I’m Reevaluating the Curve

 I’m Reevaluating the Curve

Before I began this journey, I classified myself as a late majority when it came to adopting emerging technologies. I was happily skipping along the path, not realizing that there was a multitude of technologies out there that could improve, enrich, and simplify my life. It never occurred to me that I could tap into these resources to create a career I would love, and would financially bless my family.

However, something happened to me during the COVID-19 pandemic. I began to wake up to the importance of technology in our lives, and began to see how dependent we are on it. As I watched my kids complete their school work from home, and as I did my paraprofessional work through Zoom, an idea began to take root. I began to see how technology is intricately woven into the pattern of our lives, and how I could monetize it for my benefit. If I could embrace and master all the emerging technologies, I could create a career out of my mastery.

This seed was just a tiny sprout, but I also began to notice how many people were beginning remote work. My idea toward work changed. I could see that having an understanding of technology (and my extensive background in teaching) could enable me to shift gears and start down a completely new career path. As this idea started to bloom, I realized it made a lot of sense for me to go into the technology field, especially if I could find something related to teaching. 

Having to scramble to figure out how to teach students with special needs over Zoom really helped my attitude toward technologies to change. I had a crash course in online teaching, and I became intimately acquainted with Canvas, Zoom, and online teaching techniques. It’s interesting- I never would’ve dreamed that difficult experience would’ve led me to something that could bless my life in countless ways as I work toward a job that suits my skills and interests, and will help contribute to my family’s financial well-being. So, being forced to be an innovator in a challenging circumstance definitely helped me open my mind to new possibilities.

While reflecting on ethical and social considerations, there have been quite a few moments of questioning myself or the specific technology. For example, the other day I was asked to give a talk in church. I wasn’t too anxious to say yes, as I’ve given three talks in church in the last three months, so I said I would only be willing to speak if I could use a talk I’d already written and presented to another congregation. The individual giving me the assignment told me to use ChatGPT to write my talk, but my conscience won’t allow it. I’m a proponent of using ChatGPT to generate ideas and help jog my mind, but I grew up in the era of anti-plagiarism, in which it was pounded into our heads that if we strung more than three words someone else had written and called them our own, it was plagiarism. This is indeed true, so even though the ideas through ChatGPT are computer-generated, I still can’t fully embrace a speech, talk, or essay written that way, because I feel strongly that it’s plagiarism. It has even been hard for me to embrace using ChatGPT as a mentor, because I can’t separate myself from those lessons from the nineties that were constantly drilled into my head. My moral compass forces me to be extremely careful with my use of AI. I can definitely see its power and the incredible capabilities it would give me in so many fields, but I am still quite restrained by my conscience to use it wisely and sparingly. 

On the other hand, as I’ve become more intimately acquainted with AI, I’ve begun to learn how to use it wisely, and also begun to see what an amazing tool it is for writing essays, organizing thoughts, generating ideas, doing research (cautiously, of course- AI sources cannot always be trusted; therefore rigorous double-checking is necessary), even generating titles for a book or new technology. I thoroughly enjoyed my collaboration with AI during our Unit 4 “Generative AI as a Design Partner” assignment. It was awe-inspiring to see what kind of story and images AI could create, and how partnering with AI could be a rewarding endeavor. Udell and Woodill state, “Based on the signals we are tracking in learning…development, we think that the most impactful emerging learning technology in L&D will be the use of artificial intelligence in the form of machine learning and algorithms…(2019).” It is infinitely clear that Artificial Intelligence is taking and will continue to take a leading role in education, the career sector, and essentially anywhere that learning development is present. 

This example shows that when generative AI came out, I would’ve classified myself as a late adopter. However, once I was introduced to it and forced to use it if I wanted to be successful in the learning design program, I embraced it fully, and began to see its many benefits. So, I would now classify myself as an early majority because I didn’t embrace it with the innovators, but now that I’ve had the opportunity to use it in many ways, I have fully adopted it into my daily use, and am converted to its power. I work with many teachers in my school district, and there’s still a great divide between who uses AI often, and who’s still incredibly hesitant to even learn about its uses. I’d like to flatter myself that I’m at least in the early majority group, since I’ve already had the chance to use it to help me write my essays, create an animated video story, generate a name for an emerging technology, generate ideas for LDT projects, and so forth. Leading Learning Designers must be AI innovators if they want to maintain a cutting edge.

References

Rare. (2015). Diffusion of Innovation Theory : The Adoption Curve [YouTube Video]. In YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QnfWhtujPA

Udell, C., & Woodill, G. (2019). Shock of the new : the challenge and promise of emerging technology. ATD Press.

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