Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
81 followers
38 following
20 posts
Professing online, deaning associately, doctoring philosophically, learning for a living
Computer science
33%
Education
26%
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Reposted by Philippe Dessus
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· 20d
Paper: Cognitive Santa Claus Machines and the Tacit Curriculum
This is my contribution to the inaugural issue of AACE's new journal of AI-Enhanced Learning, Cognitive Santa Claus Machines and the Tacit Curriculum. If the title sounds vaguely familiar, it might be because you might have seen my post offering some further thoughts on cognitive Santa Claus machines written not long after I had submitted this paper. The paper itself delves a bit into the theory and dynamics of genAI, cognition, and education.
jondron.ca
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· 21d
New open journal from AACE: AI-Enhanced Learning (with a paper from me)
The Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education and Learning (AIEL), a diamond open-access journal published under the auspices of AACE and distributed worldwide through LearnTechLib has just launched its inaugural issue, which includes a paper from me (Cognitive Santa Claus Machines and the Tacit Curriculum). This inaugural issue is a great start to what I think will come to be recognized as a leading journal in the field of AI and education.
jondron.ca
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Aug 9
Educational technologies and the synecdochic fallacy
For a few minutes the other day I thought that I had invented a new kind of fallacy or, at least, a great term to describe it. Disappointingly, a quick search revealed that it was not only an old idea but one that has been independently invented at least twice before (Berry & Martin, 1974; Weinstock, 1981). Here is its definition from Weinstock (1981):
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Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Jun 17
Cognitive Santa Claus machines
I've just submitted a journal paper (shameless plug: to AACE's AIEL, of which I am an associate editor) in which I describe generative AIs as cognitive Santa Claus machines. I don't know if it's original but the idea appeals to me. Whatever thought we ask for, genAIs will provide it, mining their deep, deep wells of lossily compressed recorded human knowledge to provide us with skills and knowledge we do not currently have.
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Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Apr 30
Democratech: reflections on the human nature of blockchain
At short notice I was invited to be guest of honour and keynote at Bennett University's International Conference on Blockchain for Inclusive and Representative Democracy yesterday. I was not able to attend the entire conference - my opening keynote was at 9:30pm here in Vancouver and I eventually needed to sleep - but I made it for a few hours. I was impressed with the diversity and breadth of the work going on, mainly in India, and the passionate, smart people in attendance.
jondron.ca
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Mar 27
Just a metatool? Some thoughts why generative AIs are not tools
Many people brush generative AI aside as being just a tool. ChatGPT describes itself as such (I asked). I think it’s more complicated than that, and this post is going to be an attempt to explain why. I’m not sure about much of what follows and welcome any thoughts you may have on whether this resonates with you and, if not, why not.
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Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Mar 7
We are (in part) our tools and they are (in part) us
Here's a characteristically well-expressed and succinct summary of the complex nature of technologies, our relationships with them, and what that means for education by the ever-wonderful Tim Fawns. I like it a lot, and it expresses much what I have tried to express about the nature and value of technologies, far better than I could do it and in far fewer words.
jondron.ca
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Feb 28
Venturing into the Unknown: Critical Insights into Grey Areas and Pioneering Future Directions in Educational Generative AI Research | TechTrends
The latest paper I can proudly add to my list of publications, Venturing into the Unknown: Critical Insights into Grey Areas and Pioneering Future Directions in Educational Generative AI Research has been published in the (unfortunately) closed journal TechTrends. Here's a direct link to the paper that should hopefully bypass the paywall, if it has not been used too often.
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Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Feb 18
Slides from my TRU TPC keynote: “It’s a technology problem: How education doesn’t work and why we shouldn’t fix it”
Here are the slides from my keynote at Thompson Rivers University's Teaching Practices Colloquium this morning. I quite like the mediaeval theme (thanks ChatGPT), which I created to provide a constant reminder that the problems we have to solve are the direct result of decisions made 1000 years ago. There was a lot of stuff from my last book in the talk, framed in terms of Faustian Bargains, intrinsic motivation, counter technologies, and adjacent possibles.
jondron.ca
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Feb 14
Understanding collective stupidity in social computing systems
Here are the slides from a talk I just gave to a group of grad students at AU in our ongoing seminar series, on the nature of collectives and ways we can use and abuse them. It's a bit of a sprawl covering some 30 odd years of a particularly geeky, semi-philosophical branch of my research career (not much on learning and teaching in this one, but plenty of termites) and winding up with very much a work in progress.
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Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Feb 1
Published in JODDE – Learning: A technological perspective
Dron, J. (2024). Learning: A technological perspective. Journal of Open, Distance, and Digital Education, 1(2), Article 2. My latest paper, Learning: A technological perspective, was published today in the (open) Journal of Open, Distance, and Digital Education. Methodologically, it provides a connected series of (I think) reasonable and largely uncontroversial assertions about the nature of technology and, for each assertion, offers some examples of why that matters to educators.
jondron.ca
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Jan 2
How AI works for education: an interview with me for AACE Review
Thanks to Stefanie Panke for some great questions and excellent editing in this interview with me for the AACE Review. The content is in fact the product of two discussions, one coming from student questions at the end of a talk that I gave for the Asian University for Women just before Christmas, the other asynchronously with Stefanie herself.
jondron.ca
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Dec 10
The collective ochlotecture of large language models: slides from my talk at CI.edu, 2024
Here are my slides from the 1st International Symposium on Educating for Collective Intelligence, last week, here is my paper on which it was based, and here is the video of the talk itself: You can find this and videos of the rest of the stunning line-up of speakers at It was an incredibly engaging and energizing event: …
jondron.ca
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Dec 6
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Nov 29
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Nov 24
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Nov 18
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Sep 5
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Jul 5
Jon Dron
@jondron.bsky.social
· Jun 19
Reposted by Jon Dron
Reposted by Jon Dron