Educator’s Notebook #443 (April 22, 2024)
INTRODUCTION
What kids are reading, Duckworth's character strengths, A wave of new AI tools, and more...
What an excellent week!
This week features a summary of the work of Angela Duckworth’s Character Lab. Most well known for her research on grit, Duckworth founded Character Lab a decade ago to support research on fostering character strengths. This past February, she and the board decided to close Character Lab (here is their memo), but their work will always be accessible online. Featured below is Duckworth’s final post, which helpfully organizes the three areas of character research they pursued and their playbooks for how to deepen character strengths in students.
Also in this week’s features, explore an excellent podcast by EdTech Insiders in which their guest makes the case that we should spend much more time listening at length to students.
Elsewhere this week, check out a fascinating report on the impact of grading work in alphabetical order, Renaissance Learning’s “What Kids Are Reading” report, and a delightful reflection on a parent’s experience becoming a substitute teacher during the pandemic. And for Earth Day (happy Earth Day!), find a wide-reaching report on today’s sustainability’s challenges, as well as a 1978 internal memo from Exxon describing the inevitable impact of the Greenhouse Effect.
Last, as my particular high season for conferences comes to a close, I wrote a very short reflection on LinkedIn about conferences and all the experimentation happening with AI today. This most recent experience was particularly thrilling with the performance of the musical on the main stage at the AIR Show — a picture with the cast is below. And my thanks to Ash Kaluarachchi and the team at EdTech Week for making it all possible.
Also, see below for particularly robust AI Update this week. The industry continues to leapfrog itself…!
These and more, enjoy!
Peter
The cast and crew of Schooled at the AIR Show in San Diego
FEATURED
On The Value Of Just Sitting And Listening To Kids [Podcast]
“What people tell us when they do this is that they often have never just sat with a student for 40 minutes and deeply listened to them about their experience and about what they want. That’s the first thing they say. The second thing they say is, “I cannot unhear what I just heard. When that student told me how bored they feel minute after minute, hour after hour. When they feel disengaged. When they feel disempowered, whatever it may be — how can I live now knowing this without doing something about it?" And then the third thing they say is, “The kids have the answers! They know what they want. And they know what it looks like. And they know how to get there." And so all of that comes out of the kinds of questions that we can ask — and then listen to young people to get answers.”
Angela Duckworth's Three Families Of Character Strength: Heart, Mind, Will
“In my research, I find three families of character strengths. Strengths of heart encourage relating to other people in positive ways. In my research, I find three families of character strengths. Strengths of heart encourage relating to other people in positive ways… Strengths of mind encourage active and open-minded thinking. In this day and age, these intellectual virtues may seem in short supply… Strengths of will encourage the achievement of goals. These are intrapersonal insofar as they enable you to triumph over self-doubt, indecision, inertia, and other obstacles to a desired future. At any age—and most critically during our formative years—our interpersonal, intellectual, and intrapersonal habits can be cultivated. This is why our 15 Playbooks include over 200 specific Tips—actionable advice, based on science—for how to do so.”
ADOLESCENCE
“The War On The Young” - A Damning List Of Ways We’re Failing Kids
“None of this is lost on young people, and the shattering of the social contract has left them feeling rage and shame. Half of Americans older than 55 say they are “extremely proud” to be American; that number drops to 18% among 18- to 34-year-olds. This weakens the immunity system of America, allowing minor cuts to U.S. society to bring on deadly opportunistic infections. Just as when someone in your life blows up at you, it is about the issue at hand … and it isn’t. American youth’s warranted concern on social justice issues, despite remarkable progress on all these issues, turns seamlessly into rage.”
ASSESSMENT
“Grading By Alphabetical Order Hurts Fairness” - Random Order Is Better
“The study, which analyzed more than 30 million assessment records from the Wolverine State’s flagship from 2014 to 2022, shows that students whose last names start with W, X,Y and Z received grades that were approximately 0.6 points lower than their peers whose names begin with A, B and C. Researchers attribute the discrepancy to unconscious “sequential grading biases” and the default order in which instructors review students’ submissions for an assignment or test… a simple fix would be for Canvas and other online learning management systems to make random order the default setting.”
ACT Transitions To For Profit Public Benefit Corporation
CHARACTER
“How Anxiety Traps You And How To Break Free”
How Despair Leads To Vulnerability To Misinformation
Does Money Buy Happiness?
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
CURRICULUM
New York City Creates Its Own Black Studies Curriculum
“A pilot to infuse Black history and culture in social studies curriculum is gaining ground in the nation’s largest school district, offering a potential model to overcome widespread political debates over how to teach race in public schools… The curriculum “acknowledges the history and the contributions of Black Americans predating slavery, which is where much of American social studies begins,” Brown said, “and provides a paradigm for professional learning that can support effective implementation, not just in New York City, but around the world.””
DIVERSITY/INCLUSION
“What Began As A War On Theater Won’t End There”
“The current attacks on theater in American schools have their origins in a struggle that took place in the late 1930s, when America’s political leadership believed that the arts, no less than industry and agriculture, were vital to the health of the Republic and deserving of its financial support. There was still an implicit understanding that theater and democracy — twinborn in ancient Greece, spheres where competing visions of society could be aired and debated — were mutually dependent.”
An Index Of Where DEI Initiatives Have Been Halted In Higher Ed
HIGHER ED
A Deep Dive Into “How Have College [Tuition] Prices Really Changed?”
“College costs are still too high, and increasingly so over time. College is indeed expensive for higher-income students, but the affordability problem is much greater—and more consequential—for lower- and middle-income students. If they can’t afford it, they can’t go.”
Should College Be Only Three Years?
Goddard College In VT Announces It Will Close After This Year
HUMANITIES
Recluse No Longer: A Definitive Collection Of Emily Dickinson’s Letters Is Published
“The larger consequence of these efforts is to show, once and for all, that Dickinson was never isolated from the world, but rather sensitively engaged with local and national events. Born in Amherst, Massachusetts, to a distinguished family with a wide social circle, she was an active member of her community, comfortable initiating correspondence with even famous individuals of her time.”
How The NYT Guides Its Writers To Describe The War In Gaza
LEADERSHIP
PD
Algebra Success Isn’t About The Perfect Curriculum, It’s About Teacher Training
“It is time for schools and districts to abandon the search for the one perfect curriculum — it does not exist. Instead, they should focus on how to better implement the systems they have in an engaging, effective way. They should invest in the training and support of teachers to master the instruction of that curriculum. With these changes, we know students will find success in Algebra I, putting them on the path to higher-level math courses and postsecondary success.”
READING/WRITING
“What Is The Best Way To Organize A Classroom For Reading Instruction?”
A Case For Audiobooks In Schools
“Give A Kid A Notebook, He’s Going To Ask For Time To Write”
Renaissance Learning’s “What Kids Are Reading” Report 2024
SOCIAL MEDIA
STEM
SUSTAINABILITY
“Earth At Risk”: A Comprehensive And Pragmatic Look At Today’s Sustainability Challenges
“There is no guarantee of a just, nourishing, and healthy future for humanity, and hope will not catalyze the change we need. That work must fall upon us, and it is clear from this review that we are past due for, and critically far away from, an appropriate reaction to the global emergency we have created.”
The Original 1978 Exxon Report On The Greenhouse Effect
TECH
WORKPLACE
On The Many Roles Of School LIbrarians
A Wonderful Reflection On Life As A Substitute Teacher (2022)
“Six months ago, when I set out to become a sub to help alleviate the acute staffing shortages at my kids’ schools, I had no idea how much I would learn along the way… The friendly banter inside school classrooms, offices, and hallways illustrated how pop culture and mass media narratives are gross distortions of reality. And wearing that official Hamden Public School badge reminded me that voting and marching are not the only forms of activism. Sometimes there is no substitute for just rolling up your sleeves and getting to work.”
GENERAL
A.I. Update
A.I. UPDATE
State of the industry reports, New models, and Global perspectives on AI
The technology continues racing ahead, and policies are slowly catching up.
Stunning developments have emerged in recent weeks, including Udio’s new music generation tool and Microsoft just-unveiled research on lifelike deepfake technology. Learn more about both of them below.
Also this week, Meta released its newest model, Llama3, on all of its platforms, so now every user of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp has an AI chatbot built into their smartphone apps. What this will do for accessibility to AI is unprecedented.
It’s worth reflecting on the impact of Meta’s decision for the global AI landscape. More than 3 billion people are reported to use Meta’s app universe daily. Only a fraction of them are in developed nations. Significantly, public opinion about generative AI ranges widely across countries; while developed nations are more suspicious of generative AI, emerging nations are more excited about it. This may be natural given what a leveling force generative AI has already proven to be — emerging nations see this as an opportunity to have access to what developed nations take for granted. Now, Meta’s decision to make a powerful LLM freely accessible to all its users massively expands access to AI. What will the outcome be? We’ll see. In the meantime, happy Q&A with Llama3 in Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp!
Also of particular interest this week is Stanford Human-Centered AI Lab’s report on the State of AI. Check out the lab’s findings across a host of topics, including ways in which scientific research has accelerated with the use of AI.
These and more, enjoy!
Peter
One slide from Stanford HAI’s AI Index Report
TECH/AI: FEATURED
Stanford HAI Releases Annual AI State Of The Industry Index Report
“The AI Index report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data related to artificial intelligence (AI). Our mission is to provide unbiased, rigorously vetted, broadly sourced data in order for policymakers, researchers, executives, journalists, and the general public to develop a more thorough and nuanced understanding of the complex field of AI.”
An Excellent Summary And Review Of Ethan Mollick’s Book: “Co-Intelligence”
“Where does this leave us as teachers? We must accept that our students will want to push The Button, as Mollick describes – the LLM click that creates an essay or solves a problem set. Or, for teachers, writes a letter of recommendation for a student. In fact, Mollick asks the open question of whether, if AI can write in our voice and be more persuasive, we are disadvantaging our students by not using AI for such letters.”
Fei-Fei Li: “AI Is A Tool, And Its Values Are Human Values”
“It’s not AI’s future, it’s humanity’s future. We don’t talk about electricity’s future, we don’t talk about steam’s future. At the end of the day, it is our future, our species’ future, and our civilization’s future—in the context of AI…
TECH/AI: EDUCATION
“Khanmigo Wants To Love Students, But Doesn’t Know How”
“The skilled teacher, one who loves kids and loves math, will ask, “What does this student know about this one big mathematical idea?” Khanmigo asks, “What does this student not know about these many small mathematical ideas?””
Use Of AI By American Teachers At Less Than 1/5, On Average
How One School Brought Students Into AI Policy Development
Google Creates “Generative AI For Educators” Course
More Than Half Of Educators Still Haven’t Used AI
A Padlet Of University Policies On Generative AI
Is Science Fiction The Key To Helping Students Understand AI?
UMichigan Created Its Own Closed GenAI Tools. Here’s How And Why.
TECH/AI: ETHICS AND RISK
“Diversity Failures In AI Image Generation”
On “Delve”: “How Cheap, Outsourced Labour In Africa Is Shaping AI English”
“I said “delve” was overused by ChatGPT compared to the internet at large. But there’s one part of the internet where “delve” is a much more common word: the African web. In Nigeria, “delve” is much more frequently used in business English than it is in England or the US. So the workers training their systems provided examples of input and output that used the same language, eventually ending up with an AI system that writes slightly like an African.”
Believers In LLMs Are Like Believers In Psychics
“The basic structure of Bjarnason’s essay is to compare the methodology of mentalists (aka mind-readers, entertainers and con artists who pretend to read minds) with what happens in LLMs. The essence is distilled in a pair of summary tables.”
“What War By AI Actually Looks Like”
TECH/AI: GOVERNMENT AND LAW
TECH/AI: INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT
Meta’s Llama 3 Is Now Available In All Your Meta Apps
Examples Of LLM Hallucination (via Meta.ai)
“State Of AI In 13 Charts”
How Do We Measure AI Progress?
Microsoft Creates Stunningly Lifelike Deepfakes: VASA-1
Meet Udio, A New AI Music Generator
GenAI Models Are As Persuasive To Humans As Other Humans
“Does AI Need A “Body” To Become Truly Intelligent?”
How LLMs Work: An Informal Walkthrough