Ed/Tech must-reads 130525

The PIER Framework for AI: How Educational Technologists and Developers Can Support Faculty in Assignment and Course Design from TechTrends

It occurs to me that I have been overly negative about GenAI in recent months, highlighting the problems and offering few solutions. The reality is that many educators and EdAdvisors (learning designers, academic developers, education technologists) and others still need to address this strange new world that we find ourselves in and are, in fact, putting in the work. This short article from Micah Logan (Western Kentucky Uni) and Suzanne Tapp (Texas Tech Uni) offers a handy set of reflective questions to ask educators and students about their use of any GenAI technology and what they intend to achieve with it. It addresses permission, integrity, empowerment and reflection and is designed to be tech neutral, so the rapid pace of change in this space won’t render it dated in 3 months time.

Literacy practices: a matter of community from Open Thinkering

Among all the discussion about how we respond to GenAI, there has been an ongoing and well-meaning, if slightly short on details, call for us to focus on developing the AI literacy of educators and students. This follows in the long tradition of calling for greater feedback literacy, assessment literacy, digital literacy, information literacy and, I guess literacy literacy. This blog post from Doug Belshaw suggests that we need to ask what it is that we actually think ‘being literate’ means. Is it good old fashioned reading and writing (in new contexts), is it part of belonging to a community of people with shared cultural understanding, or is it a social practice? Belshaw thoughtfully meanders across a range of understandings of literacy as he explores whether values need to be part of what might otherwise be a set of core capabilities. I’m not sure that he comes to a conclusion but the journey was eye-opening anyway.

Julian Hill appointed Assistant Minister for International Education from The Koala News

Australian government ministerial reshuffles aren’t common fodder for this newsletter but there are two interesting things to note. After a spell scapegoating international students for the rental crisis, the re-elected Labor government has appointed a (junior) minister for International Education, which either says that this is an area of renewed focus (trying to pick up students skipping the US?) or that this is an awful portfolio. The other good news - for anyone who has worked with the Canberra Public Service - is that Jason Clare will stay on as the Education minister and presumably continue his big work reforming HE. Any change of minister invariably leads to either spending a lot of time bringing them up to speed or a number of arbitrary changes as they seek to make their mark. So whatever your feelings about the reforms, the accord and everything else, there will at least be some consistency.

ASCILITE 2025 Conference - call for papers is now open from ASCILITE

The ASCILITE conference is kind of the Australasian Woodstock for tertiary education ed/tech afficionados (nerds) and this years will be held in Adelaide. The call for papers has been released and you have until the 22nd of June (realistically probably a week or so more) to put in your submissions.

From the site - “The Conference theme is Future-Focused: Educating in an Era of Continuous Change. This year's theme explores the dynamic landscape of education, emphasising adaptability, innovation, sustainability, and forward-thinking approaches to prepare learners and educators for an ever-evolving digital world.” (So I would say whatever you can think of should be fairly safely covered)