always been across the range of literacies rather than solely on text-based literacies. Knowledge learning consists of experiencing, conceptualisation, analysing and applying, 

The site is a good resource to the breathe of work undertaken towards better understanding the complexities of how we learn. 

New digital work: Digital sovereignty in the workplace - book overview

New Digital work: Digital sovereignty at the workplace- Open access book published 2023 by Springer and edited by A. Shajek and E. A. Hartmann

There are 15 chapters in the book along with introductory and closing chapters by the editors.

The book covers some of the perceived impacts of AI and robotics on work along with other implications. There are case studies from Europe, South Africa, Australia, East Asia, China and Mexico.

Topics range across not only AI and robotics, but also ‘smart’ production systems, human-machine interactions, designing and capability building for digital work and neural networks.

Of note the following chapter:

-          AI and assistance system for TVET – opportunities and risks https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-031-26490-0_12

By L. Windelband, which is the entry into the book as the chapter came up on my Scholar Alerts a few weeks back.

Discusses the man-machine-interface (M-M-I) and how these could be – tools /assistance scenario; automation scenario (with limited input from workers and devaluation of qualifications), and the hybrid scenario where by there are new forms of monitoring and control of tasks, leading to new requirements for skilled workers.

The challenges these 3 scenarios represent for TVET are discussed. Figure 1 summarises a framework to think how technologies, impact, use of digital and the process related actions, interfaces with the digital networked world of work. Presents the challenges and how AI for example may be used as information assistants, assistant systems or for learning assistance. Then the opportunities and risks are presented. 

A book providing up-to-date discussions on the impact of the digital revolution on work, and in turn education. The importance of understanding and working with 'intelligent' agents cannot be under-estimated. Digital literacy/ AI literacy needs to recognise the complexities and issues as more intimate interfaces are required between humans and machines.

AI in Learning: Designing for the future - some relevant chapters

 AI in learning: Designing for the future is an open access book published by Springer. The editors are and international group of scholars with H. Niemi (Finland), R. D. Pea (U. S. of A) and Y. Lu (China). The book was published at the beginning of 2022, thus the concepts, frameworks etc. proposed are 'pre-Chat-GPT'. However, the premises are sound, based on the large corpus of existing research around AI. However, it is important to read the chapters in the book, with the proviso that things have since moved on somewhat.

After the introductory chapter and a last chapter by the editors, the book has 18 chapters, organised into 4 parts. They are:

- AI expanding learning and well-being throughout the life

- AI games and simulations

- AI technologies for education and intelligent tutoring systems

- AI and ethical challenge in new learning environments. 

There are several chapters of relevance to my present projects/work.

The first chapter on "AI innovations for multimodal learning, interfaces and analytics' by M. Worsley was the route into the rest of the book, having turned up in one of my searches for 'AI in vocational education'. The chapter brings up opportunities for using AI to support project-based, inquiry-driven and problem-solving approaches to learning. Examples are provided of technologies which can be used by learners across modalities to showcase their learning; tools (audio/video) offering insights into how group work is enacted; and guides as to how learning analytics from these multimodal platforms can usefully inform teaching and learning research. 

The chapters in section 3 - education and intelligent tutoring systems - offers concrete ways to usefully deploy AI for personalised learning. The chapters include one on 'training hard skills' by T. Korhonen, T. Lindquist, J. Laine and K. Hakkarainen. 

The chapters in section 4 - AI and ethics - are all useful as they inform on various perspectives with regards to AI ethics.AI augments learning but can also be used as a surveillance tool. The tensions between assistive learning and 'big brother' needs to be balanced with social and cultural norms shaping the way AI is deployed. Some social cultures may find AI surveillance to be a normal course of life but others will find surveillance to be invasive of personal privacy. Ethical considerations are therefore context dependent. What is taken as the norm in one country, is considered challenging in others. 

The last chapter by the editors 'reflections on the contributions and future scenarios in AI-based learning' - summarises the themes introduced and discussed through the book.

As the book is open access, it is a good resource for anyone interested in how AI may enhance education but with the caveat that there are also many issues with regards to how AI is introduced and utilised. The potentialities for personalised learning, drawing from analytics and AI algorithm driven interventions are emergent technologies, with much promise. Ethical issues become crucial in ensuring AI is used as a tool for equitable access to education, and not as a surveillance instrument by the state. 

Scoop - collection of AI related articles

 Here is a Scoop site, curated by Peter Mellow. It archives various blogs / magazine articles etc. on the implications, challenges etc. of AI on education - mostly higher education and the formal school sector.

With the plethora of media on AI at the moment, it is handy to have access to a range of perspectives. Peter works in the health sector as a Director of learning and teaching and learning design. Therefore, his interest are partly vocational but slanted towards health higher education. 

Something to dip into to keep up with how AI impacts education and how various sectors deal with the challenges.

innovating pedagogy 2023 report

 This year's Innovating Pedagogy report provides some good overviews of emergent pedagogies. The report is compiled yearly by the Open University in the UK, this year, also with contributions from the University of Cape Town. The project's home page provides links to previous reports, going back a decade plus to 2012. 

Of note, is that Generative AI is the first pedagogy discussed. Gen AI is also mentioned in the last pedagogy - entangled pedagogies of learning spaces - with some connections to the rhizomic nature of learning as people tap into a range of resources and viewpoints availed through the internet. Of note to vocational learning also is the summary of thoughts and concepts on multimodal pedagogy, although it focuses on communications across many modes, rather than the learning of multimodal skills.

A good overview providing discussion as AI impacts across all educational sectors. 

The homework apocalyse - article recommending how to work around AI in education

 There have been many blogs, webposts, journal articles etc. on the challenges wrought by the advent of generative AI on education.

Here is a blog written by Professor Ethan Mollick on the implications of AI on education with pragmatic ways to leverage off it to help enhance learning, rather than to view generative AI as a threat.

Suggestions include how to work around the use of essays, readings (i.e. to read and summarise), and set problems. The main advise is to not try to hold on to the tried and tested approaches, but to use the opportunity to update and accommodate the challenges AI brings.