tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4729408071195993362024-03-19T13:14:47.575+11:00Higher Education WhispererCourse Design, Teaching and Research.Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.comBlogger2016125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-89017762165504268072024-03-19T13:13:00.007+11:002024-03-19T13:13:55.440+11:00Supporting students during placementsDr. Romany Martin, University of Tasmania, talked just now on "Supporting allied health students during rural placements" in the regular ACEN Research Conversations webinar. It struck me how much there was in common with computer students on placements at small organisations. One issue not discussed was the problem of scale. Dr Martin mentioned a supervisor who personally deliveredTom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-77245937172474535272024-03-12T11:06:00.012+11:002024-03-12T13:35:55.500+11:00Catastrophic Risks in Artificial IntelligenceGreetings from the Australian National University Colloquium on Artificial Intelligence and Catastrophic Risk. Normally I attend weekly AI, ML and Friends Seminars in the ANU School of Computing, but today I am in the social sciences building, with philosophers. The colloquium is by the ANU Machine Intelligence and Normative Theory Lab. In the first presentation by Professor Seth Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-32934231694581543972024-03-09T08:55:00.001+11:002024-03-09T08:55:03.497+11:00SoundPEATS RunFree Lite Open Ear Headphones for WebinarsThe SoundPEATS RunFree Lite Open Ear Headphones work well for webinars. I have tried a lot of headphones, earbuds, and more exotic gadgets, but these seem the most practical. The sound quality is good, they are loud enough, easy to put on & stay in place. They don't interfere with my glasses. The battery lasts much longer than Bose Smart Glasses, for a fraction of the price. One Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-12568721636807904842024-03-06T17:41:00.003+11:002024-03-17T10:00:15.323+11:00March First Wednesday ConnectGreetings from March CBRIN First Wednesday Connect at Canberra Airport. At the moment we are hearing about how the Airport uses robot mowers. I am not sure where the robot dog fits in.Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-11482465657024269312024-03-06T13:13:00.008+11:002024-03-07T11:26:38.955+11:00Australian Government Trial of Generative AI for Law, Education, Health, and Aged CareThe Digital Transformation Agency has announced 50 Australian Public Service (APS) agencies are conducting a 6-month trial of Copilot (Microsoft's implementation of Chat GPT), ending June 2024. Staff first take learning module. Agencies have also been given some general guidance, on Accountability, Transparency, Explainability, Privacy, Fairness, and Wellbeing. Agencies where AI could be Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-79785475985759166942024-03-06T11:00:00.008+11:002024-03-06T11:24:50.671+11:00Open Education Week, 4-8 March 2024Greetings from Athabasca University (AU), Canada, where I am attending an Open Education Week event on "Exploring Openness in Education 2024". The audience is mostly M.Ed. and Ed. Doc students and faculty. Am one of the alumni, having completed my MEd in 2017. The panel includes Dr. Rory McGreal, who was one of my Professors when I studied at AU. I am not actually in Canada (I have Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-4810180357806768492024-03-05T13:31:00.003+11:002024-03-05T13:31:09.906+11:00Education and the Ripple Effect With China's Presence in SE AsiaGreetings from the Australian National University School of Regulation and Global Governance, where Associate Professor Enze Han is talking about his new book "The Ripple Effect: China's Complex Presence in Southeast Asia" (Oxford University Press, 2024). Dr. Han talked about the economic, as well as political support which China provides to countries of the region. At Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-83795740722974056822024-03-01T16:06:00.000+11:002024-03-01T16:06:01.643+11:00Automated MisspellingWhile I was pontificating about AI for learning this morning, my bemused colleagues were looking at the spelling mistakes in my blog. A check of the browser's list of spelling exceptions showed that somehow I had told it these were acceptable: adfvice, aemail, aletr, amagating, arile, benifit, faciliting, preditions, quailty, realise, and (worst of all) studnts. I have now deleted these and will Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-40747740200885553962024-03-01T11:00:00.000+11:002024-03-01T11:00:04.801+11:00Australian Universities Accord Final Report: According to Generative AIFor the fun of it I asked Microsoft Copilot to summarize and critique the Australian Universities Accord Final Report. Here is what it came up with. ;-)Summary:The Australian Universities Accord Final Report, released by the Hon Jason Clare MP, Minister for Education, contains 47 recommendations aimed at reforming higher education to meet Australia’s future skills needs. Here Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-79194272366818666452024-02-29T12:41:00.005+11:002024-03-04T09:04:15.012+11:00Australian Universities Accord report: Some Final ThoughtsAustralian Universities AccordFinal Report, 25 February 2024It has taken me a full day to work my way through the 44 recommendations of the Australian Universities Accord final report (25 February 2024). The headline items are the later recommendations are the later ones to do with funding. What was disappointing was that the Panel did not explore new forms of tertiary education. Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-67250076849109491092024-02-29T11:57:00.002+11:002024-03-04T09:11:33.921+11:00Universities Accord Report: No New funding modelAustralian Universities AccordFinal Report, 25 February 2024
Australian Universities Accord final report (25 February 2024), waited until recommendation 40 to get to what is always the big issue in tertiary education: the funding model. The Panel focuses on skills needs for Australia, equitable access for students, balanced with a demand driven approach. Part of this already mentioned are Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-49717019792522415172024-02-29T09:55:00.003+11:002024-03-04T09:17:16.184+11:00Universities Accord Report: International and Regional Education Needs Credible Online OfferingsAustralian Universities AccordFinal Report, 25 February 2024
Despite the export revenue from, and controversy over, international education, the Australian Universities Accord final report (25 February 2024), waited until recommendation 22 before addressing the topic. The focus of the recommendations is aligment between what Australian tertiary instutions, both universities and vocational Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-71585277243514207362024-02-28T16:58:00.002+11:002024-02-28T16:58:16.832+11:00Teaching Green Computing Online: 15 Years of Student Engagement via NudgingI will be speaking on "Teaching Green Computing Online: 15 Years of Student Engagement via Nudging" at the HERDSA Online Engagement in Higher Education Special Interest Group, 1pm, 10 April 2024."In 2008 the Australian Computer Society commissioned Tom Worthington to design an online course in green computing. This course formed part of the Australian Computer Society’s professional development Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-32226373828280290322024-02-25T15:34:00.003+11:002024-03-04T09:21:58.989+11:00Australian Universities Accord Final Report: Mostly GoodAustralian Universities Accord Final Report, 25 February 2024
The Australian Universities Accord Panel, chaired by Professor Mary O’Kane, has released a 408 page final report (25 February 2024). Some of the suggestions I made in my submission (and no doubt many others made), found their way into the report).There is also a Summary Report by the Department of Education, which at 34 pages is Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-60013429637740207922024-02-22T08:59:00.000+11:002024-02-22T08:59:15.415+11:00What country does Generative AI use as much power and water as?Generative AI is the new bitcoin. Pundits used to compete for which
country they could compare Bitcoin's power use with. Some nominated
were: Greece, Ireland, * Netherlands, and New Zealand. I put a section on this in my Sustainable Computing course.I tried asking Copilot:"What country does Microsoft Copilot use as much power and water as?"It replied:"Microsoft Copilot, like all datacenters, Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-60528671650720566352024-02-20T11:47:00.006+11:002024-02-20T14:44:04.505+11:00Learning to Reflect in the Age of AI This semester I am aiming to take a tentative step into AI for teaching. This will be in three workshops planned at ANU, for the computer project student's capstone e-portfolio for the ANU Techlauncher program. The students have to prepare a portfolio in the form of an application for a real job. The question was: do we try to ban students from using generative AI to help them with Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-80200176820952669082024-02-18T18:38:00.005+11:002024-02-18T18:45:05.178+11:00Australia Can Offer Low Cost Online International Education and Premium On-campus at the Same TimeIn a recent preprint, Heller and Leede (2024) find that the third of Australian university students who are on-campus international tend to come from high GDP countries. The researchers propose that instead Australia provide low cost online education for the benifit of developing nations of the region. While well meaning, I suggest Heller and Leede, need to consider how to make such a Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-66011463196009084402024-02-09T13:09:00.003+11:002024-02-09T13:09:21.110+11:00Effective Learning Techniques Versus Feeling in Education Policy DevelopmentIn the last short talk at Team-Based Learning Collaborative Asia Pacific Community Symposium was by Prof Judy Currey at Deakin University. Professor Currey cited Deslauriers (2019), on the well known phenomenon that students prefer passive learning. It occurred to me that this might also apply to policy makers and legislators, who think that students learn best when listening to a Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-82241516345909501842024-02-09T11:39:00.002+11:002024-02-09T11:42:05.087+11:00Meet my AI alter egoPhillip Parannik, and Finn JohnsonAt day 2 of the Team-Based Learning Collaborative Asia Pacific Community Symposium we have been learning how to create AI characters to be used as tutors, & simulated clients for students. I was very skeptical of the idea, but in a few minutes I created "Tom", a simulation of me, for teaching computer students. I can now retire. ;-)This is Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-35327786056650917282024-02-09T09:27:00.008+11:002024-02-19T10:53:20.820+11:00Team Based Learning Helped with Remote LearningLarry K. MichaelsenGreetings from day 2 of the Team-Based Learning Collaborative Asia Pacific Community Symposium. The keynote today is Larry K. Michaelsen, pioneer of Team Based Learning (TBL). He said that teams formed slower online than face to face, also that technology had provided more options for prework. Also Dr Michaelsen reminisced about the marked sense card readersTom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-962450317673082292024-02-08T15:45:00.001+11:002024-02-08T15:45:27.345+11:00Online Team Based LearningGreetings from the first workshop at Team-Based Learning Collaborative Asia Pacific Community Symposium. Rosa Howard, University of Sydney, is talking on "Adapting TBL to Changing Times". This highlighted the benefits of providing text base input, as opposed from verbal. This raises an interesting issue as to if graduates need to be able to confidently talk in front of large Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-32321497263822846102024-02-08T13:53:00.004+11:002024-02-08T14:54:06.109+11:00The Fear of Failure & TBLGreetings from the first workshop at Team-Based Learning Collaborative Asia Pacific Community Symposium. This is using Intedashboard software and ChatGPT. Something which slowly dawned on me during the morning session was that the medical educators were using Team Based Learning (TBL) not as a general term for learning in teams, but a very specific methodology. I felt a bit like the student who Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-87832776460913527812024-02-08T09:57:00.002+11:002024-02-09T08:05:41.539+11:00Team Based Learning & AIProfessor Simon Buckingham ShumGreetings from the University of Sydney where I am taking part in the Team-Based Learning Collaborative Asia Pacific Community Symposium. Most of the staff are from USyd medical schools, but I fell at home as we are talking about experiential learning. The keynote is Professor Simon Buckingham Shum, Director of the UTS Connected Intelligence Centre, being Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-32679761929366627452024-02-06T09:54:00.005+11:002024-02-10T09:05:07.096+11:00Learning & Teaching This YearProfessor Abby CathcartGreetings from the ANU Learning & Teaching Day: Connect & Inspire. Professor Abby Cathcart, QUT Director Student Success & Teaching Advancement, addressed putting joy back into university study. She pointed out the difficulties with online learning during the pandemic. As she pointed out this was made worse by it being used as an emergency measure, andTom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-472940807119599336.post-76086699253665455012024-02-05T15:45:00.005+11:002024-02-05T15:49:13.702+11:00Climate Update 2024: Extraordinarily Hot Globally Greetings from the Climate Update 2024 at the Australian National University (ANU) where Genevieve Bell, the new Vice-Chancellor reflected on Nugget Coombs, who took her ten pin bowling. Dr Coombs is better know as one of the founders and early VCs of the ANU. Dr Bell pointed out that her predecessor had envisaged the University not just carrying out scholarship for its own sake, but addressing Tom Worthingtonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18437898895608697334noreply@blogger.com0