Friday News Roundup

Here’s your Friday News Roundup! Lots of news – let’s get to it.

Studies Show ChatGPT Cheating is on the Rise Among Students – young and old – as Teachers Remain Divided on Bans (Insider)

According to Insider online,

“A new survey from Study.com, an online education resource, found recently that just over one in four out of 200+ K-12 teachers already have caught at least one student cheating using ChatGPT.”

“More districts and individual schools across the globe are limiting or outright banning the use of ChatGPT on school networks and devices amid concerns that it can be used easily to cheat.”

It seems like ChatGPT is the latest iteration of a device or app that has called the question of what cheating is and what cheating is not.

A rich and robust conversation between the adult learning leader and their young learners might be a way of negotiating toward a common understanding of how to use ChatGPT, and others that will follow – because AI is not going away.

Chicken Coops, Trampolines and Tickets to SeaWorld: What Some Parent are Buying with Education Savings Accounts (The 74)

According to Linda Jacobson from The 74,

“When former Arizona Governor Doug Ducey signed a law last year that lets any family receive public funds for private school or homeschooling, he said he ‘trusts parents to choose what works best’ for their children.”

“Over 46,000 Arizone students now use an education savings account, or ESA, which provides about $7,000 per child annually for a huge array of school services. But with households in greater charge of curricular choices, some purchases are raising eyebrows, among them items like kayaks and trampolines, cowboy roping lessons and tickets to entertainment venues like SeaWorld.”

I’ve written ad nauseum about the need to attach a budget to a personalized learning plan, so let me take a crack at explaining why kayaks, roping lessons, and SeaWorld are showing up on ESA itemized reports.

A big part of a personalized learning plan is to allow the young learner to define, plan, execute, and evaluate their learning in areas like reading, writing, problem-solving, character development, and personal interest. It seems like kayaks, trampolines, and cowboy roping lessons all fall into the latter category of personal interest. I’m guessing the SeaWorld tickets were purchased as some sort of reward for a job well done, something that schools do every day (I hope!).

The City Where Third Graders Train to Be Engineers (Reasons to be Cheerful)

According to the online newsletter Reasons to be Cheerful,

“Greenville (South Carolina) is now introducing the idea of a career path to students in elementary schools and giving students the option to follow those programs to middle and high schools, hoping by eighth grade they will have a better understanding of what they want to do after high school and what it will take to get there. Each elementary school focuses on a specific area – engineering, math and science, the arts, leadership, or foreign languages, among others. The district allows student to attend schools outside of their attendance zones as long as space is available, which means students can opt to continue to follow their chosen career pathway at a middle school with corresponding programs. In high school, students are expected to complete a career cluster by taking several courses in a subject area, such as health sciences, manufacturing, arts or business.”

This is an example of a school district and a city focusing on learner interest to design a learning plan for each individual learner.

It sounds like a good start to a promising future, and probably needs to expand to other districts soon.

As OpenAI’s ChatGPT Scores a C+ at Law School, Educators Wonder What’s Next (The 74)

According to The 74,

“Though computer scientists have been using chatbots to simulate human thinking for more than 70 years, 2023 is fast becoming the year in which educators are realizing what artificial intelligence means for their work.”

“Over the past several weeks, they’ve been putting OpenAI’s ChatGPT through its paces on any number of professional-grade exams in law, medicine, and business, among others. The moves seem a natural development just weeks after the groundbreaking, free (for now) chatbot appeared. Now that nearly anyone can play with it, they’re testing how it performs in the real world – and figuring out what that might mean for both teaching skills like writing and critical thinking in K-12, and training young white-collar professionals at the college level.”

“Most recently, four legal scholars at the University of Minnesota Law School tested it on 95 multiple choice and 12 essay questions from four courses. It passed, though not exactly at the top of its class. The chatbot scraped by with a ‘low but passing grade’ in all four courses, a C+ student.”

If a computer can beat Ken Jennings on Jeopardy, I’m guessing ChatGPT, given time, will improve its C+ law school grade.

A rich and robust conversation between the adult learning leader and their young learners might be a way of negotiating toward a common understanding of how to use ChatGPT, and others that will follow – because AI is not going away.

Which Iowa Kids Could “School Choice” Help Most? These 3 Maps Tell the Story (The Des Moines Register)

According to The Des Moines Register this week,

“It did not take long for the Republican-controlled Iowa Legislature to pass Governor Kim Reynolds’ top priority this session: a massive ‘school choice” law that changes the landscape of education in the state.”

“The program, which is expected to eventually cost Iowa taxpayers more than $300 million a year, would give Iowa students about $7,600 a year to pay private school tuition and fees.”

Governor Reynolds and other Republicans across the country have missed an opportunity. They are still focused on “school choice” when the rest of the world is talking about “learner choice.” What Reynolds and Iowa should have done is to give each Hawkeye family $7,600 to build a learning plan and hire a learning coach for every young learner in the state.

Have a good weekend. SVB