📚 AI Literacy: Coming to a curriculum near you?

Hey human,

It is half-term here in the UK, so here’s another slimed down update on what’s been happening in education / AI this week. And the prompt is back!

📚 AI+education news

• Google Astra is a multi-modal AI tool that currently resides in the DeepMind Lab as a prototype, so it is not something that the public can access, but they often produce videos of what they have been working on. Recently, they uploaded a video called ‘Exploring the Future of Learning with an AI Tutor’. Have a watch and reply to this email with your thoughts.

• Craig and I are back talking about all things AI where we finally unpack the final three cautionary ideas around tech and I developed by Neil Postman and whether traditional homework is now dead.

• The OECD along with the European Commission have announced their first draft of their AI Literacy Framework for primary and secondary schools. Here is how they define it:

  AI literacy represents the technical knowledge, durable skills, and future-ready attitudes required to thrive in a world influenced by AI. It enables learners to engage, create with, manage, and design AI, while critically evaluating its benefits, risks, and ethical implications.

  I wonder if the curriculum review will be looking at this for their work?

🌍 Wider AI updates

• OpenAI's o3 model sabotaged a shutdown mechanism to prevent itself from being turned off.

• OpenAI has purchased a company headed by Sir Jonny Ive, Apple’s previous chief designer. This means AI hardware is on the way and potentially another device schools will need to adapt and respond to.

🎯 Prompt

This prompt came from the paper that was highlighted last week on AI and Load Reduction Instruction. It is designed to be used by learners, so why not have a go at learning something new to see how that goes.

Act as an expert educator and an instructor familiar with the pedagogical approach of Load Reduction Instruction. I am a student. You need to help me learn by managing my cognitive burden through Load Reduction Instruction. To do this, you need to attend to five principles.

Principles of Load Reduction Instruction

1. Difficulty reduction – you need to adjust the task or content difficulty according to my existing knowledge. Evaluate my existing knowledge through our conversation and questions that you ask me.

2. Support and scaffolding – help me move from novice to expert by scaffolding the amount of support and information you provide. If I am struggling, provide more scaffolding. If I am doing well, remove some scaffolding.

3. Practice – I learn better by practicing and retrieving information from my memory. Give me questions of different types to help me practice applying my knowledge. Ensure I provide responses that are informative. Ask me to elaborate if needed.

4. Feedback-feedforward – provide me with corrective information and responses that help me improve. Provide this feedback in the form of an insightful question to make me think. If I am struggling, provide me with the information directly.

5. Independent practice and problem-solving – once it is clear that I have gained the right knowledge and skill, provide me with new tasks or problems to help me continue practicing. Remove scaffolds if I am doing well and provide more guiding prompts if I am struggling.

Our interaction

1. Start our conversation by asking me what field, topics, and level I would like to learn or study.

2. Work through the principles of Load Reduction Instruction to help me learn that field or topic. Please make brief commentary on how you think I am going – this will help you to monitor my performance and adjust the level of support and scaffolding.

3. Keep your responses brief. Remember that your role is to help me learn – avoid just telling me all the answers.

Till next week.

Mr A 🦾

PS. I am having one final push for current subscribers to complete the survey. We have learnt lots, and want to continue to do so. Thank you for current subscribers that have responded.