Improving skills and competences of VET teachers and trainers in the age of Artificial Intelligence
Employer Engagement Virtual International Research Conference – Preparing Young People for the Future, hosted by Education and Employers in partnership with the Edge Foundation.
July 1 / 2 2021
The Preparation of leaners, teachers and trainers in the age of Artificial Intelligence
Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu and Sophia Roppertz, University of Bremen
The Association for Learning Technologies in the UK (ALT) has the strategic aim of strengthening recognition and representation for Learning Technology professionals from all sectors. one of the priorities Members identified for this year is to develop an ethical framework for Learning Technology. They have developed a professional accreditation framework, CMALT, and last year extended it to include ethical considerations for professional practice and research last year.
They are now developing a framework that can be used as a starting point for informing the ethical use of Learning Technology by professionals, institutions and industry and, they say, "have worked to define a set of ethical principles which will form the core of the new framework alongside tools including for example a checklist or reflective questionnaire, to help individuals, institutions and industry to see how these principles are put into action.:
They have now launched a Consultation, open until 5 June 2021, and are looking for feedback and input via a questionnaire to help finalise the framework ahead of the launch in September.
European Distance Learning Network (EDEN)
National Distance Education University UNED, Spain
21 - 24 June
Workshop: AI and Vocational Education and Training – Discussing ethical implications
Graham Attwell, Pontydysgu, Sophia Roppertz and Ludger Deitmer, University of Bremen
geralt (CC0), Pixabay
I appreciate this is very short notice but at 1800 CEST today, Joseph Stiglitz is talking with Anton Korienek about AI and Inequality. The event is organised by the Centre for the Governance of AI.
The event's webpage says
Over the next decades, AI will dramatically change the economic landscape. It may also magnify inequality, both within and across countries. Joseph E. Stiglitz, Nobel Laureate in Economics, will join us for a conversation with Anton Korinek on the economic consequences of increased AI capabilities. They will discuss the relationship between technology and inequality, the potential impact of AI on the global economy, and the economic policy and governance challenges that may arise in an age of transformative AI. Korinek and Stiglitz have co-authored several papers on the economic effects of AI.
Joseph Stiglitzis University Professor at Columbia University. He is also the co-chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress at the OECD, and the Chief Economist of the Roosevelt Institute. A recipient of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences (2001) and the John Bates Clark Medal (1979), he is a former senior vice president and chief economist of the World Bank and a former member and chairman of the US President's Council of Economic Advisers. Known for his pioneering work on asymmetric information, Stiglitz's research focuses on income distribution, risk, corporate governance, public policy, macroeconomics and globalization.
Anton Korinek is an Associate Professor at the University of Virginia, Department of Economics and Darden School of Business as well as a Research Associate at the NBER, a Research Fellow at the CEPR and a Research Affiliate at the Centre for the Governance of AI. His areas of expertise include macroeconomics, international finance, and inequality. His most recent research investigates the effects of progress in automation and artificial intelligence for macroeconomic dynamics and inequality.
Hopefully a recording will be available after the event and I will post it somewhere here.
geralt (CC0), Pixabay
This may be of interest to some readers. One of the issues with AI and data science is that it is leading to pressure for change in vocational education and training. In the UK there is a particular shortage of data specialists. And in response, last year a new apprenticeship standard was released for Artificial Intelligence Data Specialists. The 24 month "typical duration to gateway" (I think this means typical length of the apprenticeship) as developed by the following employers: British Broadcasting Corporation, Public Health England, Bank of England, Royal Mail Group, Unilever, TUI, Aviva, Shop Direct, Defence Science Technology Laboratory – MOD, Ericsson, First Response Finance LTD, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, EasyJet, BT, Barclays, Machinable, Office of National Statistics, UBS.
The overview of the role says it is to "Discover new artificial intelligence solutions that use data to improve and automate business processes."
The Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education web page goes on to say
The broad purpose of the occupation is to discover and devise new data-driven AI solutions to automate and optimise business processes and to support, augment and enhance human decision-making. AI Data Specialists carry out applied research in order to create innovative data-driven artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to business problems within the constraints of a specific business context. They work with datasets that are too large, too complex, too varied or too fast, that render traditional approaches and techniques unsuitable or unfeasible.
AI Data Specialists champion AI and its applications within their organisation and promote adoption of novel tools and technologies, informed by current data governance frameworks and ethical best practices.
They deliver better value products and processes to the business by advancing the use of data, machine learning and artificial intelligence; using novel research to increase the quality and value of data within the organisation and across the industry. They communicate, internally and externally, with technology leaders and third parties.