Here is a recommendation for educators at all levels interested in a broad perspecctive on present AI applications in education. Lawrence Holt has updated his and colleagues’ existing work titled “A map of generative AI for education”. This work describes the multiple ways AI is being used by educators, learners, and administrators and provides links to a large selection of applications available to implement these applications. This is a great and complete work identifying many applications and services I had not tried. For any educator, you will learn something new from this content.
As a side note, this resource is provided through Medium. Medium is a subscription service asking that readers pay $5 a month for access to all content. Compared to approaches such as Substack that charge a similar amount for each author you follow, this is a great bargain. With Medium, authors receive compensation depending on the popularity of their contributions. The $5 is divided based on what you read with a percentage going to Medium. I do publish some of my longer articles on Medium and I have yet to generate enough revenue to cover the cost of my membership. I don’t expect to generate a lot of income. I value the principle that those who invest time producing quality content should be compensated in some way. The article I link here is a great example of why. The research that went into this work must have been extensive and assumptions that this work does not deserve compensation is absurd.
I bring up this point based on a personal observation. I am an educational technologist so I write both about technology and about education. With Medium, I find that what I write about technology receives a good deal of attention while what I have to say about education less so. My true expertise would suggest the opposite reaction should be the case. My hypothesis is that this response reflects core values and expectations.
Online content and how it is delivered seems to be at a cross road of a sort. Free services are criticized because these services collect information about readers that allows targeted ads and manipulative propaganda. This is especially the case when 3rd party cookies are allowed, These criticisms are legitimate. The alternative is really subscription-based services.