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- Ed/Tech must-reads
Ed/Tech must-reads
Conferences, AI and theses
What I Learned at EDUCAUSE about the Higher Ed AI Conversation(s) Part 1 from AI + Education = Simplified
As with most digital gold rushes, I’m wary when I see terminology like “made simple” in blog names because this is often the territory of hucksters and charlatans. Fortunately, Lance Eaton appears to be neither of these things. He attended his first EDUCAUSE conference (Ed & Tech, 7000+ attendees) and has shared his initial thoughts on the current vibe when it comes to discussion of GenAI and education. In a nutshell, we are still working it out, and beyond trying to collate useful exemplars and determine appropriate policy directions, most institutions are taking their time and being careful. Which, honestly, makes sense. Techpreneurs love to discuss moving fast and breaking things, but the stakes in education are people’s learning and careers.
Editing your thesis with ChatGPT4 from Inger Mewburn
From the Global (North) to the local, the amazing Inger (Thesis Whisperer) Mewburn - who surely needs no introduction - has shared the slides from her recent presentation at ANU about using ChatGPT4 in dissertation creation. I have personally been finding it invaluable in terms of repeatedly asking idiotic questions over and over about how to do things in Excel and SPSS but using it with the thesis itself is rather daunting for someone not au fait with rules around academic integrity and ethics. Which is why you talk to experts. (In so far as institutions have sufficiently developed policy to deal with these things). This deck sensibly draws on Australian Standards for Editorial Practice, which lay out what human editors can and can’t do, and offers some thoughtful prompt suggestions to get started. (Personally I still plan to work with a human editor/proof reader as I’ve found one that I trust well but I do see the promise of ChattyG).
Clayton Wright has been sharing a comprehensive list of PD events and conferences through Stephen Downes’ site for some time and it is always worth a peruse. While Nth America-centric, there is still decent representation of events around the world. Australia appears 236 times in the 206 page Word doc which runs up to June 2027 for the chronic over-planners.