#AIinEd

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/

On May 6, Graham Attwell and Angela Karadog from Pontydysgu, together with our colleague George Bekiaridis from ACP in Athens, are taking part in a panel session at the CIISE International Congress on Social and Educational Inclusion at The University of the Basque Country in Bilbao, Spain.

The panel is being organised through the AI@School project, funded by the EU Erasmus+ programme with the theme of Artificial Intelligence and Educational Inclusion. UNESCO are promoting the use of AI in education, seeing it as a key technology for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals in making education available to all young people. Yet there remain persistent concerns over the ethics of AI and the growing commercialisation of education through educational technology.

The panel session will be streamed and you are all welcome to attend. But even more, please ask the panel your questions around inclusion and AI. We will be taking questions on the day. But we are also gathering questions in advance on a Google page. Just add your questions to the list. Ad if you would like us to name check you, add your name and where you are from.

The Taccle AI and VET project has been working with the BBS 2 vocational school in Wolfsburg, Germany. The school has close links with industry, particularly Volkswagen who have a major manufacturing plant in Wolfsburg. They are developing a series of projects around Industry 4.0 which is largely based on digitalisation, data and the use of Artificial Intelligence. The school has recently produced a video in English (see bottom of page on the Foraus website) entitled Smart factory - Industry 4.0 in Vocational Education and Training. They say:

Teaching the complex interrelationships of Industry 4.0 in vocational training places new demands on training staff and makes modern teaching concepts necessary. At BBS 2 - the „Vocational School 2" - in Wolfsburg, this has led to a conceptual change in the vocational training of automation and mechatronics technicians.

In this deductive approach (from general to specific), the training begins with a digital overall system that serves as a model for professional action. System interrelationships, structure, modes of operation, malfunctions and problem solutions can be taught, learned and discovered using the model of a smart factory as an example. Based on this, the individual components and subsystems can then be understood and comprehended within the overall system.

In the classroom, the complex technologies and processes of Industry 4.0 become tangible in the truest sense of the word. Here, trainees for automation technology and dual students have developed and built a compact smart factory filling system themselves. It works with the same technical components as a production plant in industry.
To support the young people's independent learning, the trainees have developed a learning platform, which also serves the cooperation between training, school, production and industry partners.