Snake Oil?
Happy Friday! February is about over and done with. It's a short month but always flies by. March and April will be filled with a ton of travel for me, but it should be enjoyable!
Let's get into it.
📰 AI IN THE NEWS
This week I was quoted in an article published by the LA Business Journal that focused on the idea of an "EdTech resurgence." Is there such a thing? Yes and no—it depends on how you define "resurgence."
🖊 ON MY WRITING DESK
I've begun work on my introduction (Chapter 1). In it, I will explore what it means to be intelligent when human and machine contributions are increasingly indistinguishable from one another.
🎨 ON MY PAINT DESK
I spent this week building a scene on a plinth. Tentatively titled Retribution, it tells a story of loss and...well, retribution.
🎥 YOUTUBE
PhD students should not view themselves as traditional students, as focusing too much on grades can hinder their growth as researchers. I share a video that examines these challenges and offers solutions for new PhD students.
Until next week!
Stephen J. Aguilar
📰 AI IN THE NEWS
AI + EdTech Hype
This week I was quoted in the LA Business Journal for an article that discussed the flood of venture capital that is going into EdTech startups. It'll surprise no one that the hype surrounding generative AI has led to a number of new "AI startups," as well as traditional EdTech companies pivoting towards "AI"—despite many of them simply doing run-of-the-mill machine learning.
I won't comment on how good or bad their approaches are, but I am concerned about the current market conditions. Theranos showed us the dangers of what happens when hype outweighs results (or even sound science). Whenever a new technology and/or solution enters the market, there is a tendency for its advocates to overpromise its capabilities. In the world of AI+Education, this often means "solutions" for challenges that do not require AI.
I don't believe we are headed towards a Theranos-level scandal in edtech (unless you count what happened in LA Unified), but I do worry about snake-oil salesmen. The current EdTech market has positioned generative AI as the solution to cure all education-related ills, from personalization, to engagement, to analysis of student data. Education is complex, however, and there is no such thing as a "cure all." Instead, we need to focus on a core set of skills and understandings that will help educators make sense of what will become an increasingly crowded AI-infused EdTech market.
🖊 ON MY WRITING DESK
What do I mean by "Authenticating Intelligence?"
Answering this question is the writing task I have taken up this week as I start writing the introduction to the book. As I sift through many potential answers to this question I am reflecting on what I want the book to accomplish for the reader. For now, I can confidently say that my answer to the above question comes from a "humans first" perspective, as I think that the challenges we'll face with regard to AI in education will largely be decisions about when it's appropriate to use AI to inform decisions, make decisions for us by proxy, and serve as a sounding board to reflect on decisions made. Each decision point will require us to decide how much of our intelligence we should cede to AI, and will require educators to decouple student achievement from machine achievement.
In the age of AI we'll have to also ask: What does it mean to be intelligent when we cannot easily discern human contributions from machine contributions? My introduction will begin to lay out my answers to this question.
🎨 ON MY PAINT DESK
This week I pivoted away from painting towards building a diorama. It'll get painted, so it still counts! This piece is headed for another competition: the Resin Beast. (The models for this competition skew towards the gross/macabre, so only follow the link if you're ok with some horror/gore.)
I'm tentatively calling this piece Retribution since, if you look closely, the pygmies have a personal score to settle. It took a few iterations, but I'm pretty happy with the composition. The priestess is centered while the pygmies create a nice triangle around her. A fun part of this project was extending the base with a two-part epoxy putty that I could sand down to a smooth finish. The orange bits are the putty I added and sanded. It's primed and ready for paint!
🎥 YOUTUBE
This week, a throwback!
Paradoxically, PhD students shouldn't see themselves as students. Students often care too much about grades, and not enough about learning. PhD students sometimes fall into this trap as well, and misattribute grades as proxies for success. Grade do not matter when it comes to learning how to do research. Caring about them too much, or "grade grubbing," can stunt growth. This video explores these challenges, and suggests some solutions for PhD students.
