New posts from thoughtshrapnel.com
Thought Shrapnel
AI and community communication
Stephen Downes has written a couple of articles relating Generative AI (GenAI) and Open Education Resources (OER). In the first one, he responds to a blog post by Heather Ross, who argues that the "sould of open is in danger." Downes is having none of it, and responds to her point by point.
I'm in agreement with all of it, and particularly with how 'gatekeep-y' (my word) the OER community can be. (I say this with deep love and respect for what the OER community has achieved, but it is somewhat insular and ivory tower-focused.)
There are a few people who have created a cottage industry for themselves by opposing every aspect of artificial intelligence. I think they're wrong, and have concerns about them misleading educators about AI. But Heather Ross's article takes it a step further.
This is colonialism:
"No, you don’t get to wash over or destroy the work we’ve done and the great work still to come within the open movement.” If those encouraging the use of GenAI for open or for GenAI to replace open want to play a new game, that’s fine. We can’t stop you, but get off our field."
It's not your field.
And then, in the second post, which contains too many excellent and nuanced thoughts to summarise adequately, Downes sets his sights on what we mean by 'free learning'. I'm sharing the part about colonialism because I think he gets to the nub of the problem: what people are often complaining about when they're complaining about AI as 'colonialist' is that they are being colonised.
This is, of course, a problem, but the underlying issues are much more structural than people usually think. As Downes points out, what is necessary here isn't to merely perpetuate the mindset of 'giving' people education, but rather to find ways "for a community to communicate with itself" in ways that reduce their reliance on other (usually more powerful) communities and interests.
The only real difference between what we'll call 'AI colonialism' and 'Good Old Fashioned Colonialism' is in who is being colonized and who is doing the colonizing. In the case of GOFC, it was one nation colonizing another. In the case of AIC, it is one sector of the economy colonizing the rest. Though if we pause and consider for a bit we'll find it's not so different after all: in most societies, developed and otherwise, there is a structural colonialism, where one wealthier sector of society extracts value from the other, and then sells (or in the case of charity, 'gives') it back as a value-laden alternative.
I am so sympathetic with those who are opposing AI on these grounds, though my charity is extended only grudgingly to those who have only recently made the switch from colonizer to colonized. And my real loyalties are with those who have always been colonized - not only those in Eswatini (who have to their credit have resisted colonization better than many) but also those in my own society and those like mine, who contribute with their language(s), system of laws, culture and traditions, social knowledge, values and beliefs, etc., and find an educational system - and knowledge economy generally - sold back to them, inevitably changed by the values and beliefs of those who performed the appropriation.
This is an unsustainable model. Over time, it not only reduces the wealth of the subjected population, it also reduces the capacity of the provider (or 'donor') community generate wealth without these inputs (one imagines that a company like Disney would flounder without the privilege to incorporate and repurpose Arab or Indigenous culture and folklore).
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Whether or not AI succeeds as a technology is moot; neither blocking AI nor regulating the industry will alter the model of aggregation and exploitation that it exemplifies. The knowledge, learning and information industries will continue to exist, and with or without AI will continue to harvest community language(s), system of laws, culture and traditions, social knowledge, values and beliefs, etc., and in some fashion reshape them according to their own values and sell them back to the community.
And this brings us back to what, to my mind, is the real purpose of open educational resources. They represent a means, mostly (though not exclusively) through digital technology, for a community to communicate with itself, to gather and share knowledge, to pass along its values and mores, its ideas and beliefs, and to be able to do this without reliance on external knowledge, information and learning providers.
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It - to me, at least - was never about giving people an education (or giving them rights, or freedoms or anything else). It was about people being able to create these things for itself.
Sources: * What is the Soul of Open Educational Resources? * Why Free Learning Needs Free Artificial Intelligence
Image: tribesh kayastha
Better Images of AI
Have you noticed that most news articles, blog posts, and social media updates that talk about AI use weird robots and unconvincing imagery? This website, which I discovered via Anne Hilliger seeks to address that.
There's a wide range of Creative Commons-licensed options which I'll be using to accompany stuff I write about AI — including this post!
Images representing AI as sentient robots mask the accountability of the humans actually developing the technology, and can suggest the presence of robots where there are none.
Such images potentially sow fear, and research shows they can be laden with historical assumptions about gender, ethnicity and religion.
However, finding alternatives can be difficult! That’s why we, a non-profit collaboration, are researching, creating, curating and providing Better Images of AI.
Source: Better Images of AI
Isolated places in the Lake District for wild camping
I took this photo on Friday night, just after setting up my tent in Eskdale. This is like the land that time forgot on the other side of the Hardknott Pass and somewhere that tourists to the Lake District seldom visit.
Wild camping, while officially illegal in England, is tolerated if you stay out of the way and use some common sense. Before I went, I looked at some other spots, and so wanted to share those with you for your enjoyment.
If you dream of a serene night by a gentle river, look no further than Eskdale. This elongated valley with the River Esk running through it offers perfect wild camping spots with stunning vistas of Scafell and Woolpack Point. During the day, Hardknott Roman Fort and Stanley Ghyll Waterfall are within reach.
Source: IDEAL magazine
More is always more where 'kitchen lipstick' is concerned
I'm a big fan of srirarcha sauce, so this ode by Jay Rayner to 'lifting' ordinary dishes with the addition of things you find in cupboards and fridges, spoke to me. My tips? Try coconut in your porridge, and balsamic vinegar (or pesto) on your next pizza.
Where dinner is concerned, God is always in the detail. By this, I mean the kind of dinner you scarf by yourself when it’s so late it’s almost early; the thing you eat when nobody is watching and the options are meagre but you still regard yourself as a person of high gastronomic standards, who sees the lowliest of food items as merely the opening salvo in a negotiation.
Which is how I found myself one night pelting a chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle which just happened to be lurking in the cupboard, with freshly sliced spring onions and batons of ginger, shiny black ribbons of finely chopped toasted nori and dollops of sriracha sauce and crispy chilli oil. And lo: the humble instant noodle has been elevated to the king of snacks, courtesy of my exquisitely honed culinary sensibility, and my endearing conviction that more really is always more.
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A friend of mine describes doing all this as adding “kitchen lipstick”. I get her point: it’s the application of seemingly small details which vastly elevate the otherwise everyday. The original purchase suggests questionable taste. The adornments and embellishments restore one’s sense of self. Perhaps right now you have lurking in the fridge a pot of that grim corner-shop hummus, looking to stunt double as tile grouting? Why not go the full Ottolenghi and decorate it with toasted pine nuts, a thick dusting of smoked paprika, an extra dribble of that grassy olive oil over there and, for a final flourish, finely chopped flat-leaf parsley? Add fancy whole grain mustard and manuka honey to the cheapest of sausages, and glugs of madeira and a spoonful of dijon to instant gravy.
Source: The Guardian