Forty seconds of learning and technology

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 of the JTELSS, we adapted Pecha Kucha as a session where each participant will present themselves in 40 seconds, using only one slide. 

Be creative and help us know you better within this time frame!

Be mindful that you have only 40 seconds to introduce yourself. 

Ideas: information about yourself, your background, your country, your hobbies & passions, your research interests, etc.

The slide has to be static (no videos, no animations, no sound).

Its hard to make a 40 second slide exciting. So I dreamed up the idea of a Graffiti wall with a few educational technology slogans and then has an even better idea of asking my colleague Angela to do the graphics (because she is much better with Canva than me). And the result is above. I like it.

But back to the workshop. The title is DIY AI and this was our proposal to the JTEL summer school organisers.

Needs Analysis

The use of AI in education is not new, But the rapid development and spread of Generative AI, following the release of Chat GPT in November 2023 has provoked serious debates over both the short term and longer term future of education with the widespread adoption and use of Generative AI. However there is also widespread disquiet as to the influence and role of large technology organisations, the cost of access to Large Language Models, the lack of pedagogic understanding in many AI applications and the lack of agency for teachers, trainers and learners using Generative AI.

Based on research from the Erasmus+ large scale AI Pioneer project, the DIY AI workshop will examine how educational organisations can utilise Open Source AI models including Small Language models to develop their own approaches to learning based on Generative AI. The workshop will also consider how researchers and educational practitioners can work together in developing such approaches and how collaboration can be sustained between different educational providers.  .

Learning Objectives

Participants will:

• Consider the impact of Generative AI on education
• Examine Open Source AI applications
• Develop guidelines for developing 'home grown' applications for learning
• Reflect on how AI Pioneers from research and proactive can work together to develop DIY AI applications

Outcomes:

An outline of a Handbook for developing Open Source projects on AI in Education (participants will be invited to finalize the handbook in a collaborative co-editing environment to be published by the AI Pioneers project).

An understanding of the potential development and use of Open Source AI models and applications in education.

I'll report back on how it went next week.