Author: Graham Attwell

Everything can change very fast when Generative AI is involved. Only a few weeks ago I was writing about how although a number of occupations had been hit hard by Gen AL, in general the jobs outlook was relatively good. If course the present USA economic policy (if it can be called that) does not help in trying to work out what is going on. The latest alarm seems to have been kicked off by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei who said that ordinary people are not ready for the changes AI is about to unleash on the world. In a […]

Introduction Debates over the future of AI in education continue apace. There is increasing advocacy for AI as a public good, and for building on Open Source Software. I originally intended to write just one blog on these ideas but it rapidly grew in length so now I intend to post it as a mini series. This short blog series will guide European teachers and trainers through the key concepts and practical implications of Public AI for education. We’ll explore how open source AI models can provide more transparent and equitable alternatives to commercial systems, examine real-world examples of European […]

Sometimes the sheer volume of posts, newsletters, opinions about AI and education can feel overwhelming. And given the amount of this that seemingly comes from AI, the quality is not always great. But recently there seems to be an encouraging move towards people writing well thought out essays which agree with them or not are raising important issues. One which has made me think is ‘Beyond Augmentation: Toward a Posthumanist Epistemology for AI and Education’, by J. OwenMatson who, his website says, “explores literature, film, art, AI, and educational technology through the lenses of cognition, media theory, and philosophy—tracing how […]

I was in a discussion about common myths about AI. And I wasn’t so sure they were myths. AI is definitely not the all singing, all dancing solution it is being promoted as to solve all the problems around education. But it is true that their are commonly held myths or ideas about AI, which generally apply to all technology. So I had some fun trying to write up some of these in just a paragraph. Misconception #1 Generative AI is AI (only AI)  A common misconception in education is equating artificial intelligence solely with generative AI tools like ChatGPT […]

Is AI a threat to jobs? Repeated opinion polls have shown high levels of concern in many countries. Up to now the evidence has been at best contradictory but that has not stopped growing disquiet as the large technology companies developing ever more sophisticated Large Language Models promote their applications as boosting productivity (Agents are the latest craze). The futurist, Gerd Leonhard points to the new startup, ‘Mechanize.work’ which he says lays it out clearly: *”Today we’re announcing Mechanize, a startup focused on developing virtual work environments, benchmarks, and training data that will enable the full automation of the economy. But, […]

The debate on regulating AI has not gone away. The European Union is moving ahead with the implementation of the the Artificial Intelligence Act (AI Act). It establishes a common regulatory and legal framework for AI within the European Union and came into force in August 2024, although measures will come into operation gradually over the next nine or so months. The Act regulates the providers of AI systems and entities using AI in a professional context and classifies AI applications by their risk of causing harm. There are four levels – unacceptable, high, limited, minimal – plus an additional […]

I have to admit to being a bit of a data nerd. Most of my time has been spent looking for Labour Market Data which can inform people in their career choice. There is increasing availability through using technology to scrape job adverts. But the hard bit is making sense of all this data. And this table showing how much people in different countries trust AI illustrates the point. Why is Spain the country in Europe with the most trust for AI? And why is Finland bottom of the table in trusting AI? The table comes from a new publication […]

Next week together with George Bekiaridis I am facilitating a workshop at the Joint Ecology Enhanced Learning (JTEL) summer school in Crete. And a week or so ago I had an email: Dear JTELSS25 participant, We are inviting you to our Pecha Kucha session, which will take place on the first working day of the summer school (Monday 12th, May). The purpose of the session is to get to know each other better.  Pecha Kucha (Japanese: chit-chat) is a simple presentation format where a presenter shows 20 slides for 20 seconds of commentary each. For the needs and time limitations […]

There’s a pretty intense debate going on over the impact of AI on work. Some researchers have pointed to the lack of convincing use cases for AI in many industries and occupations. Others have pointed to the need for transforming workplaces if the introduction of AI is to result in markedly higher levels of productivity, saying this process will be relatively slow. Microsoft say that AI is emerging as a true assistant—an active collaborator that is fundamentally reshaping how enterprises operate. Their recent Work Trends Report introduces the concept of the “Frontier Firm,” a new organizational archetype where hybrid teams […]

Open Praxis is a peer-reviewed open access scholarly journal focusing on research and innovation in open, distance, and flexible education. The aim of Open Praxis is to provide a platform for global collaboration and discussion of issues in the practice of open, online, and distance education. And in an editorial 47 authors have published ‘The Manifesto for Teaching and Learning in a Time of Generative AI: A Critical Collective Stance to Better Navigate the Future’. “Algorithms now shape human interaction, communication, and content creation”, they say, “raising profound questions about human agency and biases and values embedded in their designs. […]