Ed/Tech must-reads

What I learned from building my own learning design GPT from LinkedIn

Regardless of whether they are with Sam Altman or Sans Altman, OpenAI (the ChatGPT people) are doing some interesting work of late. The new ability for ChatGPT Plus subscribers to create their own custom code free GPTs (bots, whatever) is exciting. (Personally my results have been underwhelming but I reeeeallly haven’t put much effort into it yet). Joyce Seitzinger (RMIT Online) has though and this tale of her experiences and lessons learnt building a learning experience design assistant well worth the read. It can help you create a course outline, a learning activity, write variations of a learning outcome or produce an authentic assessment.

International Council for Open and Distance Education - Martin Dougiamas keynote slides from ICDE23

Two small side notes - I’m not sure why an organisation with this name doesn’t call themselves ICODE, but I’m sure they have had that discussion, and keynote slides aren’t always entirely as coherent as a nice paper but you usually get the vibe. Martin (Moodle founder) Dougiamas presented at this conference recently and unsurprisingly, his presentation delved into the whole AI in education topic. (Honestly, we are talking about it a lot but given a choice between this and the pandemic emergency online teaching response, it’s AI all the way). Dougiamas offers a snapshot of what might be, covering robots, augmented reality and the coming ‘golden age of learning’.

Understanding Faculty Use of Learning Management Systems in U.S. Higher Education from Minghui Tai

For a slightly longer read, this doctoral thesis from Tai, a student at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, explores how and why US HE educators use the LMS. Long story short, it appears that we still have a ways to go in either using the tool well or in finding a tool that meets the teaching needs of educators. 191 survey respondents and 15 interviewees told Tai that it is mostly about file storage and communication with students - there is only minimal use of the tools to support learning activities. The study draws on the newish PICRAT model of technology integration, which emphasises student interaction with the tech. So that’s kind of interesting, methodologically.