From Chalkboards to Chatbots: The Promise and Perils of Emerging Educational Technologies

 

Bullet points summary

🌍 Core-Periphery Model of Technological Diffusion: Describes the uneven geographical spread of technology, with core regions adopting innovations faster than peripheral regions. However, this model can lead to geographical determinism and overlook alternative strategies in peripheral areas.

📈 Product Life Cycle Model: Outlines the stages of technology adoption, from invention to widespread usage and eventual obsolescence. This descriptive model provides insights into the pace of technological change, but has limited explanatory or predictive power.

💥 Disruptive Innovation Model: Explains how new entrants can successfully challenge and displace established firms by targeting underserved market segments with simpler, less sophisticated products that gradually improve and transform industry dynamics.

⏱️ Productivity Paradox: Explores the observed phenomenon where significant investments in information technology do not immediately translate to increased productivity. Factors like initial disruption, incremental improvement, path dependence, and measurement challenges contribute to this time lag.

🏫 Educational Technology Integration: Examines the contrast between the slow pace of change in visible classroom practices and the transformative effects of information and communication technology quietly reshaping educational practices in the background.

🧠 Psychological Barriers: Identifies key psychological obstacles to educational technology adoption, including resistance to change, technological anxiety, generational divides, and concerns about teacher replacement.

🏢 Organizational Impediments: Highlights the rigidity, bureaucracy, and resource constraints that hinder the integration of educational technologies, especially emerging AI-powered tools, within complex institutional structures.

Introduction

The landscape of educational technology is in the midst of a transformative shift, as the recent widespread adoption of public access large language models has catalyzed a renewed reflection on the historical patterns of technological integration within the education sector. As an economic historian, specialized in technological innovation and large technological systems, I believe that a deeper understanding of these historical trends is crucial in shaping our approach to the emerging technological advancements (Schram, 1997). As I wrote elsewhere, this is particularly relevant for educational institutions in low-income countries in order to tackle the global education crisis and make progress towards achieving the UN's Sustainable Development Goal four (SDG -4"access to quality education").

Content and Editorial Vision for "Leading Edge: Innovation and Excellence in Education

 

Content Overview

"Leading Edge: Innovation and Excellence in Education" is a monthly podcast that brings together thought leaders, innovators, and educators from around the world to discuss the latest trends, challenges, and opportunities in the field of education. 

The podcast aims to be at the forefront of educational thought and practice, providing listeners with insightful conversations, practical advice, and inspiring stories that drive innovation and excellence in education.

Here is the link if you want to listen to the podcast about the launch of this podcast, or download as MP3 file.

­Mastering the Art of Decision-Making: Inside the Ultimate AI-Powered Business Simulation Challenge

Summary:

    1. Decision-making skills are crucial in business education, and incorporating behavioural sciences in the economics and business management curricula is essential.

    2. Behavioral economics and finance have become integral to modern business research and teaching, with interdisciplinary decision-making recognized.

    3. The author integrated behavioral elements into high school classrooms through experiments and simulations in 2022.

    4. Language Learning Models (LLMs) offer ease of adaptation, "teacher friendliness", personalized learning, and immediate feedback in simulations.

    5. Wharton Business School's simulation program consists of four different strands, demonstrating the effectiveness of simulations.

    6. The author adapted Mollick & Mollick's (2023) sample prompt for secondary school students, ensuring compatibility, realism and engagement.

    7. Modern LLMs understand prompts in natural language, and prompts in standard language are easier to modify.

    8. Outlining key decisions and creating decision nodes provide structure, while a competitive element maintains engagement.

    9. The pilot of running business simulations with LLMs has proven successful, with the potential to personalize learning experiences.

    10. Continued exploration and integration of AI-powered business simulations into education is crucial for equipping students with necessary skills.

Here is an action shot of the classroom, published by the school.

Background

In the dynamic world of business education, the ability to make effective decisions is a skill that stands the test of time. As an educator with extensive experience in the classroom, I have witnessed the profound impact of incorporating behavioural sciences and tools into the curriculum. By providing students with a comprehensive understanding of human behavior and the factors that influence decision-making processes, we equip them with the necessary foundation to tackle complex business challenges.

Balancing Precision and Flexibility: Using AI for Grading and Feedback in Education

Background

Grading or marking student work and providing timely and accurate feedback is a time-consuming and monotonous, yet essential task for their learning. Recently, Owlerai.com offers a grading service for essay questions. My prompts below were tested against it, and found to be performing well. Check it out while it is still free!

Human grading of student work is far from perfect. Research n the USA based on 30 million records has shown that teachers who mark student work alphabetically by last name award lower grades towards the final letters of the alphabet, likely due to exhaustion after hours of grading. Research in Italy among 40.000 students in Northern Italy showed that girls get systematically higher grades than boys, probably because they exhibit fewer behavior issues that disrupt classes or irritate teachers.

However, recent advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) have made it possible to use large language models (LLMs) for grading written work, potentially saving teachers time and improving the accuracy and consistency of feedback.

Prompt Design Suggestions

When using LLMs for grading written work, it's important to keep in mind that prompt design is different from programming and requires a balance between precision and flexibility. Here are some suggestions for using LLMs for grading written work:

Understanding the Boston Matrix: Mastering a Tool for Product Portfolio Decisions and Long-Term Strategy with AI

Introduction

The Boston Consulting Group (BCG) Matrix or Growth-Share Matrix is a useful tool for evaluating a company's portfolio of business units or product lines. It classifies products/businesses based on their relative market share and market growth. This gives insights into areas that need more/less investment.

• "Stars" with high share in high growth markets represent major opportunities to further grow the business. These are priority areas for investment and expansion.
• "Question marks" have low share but are in high growth markets. These need evaluation of turnaround potential via increased investment or divestment.
• "Dogs" have low share in low growth markets and may need to be harvested for cash or divested. This redirects funds to more promising areas.
• "Cash cows" fund investment in other areas and should be protected.

Empowering Students and Teachers through AI: Mastering Porter's Generic Strategies

Introduction

Strategic management concepts like Porter's Generic Strategies provide a useful framework for high school students to analyze businesses and think critically about competition. By applying tools like natural language processing (AI or LLMs), students can conduct in-depth strategic analyses and effectively communicate their findings. Conversely, teachers can use them to develop effective learning activities. 

We divided this blog post into three sections: exploring a concept, classroom learning activity and individual learning activity, with respective unedited output and matching prompt. We have shown that with efficient prompts, and reference to the context, output barely needs editing. Of course, tailoring to the context, and students or groups specific needs in the final edit, remains a responsiblity for the teacher.

Created by Bing Image Creator 26 Nov 2023

Writing a Standout Cover Letter with AI

Introduction

For over 15 years, AI tools have been used behind the scenes by HR departments to screen cover letters for certain keywords and phrases. Now, job applicants are leveraging these same tools to craft truly outstanding letters that get their applications noticed. Used correctly, AI can be your secret weapon for cover letter success. Since many teachers feel burned out, the time to start looking around for better paid work may be now.

Created by Bing Image Creator 11 November 2023