Emotionally invested

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“When students are emotionally invested in the learning process, commitment and performance will typically go up. Scott Barry Kaufman, a psychologist who studies learning and creativity, said, “If we want to see what young people are capable of achieving intellectually and creatively, we have to engage them in activities that matter to them.” By linking students to their personal interests and their own creativity, they can explore questions like: What do I love? What am I good at? What problems can we solve? What do we want to create? Why is this important? How will we figure this out? What might we contribute to the world? It’s within this productive struggle and its inherent ambiguity that students can build a self-inventory of creative and adaptive capabilities. These life-building skills will transfer beyond the project and the classroom. Students can discover what’s possible for themselves and what they’re capable of.”

~ Robert Attwell, Student-Powered Inquiry-Based Learning

Robert visited our school last year and wrote this article, published last month in Canadian Teacher Magazine. (See a PDF of the article here.)

A couple days ago 5 pre-service teachers from Simon Fraser University visited our school for the day and I had them end the day learning about some of the inquiries that on of our Grade 12 students, Jacob, did while he was with us since Grade 9. Afterwards, I asked Jacob, what’s something that he really liked about coming to Inquiry Hub, and what’s something he thinks he might have missed coming to such a small school?

Jacob chose only to speak about one thing. He said, ‘If I didn’t come here I’d never have had the opportunity to do all these projects, or I would have had to do them on my own time… except I probably wouldn’t have had the time to do them.’ Essentially, he has had school time to work on projects and inquiries that have mattered to him.

I think that should be something all schools spend a bit more time doing.

Technical difficulties

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I’m surprised that the Jetpack app that I use to publish about 95% of my Daily-Ink posts is so buggy. I often hit ‘Publish’ then get an error. When that happens the post usually publishes anyway, but on the app my post stays in drafts. This can get very confusing.

Sometimes I update the draft and it moves to the Published tab, sometimes it doesn’t. It’s all very confusing. I would not be surprised if I have published the same post twice, thinking that an older post was just a draft I hadn’t completed. The whole process is very messy.

In fact, I was just trying to clean up some of the mess and ended up deleting two posts from a few days ago. I had to go into the Trash and restore them, then date them correctly to have them displayed in the right order on my blog.

I’m always intrigued how advanced our technology is and yet how often we have to put up with bugs and technical difficulties. Our TV doesn’t always work nicely with our cable box. We occasionally have to delete and reinstall streaming apps just so we can log into them. I consider myself pretty tech savvy, but I don’t watch a lot of TV and often give the remote to my wife to navigate… But when it’s time to reinstall the app, she hands it to me to assist. Shouldn’t all this be intuitive? Shouldn’t it all just work?

I wonder if this is going to get better or worse? As all our devices get more technical are we just going to have to face more technical difficulties? I’m guessing this will be the case. We are going to see more and more not-really-smart ‘smart devices’. The limitations of their smartness are going to create a lot more glitches, bugs, and technical issues. In the coming years we are going to see more rather than less technical difficulties.

An AI advertisement

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I scrolled past this add a few times before paying any attention to it. But then it gave off an uncanny valley feeling that made me look a little closer. I think it was the very staged first question that bothered me most, and yesterday I finally took the time to watch it through a critical lens. It’s an ad for a Tai Chi app, but I cropped the video to hide the brand because I don’t want to amplify it, I want to critique it.

Here is the ad:

And here are a list of telltale things that suggest it is AI.

1. Look at the opening image. The woman is talking at a 90° angle to the stage, and there is no one at the podium below her.

2. The ‘expert’ is a perfectly chiseled man who is never named. No recognition of him as an expert in the field… because he’s fictitious.

3. Obviously fake audience members. The first image shows a blurred bearded man who doesn’t seem real to me. The second image has a man wearing a partial microphone like the expert.

4. The painfully fake script.

“Isn’t a gym better?”

“Gym doesn’t work after 40.”

This isn’t necessarily evidence of AI, it could just be bad writing, but it comes off feeling very wrong and unnatural. It’s like there was an intent in the text to make the expert sound like English is his second language but his voice doesn’t carry that same suggestion.

5. Comments are turned off. There is no benefit in having viewers outing the ad as fake. It’s better to allow the ad to fool more people without being called out.

The reality is that I could pick this ad out as fake, but that’s only because it was done poorly. We are going to see a lot more ads done this way and they are going to be good enough to fool us completely. It’s just a matter of time, and that time is approaching very quickly.

Do not amplify if you can not verify

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This is a simple, but potent message. Before hitting the ‘Like’ or ‘Share’ button, before telling someone about the interesting fact you heard online, verify it in some way. Is it true?

Do some Ground Truthing. Can you verify the claim? Is it real or AI? Is it worthy of your amplification or are you just contributing to the spread of something unworthy to be shared.

How much better would the internet be if everyone paused and verified what they were sharing before amplifying misinformation, disinformation, fake news, and AI deep fakes?

It’s a worthy and effective mantra:

Do not amplify if you can not verify.

Ground Truthing

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The term ‘ground truthing’ was shared with me last night by a friend, Neil. I had never heard the term before so did a quick MS365 Copilot request to learn more.

Ground truthing is the process of collecting data on-site (in the real world) to validate and calibrate information obtained from remote sensing technologies, models, or other indirect methods… It’s essentially a reality check to ensure that what the data suggests matches what’s actually happening on the ground.

While it is primarily used in Geography & Remote Sensing, Environmental Science, Agriculture, and Machine Learning & AI, I think it’s a term (or at least a practice) we are going to see a lot more use of in the future. More and more, when I receive information I’m immediately questioning if it’s real. Anything remotely controversial, or surprising, easily falls into a category of doubt… ‘I wonder if this is real or AI?’ But more recently, almost every video and article I see seems to sit in an uncanny valley of almost true or almost real. Before I accept new information, I have to ask myself, ‘Where can I verify this?’ In other words, ‘How can I ground truth this?’

Here is a simple example, in that the information is obviously false, but the deep fake is impressively realistic.

I also saw a video of Physicist Brian Cox saying that comet ATLAS 3i was definitely a spaceship. I didn’t bother fact checking it, I new it was fake, but enough of his followers questioned these kinds of videos that Brain came out on social media to say this:

“I keep seeing AI shite of me popping up on YouTube. The general rule is that if I appear to say something that you agree with and you are a UFO nobber, flat earth bell end or think comet ATLAS 3i is a spaceship, it’s fake.”

Where it gets more complicated is where actual facts are taken and then exaggerated. On the same theme of science and space, I recently saw a video that was talking about the theory that our entire universe might be in a massive black hole. From Copilot:

Some physicists propose that our universe might exist inside a black hole. This idea stems from the observation that black holes warp space and time so intensely that they could create a new, self-contained universe within. The consistent spin direction of many galaxies could be a result of the angular momentum inherited from the parent black hole, influencing the structure and motion of matter in our universe.

This is indeed a theory that is being considered by some scientists and I find it very interesting. So when a video comes up on my social media stream about it, I watch it. But when 20 seconds in I hear the narrator say that this is now considered true, I can’t even get myself to watch to the end of the video. These kind of videos really piss me off. I am angered that someone would create a video based on factual, interesting and novel ideas, but exaggerate the information and outright lie about it for the sake of views, clicks, and likes.

All 3 of these examples are actually easy, because my BS detector goes off. Where I’m concerned now is where that detector does not go off. What happens when the lies are more subtle, when the information is more nuanced? For example, do I really understand the issues happening in one of the many global conflicts right now? What’s the bias of the news or broadcasting station sharing the information? Where do I get more authentic information? How do I go about ground truthing what I’ve heard? Can I even get access to information ‘from the ground’?

It’s getting to the point where I have to question almost everything I hear. Is it real, what is the source, and where can I verify this? I hadn’t heard the term ground truthing before last night, but I realize that I’ve already started doing it, and I’m going to be doing a whole lot more of it in the future.

Rent free

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There are a couple people who I don’t really like, who also happen to live rent free in my brain. It really bugs me that these two people can surface in my mind like an itchy scab. I want to forget them but they scratch at my brain and I think about them.

My last dream this morning was about one of them. I haven’t worked with him in over 15 years. I have no reason to think about him, but there he was in my dream, where he bumped onto me and asked for my phone number. I said ‘No’, but then instead of feeling like it was over I felt guilty. Then the rest of the dream was about him trying to contact me and me trying to avoid his contact. It was stupid and unrealistic, as dreams often are, and it ended up waking me up.

If you know me, I’m not someone that dislikes a lot of people. I can only my think of these two right now, beyond them I really don’t expend a lot of thought and energy into people I’m not a fan of. But for some reason these two people creep into my brain and bother me.

They both hold an inflated sense of self-importance. They both lack awareness of what others think. The one above has a habit of bringing things up that people don’t want to hear. He’ll often start a sentence with, “I hate to say it but…” then say something almost with delight. The other person is a true narcissist. I thought I knew what narcissism was, thought I understood it, then met this person and realized that everyone I ever thought was a narcissist previously were simply people with narcissistic tendencies. Neither of these people are people I consider nice, people that I’d want to be friends with.

Yet early this morning, there is this guy intruding in my dreams… living in my brain rent free.

Despite the fact that I owe them nothing, and in fact they have done harm to me and my state of mind, I end up thinking about them. It’s like a PTSD response in some way. Occasionally, (fortunately not too frequently), I’ll be thinking of something totally unrelated to them, and yet they pop into my brain.

I don’t wish them harm, I don’t want to think about them at all. There are so many wonderful people in my life that deserve far more of my attention. So it makes me wonder, why do these two deserve any of my thinking time? They don’t. They aren’t in my life now and they don’t ever need to be again.

And that’s where I end this thought… unresolved. No answers, no deep understanding. Just two people I’m not a fan of, who pop into my head and occasionally live there rent free.

Ripple in time

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I was at a dinner with some online school principals from other districts last night and one of them mentioned the influence that I had back in the early days of Twitter. It was interesting to hear his thoughts, and to recall what those days were like. The sharing and learning had a depth to it that I haven’t felt since. It was a time when educators were trying new things, playing with new technologies, and experimenting with their own practice on an almost daily basis. And then openly sharing their successes and failures, asking questions, and seeking solutions to new and thoughtful problems.

I’ve thought fondly of those times, but I never really took the perspective that I had influence, or that what I was doing was having a ripple effect on others. I felt more like I was riding the ripples of others than I felt like I was making the ripples myself.

It was quite an honour to hear him speak of the influence I had, and to look back at that time a little differently.

A quick road trip

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Later today I head to Kamloops for an all-day meeting tomorrow. The principals of Provincial Online Schools are meeting. We connect with the Ministry of Education in the morning, and spend the rest of the day addressing concerns and supporting each other. While there is an option to connect online, it can’t be understated how valuable it is to meet face to face occasionally.

I’ve shared this before, but it’s an important point: I have more in common with these principals than I do with all my colleagues in my school district. Online learning has different funding rules than regular schools; Different approaches to learning and support of students; Different demands at different times of the year. We also have very different needs for support, and a lot of times we look to each other for that support.

Sure, we are a group that are comfortable connecting online, and we do that often. We even have a WhatsApp group where we ask questions and support each other. But there is something really special about getting together face-to-face a few times a year. And while that meeting usually happens a bit more locally for me, it’s my turn to put some travel time in.

It will be a short, overnight trip, but it will be worth it to connect with my long distance colleagues.

Margins over manpower

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Amazon just laid off over 14,000 people. According to Beth Galetti, Senior Vice President of People Experience and Technology at Amazon, who wrote that they are ‘Staying nimble and continuing to strengthen our organizations’, “The reductions we’re sharing today are a continuation of this work to get even stronger by further reducing bureaucracy, removing layers, and shifting resources to ensure we’re investing in our biggest bets and what matters most to our customers’ current and future needs.”

What are the ‘biggest bets’ they they are investing in? Chips. AI chips. Profits before people. Margins over manpower. The human equation in a company no longer matters. People are as expendable as office supplies. Need cost savings? Fired employees save a lot more money than reducing the cost of paper and staples.

The shareholder model of capitalism is slowly collapsing. It’s the middle and upper middle class that is getting laid off. Meanwhile, large companies like Nvidia invest billions of dollars in Open AI, and Open AI takes that money and buys Nvidia chips. Simultaneously, all these companies lay off staff to amplify margins, buy more chips and grow even larger.

Top executives who are already making millions hit their shareholder targets and get bonuses. Meanwhile regular employees face layoffs and have no job security. You think your $200,000 job is safe? Only until the next quarter’s earnings are going public, or until the merger is completed after your small company is swallowed up by one of the big guys.

If it was just Amazon, that would be one thing, but similar reports of layoffs have recently been announced at IBM (9,000 jobs in the US alone), UPS (34,000 jobs), Nestle (16,000 jobs), Intel (24,500 jobs)… the list goes on. What happens to the global economy when hundreds of thousands of people become jobless while large companies recycle their money, reinvesting in each other in circular deals where funding is promised back to the investors in product purchases?

What happens in a world where profits and margins matter more than people?

Knowledge Keepers

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For generations we have looked to our elders as the knowledge keepers. Now knowledge is stored in bits and bytes, and shared in video format. A boy doesn’t look to dad or granddad to learn how to shave, he learns on YouTube. A girl learns to apply foundation and makeup from Instagram Reels or TickTock. Changing a headlight on your car? There’s a YouTube video with your exact make and model showing you every step. Cooking, traveling, losing weight, gaining muscle, putting contact lenses in, or beating a level on your favourite video game? You are probably going to search for how to do it online before you ask someone for help.

Something to recognize is that many knowledge keepers are the ones sharing and creating the videos we seek, so in a way, their knowledge is still being transferred. Just like people before the internet looked to books for wisdom and insight, seeking a video of someone doing the exact task you are going to do is a very useful way to learn. This isn’t an issue of knowledge being lost, and in fact, is a useful way to store and share information. The question is, what is being lost?

What social interactions between generations are being left out of the YouTube ‘How To’ era? Is there a kind of wisdom being lost, or is it just a loss of connection?

I’m conflicted when thinking about this. Part of me thinks that we are disconnecting from our knowledge keepers, our elders, our storytellers, and that we are missing out in a shared, personal experience. And yet I also think of a kid in a remote town without a library learning about our universe online from physicist Brian Cox. Or a child of a single parent who works two jobs getting an online tutorial on a topic their busy parent has no time to give them. How lucky are they to have the internet fill the knowledge gap?

We can access our knowledge keepers online as well as face-to-face, it’s not an either/or situation… but I guess that what I’m wondering is if we haven’t forgotten that there is a richness to learning in-person from our knowledge keepers? Are we too quick to use Google or Chat GPT to seek quick answers and missing out on a story, an interaction that builds a core memory? Are we losing a richness of experience that comes with sitting with our elders and learning from them?