Grading is a black box inside a very old, very slow AI
Anybody who has dealt with a corporation or bureaucracy of any size, and who is over the age of forty, is likely to have a vague sense that you used to be able to speak to a person and get things done; the world wasn’t always a maze of options menus. —Dan Davies
Just talking about the mark, the letter, the grade itself does not really do justice to the complexity of the issues at hand. —Josh Eyler
The fact of mass distress
Most of us seek to explain the rise of anti-liberal, anti-elite political movements like MAGA and Brexit by analyzing their political or cultural content. Inevitably, this gets complicated, so much so that we end up arguing over interpretations of social ideas expressed by candidates and why or whether they appeal to voters. In The Unaccountability Machine, Dan Davies argues for simplicity. Let’s treat elections as a decision-making mechanism for any system that “operates by consent of the decided-upon.” Thus reduced, Davies explains the “family resemblance” of successful political movements in the 2010s led by Modi, Beppe Grillo, Farage, Erdo?an, and Trump as “each of them, in their own culturally specific context,” acting as a channel of information.
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In this way of thinking, inputs and outputs are what matter most. Decision-making mechanisms matter, too. But if you want to understand a system, you’ll get lost if you dive into those mechanisms and analyze their workings in detail. Too many unanswerable questions. Too much information.
The protagonist of The Unaccountability Machine, Stafford Beer, was the pioneer of using the now ubiquitous term “black box” as a way to demarcate complexity in a system in order to contain it...
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???? ?????? writes about the social and historical contexts of educational technology, especially generative AI. To receive each post in your email inbox, visit my blog on Substack. To receive a notice in your LinkedIn feed, click here. Learn more about AI Log here.
Chief Academic Officer for ProSolve, Co-President of the Human Intelligence Movement
2 个月Yes
??Empowering educators with AI, innovative pedagogy and authentic connection | 6th Grade Math & Science Teacher | AI Education Consultant | Sparking curiosity, collaboration, and a little laughter ??—one idea at a time.
2 个月This is an apt analogy! The antiquated version we are running with now is not preparing anyone for anything in the future. I’m fully on board with learning how to rethink grading and assessment.
Enhancing School AI Integration | Actionable Policy Frameworks for K-12 | Education Consultant | Ethical Emerging Technologist | 20+ Years of Experience
2 个月The outdated nature of assessments has been exacerbated by platforms that merely prepare students for standardized outcomes. It is a massive switch and we all know how overwhelming that can be to implement. It is hard work to align everyone for this type of transition but, as "they" say, there is no time like the present!
Progressive educator, innovative thinker, writer. Current focus: learner-centered practices to engage all learners. Research interests: social history, pedagogy, learning theory, public policy. Views posted are my own.
2 个月I'd say it has to start long before they enter grade 13. The structure of school up through grade 12 firmly cements behaviorism as the anchor and impetus for everything in nearly every classroom from management to "content learning." Students are so conditioned by that experience, shifting it in higher education alone may not make much sense. The entirety of education must make this shift, k-16. It's time to do the whole thing differently and better but it's shocking how few in teacher preparation or in k-12 admin talk about changing the paradigm. Change is hard when the system is so entrenched even the insiders can't see the problem.
Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship | I help you teach with AI (and win students’ attention) | Keynote speaker | Collaborating on big ideas to revolutionize teaching and learning in higher ed
2 个月Huge questions Rob, and not easy to navigate. I find that taking a mastery learning/portfolio approach is the best way to provide authentic assessment of student skill development (and btw the teacher shouldn’t assess, only a third party SME should). Not at all easy to do but it is transformational