The Artificial Intelligence effect: pouring new wine into old wineskins

I'm not really sure why I chose this title...perhaps it's because a friend once said it during a conversation about AI and its potential impact on society. More and more we are asked to look at the impact and potential dangers it holds for Education and that more research need to be done around it. There are already plenty of publications around ChatGPT especially as most academics are concerned about plagiarism and the validation of knowledge and rightfully so. My concern is that text-based AI seem to be the focus at the moment as it appears that it is what is predominantly being valued by academia as knowledge. Perhaps it could be that it also appears to be the most accessible to users thus far.

Accessibility, according to a classroom survey and based on conversations with lecturers, is a another concern expressed by both academics and students. Factors that influence access, like cost, awareness and know-how is paramount and will all contribute to the expansion of the digital divide especially in an unequal society like South Africa.

My problem with AI is that while it holds much potential for good, the potential for bad where education is concerned far outweighs the good. Non of the tech developers consult society to hear whether the direction they are taking is what society should be doing. The big tech company's main drive is financial gain and education at the moment seems to have to deal with the fall out. Our response is to make the best of a bad situation because what other options do we have? AI is fast infiltrating every aspect of our daily lives. It is disrupting education but for most part our response is to want to continue teaching in the same way we always have and mitigate the impact of AI. To my mind it is tantamount to trying to put new wine into old wine-skin. Our current systems aren't set up to deal with teaching and learning with AI. We'll have to teach differently and assess differently. What we value as knowledge will have to change if information will always be at your fingertips. What impact will AI have on the role of universities in society and can universities survive playing the same role as they always did?

Most articles, webinars and reports I have looked at cautions against the overindulgence on AI and the issue of ethics is always raised. That AI should be used as a productivity tool rather than treated as the definitive answer to questions you might have. In addition users should not rely on AI like ChatGPT for answers when there is a need to value personal skills. When students are asked to engage in assignments which ask them to specifically use AI to determine it impact  it changes the motive with which students are making use of the tool and its results does not reflect reality when one is interested to discover when students use AI with the aim of passing an assignment. How can we therefore rust such reports? Moreover, there's not long-term studies on the effect of AI (ChatGPT) on competency levels of students. Our gut tells us that with so many shortcuts available to students that there is a strong chance that there will be less opportunities to develop skills that require long-term focus and rigor. We will therefore need to find or create other opportunities for it.  I have a feeling that we are still in the romantic phase of AI adoption. We can see the potential pitfalls but choose to focus on the positive to remain hopeful? or could it be that we are just singing along with the rest of the choir?

AI presents itself as the ultimate assistant to simplify our lives by taking care of the mundane more laborious tasks and free us up to do the "fun" and exciting work. Surely that is what we all want!? We can increase our productivity. But is that all that we are about as people? Productivity? Is that all that universities should be developing? If not then surely we should be more critical about AI in terms of its effect on us as academics, students and society at large. With the pandemic it became clear for example how much we needed social contact. An aspect of our daily interactions that we regarded as a complete waste of time when we were stuck in our offices only to realize that the corridor talk is an essential part of of what makes us human and allows us to live longer. How many things will we realize later the value of having only to discover that it's gone forever. Instead of doing research on AI and its impact on Education we need to look closer at the things that make us uniquely human and how we can preserve it in a fast-changing world where one worth is so closely linked to what it is you can offer.

Listen to the AI-generated podcast for this post here

What I learned from a Gamer that I can use for my Teaching

My nephew is a gamer! You probably have one in your family if you dig around. He is the serious kind though. I define serious by how much time and money you spend on the hobby. I was shocked to see that my nephew spends about 6 hours a day doing live video streaming and he showed me set-up. He is a very talented musician but now works in IT...his other passion. So between the late nights shifts as he constantly needs to be on stand-by, he still gets the opportunity to game. I guess this is his way of connecting with his friends. How old is he?, I hear you asking. Well...I leave you guessing. His game-play is fantastic...Call of Duty and the rest. I was intrigued to hear that there are some gamers who do this for a living. I was even more impressed with the tech that he was using to stream his gaming live and apparently he has already garnered some followers.

So his gaming set-up includes a monitor, headset, webcam, computer and some speakers. What was key was the ability to capture video feed and switch between various sources and then stream it live to platforms like Youtube. What is appealing about this approach is that I can use old and new tech, so no need to upgrade everything. This, to me means that it is scalable. I have a MACbook Air, one of the older ones so I had to get a USB to HDMI video capture device since I wanted to capture from my GoPro 6. I tested the capture using and older Microsoft webcam and it worked well. Of course the older webcams do not have the hi resolutions that we are familiar with today so for consistency I would encourage a later model. I like the idea of attaching any device as it removes some of the mobility limitations that comes with the onboard camera on your computer. So what this means is that I am able to switch between my desktop and anything else that I want to show in a class or presentation. Oh, I also needed a mini HDMI adapter. This you can pick up at your local gadget shop or if you are an online shopper even better.

I hope to bring you updates once I have experimented some more. I almost forgot to give you the most important piece of info and that is the software that I used to stream called Streamlabs. Of course it is freely available. I'm not gonna pay for this stuff so why should you?

Searching for a specific Quote in a Youtube video

Where has the time gone? We are at the tail-end of 2022 and I think this will be my first post for the year. My apologies to anyone who subscribed and who is perhaps thinking that nothing is happening here. Well I am trying to revive this blog. There is only so much tech one can handle and I have had to be selective.

So I want to dedicate this post to a new practice I stumbled upon and want to share. Perhaps you are already familiar with it but it would be great to hear from you as to whether you have tried it before and whether the approach works for you or not. Do you have any alternative suggestions perhaps?

While doing literature research I came across a fairly significant quote by Edward Snowden from a Youtube interview that I wanted to include in my article. Fairly straight-forward right? However, when I wanted to visit the link again I found that the video has either been removed or deleted as the link no longer worked.

I decided to do a Youtube hunt for the quote in the hope of tracking down the video again or at least retrieve a similar quote. The following is how I went about tracking down the video.

METHOD:

1. search Youtube for interviews with Snowden. The ranged from short ones to very long interviews. I ended up with eight videos that looked promising.

2. Activate the appropriate subtitle, in this case English.

3. Activate the transcript

4. Copy that transcript and paste in a Word document.

5. Do a word search using "find" in Word.

What was nice about this approach is that the transcript had timestamps, so when you know the words you are looking for it becomes easy to find it in the video. So that's it, problem solved.

Do you have a faster method or approach. I would love to hear from you. Stay safe and check back for more

Teaching amidst the Covid 19 Pandemic

If you are reading this then you have made it through 2020, a year that most of us would want to forget but yet seems to continue even though we find ourselves at the tail end of the first month of 2021. That is largely because we're still faced with much of the same situation as we did a few months ago. Teaching and learning has taken on a different form and the term "emergency remote teaching" has now become the new buzz phrase. I think we had the hope that we would return to some form of normalcy. So there is some considerable anxiety about what the future for the academic year holds. As the phrase indicates it appears that much of what we did in terms of teaching and learning was not because we wanted to but because we had to...it was an emergency and so we did what we could under the circumstances. This means that many of the tools that we used was not necessarily carefully thought through as the initial thought was simply to continue the teaching or to get information to the students in the hope that we would return to face to face to teaching sooner than later and continue with traditional classroom teaching.

Now we are faced with 2021 and pretty much the same scenario that we faced in 2020. What have we learnt from the academic year? Well, we simply weren't prepared for what was happening. Let's start from a learner's perspective and this is purely based on my own experience and from what I've heard learners comment. Firstly, is the isolation...the feeling disconnected from lecturers and peers.The big one was data cost and laptop or computer access. Lack of motivation and time-management skills was also mentioned by learners. Coupled with these factors was the home environments which were not conducive to learning. It was clear that learners had very little time at the start of the year to establish social bonds with their peers. Many learners also longed for the cultural aspects of university life that they may have anticipated or heard of. For many staying on residence would have been a welcome break from terrible home life. instead they were forced to retreat to their homes where they had many other distractions such as the added responsibilities that goes along with living at home. Among first-year students there was a lack of the adequate technological skills and it therefore took a while for students to get used to the remote teaching and learning situation.

I suppose it is normal to assume that all lecturers have the convenience of an internet connection from their homes. Academics suffered from much of the same kind of distractions as learners. Time-management and getting students to adhere to the stipulated contact times became a challenge as both parties struggled to get used to teaching and learning under the "new normal". The biggest challenge was for academics who had to teach on very practical based courses such as dentistry and physiotherapy and sport. How would they teach these skills remotely. many of theses challenges still exist going forward. It was against this backdrop that many lecturers simply used PPt's that they have been using in class and moved them to the online environment. The large file sizes made it difficult to upload and even harder for learners to download. I heard from a student in sport how they had to submit videos on their practical sessions to demonstrate that they knew a certain procedure. As a videographer I wondered whether they captured it correctly as I assume as an assessor it is easy to identify the proper procedure as you are tuned into the proper angles to look at. So on the subject of remote assessments, perhaps clear instructions on the particular angles to capture for assessment would help to ensure the quality of assessments done.

Understandably the pressure of getting through the academic year and ensuring students get access to information was paramount. The consequence was that we often then used what is immediately available without thinking carefully about the pedagogical value of the tools we used. Lecturers are already under pressure so it would be important to maximize ones efforts. Because there was little time for learners to connect face to face there was also little connection made in the online environment which added to the sense of isolation and being disconnected. In my own course I tried to create more of a presence by developing a welcome video for the learners to introduce them to each of thelecturers who would be teaching on the course. The needs would differ from one field of study to the next. Learners complained about boredom, too long videos or presentations. We need to be mindful that everyone's course is now online and that we need to compete and be compassionate to that fact. So what kind of activities would you engage in within that online environment that would make you session memorable or optimize the time available. The role as the teacher changes ...we have to give up control and allow the learner to take more charge of their own learning. Initially that might be difficult for both but I think the more we create a sense of trust in the environment, the easier it will become.

How do we therefore begin to address these challenges going forward? I get the sense that the vast majority prefer to be told which tools to use as it would save us time and effort. There is too much at stake! This is precisely where we need to see the fruits of a scholarship of teaching and learning. The  challenge is that we seldom learn how to select the tools that are appropriate for our own needs. The result is that we will often stick with something until someone comes along and shows us a better way. How would we teach our learners to make appropriate choices for themselves if we are not showing them through our own practice? Model the behaviour I was told. This got me thinking that perhaps I should try and share what my process is in choosing an appropriate medium to communicate content. This is specifically from a UWC perspective of course. I hope you find value in it.

Covert Covid

So I have been away for a while but thought this would be the appropriate time to launch my comeback as Covert Man...well, it's actually covid man, given the context. When the name first appeared I was having this internal dialogue as to why the virus sounds like a secret agent. I think much only became clearer later. So this blog post will not be entirely dedicated to tech in the pandemic context but just a bit about how it has impacted me. Where do I begin...

I came back from Spain being Covid negative in more way than one. Is there any good that can come from this? I asked myself. I know that there’s for many, there was time of the novelty of the pandemic, having all the free time available but without the freedom was not so nice. I had to be quarantined for 14 days after my return from Spain, so I never returned to work. I made use of the free time before the lockdown to cycle about as much as I can and when the lockdown hit my computer screen became my only window on the world.

Lock down went from 3 weeks to 5 weeks and for most part this was bearable…my family was with me at home and we had internet connection that was covered. We had internet connection but for many it is a luxury. When the phased lockdown started I think it left a bit of a bitter taste in my mouth because there didn’t seem to be an end in sight. We started on level5 but no conversation as to how long that phase would last or what the criteria would be for moving up or down. This was only to be made explicit later. This only after the death toll and the infection numbers started rising in our own province. There was lots of talk about people losing their jobs, the economy collapsing and more laws that was being passed without any clear logical reasoning behind it. Let me mention a few. Why were we banned from the beaches? The heavy handed attitude of police and over-presence of police at roadblocks. I have no idea if the latter was even effective. There still are loads of conspiracy theories going around about Covid 19, like the link to G5 technology. So there is a lot of fake news that made its rounds about what constitutes a remedy often perpetuated by hi-profile politicians.

The latest re-opening of the churches just doesn't make sense i.t.o. the guidelines given. I have the same concerns about the Uni's reopening. How and who will be monitoring all these regulations?

So here is the tech part...I've had to offer plenty of support to online teachers which was quite a surprise, but also very revealing. It highlighted the huge disparities in terms of the digital divide some of which were self-inflicted as it appears that many educators simply haven't bothered to adopt some of the new technologies into their teaching and learning environments. One of the biggest concerns was with the file sizes, Zero-rated sites and all this translates into accessibility to learners. It occurred to me that while we were on campus we did not give much consideration to bandwidth limitations since access was geared towards on-campus environments. In the "real world" the story and considerations are entirely different.

I'll end there..Check back as I will share some of the How to videos I did for the training of staff. I also realized that I could have created these a long time ago but the circumstances did not warrant it until now. I guess we are not that different from the learners we so often complain about. 

The drudgery of the TECH world

I am particularly privileged to have access to technology and quite a few devices at that, and this is largely due to my field of work. The only piece of tech I actually own is a cellphone which I've only required fairly recently. While it is great and for most part id quite exciting I have come to note one major problem I experience and that is the frequency with which I have to charge them. Let me take a few steps back and start with the devices I do have.

As mentioned I have a cellphone and got a smart watch as a gift last year Xmas. Add to this laptop a Go-Pro camera a with remote, a bike light front and rear, a power bank and a tablet. All of these devices requires charging and may of them come with their own charging cables and accessories. They remind me of meatballs and spaghetti in my clear view bag...which is actually a vanity bag I use for all my gadgets. Why is there not just one cable type for all these devices firstly and to crown it all most of these devices either need charging overnight or they all need charging at different times. The result is that you either run out of charging points or you have to suffer the consequences. Perhaps it is just my lifestyle. But  I was under impression that tech was supposed to make my life simpler. Perhaps more wireless charging will do the trick but the cost of such devices might still be prohibitive to most.

Might we face the same problem with electric cars with different charging cables, plugs and charging stations or will the manufacturers come up with one simple solution. I hope one will be able to charge between cars. I don't know enough about this to be honest but I see these kinds of trends in various situations.

They have recently started to install fibre in our area and whereas in most areas the fibre is layed underground, I've noticed that in certain sections the City has made use of the overhead lines just as we were moving towards placing power lines underground and clearing up our skylines it seems like new technology is forcing us backward. The boxes look ugly and the cables look untidy. I can only imagine the mess its gonna create when birds discover this perfect positions for making nests. I hope that our skylines never get to look like this...

Now I just hope that they return our pavements to a live-able state after having had several burst water mains to contend with. Later.

My Current ISP is closing down which lead me to investigate other options available to me. The rabbit hole is deep but this post is not about that conversation but rather what it lead me to. 5G (5th Generation) is apparently the next best transmitter that will enable the "internet of things".  Please view the following videos I've come across and decide for yourself concerning the benefits of 5G, or not. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN7UPXYX7ts

Why is this information important? Haven't we been having the same debate when previous transmitting frequencies were introduced? Well it is pertinent information as it affects both you and I and our childrens' future expecially when we do not know what if any negative impact living with the advances in technology will have on us. We need to know what it is we say "yes" or "no" to. Decide for yourself but let it be an informed choice.

First time back in 2018 and I have some new tools that I've come across. I've been involved with conducting a multimedia workshop looking at digital media tools for the 21st century and I hope to bring you some of my discoveries over the next few weeks and months.

As technology progress I have realize how simple they have become. A lot of the complex function simply happens in the background which simplify things for the novice user. However, the latest version of the tool is not always the best. You might find that there was a feature that you used and loved which is suddenly no longer available. While it is great that one can perform a function with a simple click of the button but it also means that we give up control. So the rule for me is that the more control and flexibility you desire the more specialized the software would need to be.

So we've been doing screenrecordings for a while ad typically use "Camtasia" for our in-house productions. Camtasia is a proprietary software that is outside many indivduals' budget so we came a really simple software called "Monosnap".

able to annotate on the fly

One of the really great features is the you can annotate on the fly. You can also effortlessly record in Mp4 format which make uploading to your favourite hosting platform a breeze. It also allows one to activate ones webcam on the fly creating a better sense of presence. The big plus of course is that it is free.

I am still using Audacity and still find it underutilized in the environment I find myself in viz education. I am not sure why that is but I speculate that it is due to the idea that recording ones lectures is still pretty complex. Lecturers could be uncomfortable with simply uploading their classroom lecture without editing and simply do not have the time afterwards. These days cellphones have made it so simple but too many still use their cellphone for social activities rather than for education. I can't help but wonder if that would change if institutions were to provide lecturers with phones specifically for academic purposes.

When I first dabbled with computers I wondered why it wasn't easier to connect ones hands-free headset with your computer to record your lecture. Well, it looks like technology has finally made that possible. With a generic bluetooth headset and a windows 10 computer I have managed to record using Audacity. The quality was acceptable but I am sure that one could get better depending on both the computer and the headset in us.

That's about it for my first go. Check back again to hear how multimodality has changed my approach to the design of a multimedia workshop, feesmustfall and the impact it has had on the adoption of technology and more..

Tech meets Minority Report

If you've seen the movie Minority Report or have a knowledge of it then you will quickly understand the potential of the following technology I will be talking about. Apparently Scientists have now developed cellphone technology that predict the future...well at least your immediate future. Why would we need something like this, you ask? One of the pro's, it is claimed will be for marketing purposes, as if our lives are not already awash with advertisers. The software actually works by analyzing your activities and those of close friends and family to predict rather accurately where you will find yourself at a future point in time. I know, it sounds Sci-Fi  but that is the beauty of it. It's amazing to think that such technology is already in existence while Joe Soap is still learning how to send that SMS. I actually started this post a few months ago and at that time never even heard about the latest report in The Guardian. Rapid Information Overlay Technology (RIOT) http://youtu.be/O1dgoQJAt6Y is now capable of tracking individuals by simply accessing data generated by us on a daily basis. You could call it leaving a digital footprint.

Do we Practice what we Preach?: The challenges of the infusion of technology in HEd.

Are we principled, congruent, consistent and aligned in the messages we communicate as teachers, educators, facilitators, mediators etc? Do we practice what we preach? I am sure that we would all like to think the answer to this question is resounding "yes" but let's take a closer look at the realities.

• We ask students to plan and yet we insist the processes be circumvented in the name of being flexible or agile.
  
• We teach students to work collaboratively and yet our own institutions reward individual success.
  
• We ask learners to make use of technologies to communicate with each other and their lecturers but we refuse to use it ourselves because it is outside our comfort zone.
  
• We expect students to have flexibility in their learning but when we train our teachers we don't teach with that flexibility in mind. With teachers, standardization comes into play as it makes it easier to support.

Perhaps the status quo is a reflection of how much, or little, technology has become a part of our academic lives. What are the factors that influence our adoption of technologies in teaching and learning? How does the tools we use promote the development of technological pedagogical content knowledge? Perhaps it is because technology is adopted on the basis of how it will make teaching easier for the teacher rather than improving teaching for the learner. While being teacher-focused is a good starting point, that is often where it ends. Unfortunately Learners are often not savvy enough to know whether an assignment has been explained clearly enough until they've been asked the proper questions. Would alignment of the curriculum help? I think so, the process is long and probably better to work with someone that could give you and objective view on your course, assignment or module.

Concept mapping in the clouds

I have presented a number of Cmap training sessions of the past few years and at some point it was getting a bit stale. For most part it was due to the fact that the training remained at an introductory level while I knew that the tool has so much more to offer. This makes me wonder how many of those initially introduced are still continuing with Cmapping and whether they have progressed beyond that first encounter.

Having said that the latest version of Cmaptool now comes packed with the power of the cloud. So unless you've been stuck on a remote island somewhere you should know the advantages that the cloud bring. I was disappointed though that in this case Cmap cloud does not provide all the benefits...yet. I still cannot share my cmaps with others in the cloud. I guess they did not want to move away from their "shared places" server. Be that as it may, the guys and gals at IHMC have now made it possible to easily embed your concept map like this. (NB. the map is not complete.
So while there is no sharing on the cloud there are ways one can get around it by creating a generic account that everyone can share. One can immediately identify its short-comings but I am sure these features will be improved. These are features that previously could not be shared with lecturers but one can see how groups can be formed to work collaboratively. I must caution though that I have not tested whether the system allows for simultaneous multiple log-ins. students would easily be able to share their creations with lecturers by sending them a link to their Cmap. You can get started by creating an account for yourself. Get the latest copy of the Cmaptool and see for yourself. Please click HERE for a better view of the Cmap.