Thanks to Linzi for organising a skype chat this week with myself, Chenee and Stuart. Apart from just how much fun it was, Chenee got to learn a new word, “sook”.
The oxford English Dictionary defines sook as:
Seriously, though, this week’s skype chat was really helpful, supportive and definitely went a long way to building community within our class. It got me thinking about how individual we all are and how we all have different needs. Some of us are thriving in a self-directed learning model others need a little bit of hand-holding to keep us on track and some of us just get a lot out of the student community and sharing experience and discussion with our classmates. Tying that in with the MOOCs we are all enjoying at the moment and how xMOOCs are essentially self-directed learning and therefore only students who have that ability can really make the most out of this educational tool.
I am now wondering about my classmates on my MOOC of choice, how many of them are getting the full potential educational experience from the MOOC and how many are just flitting around the edges?
A really enjoyable short video Matthew shared which gave a brilliant take on the duality of the sci-fi culture block we have just left. In this video, humans argue around a table about the prospect of the AI, also sat at the table, becoming self-sufficient and sentient and seeking to destroy humans. Various arguments have given with an ethics researcher trying to talk the AI out of using human beings as an example of humanity.
Eventually, the AI decides humans aren’t worth the effort or its superior intelligence and finds a way to leave the planet and go off in search of more worthy lifeforms.
All this worry of AI being a threat to humanity is centred around humanism and the importance of humans over everything else. We are blinded by our self worth.
