Educator’s Notebook #440 (March 17, 2024)
INTRODUCTION
Depolarization, Dialogue, Diverse Texts, and More
An excellent few weeks.
Feature articles this week focus on a recent book about moving from debate to dialogue (a theme in these newsletters) and on an exploration by Dan Meyer of “low threshold, high ceiling” learning experiences. The second piece in particular reminds me of an analysis of character traits that leads to student success that we performed more than a decade ago. Through a thrilling data analysis of student comments (I know: “thrilling” and “data analysis” aren’t often side-by-side… but it was!), we identified foundational character traits that lead to academic competence and then exceptional character traits that correlate with excellence. I wrote up a summary of it here. It ultimately led to discussions of how to develop learning experiences that scaffold foundational character traits while ensuring opportunities existed for students to demonstrate excellent — or what Dan Meyer calls low threshold, high ceiling tasks.
Also this week, find more writing about the return of the SAT to college admissions, a series of posts about diverse perspectives in schools, a review of a new book about the retelling of Huck Finn from the perspective of Jim, and more evidence about the benefits for kids of cell phone-free hours in their days.
Last, my time at NAIS and SXSWedu were excellent and inspiring. Keynote addresses by Isabel Wilkerson and Kimberlé Crenshaw offered direct insight into some of today’s most challenging topics. If the topic of Critical Race Theory, for example, has been a topic of significance at your school, watching this keynote “Unraveling Myths About Critical Race Theory in Education” delivered by one of its authors may help bring some clarity.
These and more, enjoy!
Pete
FEATURED
On Moving From Debate To Dialogue
“When teaching about specific issues, professors should pivot from yes-or-no debates to “under what circumstances.” For example, instead of assigning an essay on “Do you support mask mandates?” she suggests tweaking the prompt to “Under what circumstances may authorities require people to wear personal protective equipment?” Removing binaries and de-emphasizing existing political labels, she writes, lead to more robust discussions and allow students to consider a wide range of connected questions.”
Low Threshold, High Ceiling Tasks, And How Tech Enables Them
“All good tasks should be, by design or fortunate accident, "low threshold, high ceiling". Low threshold so that nearly all people can make a start and high ceiling so that there's always some higher order avenue to work towards.”
ADMISSIONS
“Who Uses Legacy Admissions” - A Deep Analysis
“Virginia Bans Legacy Admissions At Public Universities And Colleges”
“Could You Create A Diverse College Class Without Affirmative Action?”
“To explore those questions — and how much racial diversity is possible without “race-conscious” admissions — the Upshot worked with Sean Reardon, a professor at Stanford, and Demetra Kalogrides, a senior researcher there, to model four alternatives to affirmative action.”
ADOLESCENCE
"Most Teens Report Feeling Happy Or Peaceful When… Without Smartphones”
“How Teens And Parents Approach Screen Time”
ASSESSMENT
Rethinking Retakes: How Many Is Enough?
Standardized Tests Have Value. Let’s Debate That Value More Effectively.
“For these reasons and more, many of us believe that standardized tests deserve a place in the current admissions process. Reasonable people can disagree with any of the above conclusions, but we should be able to have that debate without misrepresenting opposing views… Let’s return to the principle that we should understand opposing views before forming an opinion. To that end, here’s a quick attempt at describing the views of those who want to abolish the testing requirements.”
UT Austin Will Return To Standardized Test Requirement
Digital SAT Is One Hour Shorter
On The Return Of The SAT: Take Challenging Courses
CHARACTER
Emotional Intelligence For Kids Using Pixar’s “Inside Out”
On Keeping A Notebook For Every Time You Say “No"
COGNITIVE SCIENCE
CURRICULUM
DIVERSITY/INCLUSION
Jonathan Kozol Publishes His Final Book: “An End To Inequality”
“Attempts To Ban Books Accelerated Last Year”
Nikole Hannah-Jones On Affirmative Action And “The Colorblindness Trap”
Can Oklahomans Teach The “Killers Of The Flower Moon” Book?
“In 2021, the state's Republican-led legislature passed House Bill 1775 which bans diversity training and limits discussions around race and sex in schools. Among other concepts it bans teaching that "any individual should feel discomfort, guilt, anguish or any other form of psychological distress on account of his or her race or sex," according to the Oklahoma state Legislature."
“Why Educators Often Have It Wrong About Right-Leaning Parents”
HEALTH
State Of Respiratory Illness In The US, Mar 2024
Four Years In, Here’s What We Know About COVID
New CDC Guidance For COVID Cases, Plus Infectiousness Overview
HUMANITIES
INTERNATIONAL
PD
PEDAGOGY
On The Lasting Impact Of Meeting Students At Your Classroom Door
Three Structures For Engaging Polarizing Issues
SAFETY
“Most Students Prefer Colleges That Restrict Guns On Campus”
Cyberattacks Are On The Rise. Schools Are Easy Targets
“More States… Fund Digital Maps [Of School] For First Responders”
SUSTAINABILITY
TECH
GENERAL
What Is The Likely Cloud Cover Where You Are During The Eclipse?
A Mile-By-Mile Map Of The Total Solar Eclipse In North America
A.I. Update
A.I. UPDATE
Three Major AI Tools, Accrediting Your School's AI Work, and More
“Create an icon style picture that has three images: one representing the workplace, one representing civic engagement, and one representing pursuit of happiness.” As ever, the AI landscapes continues evolve at a breakneck pace.
In this issue’s features, first find a piece that I wrote for the REAL Discussion blog. In it, I make the case that whether or not you are using AI in your pedagogy at school, it is essential that we talk with students about AI. Written through the lens of the three major purposes for education (preparation for work, preparation for civic engagement, pursuit of a fulfilling life), it argues that our mission to prepare students for their future obligates us to talk about it. Find also suggestions of dozens of places that already exist in our curriculum that open opportunities for discussion.
Also in the features, see the opportunity prompted by the Middle States Association for schools to earn a kind of endorsement/accreditation for your school’s AI efforts. This is an interesting model for ensuring a level of competency within an institution.
So much more in this issue, including: Ethan Mollick’s assessment of the now three most powerful LLMs (ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude 3), Dan Meyer’s reflection on the difference between human and AI tutors, and a creative application of multimodal AI: taking pictures of ingredients and asking AI to make a recipe with what it sees.
These and more, enjoy!
Pete
TECH/AI: FEATURED
“Why You Need To Talk With Students About AI”
“Education has three purposes: to prepare students for the workforce, to prepare students for participation in civil and democratic society, and to prepare students for a fulfilling life. AI is already propelling significant changes in each of these areas. So great is the impact on each of these areas that failing to talk with students about the role of AI in their (and our) lives amounts to a level of professional negligence. As educators and citizens, we failed to prepare young people for social media, so kids and technology companies figured it out on their own — with disastrous results for mental health worldwide. We can’t fail like this again.”
Earn An AI Accreditation For Your School’s AI Efforts
“RAIL is a comprehensive implementation framework for AI in schools and systems. It’s like accreditation for the adoption of AI.”
TECH/AI: EDUCATION
The AI Sandwich: An Approach To Integrating AI Into Assignments
How Ethan Mollick Uses GenAI For His Writing
Five Differences Between Human And AI Tutors
What It Means To Be A “Human In The Loop”
“AI Is Coming To Teacher Prep. Here’s What That Looks Like.”
What’s Happening With AI Tools For Grading Writing?
Map Of The AI EdTech Landscape
More On the NCTM AI Position Statement
The Mollicks Have Created A Prompt Library
Long Reflection On When And When Not To Use AI
What AI Tools Are Teachers Using? ChatGPT, Overwhelmingly
How AI Can Help Teachers (Podcast)
Analysis Of Turnitin’s AI Writing Detection Software
TECH/AI: ETHICS AND RISK
“As AI Tools Get Smarter, They’re Growing More Covertly Racist”
“Google Restricts Gemini Chatbot Election Answers”
McKinsey, IMF, Goldman All Forecast Major Workforce Replacement By AI
More Concerns About AI’s Sustainability Problem
“AI Is Making Sexual Exploitation Of Girls Even Worse”
Can AI Data Centers Be Operated Sustainably?
TECH/AI: GOVERNMENT AND LAW
TECH/AI: INDUSTRY DEVELOPMENT
“Which AI Should I Use? Superpowers And The State Of Play”
“For over a year, GPT-4 was the dominant AI model, clearly much smarter than any of the other LLM systems available. That situation has changed in the last month, there are now three GPT-4 class models, all powering their own chatbots: GPT-4 (accessible through ChatGPT Plus or Microsoft’s CoPilot), Anthropic’s Claude 3 Opus, and Google’s Gemini Advanced.”
Elon Musk Open Sources His LLM Grok
OpenAI Partners To Build A Robot With Extraordinary Abilities [Video]
How Companies Are Training Robots Like Chatbots
“AI Prompt Engineering Is Dead”
Long Live Prompting. How You Prompt Matters For The Outcome