Episode 41: The Ghosts of Ed Tech Future

Update: 2023-12-29

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Matt’s Notes

Hey there!

Picture it: mid-December… around one week ago! Wherein Doug & myself conspired to execute these future-facing seasonal-ish shenanigans.

And so, on this here Tuesday of last week: let’s go! Please click where you dare!

https://youtu.be/H56cCzzhNEw

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If you can hear our voices, we’ve achieved some kind of success! #ednontech

It feels like the days and weeks are blurring together! If you lump in everything that’s happened up until now, 2023 has been one for the books!

Am I the only one who feels this way?

Anyway, as I’m always one to lean into a new format until the wheels fall off… here are some of the emails-to-self that seem somewhat timely this time out!

Pareto Principle

This has come up before on this show! But what sealed it for me was when, in a virtual work meeting! I won’t get to any situational specifics… but it’s as if whenever the 80/20 ratio crops up… it seems to fit in just about any number of circumstances… for those trained in disciplines outside of business, this is a handy trope to quickly help determine the benefits of any potential expenditure of effort or resources!

Anyway, I liked it enough to email it to myself! I’m a serious fan of aphorisms, syllogisms, mnemonics, or any other mental shortcut for that matter!

LCTL MOOC

I’m going to REALLY knock on wood here… but… maybe this is a MOOC you can use?

Leading change in teaching and learning for a digital world: MOOC is being put on by Athabasca University and the Commonwealth of Learning from January 14 – Feb 17. As I find myself working private industry… removed from the post-secondary sector for the first time in my career…

With a focus on post-COVID-19 education needs, topics will cover digital education futures, technology-enabled teaching and learning, required organization infrastructures, and how to develop the needed leadership actions.

AU Website

A few points, besides the obvious appeal of the subject matter, make this jump out:

AU and CoL have significant experience putting on these courses. Back in the spring, Doug participated in the Designing for Communities of Inquiry in Online Courses (DCOI) MOOC put on by AU and CoL… and had rave reviews!

Because of AU’s significant leadership in Canada and internationally when it comes to educational technology practice and research, and with CoL’s significant social mandate… I feel good about the overall flow of energy and resources relative to public and social expenditure…

Furthermore, given how well-tested the format and courseware must be at this point… a robust, simple UX is perhaps more likely than not…

And… of course… humans in the course from all over the place! Some of whom may be interesting and/or cool! Always a thing to consider with these things.

To me just those bullet points are enough to get me in the door! Here’s hoping for an engaging, meaningful learning experience…

Punkscholarsnetwork.com

The fact this exists brings me so much joy.

It’s hard to put into words… but I’ve seldom wanted to go to a conference outside my little “ed tech” and “instructional design” niche… but just wow!

Dan, from the music podcast, was on a Discord server related to indie music, and one of the participants was presenting at this! So… the convergence through multiple media formats makes this prime talking material for this show…

How likely am I to jump on Discord? Un, is how! But I’m glad for my friends and colleagues who do, and then share choice info and resources such as this!

ChatGPT and Artificial Intelligence in Higher Education: Quick start guide (UNESCO)

My fandom (stan-dom??) for UNESCO’s LinkedIn presence is pretty high at this point. This publication is from back in April. This is exactly as promised by the title… 15 pages, all in, with a terrific table speaking to learning and learning approaches vis-à-vis ChatGPT. While it feels like we’ve been living with various AI hype for ages, I’m positive a high percentage of post-secondary educators see AI as an us-versus-them proposition in the classroom… a means of committing plagiarism at an impossibly high level…

This kind of brief, succinct, visually-appealing document with practical actions for the reader, and high-level information so that anyone can get a quick grasp of the technology generally… let’s just say: “More of this in 2024, please”!

Random AI reflective prompt generator (e-Campus Ontario)

Speaking of fandom(s) and stan-doms… I would be remiss to let these notes go by without giving a significant shoutout to the e-Campus repositories of open resources… particularly their H5P studio! This particular H5P interaction was developed by Kyle Mackie, Educational Consultant, with Brock University… he has developed a fair number of H5P for e-Campus over the past few years! More on this interaction another time, but for now I feel like embedding it here is an example of why I find this compelling! Good work to everyone involved!

Your 2023 Wrapped for Podcasters is waiting

This show goes out on Spotify! I guess! Along with all the other major pod-dispensers. I got pretty excited about my Apple Music Replay… the weirdly specific analytics… confirming that I am one of the most obsessive listeners of The Lawrence Arms, Samiam, and Alkaline Trio out there! Hooray for me… [slow claps]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMtj2kSpd5U

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Spotify is notoriously wretched for independent musicians and/or spoken artists. It seems like such a scam. I support artists by buying records and concert tickets whenever possible… and speaking about them on the music podcast…

I guess I’m saying I have contempt for Spotify! And our listenership on that platform has got to be so so small… what would I do with that information? It barely registers as one single meaningful analytics layer out of many associated with this podcast and related media.

So… the future of my Personal Education Infrastructure (PEI)^TM… will be very much like the present and the past… namely, curation requires much deletion! Here’s to a downright deleterious 2024!