effectiv thoughts
Educational geekery from yours truly. Read it here, or subscribe to get it in your mailbox!
- What’s your most valuable mindset?
Mine is inquiry. We prize decisiveness, creativity, empathy, and plenty of others. And they’re all important! But I think approaching situations with questions has served me best. In the classroom,… Read more: What’s your most valuable mindset? - A day of school vs. an experience to remember 🌙😎Think back to your school days. What do you remember learning? Not the subjects or topics you know you learned, but what learning activities do you actually remember? My memories… Read more: A day of school vs. an experience to remember 🌙😎
- Invisible Ink – A Generative AI GhostwriterI went down a rabbit hole of Gen AI and engineered an AI ghostwriter! A human ghostwriter would try to understand and mimic the voice and style of your writing. Your AI ghostwriter Invisible Ink does the same thing!
- Gen AI is a TI-30, and the Humanities are having their “slide rule moment.”(I haven’t lost my mind. Allow me to explain.) Math and math-adjacent fields faced a crisis in the 1970s when digital calculators arrived in students’ hands. These were just basic… Read more: Gen AI is a TI-30, and the Humanities are having their “slide rule moment.”
- AI is changing the world. We can’t allow it to change our humanity.✅ Consider politics: deepfakes are already influencing elections. 👩🎓 Consider education: I recently showed a team of teachers how to generate an entire term paper with Gen AI. (Chicago-style citations… Read more: AI is changing the world. We can’t allow it to change our humanity.
- Given AI, do we know whether our children are learning? 👩🎓That question was at the heart of the professional development session I ran last week for Horace Mann School‘s History Department. I think the teachers left a little less certain… Read more: Given AI, do we know whether our children are learning? 👩🎓
- We should feel stress at work. (Hear me out.)Psychologically safe working environments should include stress (meaning pressure to perform and grow). They shouldn’t be overly stressFUL (meaning an overload of nerves). Too much stress reduces productivity and becomes… Read more: We should feel stress at work. (Hear me out.)
- Are your employees afraid of being wrong? 🙅♀️One of my earliest supervisors berated us when things went wrong. I found myself constantly watching my back, afraid to make a mistake and get yelled at. Sure, there were… Read more: Are your employees afraid of being wrong? 🙅♀️
- AI is the biggest EdTech disruption since the chalkboard. 🦾🎓Yet 60% of teachers still don’t use it. 🤔Spoiler alert: it’s not their fault. Plenty of past EdTechs have claimed they will revolutionize teaching. Most have failed. Remember filmstrips? Interactive… Read more: AI is the biggest EdTech disruption since the chalkboard. 🦾🎓
- Teach what’s NEEDED, not what’s NEXT (3/3)But… what if you can’t use AI? 😰 My last few posts used AI assists to illuminate what your learners need to learn next.🦾 First we predicted learning gaps with… Read more: Teach what’s NEEDED, not what’s NEXT (3/3)
- Teach what’s NEEDED, not what’s NEXT (2/3)You’ll learn best if the learning is targeted to your personal needs. 😎 (This isn’t about learning styles. Don’t get me started on learning styles.) What if, every time you… Read more: Teach what’s NEEDED, not what’s NEXT (2/3)
- Teach what’s NEEDED, not what’s NEXT. (1/3)But… how do you know what’s needed? 🧐 I had high school classes where the teacher said “We were on page 87 yesterday, so today we’ll start at the top… Read more: Teach what’s NEEDED, not what’s NEXT. (1/3)
- Uh oh. Do you actually know what your learners don’t know? 🤔Teaching is way more than telling. A great teacher unearths their learners’ misconceptions and misunderstandings, and then targets them to fill gaps and build higher quality knowledge. In other words,… Read more: Uh oh. Do you actually know what your learners don’t know? 🤔
- You just learned ChatGPT and now it’s gone?! What will you have to learn next?! 😓No, ChatGPT isn’t dead yet. But this weekend was chaos weekend at OpenAI, the company that created it. (CEO Altman was out! Then maybe he wasn’t! Then he was hired… Read more: You just learned ChatGPT and now it’s gone?! What will you have to learn next?! 😓
- I built an artificially intelligent tutor! 🤖🎓 How’d I do?
My edu-geekery dial went to 11 last week when OpenAI announced custom GPTs. And here I’ve been talking about how you can use ChatGPT for learning! 🤓 I’ve been building… Read more: I built an artificially intelligent tutor! 🤖🎓 How’d I do? - How do we humanize non-human interactions?I’ve been thinking a lot about the below since I posted it. The risk of trusting AI to get pseudo-human interaction right, the difficulty of knowing just how to balance… Read more: How do we humanize non-human interactions?
- ChatGPT made my daughter cry, and it was my faultShe’d just told me she’d started learning about the human nervous system for a class by Googling articles. I asked her a few questions about the topic, and then thought:… Read more: ChatGPT made my daughter cry, and it was my fault
- “But Artificial Intelligence Can Do It For Me!”How do we nurture excellence in a world where “artificial intelligence can do it for me”? I homeschooled my elder daughter last year and this year. This year she’s attending Sora… Read more: “But Artificial Intelligence Can Do It For Me!”
- Is Artificial Intelligence Smarter Than You? (part 4 of 4)If you’ve been following this series, you know the answer is yes. At least in some ways. Here’s where you find out what to do about it! Part 1 of… Read more: Is Artificial Intelligence Smarter Than You? (part 4 of 4)
- Is Artificial Intelligence Smarter Than You? (part 3 of 4)Most likely: yes. And you’ll find out why in this very post! Wait, don’t leave! This is a four-part series on how we can use artificial intelligence to our advantage!… Read more: Is Artificial Intelligence Smarter Than You? (part 3 of 4)
- Is Artificial Intelligence Smarter Than You? (part 2 of 4)
Sorry, but the answer might be yes. Wait, don’t leave! This is a four-part series on how we can use artificial intelligence to our advantage! Part 1 of this series,… Read more: Is Artificial Intelligence Smarter Than You? (part 2 of 4) - Is Artificial Intelligence Smarter Than You? (part 1 of 4)Sorry, but the answer might be yes. Wait, don’t leave! This is a four-part series on how we can use artificial intelligence to our advantage! This is Part 1, on… Read more: Is Artificial Intelligence Smarter Than You? (part 1 of 4)
- Don’t ban ChatGPT in schools
Another notable voice has spoken against banning ChatGPT in schools. Sal Khan, founder of Khan Academy, was interviewed by Education Week yesterday. He says banning ChatGPT and other AI technologies will leave… Read more: Don’t ban ChatGPT in schools - Ways We Learn
I’m thrilled to announce the launch of the new podcast Ways We Learn! Joe Burgess, Brian Tobal, and I are investigating the ways people learn across all modalities and ages.… Read more: Ways We Learn - Get started with video production (for a lot less $$ than you think)There’s a huge learning curve if you’re just getting started in video production. I’ve been producing videos for years and it’s definitely not easy if you’re new to it! If… Read more: Get started with video production (for a lot less $$ than you think)
- Be nice to your learners’ brains!You’ve heard the expression “drinking from the firehose,” right? If you’ve ever worked in a startup, taken an unfamiliar course, or started a new job, you’ve probably also felt it:… Read more: Be nice to your learners’ brains!
- Do we still care about cheating?Fine, it’s a provocative title. Of course we do. But here’s a real question for those in a school or professional learning environment: how are you preparing for a world… Read more: Do we still care about cheating?
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