🧑🏫 AI in the classroom, teens and social media, how not to be bored at work, and more – Of bits and bytes for February 10, 2025
Internet Travels
Of bits and bytes is my weekly round up of interesting links and ideas I discovered on the internet. It is published on Mondays for the previous week
This week I’ll be presenting Google Sheets Glow Up at the Ohio Educational Technology Conference (OETC25). If you’re interested in learning more about how to slice and dice data in Google Sheets, be sure to check it out on Wednesday at 3:30pm in A214/215.
Even if you have no desire to come to my session, do hunt me down, I’d love to connect!
Apps
Here’s a look at five mistakes teachers make with AI and how to fix them. Aaron Makelky looks at some of the most common blunders educators make while integrating AI into classrooms—and how to dodge them. Things like ignoring or blocking is not going to help in the long run, nor are you going to be able to outsmart AI.
Pedagogy
Neil Postman had revolutionary ideas about education, advocating for a focus on teaching kids to ask and explore meaningful questions. Fast-forward to today, and Postman’s book “Technopoly: The Surrender of Culture to Technology” remains a must-read. In a twist on Subversive Questions, Postman challenges us with six thought-provoking conundrums to ponder when new tech joyfully invades our schools, like questioning the tech before letting it go wild.
In a blog post by Andrew S. Tanenbaum and Christopher Bates, Bates discusses the challenges of addressing GPT-generated essays in academia. Bates explains that the allure of AI is its ease of use and seemingly high-quality output, coupled with students’ belief that AI will be integral to their professional futures. To combat this, Bates adopts a two-pronged approach: he stresses the importance of integrity and sets up practical exercises to expose AI’s limitations.
We know all too well how delightful it is to offload the mundane tasks to technology, letting them remember our appointments and navigate us through life. With generative AI, the trivial chores like drafting emails or writing lesson plans can now also be handled. Yet, here comes a subtle warning — our dependency on AI might just leave our critical thinking skills lounging in the backseat. While AI saves us all this time, its use might unintentionally hint at a lack of importance for certain tasks.
Technology
OpenAI has announced plans to bring ChatGPT to 460,000 students and 63,000 faculty members at California State University, marking its largest AI education deal yet. This educational version of ChatGPT aims to provide personalized tutoring and study guides for students while assisting faculty with administrative tasks. Although there are concerns about plagiarism and cheating, as well as bans in some schools, attitudes are shifting as institutions recognize the potential benefits of AI in education.
A fascinating study by Notre Dame researchers reveals that news coverage of teens and social media often overlooks the teen perspective and focuses predominantly on the potential harms, like mental health issues and screen addiction, without highlighting any positives. The research points out the glaring absence of teen voices in these stories and calls for a more nuanced approach, suggesting that media should include diverse perspectives from marginalized youth who might find online technology beneficial. The study critiques the existing narrative that largely emphasizes restrictive solutions, like banning phones, instead of fostering community and parental support systems that empower rather than control.
Tips
To never be bored at work, Ali Abdaal suggests transforming tedious tasks into enjoyable experiences by incorporating play into your routine, a strategy backed by scientific research linking play to increased productivity and positive emotions. Drawing inspiration from Nobel laureates and personal anecdotes, Abdaal shares seven practical techniques to liven up your work.
Working on comments for report cards can be maddening, but with a bit of prompt engineering, teachers like Emily Ross use AI tools like ChatGPT to create report card comments without compromising student privacy. Although the comments are generated, they’ll still need to be tweaked.
Pop Culture
Brian Eno makes the case that singing is the secret ingredient to a long and fulfilling life. He believes singing brings numerous benefits, from physiological perks like better lung usage to psychological advantages, including a sense of levity and community. As a music educator, I thought this was obvious which means I never thought about promoting singing to others!
Despite the doomsday headlines about technology turning our brains to mush, experts are not seeing any solid evidence backing those claims. It turns out many studies are just glorified fluff — more concerned with grabbing headlines than presenting solid science.
Potpourri
This article explores the relationship between humans and AI, emphasizing that while AI excels in analytical tasks, it cannot replicate the full scope of human experience and emotions such as empathy, creativity, and intuition. AI acts as a one-dimensional tool aiding humans in tasks like diagnostics and personalized education, yet it lacks the consciousness and morality essential in real-world scenarios.
Thank you!
Major props if you’ve made it this far, you are a rockstar! Feel free to contact me with questions, ideas, concerns, or your thoughts on the next Marvel movie. In fact, I love to discuss about any topic and then wonder how it intersects with education, so fire away!
“Yesterday is history, Tomorrow is a mystery, but Today is a gift. That is why it is called the present.” – Oogway, Kung Fu Panda
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