Critique of UK's AI policy
"AI use cases are not nearly valuable enough to justify the epic expense of training and maintaining the models. Student essays, boilerplate code and SEO pap are not going to cut it. Either specialist models must be trained or generic models must be retrained with codified expertise if they are to...
Medical Education predictions for 2025
Some predictions for educational technology in healthcare in 2025. Mixed Reality (MR) The hardware for mixed / augmented / virtual reality is becoming more accessible and with it the opportunity for applications. There are many examples of educational technology businesses in this space - Osso...
The risks of automation of education
Unintended consequences such controlling the norms of behaviour and framing knowledge can be brought with automation ... and the problem is not a new one. "Although intended as an act of freedom, the self-instruction provided by an Automatic Teacher also habituated learners to the authoritative norms...
Markov blankets: can they help explain learning from a systems perspective?
Every now and then you find something, described a long time ago (in this case 1988), that could have helped you if only you'd known about it. In supporting pharma companies I have used several approaches to explaining why learning is complex, non-linear, and how we should look at it from a systems perspective....
My favourite tech hacks ... a thread
I started a thread on Bluesky of my favourite tech hacks earlier in the year and just added a couple more. Will keep a parallel list running here. Invidious (YouTube alternative front end - Not working so well Dec 2024) Pixabay (photos with appropriate Copyright) Etherpad (collaborate on a document...
Source: bsky.app
Designing for Outcomes: Putting the Learner at the Heart of Your Educational Strategy
"Are you measuring educational outcomes but failing to capture the true impact on your learners? As a CME/CPD professional, you know that proving the effectiveness of your educational programs is crucial. But in the rush to gather data and report metrics, it's easy to overlook the individual learner's...
Source: writemedicine.com
65 Reasons To Celebrate The 6502
"The legendary chip from 1975 that helped start the home computer revolution." I can remember sharing the manual for the 6502 with my school friend, Chris. He had a BBC micro computer and I had a Commodore Vic 20. To do the machine code I remember you had to: compile into 6502 instructions what you...
Source: substack.com
AI Watermarking Won't Curb Disinformation
"Generative AI allows people to produce piles upon piles of images and words very quickly. It would be nice if there were some way to reliably distinguish AI-generated content from human-generated content. It would help people avoid endlessly arguing with bots online, or believing what a fake image purports...
Source: eff.org
Predicting students’ academic progress and related attributes in first-year medical students: an analysis with artificial
"Background Dropout and poor academic performance are persistent problems in medical schools in emerging economies. Identifying at-risk students early and knowing the factors that contribute to their success would be useful for designing educational interventions. Educational Data Mining (EDM) methods...
Source: biomedcentral.com
Integrating basic sciences into clerkship rotation utilizing Kern’s six-step model of instructional design: lessons learned
Worked example of curriculum design using Kern's six-step approach. "Background It is generally agreed that basic and clinical sciences should be integrated throughout the undergraduate medical education, however, there is still need for continued formal integration of basic sciences into clinical...
Source: biomedcentral.com
OpenAI announces first partnership with a university
"Starting in February, Arizona State University will have full access to OpenAI's ChatGPT Enterprise." "With the OpenAI partnership, ASU plans to build a personalized AI tutor for students, not only for certain courses, but also for study topics. STEM subjects are a focus and are “the make-or-break...
Source: cnbc.com
Microsoft Cloud AI Accelerates Search for New Battery Materials
Extremetech report that "Microsoft and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory used AI to narrow a list of 32 million candidate materials down to 18 in hours instead of years."
Source: extremetech.com
AI beats real doctors on 149 remote OSCE-style tests
"We tested performance in consultations with simulated patients (played by trained actors), compared to those performed by 20 real PCPs using the randomized approach described above. AMIE and PCPs were assessed from the perspectives of both specialist attending physicians and our simulated patients in...
Source: research.google
What (else) happened? A key question for learning programmes.
Good paper from 2013 on the need to go beyond just asking 'did our programme work?' "It is clear that programme evaluations using traditional ‘outcomes-based’ models are inadequate for the health professions context. Consequently, the scholarship in health professions education has begun to incorporate...
Source: wiley.com
How the Post Office's Horizon system failed: a technical breakdown
"From bugs to unqualified staff, the Post Office's point-of-sale system was inadequate on many levels." The code was poor from the start and the small team of developers were not up to the job. However, the problems were apparent in 1999 before it was launched. Includes a discussion of the Dalmellington...
Source: theguardian.com
Yaws could soon be eradicated — 70 years behind schedule Jones, Sam. Nature 2024.
Researchers are cautiously optimistic that the neglected tropical disease could be gone by 2030, but new barriers — including antibiotic resistance and primate reservoirs — might stand in the way. Researchers are cautiously optimistic that the neglected tropical disease could be gone by 2030, but...
Source: nature.com
The Vulnerable World Hypothesis
"This paper introduces the concept of a vulnerable world: roughly, one in which there is some level of technological development at which civilization almost certainly gets devastated by default, i.e. unless it has exited the ‘semi-anarchic default condition’. Several counterfactual historical and...
Source: doi.org
Is Vaccination Approaching a Dangerous Tipping Point? Peter Marks. Robert Califf. JAMA.
This Viewpoint discusses declining vaccination rates in the US, specifically against COVID-19, and the ways in which clinicians and the Food and Drug Administration can counter the current large volume of vaccine misinformation.
Source: jamanetwork.com
Workplace well-being initiatives don't boost employee mental health
"The mental health of people who undertake mindfulness or meditation courses offered by their employer is generally no better than those who are not offered such programmes." "Instead of offering these initiatives, Fleming suggests that employers focus on bettering the work environment. For example,...
Source: newscientist.com
Elevated genetic risk for multiple sclerosis emerged in steppe pastoralist populations
"The last 10,000 years have seen some of the most extreme global changes in lifestyle, with the emergence of farming in some regions and pastoralism in others. While 5,000 years ago farmer ancestry predominated across Europe, a relatively diverged genetic ancestry arrived with the steppe migrations around...
Source: nature.com
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