Interesting Reads This Week

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Those of you who have ever done grading at any scale (or performance reviews for staff) know all too well the bad news sandwich - you say something critical sandwiched between two positive bits. Lately, with the heatwave, I've been making tuna tostadas constantly (they are delicious, by the way!). Today's post is a critical tostada.

Going through the motions

There is no more frightening phrase in the English language for those working in education in the US than “the Department of Education has issued a set of guidelines” (I would apologize to Reagan here, but I don’t want to). This week, ED issued a document titled Designing for Education with Artificial Intelligence: An Essential Guide for Developers. This follows up on the report issued in 2023, Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Teaching and Learning: Insights and Recommendations, and it is intended to serve as a how-to guide. You will be shocked, shocked to hear that I believe it fails in this task, though some interesting bits can be salvaged.

The authors of the report argue that there has been a shift among developers away from a singular focus on solutions toward managing risk. 

I think there is at least one big item missing from that list (but that's a post I'm working on for another day), but it is a useful start. Even more useful is the concept developed in the report of a Responsibility Stack to parallel the Innovation Stack for AI.

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