Educator’s Notebook #461 (September 22, 2024)
INTRODUCTION
Data on teaching history today, on Gen Z, on demographics, and more
Great posts this week!
In the features, find an excellent survey by the American Historical Association on how 3,000 middle and high school teachers are teaching history in a time of political polarization. Also find an excellent video by What Schools Could Be on the strength of teaching in teams. Team teaching was one of the best experiences I had as a teacher, and providing more opportunities for doing it is an excellent approach to supporting morale and retention — and quality of teaching.
Also this week, find excellent information on Gen Z (in Adolescence), on the remarkable bill signed in California about social media (in Social Media), on the opportunity to reimagine school through the lens of joy (in Pedagogy), and much more.
For those of you in the US, if you haven’t yet created voter registration opportunities for students who are old enough, here is a link to vote.gov.
And don’t miss a wild video from a mountain biker for teaching physics, some low-stress strategies for oral presentations, and some ground-breaking (literally?) posts in the AI section.
These and more, enjoy!
Peter
What makes a great teacher? (See the survey in Adolescence)
FEATURED
How Are History Teachers Teaching In A Time Of Polarization?
“The survey paints an unusually detailed portrait of how the nation’s history is being taught during an era of intense political polarization. It reached 3,000 middle and high school teachers across nine states: Alabama, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia and Washington.”
Teaching in Teams: Rethinking What School Could Look Like [Video]
“I go out to schools and I interview teachers asking them… why they want to stay at their school, and teaming is the first thing that I hear.”
ADOLESCENCE
Gen Z Perspectives On School
“57% of students report that the best teacher they ever had was energetic and excited about what they were teaching. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of Gen Zers also say this teacher cared about them as a person — a factor that is more important than several substantive teaching qualities, such as making the content easy to understand (62%) or helping students learn difficult material (46%).”
ASSESSMENT
CREATIVITY
DIVERSITY/INCLUSION
“US Population By Race 1990 - 2023” [Infographic]
“Why Some Christians Don’t Want To Bring The Bible Into Public Schools”
Dartmouth President: Make Decisions Based On Evidence, Not Politics
HUMANITIES
“The Questions At The Heart Of Conflict And Peace”
The Power Broker, At 50 - Why Has It Lasted?
“The Crisis Of Epistemic Authority”
“Much of our knowledge of the world comes not from direct sensory experience, but from reliance on epistemic authorities: individuals or institutions that tell us what we ought to believe… Sustaining epistemic authority depends, crucially, on social institutions that inculcate reliable second-order norms about whom to believe about what. The traditional media were crucial, in the age of mass democracy, with promulgating and sustaining such norms. The internet has obliterated the intermediaries who made that possible, and, in the process, undermined the epistemic standing of actual experts.”
LANGUAGE
LEADERSHIP
PEDAGOGY
“Low-Stress Strategies For Students Oral Presentations”
On Creating Joyful Schools
“Joy is not just a nice-to-have; it is a crucial element of meaningful learning. When students are engaged in playful, joyful activities, their brains are more receptive to new ideas, and their learning is deeper and more lasting.”
READING/WRITING
SAFETY
SOCIAL MEDIA
California Signs A Remarkable Social Media Regulation Bill
“The law, which will go into effect in 2027, effectively requires tech companies to make posts on feeds of minors’ social media accounts appear in chronological order as a default, rather than allowing algorithms to curate them to maximize engagement. The bill also prohibits companies from sending notifications to people under 18 during school hours, from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on weekdays from September through May, and during sleep hours, between midnight and 6 a.m. The default settings can be changed with the consent of a parent or guardian.”
“Almost Half Of Gen Z Wishes… X And TikTok Didn’t Exist”
STEM
Using Mountain Bike Flips On A Moving Train To Show Newtonian Mechanics
“The train and rider moved at the same speed in opposite directions, which made it seem as though, from the perspective of someone on the ground next to the train, that the rider is nearly horizontally stationary.”
SUSTAINABILITY
Climate Anxiety Is Ubiquitous Among Students
“According to our survey data, 78 percent of the students who responded indicated that climate change made them anxious about their future and 88 percent reported that they are anxious for future generations. As one respondent put it in an open response question, “This is our future, and we’re watching it be destroyed.” Another wrote: “There has been so much damage and loss of life as a result of climate change that I feel as though I’m becoming numb to it — it’s just the new normal, especially for my generation.”
Total Wind Installations By Country, As Of 2023 [Infographic]
Are Climate Change And AI The Only Risks That Matter?
GENERAL
The Case Grows For Plant Intelligence, Now Moral Considerations Emerge
“Henning and his colleagues have shown that the plant alters the timing of this move depending on how often it expects a pollinator to stop by. If bees are visiting frequently, Nasa poissoniana raises its stamens at short intervals; if the visits are rare, the plant waits longer. Should the interval between apian callers change, Nasa poissoniana adjusts its pace. “They obviously are able to count the time between the visits and keep that memory,” Henning observes. Although plants don’t possess brains or even, as far as anyone can tell, any structures that resemble neurons, still they take in information and respond to it. “This to me is the basic definition of intelligence,” Henning says.”
Spell Your Name With Satellite Pictures Of Earth
“Type in your name to see it spelled out in Landsat imagery of Earth!”
“Private School Choice In The 2024 Election, Explained”
A.I. Update
A.I. UPDATE
New models, new pedagogy, old power sources
Extraordinary developments this week.
The one that stopped me in my tracks was the article about Microsoft reopening a shuttered nuclear power plant — and purchasing all of the energy it puts off for the next 20 years, just to power AI. I can’t think of a much bigger signal of the extraordinary scope of the era we are entering.
More abstractly but perhaps equally as consequential: OpenAI has released a new model that has a degree of reasoning ability. This is an important milestone, but it will likely take a few years for us to begin seeing common use cases of this in education.
More practically, the other feature is the webinar by AI for Education that proposes new ways to reimagine assessment. What would it look like to grade chats instead of essays — to grade process instead of product. Check it out for more.
See the section on Education below for more valuable sources in your journey to engaging AI in school.
These and more, enjoy!
Peter
How do teens use generative AI? (See more in the Axios post, and more detail in the excellent Common Sense Media report)
TECH/AI: FEATURED
Microsoft To Reopen A Nuclear Power Plant — Just For Powering AI
“Pennsylvania’s dormant Three Mile Island nuclear plant would be brought back to life to feed the voracious energy needs of Microsoft under an unprecedented deal announced Friday in which the tech giant would buy 100 percent of its power for 20 years.”
“Stop Grading Essays, Start Grading Chats: Reimagining Assessment”
“This webinar explored innovative approaches to assessment in the era of generative AI, featuring educator Mike Kentz's experiences and insights from a year of experimenting with grading AI chats in his ninth-grade English classroom.”
The State of Play In AI: GenAI Models Are Now “Thinking”
“We have long known that one of the most effective ways to improve the accuracy of a model is through having it follow a chain of thought (prompting it, for example: first, look up the data, then consider your options, then pick the best choice, finally write up the results) because it forces the AI to “think” in steps. What OpenAI did was get the o1 models to go through just this sort of “thinking” process, producing hidden thinking tokens before giving a final answer. In doing so they revealed another scaling law – the longer a model “thinks,” the better its answer is.”
TECH/AI: EDUCATION
How Are Grad Students Using Generative AI?
“We found that they are using gen AI in two modes: as an executor (helping with writing, summarizing, coding, translating, and information retrieval) and as a thought partner (for brainstorming, problem solving, or challenging ideas). They experiment with gen AI on a wide range of tasks, gradually building new capabilities. They also demonstrate a good level of awareness of gen AI’s limitations and risks, using appropriate practices, such as providing necessary contextual information to the AI, adopting a conversational mindset, and exercising critical judgment to avoid overreliance on the technology.”
On The Future Of Creativity In A Gen AI World
Common Sense Media Release Comprehensive AI Report
“What stands out the most from this research, however, is that open channels of communication can impact how young people and parents feel about the promises and pitfalls of generative AI in education and learning.”
“Reasons Teens Say They’ve Used Generative AI”
Why Expertise — Or Metacognition — Is Necessary For Learning In An Age Of AI
“This problem is then compounded by somebody trying to use generative AI to learn another topic, because to get the most out of AI as a learning tool, you have to be an expert, not only in using generative AI, but also in the topic itself.”
On PlayLab And AI Infrastructure For Schools
Read Great Books, With An Author’s AI Avatar To Help You
“Rebind, a new, AI-assisted digital publisher, is betting that interactive, personal guidance and expert commentary will revive a love for reading.”
What Kids Think Adults Should Know About AI In School