On the weekend my blog passed a milestone: over 500,000 views. I started this blog as an English teacher, and as my career and studies have changed to focus on Generative AI, the content has shifted too. This post is a recap of the past couple of years writing about AI, and a reflection on the most popular posts that have reached thousands of readers.
It’s also a huge thanks to everyone who has joined me for the past couple of years in trying to understand the implications of Generative AI in education. Thanks!
Most Popular Posts
We all love stats, so here are the most popular posts from the past couple of years. These posts have contributed thousands of views to the total, and are shared globally in K-12 and Higher Education.
Topping the list is V1 of our AI Assessment Scale, and the article that coincided with the publication of our first paper in Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice
It’s worth pointing out here that we have now updated the AIAS to a new version, which you can read all about here. This post is already also one of the most visited on the site:
The next most visited shows how interested educators are in the complexities and ethical concerns of Generative AI: it’s the original post that kicked off the Teaching AI Ethics series:
Following that original post, I broke down each section into its own article and set of resources. I’ll also be updating these over the (Australian) summer break and building a new online course. The full series can be found here:
Educators are also concerned about the implications of so-called detection tools, and over 10,000 readers have visited this article:
And finally, the post that started it all is still one of the most trafficked: 2023’s Practical Strategies for ChatGPT in Education holds up despite the numerous changes to OpenAI’s chatbot since its release. The post (which became the book, and then the online course) covers six strategies for educators working with GenAI:
I’ve since started work on More Practical AI Strategies, kicking things off with these two posts:
My Favourite Posts
Of course, as well as the reader favourites, I have my own special corner of the blog with articles that I’m particularly happy with. This might be because I enjoyed writing them, or they’ve sparked some interesting discussions, or I personally just like the vibes. Here are three of my favourites:
Predictions
When I started writing about Generative AI in June 2022, I had no idea that ChatGPT was on the horizon. I did, however, make a prediction that these “automated writing technologies” were about to reach a tipping point. Some of my readers have been following along since those early days; particularly my fellow English teachers. Over time, I have continued to make (sometimes accurate) predictions about the trajectory of Generative AI. I try to stick to the “near future” rather than making grand predictions or talking about existential threats. Here’s the journey so far:
Starting back in June 2022, I suggested that the robots were coming for our English essays. I predicted four possible scenarios. Unfortunately, the most pessimistic of them played out immediately within weeks of ChatGPT’s release:
Scenario 1: Acknowledging that students can go online and get free AI written essays, the education system responds by a total ban on technology: a little like banning phones in classrooms because they’re distracting, rather than educating students on the appropriate use of technology. All essays must now be written by hand, preferably under timed conditions. The system rejects AI like antibodies attacking a foreign object.
In December, shortly after the release of ChatGPT, I laid out my first experiments. Again, I talked about the tensions of trying to ban the technology. It still happened.
Inaccuracies and imprisoned aunts aside, it’s inarguable that the quality of this writing far surpasses anything I’ve seen before. We need to start seriously thinking about how we will approach these tools in education. We can’t ban them – we know from experience that students will find a way around any blacklist or block. The best we can do is educate students in how to use these tools ethically, creatively, and appropriately.
Amidst all of the fear and hype around ChatGPT, I had a bigger question on my mind: What happens when AI disappears into the woodwork? I predicted that, over time, we’d see far fewer super-hyped product launches and AI features would recede into the background of our technologies.
We’re still (as of November 2024) seeing ridiculous AI-powered marketing campaigns from OpenAI and co., but in many ways AI is following the trajectory I suggested. Features like Copilot, Gemini, and Apple Intelligence are insinuating themselves into all our devices, and on device LLMs are getting smaller and more efficient.
By October 2023, we’d seen a slew of updates from the big developers, and I called attention to an area that I thought would continue to grow: chat plus search. That prediction has just started to come to fruition twelve months on, with OpenAI fully integrating search into ChatGPT, and Google, Microsoft, and Meta all working hard on AI powered search. Whether we want it or not, AI search is part of the near future:
A retrospective at the end of Term 1 2024 reintroduced some key concepts, including the developing education policy landscape, and helped set schools up for what would be yet another hectic period of time: March 2024 saw products like ChatGPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet, the most powerful models yet, hit both paid and free users.
Over the two and a half years writing about AI, I’ve brought attention to a lot of different strands of emerging technologies, including audio generation, video generation, and using AI to code including making quick apps, turning sketches into websites, and building my own slightly cheeky AI-powered edtech platform.
Looking ahead to the future of this blog, I’ll continue to make predictions about the near future of Generative AI. I think that a convergence of technologies including augmented reality, code generation, and more powerful offline LLMs will result in some significant opportunities and challenges for education.
I’ve started those discussions with some recent updates to my “near future” predictions, and later this week I’ll be following up with part two of this series:
What a journey!
Thanks again to everyone who has read, shared, liked and commented on this blog. A huge thanks to anyone who has reached out to me directly to discuss these issues, and to the schools, universities and businesses I’ve worked with in the past two years on the ethical and practical implications of Generative AI.
Onwards to a million!
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