Comments for EduGeek Journal

Comment on Are You Ready for a Trip into (Ai) Matter and Space? by JR Dingwall

JR Dingwall — Tue, 29 Apr 2025 17:58:17 -0700

Lots resonating here, especially the “this can’t possibly cost zero” bit.
I found myself nodding along to quite a few bits. I think what Audrey wrote resonated with me too, especially the way a lot of the claims brought me back to the early 2010s.
One thing I couldn’t get over in that video was that the child started surrounded by their community, and then suddenly that community implicitly was ripped away. Like the message there educationally was bad enough – as if the child can’t learn and grow with their community – but from where I sit, in a country struggling through its history and attempts at reconciliation, is just…I don’t even have the words for it.

Like Maha I appreciate the work on SMLP and it’s too bad the extra work you mentioned wasn’t published. Maybe having “we tried this things and students went ‘meh'” would be helpful in our field!

Comment on Are You Ready for a Trip into (Ai) Matter and Space? by Maha Bali

Maha Bali — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 14:12:21 -0700

And P.S. still a huge fan of self-mapped learning pathways and try to implement that whenever I can!

Comment on Are You Ready for a Trip into (Ai) Matter and Space? by Maha Bali

Maha Bali — Sat, 26 Apr 2025 14:08:38 -0700

Love this post and loved reading your work again, Matt. The two key things I always feel with this kind of hype are two you mentioned throughout- the hype of assuming magic wand of tech will fix systemic issues, and the technosolutionism that never considers paying humans to do the things they already can do. Thanks for the detailed unpacking! It’s so good to have Audrey back, isn’t it?

Comment on “Course Design Should Cost About Zero”? What on Earth are George Siemens and Stephen Downes Thinking? by Rebecca Hogue

Rebecca Hogue — Wed, 19 Feb 2025 04:46:28 -0700

Great post.
The whole mix-and-match idea is what SCORM was all about – hence the name – Sharable Content Object Reference Model – this brings us back to the early 2000s .. and you know what, as with everything in Ed Tech – it goes in cycles – and none of the “solutions” cause the grand “disruption” that makes education free.

Comment on Is Concern for the Harms of Ai Propaganda, Myth, or Something Else? by Matt Crosslin

Matt Crosslin — Sat, 05 Oct 2024 11:51:33 -0700

I missed that blog post, but it just shows there is so much dismissiveness out there to any criticism.

Comment on Is Concern for the Harms of Ai Propaganda, Myth, or Something Else? by Alan Levine

Alan Levine — Tue, 01 Oct 2024 15:48:42 -0700

The increasing level of dismissive attitudes to critics is a sure signal of the potency of the snake oil.

Take this peak hype

“Once again I’d emphasise that you really do have to ‘try it to get it’. An interesting paper just published showed that much of the scepticism on GenAI comes from those who have not tried it. Lesson – for any real critical thinking or analysis, some use is necessary.”

http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2024/09/realistic-dialogue-is-here.html

What paper? And all the claims spewed are unsubstantiated. Just air. Bad air.

Comment on We Know Why You Hate Online Learning – and It Has Nothing to Do With Quality by Brian

Brian — Fri, 30 Aug 2024 05:50:43 -0700

I teach online chemistry primarily at a community college in the southeast part of Houston. I have embraced learning opportunities, asynchronous video recording, weekly problem sessions and the creation of over 40 virtual laboratory simulations. I face vitriol and ridicule from members of my department: their arguments center on how their students perform 10-15% worse online and that there are rampant cheating violations during exams. They are actively trying to kill almost all online science courses.
Look, I get it, online teaching isn’t for everyone, but students crave these experiences because they cannot come to campus at the regular hours we hold classes (many of our students are working full-time, raising children, caring for family members or may not have the mode of transportation to come to school 4-5 days a week). Online opens the door and fills in the “missed opportunity”. Finally, for those complaining about skills being “missed” by not doing labs in person, there are other assessible skills students learn in virtual labs, and companies do spend time training new graduates on these skills.

Comment on Learning -agogy Overload by The PAH continuum and its Seesaw Model – Giovanni Fonseca

The PAH continuum and its Seesaw Model – Giovanni Fonseca — Mon, 17 Jul 2023 09:40:09 -0700

[…] Academic activity in higher education institutions is very complex and serves the needs of unique and very diverse learners. Therefore, there is no justification for using only one (usually pedagogical) approach to learning, but rather for making learning opportunities more flexible and diverse. To this end, it is important to note that learning processes are dynamic and move along a continuum that combines (at least) the three most commonly used approaches: pedagogical, andragogical and heutagogical (although there are many more). […]

Comment on Turns Out That AI is Killing People by Kevin Wilcoxon

Kevin Wilcoxon — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 10:24:38 -0700

Paul Krugman said it best: it will take several years for humans to figure out what to do with AI. Would like your comments on what I see as the inevitable takeover by AI in the instructional design area.

Comment on What Do You Mean By “Cognitive Domain” Anyways? The Doom of AI is Nigh… by Alan Levine

Alan Levine — Wed, 29 Mar 2023 00:54:41 -0700

It sounds mostly what you framed as “brain things” or even “brain-like things”. Such fluff that is an approximation or facsimile of cognition is fitting to describe LLM Stuff as that’s what it produces- some generated statistical approximation of… brain stuff.

Interesting in the chart was the descriptor for “apply” – “ unprompted use of an abstraction” as none of the LLM stuff does anything on its own, unprompted. Like you pointed out for the fallacy of “create”- simple algorithms can produce stuff but not on their own. This seems a telling attribute of cognitive domain stuff.

Keep fighting the doom state, Matt!