There has been a lot on the news lately about artificial intelligence and how it is impacting the future. Already there are advice posts regarding how AI can enhance education, such as “7 Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Change Higher Education” or “Could Online Tutors and Artificial Intelligence be the Future of Teaching?”.
Yet, this morning as I was driving and listening to Fred Childs on NPR, something his guest said resonated with me. A pianist noted that even though songs have very clear “rules” in the form of sheet music, whenever he plays a piece, there is improv, because how he plays depends on who he is playing with and what the mood of the audience is.
This idea of improv reminded me of an unexpected flow on Twitter this week in my Northeastern University class on Social Media at #EDU6333. The current class is a little different than earlier classes I have taught, in that – feeding off each other – they love to add GIFs to their tweets. Whereas this might have happened infrequently in past classes, it happens every day in the current class. And I would suggest “feeding off each other” is simply another definition for improv.
Wednesday night, I was grading papers and watching the hashtag feed when the following began happening (I added a few earlier ones, but most posted between 7:45-9:15pm):
It reminds me of the improv associated with teaching…whether K-12 or higher education. This week we explored constructivist learning and TPACK…yet the dialogue on Twitter went in lots of directions.