AI

One of the major concerns about ethics and accountability with the fast growing adoption of AI in all areas of society including education is the transparency of algorithms. We know that they can suffer from bias: datasets for training AI often reflect wider prejudices withing society and amplify those prejudices. Nut perhaps even more concerning is that it is often impossible to understand how an algorithm is working: it is a black box.

The European Commission has recently announced that it is establishing the European Centre for Algorithmic Transparency (ECAT) which it says will contribute to a safer, more predictable and trusted online environment for people and business.

They go on to say:

"How algorithmic systems shape the visibility and promotion of content, and its societal and ethical impact, is an area of growing concern. Measures adopted under the Digital Services Act (DSA) call for algorithmic accountability and transparency audits.

The ECAT contributes with scientific and technical expertise to the European Commission's exclusive supervisory and enforcement role of the systemic obligations on Very Large Online Platforms (VLOPs) and Very Large Online Search Engines (VLOSEs) provided for under the DSA.

Scientists and experts working at the ECAT will cooperate with industry representatives, academia, and civil society organisations to improve our understanding of how algorithms work: they will analyse transparency, assess risks, and propose new transparent approaches and best practices."

AI Pioneers is a new Erasmus+ Large Scale project. Building on the successful Taccle AI project, AI pioneers is scheduled to start early in 2023. I'll be posting more details about how you can get involved in teh near future.

But here for teh moment is the project summary as in the application form.

UNESCO says AI has the potential to accelerate the process of achieving the global education goals through reducing barriers to accessing learning, automating management processes, and optimizing methods to improve learning outcomes. Education will be profoundly transformed by AI. A high performing digital education ecosystem will increasingly include the use of AI at all levels including for teaching and learning. “Digital technology, when deployed skillfully and effectively by educators, can fully support the agenda of high quality and inclusive education and training for all learners.” (European Digital Action Plan). Local knowledge and capacity is critical for effective adoption and shaping of AIEd, and new scaling models are needed. According to the JRC the EU needs a “clearing house” that helps teachers and policy-makers make sense of the fast developments in this area. The project will be cross sectoral in VET and Adult Education. Central to our application is to build a reference network
of AI Pioneers(trainers, stakeholders, policy makers and educational planners) for promoting the use and teaching of AI in Adult Education and VET. AI Pioneers will act as reference points for the design and implementation of future educational projects related to AI at regional, national and European levels. Further objectives include policy recommendations, toolkits and implementation guidelines for AI Pioneers; to identify, develop, and pilot use cases of artificial intelligence in education; to develop a supplement to the DigCompEDU Framework describing the skills and competences of teachers and trainers related to AI in Education; to develop guidelines (in line with existing EU policies) for ethical and trustworthy use of AI in education. The project will involve stakeholders throughout the AI system’s life cycle, fostering training and education so that all stakeholders understand the issues in developing ethical and trustworthy approaches to the use of AI in education.

Over the years education and training has developed a vocabulary of its own. And I remember some years ago when I was doing a training the trainers course, we had long debates about the meaning of terms like curriculum and pedagogy and even assessment.

So it is not surprising that adding Artificial Intelligence into the mix, makes things pretty tricky. So much so, that the UK Jisc National Centre for AI has undertaken to develop a glossary of terms association with AI in educational technology. Jisc say "Like any field, AI is full of specialist terms. There are quite a few glossaries of AI terms available, but we think it might be useful to create one focused on AI in educational technology – including ed tech specific terms, putting terms in context, and linking to examples."

They provide examples from Wikipedia, Nesta, The Turing Centre and the UK's Information Commissioner Office. And they go on to provide the first draft of their glossary aimed at AI in Ed Tech. "It’s not intended to be a definitive list at this point, but more as a starting point to get feedback on whether this approach looks useful." Looks useful to me, if only to save us time producing glossaries for various AI and ed-tech publications and web resources.

I used to be critical at the failure / slowness of sociology to develop critical accounts of the impact of digitalisation and the rise of the internet, This seems to be fast changing, especially in the growing critiques of the use of technology for learning.

I just received an email about a new book by Christian Fuchs entitled 'Digital Humanism. A Philosophy for 21st Century Digital Society.' Christian says:

Our contemporary global digital society is not always a good place to live. Authoritarianism, hatred, false news, post-truth culture, the COVID-19 anti-vaccination movement, COVID-19 conspiracy theories, and political polarisation are organised via the Internet. The public sphere is highly polarised. Today, many humans tend to think of other humans mainly in terms of friends and enemies. Robots and Artificial Intelligence-based automation have created new challenges for the world of work. Decades of neoliberalism have increased inequalities. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the vulnerability of humanity to viruses and health crises.

Humanity and society are in a major crisis and digitalisation mediates this crisis. /Digital Humanism/ explores how Humanism can help us to critically understand how digital technologies shape society and humanity, providing an introduction to Humanism in the digital age. Fuchs introduces the approach of Digital Humanism and outlines foundations of a Radical Digital Humanism, analysing what decolonisation of academia and the study of the digital, media and communication means; what the roles are of robots, automation, and Artificial Intelligence in digital capitalism, and how the communication of death and dying has been mediated by digital technologies, capitalist necropower, and digital capitalism. In order to save humanity and society, we need Radical Digital Humanism now.

And Eva Illouz, Director of Studies at EHESS, Paris, says:

Digital Humanism is the book we have been waiting for. … Digital Humanism refuses to transform humans into machines and to think of machines as humans. This is why this book is such an important and timely intervention.

More information and sample reading can we got from https://fuchsc.uti.at/books/digital-humanism/