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Seven Steps For Countries To Regulate Generative AI In Education

Generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools have far-reaching implications for education and research. 

Yet the education sector today is largely unprepared for the ethical and pedagogical integration of these powerful and rapidly evolving technologies.

A recent UNESCO global survey of over 450 schools and universities showed that less than 10% of them had policies or formal guidance on the use of GenAI applications, largely due to the absence of national regulations. And only seven countries have reported that they had developed or were developing training programmes on AI for teachers.

That is why UNESCO has developed and released the first-ever global Guidance for Generative AI in Education and Research to support countries amidst the rapid emergence of GenAI technologies.

The new guidance, recently launched during UNESCO’s flagship event Digital Learning Week in Paris, calls on countries to implement appropriate regulations, policies, and human capacity development, for ensuring a human-centred vision of GenAI for education and research. 

What the guidance is proposing

The guidance presents an assessment of potential risks GenAI could pose to core humanistic values. It offers concrete recommendations for policy-makers and institutions on how the uses of these tools can be designed to protect human agency and genuinely benefit students, teachers and researchers.

The guidance proposes seven key steps for governmental agencies to regulate the use of GenAI in education:

Step 1: Endorse international or regional General Data Protection Regulations or develop national ones. The training of GenAI models has involved collecting and processing online data from citizens across many countries. The use of data and content without consent is further challenging the issue of data protection.

Step 2: Adopt/revise and fund national strategies on AI. Regulating generative AI must be part and parcel of broader national AI strategies that can ensure safe and equitable use of AI across development sectors, including in education.

Step 3: Solidify and implement specific regulations on the ethics of AI. In order to address the ethical dimensions posed by the use of AI, specific regulations are required.

Step 4: Adjust or enforce existing copyright laws to regulate AI-generated content: The increasingly pervasive use of GenAI has introduced new challenges for copyright, both concerning the copyrighted content or work that models are trained on, as well as the status of the ‘non-human’ knowledge outputs they produce.

Step 5: Elaborate regulatory frameworks on generative AI: The rapid pace of development of AI technologies is forcing national and local governance agencies to speed up their renewal of regulations.

Step 6: Build capacity for proper use of GenAI in education and research: Schools and other educational institutions need to develop capacities to understand the potential benefits and risks of GenAI tools.

Step 7: Reflect on the long-term implications of GenAI for education and research: The impact and the implications of GenAI for knowledge creation, transmission and validation – for teaching and learning, for curriculum design and assessment, and for research and copyright.

A human-centered vision for digital learning and AI

The guidance is anchored in a humanistic approach to education that promotes human agency, inclusion, equity, gender equality, cultural and linguistic diversity, as well as plural opinions and expressions. In line with UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence and the Beijing Consensus on Artificial Intelligence in Education, it also responds to the flagship report, Reimagining our futures together: A new social contract for education which calls to redefine the relationship between humans and technology.

UNESCO is committed to steering technology in education, guided by the principles of inclusion, equity, quality and accessibility. The latest Global Education Monitoring Report on technology in education highlighted the lack of appropriate governance and regulation. UNESCO is urging countries to set their own terms for the way technology is designed and used in education so that it never replaces in-person, teacher-led instruction, and supports the shared objective of quality education for all.

Virtual Reality Use In Classroom Shows Deforestation Reality

“When the viewer looks down, they’ll see their arms are branches, their body is the trunk, and when they move, the tree moves too.” – Winslow Porter

Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality Markets are expected to reach US$162 billion by 2020.  How can schools use virtual reality to make learning more engaging?

Most of us don’t live in a rainforest but we do know that they are in great danger. Classrooms are looking for ways to help young learners better understand the deforestation crisis, for which we urgently need to find global solutions. What if it were possible to have first-hand experience on how we as humans are contributing to the extinction of trees?

Tree  is a hyper-realistic VR experience that transforms the audience into a living and breathing rainforest tree. The viewer can see and feel the tree’s growth from a seedling into its fullest form and witness its fate firsthand. In a collaboration between MIT Media Lab and filmmakers Milica Zec and Winslow Porter, a fully immersive virtual reality story about a tree was created. The film has been presented to date at over 70 conferences and film festivals (including Sundance and Tribeca).

The Global Search for Education welcomed Winslow Porter to talk about the reality of deforestation and how Treecan help.

People often develop a personal connection to the tree after viewing the experience.” – Winslow Porter

Winslow, what motivated you to tell this story? How did you come up with the idea?

Everything started with our first project, Giant, in which we depicted an innocent family trapped in a war-zone. Giant speaks about the destruction humans do to each other, and we wanted to continue in our second piece with how humans destroy nature. That is how the idea of Tree was born. We wanted to shift the perspective of the audience and place them in the position of nature, so that they can witness firsthand how we as humans contribute to deforestation.

What does the VR experience really add to our viewing experience in this story? Are we missing something if we don’t see this movie in VR?

In our piece, we use VR as a tool to transform the viewer into a living and breathing tree. When the viewer looks down, they’ll see their arms are branches, their body is the trunk, and when they move, the tree moves too. We use multi-sensory elements so the viewer feels the growth from a tiny seed underground, to the tallest tree in the rainforest. We use a Subpac – essentially a backpack with bass speakers in it – to vibrate along with the piece, simulating the feeling of growing and expanding. The viewer can also smell the soil and the rainforest, sense the change in temperature and feel the wind on their face when they reach their tallest height. As of now, we believe that VR is the only medium that allows us to closely replicate what it is like to be a tree.

How do people react during and after the Tree experience? What kind of emotional connection is evoked?

So far, we have brought Tree to over 70 festivals and conferences and witnessed thousands of people from across the globe take off the headset. Most people have a very emotional reaction to the piece, strongly identifying with the tree. There is no language in the piece, just the sounds of nature, which creates a universal story that anyone can relate to. After the experience, people have a stronger understanding of the deforestation happening all around the world. People often develop a personal connection to the tree after viewing the experience.

“At the end of the experience, we give each viewer the seed of the tree they just embodied with the message “take this seed as a reminder to keep our forests standing.” – Winslow Porter

Climate Change and the Environment are timely topics. In what ways do you believe Tree can add to our understanding of these issues? How would it be different from traditional ways we learn about The environment and climate change?

Since most of us do not live inside of a rainforest, it’s difficult to imagine what is really happening. Tree brings you into that environment and shifts a viewer’s perspective to shed light on a topic that many people haven’t really thought about before. We partnered with the Rainforest Alliance, which helped us remain scientifically accurate while creating the project, and also provided us with a lot of knowledge about deforestation. People often come out of the headset asking what they can do to help, so at the end of the experience, we give each viewer the seed of the tree they just embodied with the message “take this seed as a reminder to keep our forests standing.” We link them to our website and the Rainforest Alliance, so they can discover the many different ways they can help.

What can you tell us about your next project, Rainforest? What’s the story and what’s the inspiration?

Rainforest is a mixed reality game. In Tree, we focused on a singular rainforest tree, when in reality there are many plants and animals that inhabit those forests. We want to educate people on this entire wonderous world that is being threatened by extinction. To do that, we wanted to bring the actual scale rainforest into the player’s room. Rainforest allows people to play in the environment, and through entertainment and fun they can discover and learn about all the life within. They will also learn about the dangers that rainforests are facing and actively participate in the preservation of those ecosystems.


“With VR, the screen is no longer just across from us, but all around us, and viewers have the ability to be a part of the piece they are viewing.” – Winslow Porter

The global VR market is growing rapidly. As the technology improves in the next 5 years or so, what do you believe are the additional benefits for storytellers/creators as well as entertainment consumers? What are the challenges?

With VR, the screen is no longer just across from us, but all around us, and viewers have the ability to be a part of the piece they are viewing. We’re breaking the boundaries and making entertainment more visceral and real, no matter where people are. Instead of watching movies on a TV screen, the movie can be playing all around someone, even inside their home. The viewer is getting the opportunity to become a participant in these pieces and decide on where the story should go, and how it should progress. The biggest challenge is that although we’re developing these projects with ground-breaking technology, not everything is ready for mass consumption, however, that time is coming very soon. For the Silo, David Wine/CMRubinWorld.

C M Rubin and Winslow Porter

Dance Healing Immigrant Victims Of War Prejudice And Sexual Exploitation

Study after study has shown that arts education nurtures students’ creativity and problem-solving skills, competencies that are critical for success in a 21st Century world, but how does dance and movement facilitate healing and transform at-risk youth?

14 year old DTC dancing participants Richard Rutherford Danny Guerrero
14 year old DTC dancing participants Richard Rutherford Danny Guerrero

New York’s Battery Dance launched its Dancing to Connect programs in 2006. Since that time, the program has spread to 6 continents, 50 countries, 100 cities, and 1,000 schools. A powerful new documentary by Wilderness Films follows six dancers from the dance company from India to Eastern Europe to the Korean Peninsula to the Middle East as they support vulnerable youth helping them to express themselves through movement. The film focuses on the struggles, frustrations, resilience and ultimate transformation of the students and their dance teachers.

Producer Cornelia Ravenal says that as a trauma survivor she understood the power of art to “heal and transform.” Ravenal along with husband partner Mikael Södersten collaborated with Battery Dance Founder Jonathan Hollander to create the documentary because she believed this was a story that had to be told. As global populations continue to grow, migration and increasing social and cultural diversity are reshaping classrooms worldwide. Solutions for integrating and uniting peoples from diverse cultural backgrounds are now sought by schools and communities all over the globe. Hollander believes that “no divide has been too great for the art of dance, the primacy of movement, the common humanity, and expression, to span.”

Read the Full Article

Battery Dance performs on the world’s stages, teaches, presents, and advocates for the field of dance. The Company is dedicated to the pursuit of artistic excellence and the availability of the Arts to everyone. Battery Dance has produced over 100 original dance works choreographed by its founder and artistic director Jonathan Hollander, in collaboration with a diverse array of composers and designers, and its cast of outstanding dancers.

CMRubinWorld launched in 2010 to explore what kind of education would prepare students to succeed in a rapidly changing globalized world. Its award-winning series, The Global Search for Education, is a celebrated trailblazer in the renaissance of the 21st century, and occupies a special place in the pulse of key issues facing every nation and the collective future of all children. It connects today’s top thought leaders with a diverse global audience of parents, students and educators. Its highly readable platform allows for discourse concerning our highest ideals and the sustainable solutions we must engineer to achieve them. C. M. Rubin has produced over 700 interviews and articles discussing an expansive array of topics under a singular vision: when it comes to the world of children, there is always more work to be done. For the Silo, David Wine. 

New Book Is Inventors Guide To Open Source Arduino Microcontroller

San Francisco, CA —School’s out for summer, but learning doesn’t have to stop at the classroom door. For parents and educators looking to keep their students exploring, tinkering, and creating, No Starch Press offers the latest addition to its lineup of STEM books. This time focusing on the Arduino microcontroller.

The Arduino Inventor’s Guide (No Starch Press, $29.95USD, 336 pp., June 2017) is a project-packed introduction to building and coding with the Arduino microcontroller. With each hands-on project, total beginners learn useful electronics and coding skills while building an interactive gadget.

This is No Starch Press’s second installment in its introductory-level educational series for aspiring makers. The series is a collaboration with SparkFun Electronics, the popular electronics parts retailer dedicated to making the world of electronics more accessible to the average person. Authors Brian Huang and Derek Runberg of SparkFun’s Department of Education use their teaching experience to make learning about electronics an adventure.

“We wanted to share the magic that happens when you build something interactive with electronics,” says Huang. “The goal is to teach real, valuable hardware skills, one project at a time,” adds Runberg.

Readers learn how to make their hardware move, buzz, flash, and interact with the world as they build 10 projects, including:

  • A miniature traffic light
  • A light-sensitive, color-changing night-light
  • A temperature-sensing mini greenhouse
  • A motorized, programmable robot
  • A tiny, playable electric piano

“We’ve teamed up with SparkFun to make electronics and coding skills achievable for anyone,” says No Starch Press founder Bill Pollock. “This book will take total beginners from blinking their first LED to programming their first robot.”

 

Sample pages from The Arduino Inventor’s Guide:

For the Silo, Amanda Hariri.
About the Authors

Brian Huang is the Education Engineer for SparkFun Electronics. He combines his knowledge of teaching and engineering to create professional development materials.

Derek Runberg works in the Department of Education at SparkFun Electronics, where he runs workshops about technology in classrooms and at conferences. He is the author of The SparkFun Guide to Processing.

SparkFun Electronics is an online retail store that sells electronic parts for DIY projects. It offers classes for the public as well as resources, tutorials, and professional development for educators through its Department of Education.

Arduino Inventor's Guide The Arduino Inventor’s Guide
Publisher: No Starch Press
Authors: Brian Huang and Derek Runberg
Print ISBN: 978-1-59327-652-2
Price: $29.95USD
Publication Date: June 2017
Specs: 336 pp., 4C  Available in fine bookstores everywhere, contact marketingdirector@thesilo.ca for locations near you and online ordering information.About No Starch Press
From deep in the heart of San Francisco’s start-up gulch, No Starch Press carefully crafts the finest in geek entertainment. The growing list of award-winning No Starch Press bestsellers covers topics like LEGO, hacking, STEM, programming, science, and math. Our titles have personality, our authors are passionate, and our books tackle topics that people care about.