Clear Path Learning

Author: JulietWaters

  • Harnessing The Unhappiness of Future Generations

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    JulietWaters
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    Whether AI will support the happiness, or the misery, of future generations is up to us I didn’t need a world happiness report to tell me that young adults in North America are suffering alarming levels of unhappiness. I witnessed this first hand last week, when I went to see Dune with a young family member…

  • The one tool we need to thrive

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    JulietWaters
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    About 20 years ago a group of neuroscientists put a young monk into an fMRI machine because they wanted to see if his brain behaved any differently than ordinary western brains. What they saw was so unusual that they had to take their system apart to make sure there were no glitches to explain it.…

  • Primed to compute

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    Making algorithmic thinking a core skill A while back, some were calling coding a “new literacy.” With the advent of AI, the world seems to be leaning away from that. But what hasn’t disappeared is the need to strengthen the kind of thinking that coding requires. Whether we call it computational literacy, or algorithmic literacy, AI…

  • Never mind the mindfulness

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    JulietWaters
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    5 key differences between awareness meditation and mindfulness meditation I remember my first experience of awareness meditation like I remember the feeling of riding a bike without training wheels. Meditation master, Yongey Mingyur Rinpoche, used a Tibetan singing bowl for two very short guided meditations. In the first, the instruction was simple and clear: “Listen…

  • Compassion over empathy in the era of AI

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    JulietWaters
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    A while back, I had some very difficult news to convey to someone I cared about. Out of respect for privacy, I’m not going to go into details, but I knew this was news that was going to have a serious impact. I also knew the way that I delivered it might shape this person’s…

  • The A, B, C and D of A.I.

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    JulietWaters
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    I wrote The A.I. Primer for the Algorithm and Data Literacy Project by Digital Moment (where you can download it in English or French.) It’s intended as a very low floor to the learning trajectory of AI literacy, and is suitable for teens, teachers, and any adults who might feel intimidated by the idea of learning…

  • AI Literacy: Reframing Attitudes

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    JulietWaters
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    This is a thought piece I wrote for a panel on Algorithm Literacy that I was invited to moderate at UNESCO’s Digital Learning Week in September. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to make it to Paris, but still worth thinking about for 2024, so sharing it here… Recently, out of curiosity, I asked Chat GPT 3…

  • We all deserve to know more about AI

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    JulietWaters
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    Since you bought your first smartphone, an entire generation of kids has been born that will never know a world not mediated by AI algorithms. Why is this important? For one thing AI and kids is serious business. According to a Pew research report released in 2019, YouTube videos targeted at and featuring children were…

  • The Write Mood

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    JulietWaters
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    In his book Emotion: The Science of Sentiment, British evolutionary psychologist Dylan Evans argues that one of the things that distinguishes us from animals is that we are the only species that has invented artificial technologies to alter our moods. The first of these was language. “Our ancestors probably consoled each other with hugs and…

  • On The Difference between Writer’s block and Blogger’s block

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    JulietWaters
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    I wrote this a few years back when I was a more prolific blogger.  As I head into the last stretch of a book manuscript, I’m suffering from a bit of both writer’s and blogger’s block. Hoping this re-post will dislodge some cognitive sludge.  Lately I’ve been experiencing a bout of blogger’s block. I’m long…