Text is back in

Text is having a come back. If teachers want to be influencers, then this is the way to go. Not video, not multimedia – text. The way into a child's eyes and ears is through AI, and AIs scrape text.

This is what Pi.ai had to say about it when I asked her:

AIs like me use a technique called Natural Language Processing (NLP) to understand and generate human language. Part of NLP involves "scraping" or collecting large amounts of text from various sources, like books, articles, websites, and more.

This data is then used to train AI models like me, helping us understand the rules, patterns, and nuances of human language. By analyzing and learning from this scraped text, we're able to understand your questions and provide relevant answers.

For the last 10 years I've heard my clients using phrases like "text heavy" and "scrolling wall of death". The truth is, we love scrolling. Look how many people do it. Pi and her ilk are scraping all that wonderful text. The kids, with the help of their AI friends, are integrating that knowledge into their studies and homework. The modern teacher's role is to keep order and give them the why.

Paradigm shift

Interesting - I wrote this in 2020: "Interesting - I wrote this in 2012. Now in 2020 I'd say paradigm shift, but it's a very slow burn.

MOOCology is the study of MOOCs, and its main method is participant observation. You sign up for and participate in Massive Open Online Courses not so much to study the subject, as to study the method. Along the way you get to meet a superabundance of interesting people and you get to learn a lot of fascinating stuff. But the real value for me is in observing the way the new metier seems to question, transcend, bypass, nullify, disarm and maybe eventually even destroy the institution. Are we seeing a paradigm shift, or simply another technology-driven fad? 

Then along comes OpenAI.

Time defines genre

Sid Meier spoke at GDC 2012 and said something interesting about how time defines genre [YouTube @ 42m]. It's obvious I suppose, but I hadn't seen it until he said it. A shooter only gives you a split second in which to reach your "interesting decision". A strategy game gives you more information, and more time. Compare Ping Pong and Chess.

Zero qual zone

The advantage of offering courses that do not lead directly to a qualification is that you're ethically free to experiment. If you divide the cohort into Groups A and B and make some change to Group B no-one is disadvantaged. But if you're locked into some framework and you're going to have to get it moderated every time you make a change, forget it - it's too hard.

Leaving the catatonic state

After a long silence borne out of catatonic frustration, a strong feeling I was getting absolutely nowhere, I now feel I can write again; resuming journal entries!

Big T

Teagarden's trombone style was largely self-taught, and he developed many unusual alternative positions and novel special effects on the instrument. He is usually considered the most innovative jazz trombone stylist of the pre-bebop era – Pee Wee Russell once called him "the best trombone player in the world" – and did much to expand the role of the instrument beyond the old tailgate style role of the early New Orleans brass bands. Chief among his contributions to the language of jazz trombonists was his ability to interject the blues or merely a "blue feeling" into virtually any piece of music. [Wikipedia]

Important point to note here: was largely self-taught. 

Three carriage train

This model is about leading change. I first saw it here in a video by Ray Nasher and I've adapted it to suit my own purpose and context.

Do a simple survey of the target group:

We should switch to fixed width for our default font.

  Agree
  Not bothered
  Disagree


DISAGREE - NOT BOTHERED - AGREE - LOCOMOTIVE

• Make the Agrees visible to the rest
• Work on the Not bothereds, they'll easily join the Agrees
• With the Not bothered wagon empty the Disagrees will get nervous and
• Shift up the train to join the Agrees.