Learning to Innovate for Sustainable Computing in Singapore

I will be speaking on "Learning to Innovate for Sustainable Computing" at EduTech Asia in Singapore, in the Show and Tell Sessions, 3:20, Thursday, 10 November. I am a last minute addition, reprising my talk at Tech in Government, in Canberra this week.

Computers are part of the problem of global warming,

Computers > electricity > fossil fuel > CO2 > global warming.

Yallourn W Power Station - Victoria, 

photo by Marcus Wong Wongm, CC BY-SA, 18 August 2007

Computers, and the Internet, run on electricity. Most electricity today is generated by burning fossil fuel, which releases carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. The CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which traps sunlight, causing global warming. These facts have been clear since 2007, when the Australian Computer Society (ACS) release a world first study. The study estimated 1.52% of Australian carbon emissions were attributable to computers and telecommunications. There have been later more detailed studies around the world, but these produce similar estimates of around 2%. This is a significant source of pollution, being around the same as from the airline industry.

Reference

Audit of Carbon Emissions resulting from ICT usage by Australia Business,

by Shadi Haddad, Ethan Group Pty Limited, for the Australian Computer Society, August 2007. URL https://web.archive.org/web/20070907015722if_/http://www.acs.org.au/acs_policies/docs/2007/greenictaudit.pdf

Computers can be part of the solution to climate change

Big Efficient Data Centers Linked to Handheld Devices 

Brendale Supernode, Queensland,
by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, 8 July, 2022

Consolidating computing into large data centers, collocated with renewable energy storage, as is being done at the Berndale Supernode in Queensland, provides the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from computing. These systems can also be used to replace activities which are carbon emitting. As an example, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has shown that much business travel can be replaced with video conferences. However this requires learning new skills, and habits.

Reference

Supernode set for Moreton Bay, Steven Miles, Deputy Premier of Queensland, 8 July, 2022. URL https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/95682

We can teach how to measure and reduce emissions, with a smart phone

Small Chunks of Learning Delivered to Handheld Devices

ICT Sustainability Course on a desktop computer,
by Tom Worthington, CC-BY, 2007

ICT Sustainability Course on a phone,
by Tom Worthington, CC-BY, 2007

Vocational education at TAFE, and courses at university are now routinely provided online. What is not generally appreciated is that students don't have to sit down at a desk-top computer, to learn. The learning management systems used for teaching TAFE and university students automatically adjust to smart phone screens. It takes a little more work to design the course content for this mode, and to allow students to study while working.

In 2008, the Australian Computer Society commissioned me to design an online course to teach how to estimate and reduce carbon emissions from computers. This was implemented using the Australian developed Moodle Learning Management System, and has been running at Australian and North American universities since 2009.

Reference

Worthington, T., "A Green computing professional education course online: Designing and delivering a course in ICT sustainability using Internet and eBooks," Computer Science & Education (ICCSE), 2012 7th International Conference on , vol., no., pp.263,266, 14-17 July 2012 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICCSE.2012.6295070

Same Approach, Other Challenges

Needed Tech Skills for Defence by Smartphone

Event canvas from Navy Warfare Innovation
Workshop (NWIW), by Paul Telling, 2020

Australian government face the challenge of recruiting and training sufficient personnel for technical roles. Training using mobile devices can assist with this, by allowing in service professional development in new and interesting ways. One example are the hackerthons which I have assisted with in the last few years. Two  were hosted by the Australian Computer Society, for the ADF & NZDF, and one by the Australian Navy. These helped participants learn to collaborate online rapidly in a high stress environment.

Reference

Worthington, Tom (2022): Designing for scale: How to use mobile devices to recruit, train and equip the extra 18,500 defence personnel. University of Melbourne. Media. https://doi.org/10.26188/20742451.v1 Notes at: https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2022/08/expanding-canberra-defence-training.html

Lecture Theatre Video Screen as an Autocue

Last week I was called in at short notice to record a video to promote the university internationally. Our award winning filmmaker set this up in a lecture theatre, as it was raining outside. The camera was pointing out the door into the open plan area to provide some atmosphere. So I was looking to the front of the room. We did not have an autocue, so I brought up the script on the large screen at the front of the room. I could see this over the camera operator. If I did not have an electronic copy of the script, I could have used the document camera on the lectern to project from paper. Might be useful for ad-hoc recording.

Australian 2022/23 Budget Lacks Funding for More Flexible Telecommunications and Education Options

The 2022/23 Australian Federal Budget Papers are available online. Here are some items of interest on information technology and higher education. 

IT Items

The big ticket items for IT are $2.4B for NBN Co fibre to 1.5 million premises, and $757.7M for rural mobile and broadband. What this lacks is a strategy to incorporate new options, such as low earth orbit satellite access to small fixed locations, and direct to mobile phones. Also lacking is a way to encourage, or  require telcos to share mobile infrastructure in regional and remote areas, for more coverage, at lower cost.

Higher Education

The big ticket items for education are $921.7M for 480,000 fee‑free vocational education and training (VET) students, and $485.5M for 20,000 extra university places. The university funds will be targeted at First Nations, first in family, rural and remote students to do teaching, nursing, engineering, and other priority courses. The VET places will target jobs and regions in need, but there is no mention of priority for disadvantaged groups, as there is for the university places. That is unfortunate as VET is a good first step to higher education. 

One small program of interest is the $15.4M Startup Year, with 2,000 loans for recent graduates, postgraduate and final year undergraduate students per year. The students will do a one‑year accelerator program at a university.

I could find no mention of micro-credentials, or other more flexible forms of education in the budget. This lack of flexibility will continue to be a barrier for students from disadvantaged groups. It is all very well to be offered a place in a university, but if this is 1,000 km from home, because the university has cancelled the online study option introduced during COVID-19, then many rural and remote students will have difficulty attending. This also applies to those who cannot leave their job, children, aged parents, or cultural commitments, to study full time for years, to get a qualification. We need policies, and incentives, which see universities introducing the sort of flexibility, for short, part time, online courses, already in place in the VET sector.

Also there does not appear to be any funding to support Australia's international education industry, which faces threats from technological change, and geopolitical tensions. In 2016 I warned Australian universities to be ready to teach online, in case geopolitical tensions kept international students outside Australia. That didn't happen, but COVID-19 showed what could still happen to Australian education, if there is a military confrontation in our part of the world, with no warning, which stops students attending Australian campuses.

From Budget Paper No. 2, Part 2: Payment Measures:

Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts

Australian Communications and Media Authority – spectrum management

The Government will provide $27.7 million over 5 years from 2022–23 (including $15.3 million in capital funding) for the Australian Communications and Media Authority to deliver a new spectrum management system and auction capability for spectrum licences.

Better Connectivity Plan for Regional and Rural Australia

The Government will provide $757.7 million over 5 years from 2022–23 to improve mobile and broadband connectivity and resilience in rural and regional Australia,.including:

• $400.0 million over 5 years from 2022–23 to support the roll out of mobile base stations to improve highway and underserviced community mobile coverage, and initiatives to improve the resilience of communications services to support the roll out of base stations to improve highway and underserviced community mobile coverage

• $200.0 million over 5 years from 2022–23 for two additional rounds of the Regional Connectivity Program to fund the delivery of telecommunications infrastructure to improve digital connectivity in regional, rural and remote Australia

• $40.0 million over 3 years from 2022–23 for an improving mobile coverage round of the Mobile Black Spot Program to implement commitments for new mobile infrastructure to improve mobile coverage and reception quality across Australia

• $39.1 million over 5 years from 2022–23 for two additional rounds of the Peri‑Urban Mobile Program to improve mobile reception in peri‑urban areas that are prone to natural disasters

• $30.0 million over 5 years from 2022–23 for the On Farm Connectivity Program to support farmers and agricultural businesses to purchase and install on farm connectivity equipment

• $20.0 million over 5 years from 2022–23 to conduct an independent audit of mobile coverage to better identify black spots and guide investment priorities

• $6.0 million over 3 years from 2023–24 for the Regional Tech Hub platform to provide free and independent advice on telecommunications connectivity and services in regional and rural Australia

• $2.5 million over 5 years from 2022 23 to establish a First Nations Digital Advisory Group to lead consultation with First Nations people on the design and delivery of digital inclusion initiatives.

This measure will redirect funding from the 2019–20 Budget measure titled Stronger Regional Connectivity Package, 2021–22 MYEFO measure titled Digital Economy Strategy – additional funding and 2022–23 March Budget measure titled Government Response to the 2021 Regional Telecommunications Review.

Improving the NBN

The Government will provide an equity investment of $2.4 billion to NBN Co over 4 years from 2022–23 to upgrade the National Broadband Network (NBN) to deliver fibre‑ready access to a further 1.5 million premises by late 2025.

The additional investment will support nearly 90 per cent of Australia’s fixed line footprint to have access to world class gigabit speeds by late 2025.

The Government will also provide $4.7 million over 3 years from 2022–23 to support the delivery of free broadband for up to 30,000 unconnected families with school aged students during the 2023 calendar year.

Post Secondary Education

Outcomes of the Jobs and Skills Summit

• $8.9 million over 3 years from 2023–24 to establish a Productivity, Education and Training Fund to support employer and union representatives to improve safety, fairness and productivity in workplaces

Startup Year – establishment

The Government will provide $15.4 million over 4 years from 2022–23 (and $2.8 million per year ongoing) to establish the Startup Year program to deliver income contingent Higher Education Loan Program loans to up to 2,000 recent graduates, postgraduate and final year undergraduate students per year. The Startup Year will support students’ participation in a one‑year, business‑focused accelerator program at an Australian higher education provider, which will encourage innovation and support Australia’s startup community.

Strengthening Australia’s Higher Education Sector

The Government will provide $491.8 million over 4 years from 2022–23 (and $570.1 million over 11 years) to boost higher education and strengthen Australia’s university system. Funding includes:

• $485.5 million over 4 years from 2022–23 (and $563.8 million over 11 years) for 20,000 additional Commonwealth supported places at universities and other higher education providers commencing in 2023 and 2024. These places are dedicated to students under‑represented in higher education, including First Nations peoples, those who are the first in their family to study at university, and students from rural and remote Australia. The places are for courses in areas of skills shortage, including teaching, nursing and engineering

• $3.6 million in 2022–23 to the Department of Education to develop a business case for a new university and schools payment system, to manage the timely and accurate administration of entitlements

• $2.7 million over two years from 2022–23 to deliver an Australian Universities Accord, a review of Australia’s higher education system by a panel of eminent Australians delivering recommendations to drive accessibility, affordability, quality, certainty, sustainability and prosperity.

The Government will also achieve savings of $144.1 million over 4 years from 2022–23 (and $484.9 million over 11 years) by ending the 10 per cent discount for students who elect to pay their student contributions upfront rather than defer payment through the Higher Education Contribution Scheme – Higher Education Loan Program.

Teacher Shortages

The Government will provide $310.4 million over 9 years from 2022–23 (and $7.9 million per year ongoing) to attract and retain high‑quality teachers and improve student outcomes. Funding includes:

• $160.1 million over 8 years from 2023–24 for up to 5,000 bursaries of $10,000 per year to students, with an ATAR of 80 or above, who undertake a teaching degree. Bursaries will be available to undergraduate and postgraduate students with an additional $2,000 made available for students who complete their final year placement in a regional area

• $78.8 million over 5 years from 2022–23 to expand the High Achieving Teachers program to support an additional 1,500 high achieving professionals to transition into teaching through employment‑based pathways

• $60.6 million over 9 years from 2022–23 (and $7.1 million per year ongoing) to implement the Quality Initial Teacher Education Review’s recommendations, including the expansion and development of new micro‑credentials courses in classroom management and phonics

• $10.9 million over 9 years from 2022–23 (and $0.8 million per year ongoing) to the Department of Education for administrative costs associated with this measure.

Vocational Education – fee‑free TAFE and TAFE Technology Fund

The Government will provide $921.7 million over 5 years from 2022–23 to strengthen Australia’s Vocational Education and Training system and address skills shortages. Funding includes:

• $871.7 million over 5 years from 2022–23 to provide 480,000 fee‑free Technical and Further Education (TAFE) and vocational education places in industries and regions with skills shortages

• $50.0 million over two years from 2022–23 to establish a TAFE Technology Fund to modernise IT infrastructure, workshops, laboratories, telehealth simulators, and other facilities at TAFEs across Australia.

Around 180,000 fee‑free TAFE and vocational education places will be delivered in 2023 in areas of highest skills need as part of a one‑year National Skills Agreement with the states and territories commencing 1 January 2023, which was an outcome of the Jobs and Skills Summit.

Chat Show Format for Live-from-the-Classroom Events?

Frankly set, ABC TV, 2022

Recently I attended a recording of ABC TV's Frankly chat show. This got me thinking that the same studio layout, and format, could be used for hybrid delivery of learning. Frankly uses a standard chat show format: the host sits stage left, with space for four guests beside them. There is a flat area in front for a couple of rows of small tables for audience members who will appear in reaction shots. The rest of the audience are in theatre seating behind. ABC TV use movable cameras with operators. For education we could make do with fixed, voice operated cameras, preset on the presenter positions, and audience.

This room setup would combine features of the flexible flat floor classroom, with those of a traditional lecture theatre. It could be implemented by removing some rows of seating in a fixed lecture theatre, and more easily in rooms with retractable seating, by partial retraction, leaving enough space for tables. The idea is to provide a more interactive up-front (literally) experience for those students who want it, while those who prefer to sit back can. It will also provide a more lively experience for students participating online in real time, and those watching the recording later.

Back to the Conference in Canberra

At the TiG food truck.

Greetings from Tech in Government (TiG) at the National Convention Center in Canberra. While I have enjoyed online conferences over the last three years, it is good to be back in a room, with people. I am speaking tomorrow on Learning to Innovate for Sustainable Computing.

TiG's big innovation this year are food trucks parked outside the exhibition hall. This prompts casual conversations with people you don't know. I was offered work with one of the world's big four consulting companies, and a pair of sox, while waiting for my Chicken Tikka. ;-)

Google slogan at TiG 2022:
"Let's getting solving for Government".

Google got perhaps more attention than they wanted for the slogan on their booth: "Let's getting solving for Government". ;-)

University Rankings Are a Marketing Tool Not a Student Guide

Julie Hare writes "Why university rankings don’t tell you what you need to know" (AFR, Oct 23, 2022). But ranking systems, such as that from  Times Higher Education (THE), were never intended as a guide for students in selecting a university. My favourite ranking system is the non-profit Webometrics, which includes things like openness. There are also some awards which explicitly look at teaching quality, such as the Good Universities Guide Awards, which show that institutions which rate poorly on THE rankings do well when it comes to education.

The ranking schemes from publishers are designed as marketing tools to help promote their publications, and help their advertisers (the universities), promote themselves. Like many industry awards, the university rankings are designed to appeal to the vanity of the established organisations and their executives. The reality is that research excellence has little to do with the quality of the education provided by a university. If anything there is a negative correlation, as researchers are not selected for their teaching ability. Also the quality of the teaching has little to do with the student's learning outcomes, as this mostly depends on the student, and their background, and the support they get externally. Universities in a particular system also tend to level outcomes. Australia has a strict government regulatory framework for universities, so there are no bad ones, and not that much difference between the top ones.

Education Jobs Anywhere

Yesterday one of the well known online job platforms sent me a list of openings: four were in Canberra (three government jobs, one government contractor),plus one in Perth, and one in China. The four Canberra jobs were labelled "On-site", the Perth and China ones "Remote". The two remote jobs were in education: one was for a well known Australian Learning Management System : "This role can be based anywhere in Western Australia, the Asia Pacific region, UK or Europe! Just let us know where you are when you apply.". The China job was for a professor at a university. This has implications for Australian universities, who now have to compete for staff anywhere in the world. It also has security implications, where staff may apply for jobs in other countries, and reveal details of the sensitive projects they are working on.

Inquiry into Australia’s tourism and international education sectors

Presenting on M-learing for the Indo-Pacific,
Colombo, 2018. 

The Australian Parliament's Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade is holding an Inquiry into Australia’s tourism and international education sectors. The committee is accepting submissions. For  international education the terms of reference are:

1. "challenges associated with the loss of international student numbers as a result of the significant disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and effective measures to attract and retain students to Australia;
2. online innovations in education delivery and potential opportunities to strengthen the sector's resilience;
3. initiatives to ensure positive international student experience and support pathways to build their skills and contribute to Australia's prosperity; and
4. opportunities for international education to support strategic and foreign policy objectives"

Some initial thoughts:

COVID-19: A White Swan Event

The COVID-19 pandemic was a shock for traditional campus based universities, especially those with a research focus. These universities had to quickly convert to online delivery to students, who were unable to get to campus. This was done by turning lectures into video conferences, and exams into online quizzes. However, the limitations of this approach was already well known in the distance education community. Also it challenged how teaching staff see their role, and what students want from a university. 

The institutions which had the lest difficulty were education-focused online, distance, and open universities. These institutions have been in the business of delivering education to remote students, in some cases for half a century, or more. Some more conventional campus based universities, particularly in Singapore, had practiced online delivery in an emergency, after their experience with SARS-CoV-1 in 2002 to 2004 (Chandran, 2010).

After being alerted to the need for an online alternative in an emergency, I investigated how this might be done for international students of an Australian research intensive university (Worthington, 2017). In 2016 and 2017 I gave a series of talks warning Australian universities to be ready with an online option in case international students were unable to get to campus. In the case of Australia, it seemed at that time that international tensions over the South China Sea were more likely to interrupt student access, rather than a pandemic.

In 2019 I redesigned the learning module I was delivering to allow for blended delivery, plus the option of full online delivery in an emergency (Worthington, 2019). This contingency was activated in 2020 for to COVID-19. No changes were required to content, or assessment. The face to face components were simply replaced with Zoom webinars (Cochrane, Et al., 2021). 

1. Measures to attract and retain students

Australia can continue to use essentially the same marketing techniques for attracting international students. These emphasize Australia as a safe place, with quality respected institutions, and job opportunities. Universities can continue to use their campuses as part of the marketing. However, in reality most students spent most of their time not in a classroom, even before COVID-19. Conventional lectures are a very poor way to learn, and exams a poor way to assess. Universities were replacing these with experiential learning, and project based assessment, and COVID-19 has accelerated this trend. Unfortunately, these are difficult to market learning formats, with parents wanting to see students in class, and potential employers seeing scope for cheating in online assessment.

The key to marketing the new educational techniques is through the person to person learning, for vocationally relevant outcomes. One example is Work Integrated Learning (WIL), where students learn, and earn course credit, while in a workplace. WIL is part of the requirements for membership of professions, including engineering, and computing, as it is way of providing students with so-called "soft" skills. This is attractive for students, especially where the WIL is through paid work. However, arranging sufficient work places is an expensive process for universities, which are currently undertaking this is an ad-hoc way, and competing for job placements.

Coordination of WILL opportunities with universities, industry bodies and government could improve the attractiveness of Australia as an educational destination, while also meeting staff shortages.

2. Online education for resilience

For those who were already using online learning, and those who had planned to use it in an emergency, the pandemic proved to be mostly business as usual. In particular, asynchronous learning to provide the scaffolding for a course, with embedded synchronous activities added (Worthington, 2013). This proved resilient to problems with equipment, bandwidth, and students and staff unavailable at set times. With this approach students are provided with all the materials they need, and all assessment tasks, at the beginning of a course. The student works through the materials on their own, or with others, occasionally checking in with a tutor. 

The approach to course design I suggested in 2016, and implemented in 2019, had a traditional distance education format, with face to face components for those who could get to campus, or online for those who could not. This approach evolved from that used by the Australian Computer Society for professional development, modified for delivery at university with face to face components. This approach is supported by education theory (Narayan, Et al., 2012).

3a. Providing a positive student experience

Unfortunately most online education delivery during the pandemic was not designed for online distance delivery, and undertaken by staff not trained in digital education. The students were not inducted into the distance format, and had to learn about it, at the same time as their instructors, as courses evolved. Despite these impediments, overall learning was achieved. However, with training, staff can deliver a much better experience. Decades of research shows that online and distance institutions provide a learning experience at least equal to face to face (Worthington, 2012). 

For students who are unable to get to campus due to cost, disability, employment or family commitments the distance option is their only best option. In the past Australian universities routinely discriminated against students by refusing to provide an online option which was feasible, affordable, but too much trouble. It would be unfortunate if universities were permitted to withdraw the online option, and return to discriminating against students. One promising development to provide 

3b. Pathways to build skills and contribute to Australia

The previous Australian government introduced undergraduate certificates, as a form of short university qualification. Universities responded by taking the first semester of their degrees and packaging these as the certificate. This was a worthwhile initiative, but does not provide the flexible "micro-credentials" talked about. For these to be designed and become useful universities will need to adopt the techniques for standardizing, and packaging short qualifications used in the vocational education and training (VET) sector (Worthington, 2018).

4. Supporting strategic and foreign policy

A key component of the cold war Colombo Plan was to provide subsidized education to people from developing nations of the Indo-Pacific region. This was done to help with development, and engender friendly relations with Australia. Now that Australia, and other western countries have switched to using education as a for-profit premium product, China has stepped in to offer low cost education, as an element of foreign policy. Australia can't compete directly with the scale of provision of low cost education by China, but could offer premium blended low cost education targeted at the region (Worthington, 2014). Delivery of education via low cost mobile devices has potential (Sinfield, Et al., 2020).

References

Chandran, R. (2010, May). National University of Singapore's Campus-Wide ELearning Week. In Global Learn (pp. 2062-3302). Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE). URL https://cpb-us-w2.wpmucdn.com/blog.nus.edu.sg/dist/0/119/files/2011/03/national-university-of-singapores-campus-wide-elearning-week.pdf

Cochrane, T., Narayan, V., Aiello, S., Birt, J., Cowie, N., Cowling, M., ... & Worthington, T. (2021, November). Back to the Future Post Pandemic Socially Constructed Blended Synchronous Learning-Vignettes from the Mobile Learning SIG. In ASCILITE 2021. ASCILITE.

Narayan, V., Cochrane, T., Aiello, S., Birt, J., Cowie, N., Cowling, M., ... & Worthington, T. (2021, November). Mobile learning and socially constructed blended learning through the lens of Activity Theory. In ASCILITE (Vol. 2021, p. 38th).

Sinfield, D., Narayan, V., Cochrane, T., Cowie, N., Hinze, M., Birt, J., ... & Worthington, T. (2020, December). A mobile ecology of resources for Covid-19 learning. In ASCILITE 2020: ASCILITE’s first virtual conference. ASCILITE.

Worthington, T. (2012, July). A Green computing professional education course online: Designing and delivering a course in ICT sustainability using Internet and eBooks. In 2012 7th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (ICCSE) (pp. 263-266). IEEE.

Worthington, T. (2013, April). Synchronizing asynchronous learning-Combining synchronous and asynchronous techniques. In 2013 8th International Conference on Computer Science & Education (pp. 618-621). IEEE.

Worthington, T. (2014, August). Chinese and Australian students learning to work together online proposal to expand the New Colombo Plan to the online environment. In Computer Science & Education (ICCSE), 2014 9th International Conference on (pp. 164-168). IEEE. URL https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCSE.2014.6926448

Worthington, T. (2017). Digital Teaching In Higher Education: Designing E-learning for International Students of Technology, Innovation and the Environment. ANU Open Research Repository. https://openresearch-repository.anu.edu.au/handle/1885/148737

Worthington, T. (2018, December). Blended learning for the indo-pacific. In 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE) (pp. 861-865). IEEE.

Worthington, T. (2019, December). Blend and flip for teaching communication skills to final year international computer science students. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE.

GPT3 + AI: What is the human value in light of AI developments?

Next week I am helping with a webinar on AI and education (announcement below). AI has the potential to help students, by providing very dedicated personal tutoring, but risks making plagiarism much worse. In 2018 I took part in a workshop were participants built a tutor chatbot. Even in this primitive form it had potential for answering routine questions from students. However, that for of AI required the knowledge to be manually encoded by an expert. Much attention in recent years has been on AI which learns for itself. The OpenAI research laboratory, with for-profit and non-profit arms has come to prominence with AI trained using material on the Internet. Best known is GPT3, which can answer questions and write text. The Openai beta provide a simple question and answer demonstration. I had fun asking the algorithm some questions:

Q: How can we stop students cheating?

A: There is no one answer to this question as the reasons why students cheat vary. Some possible solutions include increasing the consequences for cheating, providing more opportunities for academic help, and increasing the difficulty of assignments.

A very plausible answer, although the first sentence could apply to anything. As one person at the seminar commented, it is the sort of answer a politician gives: vague on details.

Q. How successful was Online Learning during the COVID-19 Pandemic?

A: There is no one-size-fits-all answer to this question, as the success of online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic depends on a variety of factors, including the type of online learning platform used, the quality of the online learning content, the students' prior experience with online learning, and the students' level of motivation. However, overall, online learning appears to have been successful for many students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The start of this answer seems to use the same formula as thew previous one, to say there are many factors. It has that same vague quality to the balance of the answer.

Q: Who is Tom Worthington?

A; Tom Worthington is an Australian information technology academic, consultant and commentator. He is a Fellow of the Australian Computer Society and a Visiting Fellow in the Research School of Computer Science at the Australian National University.

A bit out of date: I am now an Honorary Senior Lecturer, and the School is now just "Computing".

What is more worrying is that AI has reached the point where it could write a plausible student paper. One way to address this is to use AI to look for the characteristics of AI written work. Another is to teach students about AI, and where it can be legitimately used.

GPT3 + AI: What is the human value in light of AI developments?

presented by The ASCILITE Mobile Learning SIG
28 October @ 10:00 am - 11:00 am AEST Free

In this presentation, the ASCILITE Mobile Learning Special Interest Group members will explore the implications of Artificial Intelligence for higher education. The panel will demo some of the current possibilities with AI generators for Art, Text, Video and Assessment. This will be followed by a discussion of the state of the art of AI and implications.

US Power and Restraint in China’s Rise

Greetings from the Australian National University, Strategic & Defence Studies Centre (SDSC) in Canberra, where Chin-Hao Huang, from Yale-NUS College is speaking on "Power and Restraint in China’s Rise". He pointed out that spending, as a percentage of GDP is falling for countries in the region is falling, so they can't be too worried about China. He suggests that collective influence of ASEAN is an alternative, being the only longstanding security architecture in existence. Professor Huang has influence not by confrontation, but consensus. I suggest this must be frustrating for the USA, Australia, and other western countries used to firmer military alliances, but is more suited to the nuances of the relationship with China.

Professor Huang outlined the Scarborough Shoal Dispute, which has been taken over by China, despite the Philippines invoking a defense pact with the USA. I suggest the problem is not so much a lack of US resolve, but not having an effective military response to grey-zone tactics. The US 7th Fleet is a very powerful military force, but a nuclear armed carrier strike group is ineffective against fishing boats crewed by militia. What are needed are large numbers of locally flagged, small paramilitary fisheries patrol and coastguard vessels, and aircraft, which can call in conventional military assets, when required. To prevent escalation, incidents can be characterized as a response to fish poaching, pirates, and other civilian criminal activities.

Professor Huang contrasted the  Scarborough Shoal situation, with Hai Yang Shi You 981 standoff, between Vietnam and China. He characterized the latter as a success for regional pressure, without US engagement. Later he pointed out that Vietnam has experience in responding to China, both politically and militarily.

Professor Huang ended by reminding us that there is policy debate in China, and the actions of other countries can give support to this who favor restraint by China.

Using a Job Application as the Capstone Exercise for Work Integrated Learning

On the Yogyakarta Train,
after TALE 2019 

On a visit to Singapore for EduTech Asia 2022, I will stopping off at a university to talk about using a job application as the capstone for work integrated learning. I would be happy to talk at other institutions, while in Singapore, or elsewhere. This is an update to a paper I gave at the 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE). That was a few months before the COVID-19 pandemic, and I had no idea that my idea of designing a blended learning module which could be quickly converted for full online delivery in an emergency would be needed so soon. I will discuss how it went and what universities should do next post-pandemic.

Original paper:

Worthington, T. (2019, December). Blend and Flip for Teaching Communication Skills to Final Year International Computer Science Students. In 2019 IEEE International Conference on Engineering, Technology and Education (TALE) (pp. 1-5). IEEE. https://doi.org/10.1109/TALE48000.2019.9225921

Easier Choice for Australia's Regional Universities: Teach and Research Cooperatively

Claire Field

Claire Field writes about "hard choices for regional unis" (Campus Morning Mail,October 19, 2022), with more in her blog "Australia’s regional universities in the post-COVID era". They identify five universities facing challenges. But universities have other, easier choices than merging or outsourcing their teaching to an online commercial training provider. 

Some Australian universities have been cooperating to deliver flexible learning through Open Universities Australia (OUA) since 1993. OUA could be expanded, or a similar arrangement made for regional universities. There could also be closer cooperation on research. It needs to be kept in mind that most students did most of their learning online, even before COVID-19.

In 2011 I wanted some specialist online education courses to supplement my study. So I enrolled in two courses at a regional Australian university more than 1,000 from home. To do this I simply presented my credit card to the remote university, enrolled as a professional development student, and brought my results back for credit. As a teacher I had to do even less to modify an existing online course for OUA.

Research is also largely done online. This of course takes staff with formal training in how to teach, administer, research and work online. But those are skills which can be learned, online (I did, remotely, in Canada). 

After seeing the benefits of this flexible way of studying, in 2013, when looking for  MEd, I ended up enrolling in a regional university, but in Canada. This was easier to do than enrolling at an Australian university, even one I could walk to. I suggest Australia's regional universities should aim for similar ease of enrollment, and study, 

Innovation ACT Pitches at CBRIN in Canberra

Greetings from the Innovation ACT pitch night at the Canberra Innovation Network (CBRIN). This is a competition for teams of Australian National University students to come up with a business idea. The winner gets business support via CBRIN.  

The first pitch is for an App to find a bar with a short queue and good music. Many student pitch ideas are about food, drinks and entertainment, but this one is a bit different. 

The second pitch was about the "literacy crisis". This is less usual topic. The presentation spent a little long criticizing NAPLAN, which isn't designed to improve student outcomes, only measure them (and based on overseas experience is likely to make the situation worse, better). The actual product is a literacy analytics platform for schools. The catch with this is who will pay, and who will care? Individual teachers, and public schools can't buy such a product. The obvious market is private schools, but the pitch will have to be improve NAPLAN scores, not overtly undermine it.

The third pitch was on climate change action. The idea is to make many small changes to behavior. But it was not clear what these changes were, or how they were to be accomplished, apart from  Flash Mobs (very 2003). It sounded like a marketing pitch for a generic green-washing campaign.

The fourth pitch was for a pet medical registration service. This had a cleaver feature I have not seen in any offering before. But I ought be biased, as I mentored the team. ;-)

The fifth pitch was also about education, with an astronomical simulator to foster children's interest in science. A plus for this team is that they appeared in science week with their potential customers. But as with all education products, the question is who will pay?

The last pitch was for a navigation system for cyclists, wheelchair users, and pedestrians with special needs. The obvious question is how to pay for this, but the team had an answer for that.

Beyond LinkedIn For Professional Social Media to Help Your Career

Next week, I am talking to the ANU computer project students about using social media for your career. Some thoughts. Suggestions, corrections and comments welcome:

1. Can you?: Before setting up a profile on social media, consider if your employer, or your government allows particular platforms, or any social media presence at all. In particular, if you are considering a career in government computer security you need to not overshare person, or professional, details online. I had a high online profile before joining HQ Australian Defence Force. So it was not possible to undo that, or simply disappear from public view, so I continued to blog about public aspects of my job.

2. Commercial Sites: 

A LinkedIn Profile

Here is a screenshot of my LinkedIn page. Note at the bottom "Open to work" and "providing services".

Now owned by Microsoft, LinkedIn was developed specifically to help recruiters find staff. The free version of the service allows entering a CV, and to receive offers of jobs. There are also discussion forms on professional topics. A very useful feature is being able to search who you might know at a particular organisation, location, or field, and people you know who know people, to 2 degrees of separation. Currently I have 1,161 followers and 500+ connections. 

3. Professional Sites: 

A Collabratec profile,IEEE 2022

 Professional associations have tried to provide LinkedIn type services, with limited success. One of the better ones is IEEE Collabratec. This provides for a CV, and discussion forums. The ability to search for people is more limited than LinkedIn.

4. Personal Blogs:

Higher Education Whisperer Blog

Professionals, especially those who work freelance, or on short contracts, may like to have their own blog. I use The Higher Education Whisperer to write about issues to do with universities. However, keep in mind, your client, or employer, needs to be happy with what you write. As a part time academic, the university is comfortable with what I write. When a public servant working for a security agency, I had to be very careful with every post.

Learning to Innovate for Sustainable Computing

I will be speaking on "Learning to Innovate for Sustainable Computing" at the Tech in Government conference in Canberra, 25 to 26 October. In this post I am collecting my thought on what to say. Suggestions, comments, and corrections would be welcome.

Computers are part of the problem of global warming,

Computers > electricity > fossil fuel > CO2 > global warming.

Yallourn W Power Station - Victoria, 

photo by Marcus Wong Wongm, CC BY-SA, 18 August 2007

Computers, and the Internet, run on electricity. Most electricity today is generated by burning fossil fuel, which releases carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere. The CO2 is a greenhouse gas, which traps sunlight, causing global warming. These facts have been clear since 2007, when the Australian Computer Society (ACS) release a world first study. The study estimated 1.52% of Australian carbon emissions were attributable to computers and telecommunications. There have been later more detailed studies around the world, but these produce similar estimates of around 2%. This is a significant source of pollution, being around the same as from the airline industry.

Reference

Audit of Carbon Emissions resulting from ICT usage by Australia Business,

by Shadi Haddad, Ethan Group Pty Limited, for the Australian Computer Society, August 2007. URL https://web.archive.org/web/20070907015722if_/http://www.acs.org.au/acs_policies/docs/2007/greenictaudit.pdf

Computers can be part of the solution to climate change

Big Efficient Data Centers Linked to Handheld Devices 

Brendale Supernode, Queensland,
by Quinbrook Infrastructure Partners, 8 July, 2022

Consolidating computing into large data centers, collocated with renewable energy storage, as is being done at the Berndale Supernode in Queensland, provides the opportunity to reduce carbon emissions from computing. These systems can also be used to replace activities which are carbon emitting. As an example, the recent COVID-19 pandemic has shown that much business travel can be replaced with video conferences. However this requires learning new skills, and habits.

Reference

Supernode set for Moreton Bay, Steven Miles, Deputy Premier of Queensland, 8 July, 2022. URL https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/95682

We can teach how to measure and reduce emissions, with a smart phone

Small Chunks of Learning Delivered to Handheld Devices

ICT Sustainability Course on a desktop computer,
by Tom Worthington, CC-BY, 2007

ICT Sustainability Course on a phone,
by Tom Worthington, CC-BY, 2007

Vocational education at TAFE, and courses at university are now routinely provided online. What is not generally appreciated is that students don't have to sit down at a desk-top computer, to learn. The learning management systems used for teaching TAFE and university students automatically adjust to smart phone screens. It takes a little more work to design the course content for this mode, and to allow students to study while working.

In 2008, the Australian Computer Society commissioned me to design an online course to teach how to estimate and reduce carbon emissions from computers. This was implemented using the Australian developed Moodle Learning Management System, and has been running at Australian and North American universities since 2009.

Reference

Worthington, T., "A Green computing professional education course online: Designing and delivering a course in ICT sustainability using Internet and eBooks," Computer Science & Education (ICCSE), 2012 7th International Conference on , vol., no., pp.263,266, 14-17 July 2012 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1109/ICCSE.2012.6295070

Same Approach, Other Challenges

Needed Tech Skills for Defence by Smartphone

Event canvas from Navy Warfare Innovation
Workshop (NWIW), by Paul Telling, 2020

Australian government face the challenge of recruiting and training sufficient personnel for technical roles. Training using mobile devices can assist with this, by allowing in service professional development in new and interesting ways. One example are the hackerthons which I have assisted with in the last few years. Two  were hosted by the Australian Computer Society, for the ADF & NZDF, and one by the Australian Navy. These helped participants learn to collaborate online rapidly in a high stress environment.

Reference

Worthington, Tom (2022): Designing for scale: How to use mobile devices to recruit, train and equip the extra 18,500 defence personnel. University of Melbourne. Media. https://doi.org/10.26188/20742451.v1 Notes at: https://blog.highereducationwhisperer.com/2022/08/expanding-canberra-defence-training.html