Professor Laurie Miller

Professor Laurie Miller

Share

INTO Mason instructor at George Mason University

Operating as usual

10/18/2024

I have been asked by many colleagues about my dissertation, and it's hard for me to sum it up quickly.

Imagine my happiness when I learned about NotebookLM, a free web-based AI service (from Google, so it uses Gemini -- https://notebooklm.google/) that helps you draw insights from documents (and links & recordings) that you upload. The insights it draws come ONLY from these sources.

One of the coolest tools it offers is the creation of a customized audio summary, in the form a podcast between two interlocutors, that sound pretty dang human. So for those who would like to listen to a short podcast that introduces the concepts in my dissertation, here you go:

https://notebooklm.google.com/notebook/b0d75909-77bd-4b19-9728-f8a3f03b7ec2/audio

08/12/2024

Sketchplanations offers good advice for using for visual design. Humans have always been focused on visual cues, and in our current "fast media" era, it is important to design course materials that lean on visual cues for conveying meaning quickly. https://sketchplanations.com/gestalt-principles

07/26/2024

Deep thinking takes effort ... and that is okay. I know I experienced the pain of this recently.

I spent two weeks thinking, and reading, and thinking, and reading, and thinking about a topic I thought I understood. In the end, my explanation pretty much matched the investigated one I first wrote, but now I know I know it. Sometimes this process makes "putting in the work" does not matter, but it does because now I can not only paddle on the surface of my knowledge, but I can also explain to others what in down in the depths and why and why not they would want to take a deep dive into it or not.
https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/a-respect-for-intellectual-messiness

07/12/2024

If only I could believe you Claude.

06/25/2024

Soon I'll be giving a presentation including background on Activity Theory, and I did not know how to pronounce Leont’ev in Russian, and ended up finding this helpful YouTube collection of names in a number of languages recorded by native speakers that gave me the information I need.

Instructors looking at class rosters with names they are sue how to pronounce, might find this playlist useful (it is limited but it is a start).

https://www.youtube.com//playlists

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humans 05/31/2024

"Convergence" - the merging of humans and machines in our current era is rapidly evolving. Some predictions say that by 2040 the convergence of humans and A.I. will happen. This Pew Research Center report from 2018 gives details. (BTW, think how much your interaction with A.I. in the form of chatbots, AR, and VR has changed since 2018!)

(Note: if you are wearing glasses or contacts while reading this, you are already experiencing convergence, granted a convergence that took root in the 1800s -- think about it).

Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Humans Experts say the rise of artificial intelligence will make most people better off over the next decade, but many have concerns about how advances in AI will affect what it means to be human, to be productive and to exercise free will.

Linguistic Justice and GenAI | U-M LSA Sweetland Center for Writing 05/17/2024

A quick read that clearly explains linguistic justice, why AI is not linguistically just, and why humans still need to generate their own texts. The last part is a good argument for writing to understand and give voice to one own, unique ideas.

This is from the University of Michigan's Sweetland Center for Writing. It is one page in their current site on teaching writing & GenAI (https://lsa.umich.edu/sweetland/instructors/guides-to-teaching-writing.html)

Linguistic Justice and GenAI | U-M LSA Sweetland Center for Writing Linguistic justice is an anti-racist approach to language and communication (Baker-Bell, 2020; CCCC, 2020). Over the last several years, scholars whose work focuses on linguistic justice, raciolinguistics, and translingualism in literacy education have called for increased attention to how the acade...

05/17/2024

Not sure if generative AIs are linguistically biased, using linguistic stereotypes? Check out the two responses to a query about the importance of incorporating linguistic justice into college writing classes. (Logo image generated by GPT4o included to show how poorly the DALL-E image generator handles text).

https://1drv.ms/w/s!Anmr1OkjNWurgdV2H9i0IY1BSfC4ww?e=koRpPE

Sketchplanations - A weekly explanation in a sketch 05/15/2024

Feynman was a great thinker and instructor -- he inspired Bill Gates, who preserved his lectures. Even in this age of "augmented learning" with the hep of A.I., Feynman's advice to "write to learn" still applies if YOU want to truly learn something. I think the real "proof of the pudding" is the last step -- being able to simply AND add analogies to your explanation.

Sketchplanations - A weekly explanation in a sketch Richard Feynman was one of the great scientists of the 20th century, making significant contributions to physics and other related fields. Part of what made him stand out was his gift for teaching. He had a remarkable knack for explaining some of the most complex things in ways anyone could understa...

Photos from George Mason University's post 05/02/2024

I think I'm on my third logo here now ...

Meet your new AI editor ✍️ 05/02/2024

Your students are probably using these ... or will soon, so it is time for you to learn about them. We are in a moment in higher education -- we either learn to drive the horseless carriages or we go out to pasture with our horses.

Meet your new AI editor ✍️ 3 new tools to help polish your prose

Some Vernacular Design Principles (& their application today) 04/21/2024

Using what you have and designing with durability and thrift at the forefront -- the vernacular principle in architecture can serve curriculum designers as well.

The durability part is hard to insure, but if you think of it in terms of critical analysis skills, perhaps it's not so hard. Use the tools and materials you have in front of you to build useful and lasting critical thinking -- so that means learning how to use LLMs to foster and expand human critical thinking.

Like the Cape Cod whaling house, we in higher education don't have to abandon need a practical construct first designed hundreds of years ago, but rather bring it into the context of our current lives and resources.

Some Vernacular Design Principles (& their application today) The Spectacular Vernacular

Try Google's 3 free new AI tools 🌈 03/28/2024

Google is working on new AI tools. Dabble with a clear and critical mind, and always look for ways that these tools can AUGMENT your thinking and doing, not replace your thinking and doing.

Try Google's 3 free new AI tools 🌈 Wonder Tools 🎵 Generate music, images and text

Want your school to be the top-listed School/college in Fairfax?

Click here to claim your Sponsored Listing.

Location

Address


4400 University Drive
Fairfax, VA
22030