Design Exercies Game Participants Needed

Erika Wood, PhD Student in computing at the Australian National University needs volunteers to help her with the Design Exercise Game. 

Loyalty Tax on Academic Staff

There are frequent expression of concern and even despair on social media, from casual academic staff at universities who feel taken for granted. They don't have high or secure pay, and feel they are not consulted. The usual solution put forward is collective action to force management to improve conditions. However I usually respond by suggesting they ensure they have employment options outside academia, & encourage their research students to do likewise. Some academics find this offensive: of course they know they could get a job elsewhere but they love working in academia, or their field is not one in demand elsewhere. But I suggest they need to consider if they are paying the loyalty tax. 

Well known in the services industry, the loyalty tax is where customers keep their account with the same supplier, year after year. The customer may be told they will receive discounts for loyalty, but instead the supplier knows they can put up prices and reduce service. Occasionally I will hear an academic complaining about being treated badly by their employer after many years of loyal service. But if the employer know the staff member will not quit, there is no reason to provide good conditions. 

It occurred to me academics are paying a loyalty tax. I thought I might write a paper about it, but found many had done so years before:

"The gratitude or loyalty tax describes the expectation that URMM faculty forgo promotion or advancement at other institutions out of a sense of obligation to their current institution [8]. In addition to preventing URMM faculty from achieving career advancement, this may cause the URMM faculty member to experience unhappiness, low work performance, and low work satisfaction." Campbell, Hudson, Tumin, pp.202–206, 2020).

"Lois Defleut used the phrase "loyalty tax" to describe the cost incurred by the faculty who remain at the same university for many years (Blum, 1989). As discussed by Botsch and Folsom (1989), this built-in loyalty tax penalty will be the greatest in the academic fields with the highest demand for faculty." (Fraas, p. 3,1993). 

 'In fact the phenomenon of salary compression is often referred to as a "loyalty tax".' (Barbezat, p. 761, 2004).

This is not to say that staff organisations should not press for improved conditions and individual academics should just give up and bale out to jobs in industry. However, it is in the power of each person to improve their own conditions & those of their students by being ready and able to work elsewhere. If you are teaching research students with ambitions of working in academia, point out to them the very small chances of a well paid, secure job this way. Help look at the alternatives and get the skills and qualifications needed. Such training will still be of use if they are not of the lucky few who get a permanent university job.

References

Barbezat, D. A. (2004). A Loyalty Tax? National Measures of Academic Salary Compression. Research in Higher Education, 45(7), 761–776. http://www.jstor.org/stable/40197392

Campbell, K.M., Hudson, B.D. & Tumin, D. Releasing the Net to Promote Minority Faculty Success in Academic Medicine. J. Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities 7, 202–206 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40615-020-00703-z

Fraas, J. W. (1993). A Faculty Consistency Pay Program. ERIC Number: ED362108 https://eric.ed.gov/?id=ED362108

Talked on Radio 3AW Melbourne about Y2038 Problem

Had a call from 3AW breakfast Melbourne this morning about a Year 2038 Problem.

Apparently, a Victorian government body has been sending out invoices with the date 2038 on them. This is a known problem similar to Y2K. But not the end of the world. 

Guiding Aircraft Globally from Canberra

Greetings from the new 4th floor at Canberra Innovation Network where Dr Craig Benson, CIO of Skycraft. His company provides communication for commercial aircraft globally, using Australian made satellites. Craig described how this space company doesn't do expensive "rocket science". 

I asked Craig if Australian Defence cancelling a $7B satellite project created opportunity for companies like Skycraft. He said Defence should use Starlink as much as possible.

Best of ASCILITE 2024

I have booked to attend the ASCILITE 2024 computers and education conference at the University of Melbourne, 1 to 4 December (being a joint author on one paper). But conferences with multiple streams can be a bewildering experience, so I like to do a best of, in advance. Here are my picks:

Sunday December 1, 2024 09:00

Third Space Symposium: Working well in tertiary education

Dark Green Room B101 (512 capacity) - 2.12.24 December 2, 2024 15:30

David Parsons et al - What does the Ideal Postgraduate Micro-Credential Look Like? A Student Perspective

Pink Room 153 (150 capacity) - 2.12.24 December 2, 2024 11:00

Ekaterina Pechenkina - Navigating the complex terrain of online professional learning

December 2, 2024 12:00

Taneile Kitchingman et al - Implementing an interactive oral task to assess undergraduate psychology students’ attainment of pre-professional competencies

December 2, 2024 15:30

Amanda Samson et al - From Campus to Career: Leveraging Technology to Improve Work Readiness and Industry Engagement

White Room 453 (60 capacity) - 2.12.24 December 2, 2024 14:10

Mehrasa Alizadeh et al - Investigating the impact of online learning platforms on student engagement and learning outcomes: Comparing Zoom with VR

Light Blue Room 253 Tuesday 3rd December

11:00 - 12:00 Scaling-up technology-enhanced authentic learning across a university-wide curriculum innovation program Presented by Elisa Bone

Dark Blue Room 456

14:10 - 14:30 Navigating the terrain of academic publishing in educational technology Presented by Linda Corrin et al

Wednesday 4th December Light Blue Room 253

11:00 - 12:00 Navigating the Generative AI Response: Reflections from Four Universities Presented by Tania Broadley

Australian Universities Need to Prepare for Post-pandemic Risks

This morning I voted not to freeze Australian National University staff pay. This proposal, formally called "Pay Variation to The Australian National University Enterprise Agreement 2023-2026", was put to staff by the management of the university in response to financial difficulties. I have every confidence the new Vice Chancellor can make changes to improve the university's financial situation, in circumstances not of their making, while meeting commitments to staff. But there will need to be changes to the way education is delivered to meet coming challenges.

A decade before the COVID-19 pandemic, the then ANU VC strongly suggested staff learn to teach better. So I set about learning how to teach students at a research intensive university using modern technology. One issue I identified in my studies was the need to be ready to teach online in the event students were unable to get to campus due to a regional crisis. Having investigated this topic at three universities, I urged Australian universities to put in place contingencies, as had been done at other universities in our region. I was able to help ANU, but unfortunately, Australian universities mostly chose not to follow the example of their regional counterparts, and were less than prepared for a foreseeable and foreseen crisis. University staff did the best they could under difficult circumstances, but not as well as they could have done with proper planning.

Australian universities face ongoing challenges, from international competition, new technologies, a deteriorating international strategic situation, climate change and potential economic shocks. Having failed to prepare for a pandemic has proven to be a poor strategy, as will failing to prepare for these other foreseeable contingencies. In my submission to the Higher Education Review I set out some approaches which could be applied. Recently I visited Singapore institutions, seeing the way they very effectively integrate vocational education.

Ngee Ann Polytechnic

Next on the EduTech Asia 2024 tour of Singapore higher education is Ngee Ann Polytechnic. We are in the Optometry Centre. This is a fully functional centre open to the public and staffed by students.

This is conceptually similar to the Hive in the computer science building at ANU. It is set up as a computer consulting company's office for students to work on projects for real clients.
 

The polytechnic 
features digital automated eye test equipment as well as traditional analogue tools in their space. 

Temasek Polytechnic Singapore

Greetings from Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore. The closest equivalent in Australia would be a large TAFE, such as Canberra Institute of Technology. This is part of the EduTech Asia 2024 conference. We are in the T P Interactive Digital Experiments with AI Studio (IDEAS). This has a false floor, similar to a computer room, allowing easy recalling. There is a theatre style framework to attach screens, lights, & sensors. Students projects using augmented reality are on display.

For engineering students, TP has an advanced manufacturing lab. As well as computer controlled machines, there is a stimulated control centre, with workstations and a wall display. These have been cleverly located in the foyer of the engineering building, rather than hidden away.

E-waste not a major challenge with generativeAI

Wang, Chen, Zhang, Tzachor (2024) suggest that the demand for generative AI will create an e-waste problem of 1.2 to 5.0 million tons  for 2020 to 2030. They also suggest this could be made worse by political restriction on access to more advanced  efficient chips and rapid replacement of old hardware. I suggest the problem is not that large and energy use will remain a larger problem than e-waste.

One aspect the authors do not mention is the lack of price signals between server providers and the end user with current generative AI services. This is likely to be self correcting. Currently demand for generative AI is being generated by offering of free services to the public. As the user is not paying for the service and there is therefore no built in fee for responsible disposal of created e-waste, there may be a later problem. Some speculative AI ventures are likely to become bankrupt leaving a toxic legacy (similar to the mountains of scraped e-bikes left by failed startups). However, as users come to rely on Generative AI services, vendors will introduce charges, which can cover e-waste costs.

Currently generative AI server farms are using generic Graphic Processor Unit chips. These are the same chips used for cryptocurrency server farms. The environmental issues are similar with both. There have been articles about AI consuming as much power as small countries (just as there were for crypto). However, there is more of a mainstream use for AI, which will allow for better long term regulation of environmental effects. With its abundance of renewable energy sources and a stable regulatory environment, Australia could provide a popular location for AI centers. This would allow a small query to be sent across the world and answer sent back, effectively embedding the renewable energy in the answer. 

There may also be scope for reuse of older, slower, more energy using AI chips in locations with abundant renewable energy. As more efficient chips were installed close to the user in high energy cost countries, the old hips would be installed further away. Rather than store energy in batteries to run these chips, it may be cheaper to shut them down when the sun isn't shining & the wind isn't blowing. How to do this is something engineers and computer professionals can learn to optimize with specialist training (Worthington, 2012). 

Reference

Wang, P., Zhang, LY., Tzachor, A. et al. E-waste challenges of generative artificial intelligence. Nat Comput Sci (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43588-024-00712-6

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. https://doi.org/10.1109/ICCSE.2012.6295070

Silent Disco at EduTech Asia

Greetings from stage 2 at EduTech Asia where I am about to have a fireside chat with Professor Angela Lee from Sunway University Malaysia. 

A "fireside chat" format was used, with the speakers in comfortable chairs in a row, each with a microphone. As there was only to of us, we took turns to ask each other prepared questions (although we soon went off script). This made for a comfortable, informal atmosphere. 

As for content, Professor Lee talked about using AI for analysis of the data generated from the student's study, to check how they are doing, offer helpful advice and improve the course. I talked about how I helped teach students to use AI in their assignments.

This is on the expo floor with the roar of delegates, so everyone wears headphones. These are the type used for a Silent Disco. This works well and might be useful for some educational environments.

ps: One question from the floor was on generative AI institutional policy. I was surprised by this as I assumed that by now every educational institution would have a policy and guidelines for staff and students, but apparently not. So I suggested looking at those from the Australian National University:

1. Guide for students: best practice when using Generative AI, ANU 2024
3. Artificial Intelligence including generative AI, ANU Library Guide, 2024
5. Generative AI and data governance, ANU guide for staff
7. ChatGPT and other forms of generative AI, statement from Professor Maryanne Dever, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education and Digital), 2 May 2023
9. AI in Academia: Where does ANU stand with ChatGPT?, Woroni (ANU Student Newspaper), 15.6.2024 
10. AI for learning and assessment, powerpoint presentation for students, 2024

Observation for Learning

Professor Hazel Melanie Ramos,
Nottingham University

Greetings from EduTech Asia 2024 in Singapore. I am attending the first workshop on the use of observation, before the mail conference starts tomorrow. Professor Hazel Melanie Ramos from Nottingham University's Teaching and Learning Observation College is talking about how teachers can learn from observing peers and being observed in their class technique. An online tool is used to prompt the participants. The approach can be applied from primary school teaching to university. One example given was for the Higher Education Academy fellowship process. 

ps: I am speaking tomorrow at EduTech on AI and curriculum.