Great Minds on Learning

The theory behind generative AI as a transformational tool for learning.

This episode, the last in the current season, was recorded at the Online Educa conference in Berlin and focuses on Generative AI. Since the release of ChatGPT in November 2022, the learning world has been mesmerized by the potential benefits and dangers of this new form of AI. Unlike other forms, it can be accessed by non-technical people, in natural language conversations. Donald and John explore its roots in neuro-biological research, as well as the learning theory underpinning Donald's belief that it is potentially the most powerful technology invented so far for learning.

00:00:00 - Intro 00:01:00 - Introducing Generative AI 00:11:30 - Dialogue & Conversation 00:24:59 - Language & Learning 00:37:33 - Interface 00:51:31 - Engagement & Personalization 00:54:36 - Delivery of Learning 01:01:00 - Q&A

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html Contact Donald X: @DonaldClark LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/ Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/ Contact John Helmer X: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack/

We don't need no education?

This episode explores the transformative ideas of three influential late 20th-century educational theorists. Each began with a flourishing career in teaching but ultimately left the classroom behind, driven by a growing disenchantment with the educational system. Their collective experiences culminated in an incisive critique of conventional schooling, sparking calls in some quarters for comprehensive educational reform. But compelling as their arguments were, did they achieve any enduring impact on the landscape of education?

• 00:00:00 - Intro
• 00:01:02 - Introducing Critics of Schools
• 00:09:09 - Ivan Illich (1926-2002)
• 00:28:47 - John Taylor Gatto (1935-2018)
• 00:42:59 - John Holt (1923-1985)
• 01:00:08 - Summing up

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html

• Illich bit.ly/2yacZKs
• Gatto bit.ly/34zStPx
• Holt bit.ly/3zzkHrp

Contact Donald

• X: @DonaldClark
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/
• Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/

Contact John Helmer

• X: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack/

The pioneers of alternative education systems.

This episode covers a group of 20th Century thinkers and educationalists in both Northern and Southern hemispheres who developed a variety of alternative visions for schools. Inspired by enlightenment figures like Rousseau, and the German Idealists who came after them, they nevertheless reacted against the strict and regimented so-called 'Prussian' system of education that had become the mainstream. They incorporated ideas from the burgeoning field of psychology, and also, in the case of Rudolph Steiner, a strong element of mysticism.

00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:56 - Introducing Schools 00:11:30 - Rudolph Steiner (1861-1925) 00:28:48 - Maria Montessori (1870-1952) 00:47:08 - Alexander Sutherland Neill (1883 – 1973) 01:00:50 - Vicky Colbert (1948/9 –) 01:13:44 - Martin Burt (1957 –) 01:20:39 - Summing up

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html Montessori bit.ly/38s6CiM Steiner bit.ly/2uMqkaj Neill bit.ly/2SSEv5A Colbert bit.ly/2wgY4wO Burt bit.ly/39FAHLU Contact Donald X: @DonaldClark LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/ Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/ Contact John Helmer X: @johnhelmer LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/ Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/ Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack/

Marxism and education.

This episode examines the impact on learning of a thinker, Karl Marx, who had a revolutionary effect on the world in general. In the name of Marx and his collaborator Engels, politicians of the 20th Century created regimes that were utopian in some cases, highly repressive and even murderous in others. Meanwhile, the heirs to Marx's intellectual tradition fleshed out Marxism as a rich and powerful explanatory system. And though controversial to this day, Marxist thought has had an enduring effect on learning and education.

00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:57 - Introducing The Marxists 00:05:28 - Karl Marx (1818-1883) 00:18:16 - Antonio Francesco Gramsci (1891-1937) 00:27:14 - Louis Pierre Althusser (1918-1990) 00:47:00 - Jürgen Habermas (1929 - ) 01:00:02 - Paulo Regius Neves Freire (1921-97) 01:09:38 - Summing up

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html Marx bit.ly/315AxKF Gramsci bit.ly/2REFkj6 Althusser bit.ly/2UihsUe Habermas bit.ly/46TpxAS Freire bit.ly/496gQF1 Contact Donald X: @DonaldClark LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/ Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/

THE FULL EPISODE DROPS ON 30/10/23

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Marxism and education.

This episode examines the impact on learning of a thinker, Karl Marx, who had a revolutionary effect on the world in general. In the name of Marx and his collaborator Engels, politicians of the 20th Century created regimes that were utopian in some cases, highly repressive and even murderous in others. Meanwhile, the heirs to Marx's intellectual tradition fleshed out Marxism as a rich and powerful explanatory system. And though controversial to this day, Marxist thought has had an enduring effect on learning and education.

How German philosophy created the modern education system. Why is education the way it is? Why does the bell ring to signal the end of a lesson? Who invented teacher training? Why do universities combine teaching with research? It might surprise you to learn that the answers to these questions can be found in the writings of early 19th Century German philosophers. This episode looks at the German Idealists, a group including Kant and Hegel, inspired by the Enlightenment and the spirit of Romanticism following the French Revolution, who set the mould for the education systems of today.

• 00:00 - Intro
• 00:58 - Introducing the German Idealists
• 05:59 - Immanuel Kant (1724 – 1804)
• 18:45 - Johann Friedrich Herbart (1776 - 1841)
• 26:29 - Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770 – 1831)
• 45:20 - Wilhelm von Humboldt (1767-1825)
• 57:34 - Summing up

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html

• Kant bit.ly/3wIBsk9
• Herbart bit.ly/30rdE8w
• Hegel bit.ly/3qGvkYO
• Humboldt bit.ly/2OQzyZS

Contact Donald

• X: @DonaldClark
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/
• Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/

Contact John Helmer

• X: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack/

In this episode, the first of a new season, we look at a group of thinkers who have focused on how we should evaluate the impact of the learning. Beginning with Donald L Kirkpatrick in the 1950s, they have given us models of how to measure and evaluate it. However, for all the work that has gone into this area, the general perception has long been that organisations simply do not evaluate anything like enough. There are indications, however, that this picture is changing, and interest in evaluation is on the up. With the advent of powerful new AI tools, could we be on the brink of a breakthrough?

• 00:00:00 - Intro
• 00:00:55 - Introducing Evaluation
• 00:13:52 - Donald L. Kirkpatrick (1924 – 2014)
• 00:25:12 - Robert O. Brinkerhoff
• 00:34:59 - Will Thalheimer
• 00:50:54 - Valerie Anderson
• 01:02:47 - Summing up

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html Kirkpatrick bit.ly/2UdDyWf Contact Donald

• X: @DonaldClark
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/
• Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/

Contact John Helmer

• X: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: https://learninghackpodcast.com/
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LearningHack/

The Internet and the World Wide Web have revolutionised the way knowledge is produced, mediated and consumed. This episode focuses on a group of entrepreneurs who have given us the online tools and platforms that now dominate global learning. Some of them also happen to be world-leading tech brands: Google, YouTube ... and the new kid on the block, OpenAI. The episode was recorded in front of a live audience at the Next Learning Conference in the Netherlands.

• 01:24 Introduction to Internet as Knowledge
• 07:06 Larry Page (1973–) & Sergey Brin (1973–)
• 15:16 Chad Hurley (1977–) & Steven Chen (1978–)
• 25:37 Jimmy Wales (1966–)
• 33:01 Sal Khan (1976–)
• 38:45 Luis von Ahn (1978–)
• 45:28 Sam Altman (1985–)
• 55:54 Summing Up

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html

• Page & Brin bit.ly/39B26hA
• Chen & Hurley bit.ly/348ZOVV
• Wales bit.ly/34at66s
• Khan https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2020/04/khan-khan-academy-free-world-class.html
• Luis von Ahn bit.ly/3hst7uw
• Altman https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/search?q=altman

Contact Donald

• Twitter: @DonaldClark
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/
• Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/
• Read Donald's latest book, Learning Technology https://www.koganpage.com/product/learning-technology-9781398608740

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: http://learninghackpodcast.com
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/learninghack

Many thanks to Sam van der Schans, Toon Brouwers and all at Next Learning Conference for their help with the audio recording. Also to Callum Clark for video assistance.

During the Covid lockdowns of recent years, online technology became practically the only way of delivering learning. But a long road has brought us to such a place. This episode covers the theorists, inventors and entrepreneurs who pioneered technology delivery of learning, beginning in the early years of the 20th century with the mechanical teaching devices of Sidney Pressey and B. F. Skinner.

• Introducing Technology Delivery – 1:20
• Sidney L. Pressey (1888-1979) & B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) – 6:12
• Sir Tim Berners-Lee (1955–) – 19:44
• Bill Gates (1955–) – 32:43
• Steve Jobs (1955-2011) – 45:12
• Martin Dougiamas (1969–) – 56:10
• Summing Up – 1:05:28

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html

• Pressey & Skinner bit.ly/3pf3L7Y
• Berners-Lee bit.ly/2wE9Cep
• Gates bit.ly/2WS3hXj
• Jobs bit.ly/3bFx8Go
• Dougiamas bit.ly/2UXOJTq

Contact Donald

• Twitter: @DonaldClark
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/
• Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/
• Read Donald's latest book, Learning Technology https://www.koganpage.com/product/learning-technology-9781398608740

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: http://learninghackpodcast.com
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/learninghack

Social constructivism had its origins in the thought of Karl Marx. However, it became a strong influence on educationalists in the capitalist West during the latter half of the 20th Century, and thinkers such as Piaget and Vygotsky are popular on teacher training courses to this day. But does its central tenet, that learning is socially constructed rather than individually discovered, hold up under scrutiny?

• Introducing Social Constructivism – 1:24
• Jean Piaget (1896-1980) – 6:44
• Lev Vygotsky (1896-1934) – 19:22
• Jerome Bruner (1915-2016) – 33:12
• Margaret Donaldson (1926-2020) – 41:56
• Merlin Wittrock (1931 - 2007) – 52:22
• Summing Up – 1:04:57

The Blog that started it all: https://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/2021/09/these-were-written-as-quick-readable.html

• Piaget bit.ly/2vRLT9J
• Vygotsky bit.ly/2SlHymF
• Bruner bit.ly/2OB4r4o
• Donaldson bit.ly/39eMvo1
• Wittrock bit.ly/3EQW2Sp

Contact Donald

• Twitter: @DonaldClark
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donald-clark-04553022/
• Blog: http://donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com/
• Read Donald's latest book, Learning Technology https://www.koganpage.com/product/learning-technology-9781398608740

Contact John Helmer

• Twitter: @johnhelmer
• LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhelmer/
• Website: http://learninghackpodcast.com
• Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/learninghack