David M. Stokowski

Education Futurist and Thought Leader. PhD Candidate @TTUEducation (Educational Leadership Policy). AI Tutor @xAI.

[Dave Dick, Ed.S @Dave4EdTech]

Rural safety shouldn’t depend on a cell tower. @elonmusk, please bring @Starlink Direct to Cell to wearables for people with autism and Alzheimer’s. A satellite-connected "Safety Pin" would change lives for millions of families. 🌍🆘 #Starlink #AutismAwareness #Dementia #SpaceX

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@lecrae So many ways! I haven't been able to travel with groups from our church, but @LwaLove is a ministry partner of ours.

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

Another week farther into my work @xai, and more things to continue to think about. Over the past week, I've really started to think a lot about how AI will integrate in #K12education. You know students are using it. Maybe not that well yet, but they are definitely trying it out.

Simultaneously, I've personally been struggling with the idea of how to find truth in our current era of partisanship and social media, where everyone is an expert. That's actually an amusing way to state it, since I truly believe that I AM an expert in education, policy and AI. While I'm not here to debate my credentials, the question still stands, how can we find truth when bombarded with so much (mis)information?

I seek truth by finding multiple verifiable sources on an event, essentially relying on information literacy skills and logic. This means spotting fallacious arguments or sound logic to search for that ever elusive truth. After seeing the success of my kiddos as they went through our homeschool curriculum for a few years, one of the strands of our curriculum was logic. My daughter has excelled in essay writing back, now in the public school system. We even had a talk with her AP Composition teacher, who was fascinated that she knew logic so soundly, and that we have a book of syllogisms and fallacies!

There are many states, districts and schools that are working to develop K12 curriculum around computer science, with some getting more granular and focusing specifically on AI. I believe this is missing the point with our broader truth seeking issues. CS curricula focuses on coding and automation, while many AI tutorials focus on prompting. What if we were to focus on logic as a core skill? Then CS, AI, essay writing, language, science, history, truly almost all subjects could be strengthened with a skill that is necessary for our information age. Teaching logical syllogisms and fallacies would make our students better able to process information, while also understanding the constructs of CS, AI, and all of the traditional subjects.

If you are involved in K12 education, do you see this as something your CS, AI or general curriculum is focusing on? What successes have you seen? Let's start a discussion how we can push this forward, aside from the extra curricular Debate Club (which I would argue should be curricular!)

#AIinSchools #logic #truth #CSCurriculum #ImBringingLogicBack (yeah)

Image: Created with Grok using the prompt: "Draw an elementary school student using AI."

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

Meritocracy. DEI. Understanding the current (and future) funding landscape of higher education is inextricably tied to these ideas, for better or worse. The HED landscape has been moving in this direction since the SFFA case in 2023.

Here's the tl;dr if you need it:
ED published a "Dear Colleagues" letter (https://t.co/mCPGLnnNlb) calling out DEI as discriminatory. Schools have 14 days to "fix" this, by removing any programs deemed discriminatory, or risk losing ALL federal funding. Full. Stop.

The federal government has long been working to control higher ed through funding levers. The Higher Education Act (1965) started this process, and was generally a response to the GI Bill, and all the federal money that helped our veterans obtain a college degree. The desire was to hold colleges accountable for federal dollars. The well known Title IX and all of the funding levers in place for HSIs, HBCUs, NASNTI's, are specific call outs in the HEA related to race and/or gender. In order to stop these programs, court cases are likely as they were codified through an act of congress. I imagine modifications to Title III, Title V, etc to the HEA, and Title I of ESEA/ESSA will be introduced in this congress.

However, DEI programs are an "easier" target, as there is nothing codified to protect them. That is our current issue, and one that doesn't have general legal protections.

What actions can we take? This is a good question, as we may be seeing a paradigm shift in how higher education is funded in the future. Personally, I am unsure. My first thought is through allyship. We must support students who feel attacked to help them through their courses and their college experience. Faculty are likely vital for this, however they are already taxed trying to balance their teaching duties with everything else the college asks of them.

What about those on the outside of the system? Philanthropy can have a role. Student affinity groups can also fill this void. We can find groups aligned with our personal ethos, and give money there. Even funding through alumni groups or college foundations may be at risk as well, which is another very sticky situation.

As always, I'd love to open a dialogue about what we can do. Feel free to respond with your thoughts, or feelings (as unfiltered as you need). This is our system, and we need to find ways to continue to support our students in higher ed!

#highered #DearColleagues #FutureOfEducation #policy #edpolicy

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

So I posted this on my LinkedIn feed, and thought I'd see how the discussion goes here as well.

When I saw this news last week (https://t.co/U4fAQkSmTU), I had a lot of feelings from fear to excitement! Personally, I'm two weeks into a new journey working to help create a more user friendly AI as an AI Tutor with @xai. I am still an educator (currently with an AI student), and this news brought home the immediacy with which higher education must adapt. AI is not going away, it is here, and we need to have a strategies in place up and down every higher education organization. But do we?

The CSU system appears to have addressed some of this in their press release, and it appears they have been working for years to create policy around AI acceptable use. I know in my work @LCCC, the same was happening, as we worked to develop policy. But even those discussions were met with the same emotions from fear to excitement. Regardless of our emotions, academia has weathered massive changes due to tools, from calculators, to web searching, and now AI. However, the speed at which changes must be made are not generally seen in academia.

My biggest concern in all of this is how the front-line workers are being prepared for this. Are we giving faculty the resources to understand how AI works, and how to integrate it into their curriculum? AI use policies are a must, but our colleges must be prepared to help faculty navigate these ever-changing waters.

What have you seen or experienced in preparing faculty for AI use in higher ed? I'd love to start that discussion here! Bring your concerns, fears, excitements, and plans for all of us to see and discuss! This is a situation that is owned by all of us in higher ed...and there is a way forward. We must own it and bring it to life...for the sake of our students.

#AI #HigherEducation #AIforFaculty #ProfessionalDevelopment

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@matiroy @svulcanus @xai I'm only two weeks in, but it's been a joy to work @xAI! I've been on one main project so far, and ditto about the human approach to creating personality for Grok. As an educator, it's been great to use my teaching skills with a new student! Come join us! #TransitioningTeachers

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@CanvasCory @Instructure @Canvas_by_Inst Congrats! And all the love for the hashtag...

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

This morning I was reminded of Mr. Rogers' famous thought: "When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers.'"

As a corollary this, I would add, "If you can, BE the helper."

[Byron Reed @9NEWSEducation]

Annual report provides information on issues affecting Colorado kids and their families.Colorado Children's Campaign released KIDS COUNT in Colorado which provides available state and county-level data to measure and track the education. ⁦@9NEWS⁩ https://t.co/nFxMufyaW5

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@Slalom... just applied for a position, and was perusing your "Love Your Future Overview" doc. There was a broken link in the "Who we Are" section on the ID&E page entitled: "Slalom's Journey to Equity." Just wanted you to know.

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@kmansell Thanks! I'm finding most of the resources are K12, which is fine. But working with others here to stand up an assessment program which uses Canvas Outcomes as the backbone at our college...

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

Hey #edutwitter! I am looking for papers/articles on the pros/cons of the various methods of calculations for standards-based grading: decaying average, highest score, most recent score, etc. It a list exists, great...if not...let's make one! Happy Monday...

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@mctownsley @acrozier22 @notfromdenver Arithmetically, it means that if an S scores below mastery once...they must score ABOVE mastery at some point later to have an overall "meets expectation" rating. That's always bothered me...

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@mctownsley @acrozier22 @notfromdenver Thanks for the resources! I will definitely look at the book chapter to read through. Personally, I've always been concerned about scoring something as mastery or not (a simple yes/no metric), using an average (1/2).

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

I work with an amazing team @LCCC, in our Center for Excellence in Teaching. They created this video on the @Canvas_by_Inst Comment Library for faculty. All credit to @Hosh2, the video director, our CET Director, Sheridan Hanson, and my colleague @ljsigs . https://t.co/P5wuizQU1w

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@NateSilver538 Is student GPA the desired output of elite colleges? Legacy admissions are not made for "who will be the best student" but potentially, "who will make the best future donor to the foundation." We are assuming altruism when a existential game theoretic response is more likely.

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@JakeVigdor @DLeonhardt This brings up another question for me, and something personal. What happens when HS students are homeschooled? Do we have data on homeschooled GPA, test scores, and implications for college GPA? We chose to send SAT scores to give context for our student’s GPA for this reason.

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

@jjacobkirksey @LansfordsLines @AngelaCrevar @LeviTTU @ja__freeman So much awesomeness! Miss you all...

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

Amazing! Wyoming educators can sign up for training, and then receive blockchain education modules for free!! So excited that Wyoming is leading the way in Blockchain in the US. #WyomingInnovations23 #blockchain #DeFi

[David M. Stokowski @dmstokowski]

Getting for a great day of learning @WYOEducation’s Innovations in Education conference! Lots of great sessions to absorb today…