TikTok trends for 2023, When products become traps, Student guidelines to utilise AI, Socratic questions
This week
1/ 📚Education: Declining study of foreign languages
2/ ⚡️Social: TikTok trends for 2023
3/ 🔍 Research: When products become traps
4/ 🦉Learning: Student guidelines to utilise AI
5/ 🚀 Skills: Socratic questioning
If you have feedback, questions or topics you’d like me to address in a future issue, get in touch at raised[at]edaith.com
Tina
1/ 📚Education
Declining study of foreign languages
In the United States total university enrolments in languages other than English dropped by 16.6% between 2016 and fall 2021, reflecting a more widespread trend of declining study of foreign languages (unless the foreign language learned is English). Korean is an exception though, fuelled by the popularity of Korean cultural exports easily accessible online including music, gaming, TV series and movies.
🔗 New MLA Report Highlights the Need for Investment in Language Study (Modern Language Association)
The declining study of foreign languages is also happening in Australia. There’re some good arguments in this opinion piece regarding the benefits of learning a foreign language.
🔗 Learning a language helps students better understand others in an increasingly diverse Australia (ABC News)
2/⚡️Social
TikTok trends for 2023
Every year TikTok releases an overview of what’s been trending this year in different countries and topics. I clicked on way too many of the videos due to ‘research’ purposes.
Highlight for me is the ‘Learn on TikTok’ section.
Overall, the compilation points to the immense variety of ‘viral’ videos on the app due to the scale of active users, hyper personalisation (utilising watch history data) coupled with it’s unique features encouraging video creation based on other’s videos or your own content. The volume of new videos uploaded every day caters to - and even creates - unprecedented niche interests and audiences.
When reporter Mia Sato ponders in the article below “How do we make wide-ranging conclusions about an app where a consensus doesn’t exist?” it makes me think how this relates to the consensus building challenge we currently face for well-functioning societies. How can we come to a critical mass of agreement on actions to solve complex challenges such as climate change, geo-political conflicts and affordability in a world where we don’t need to pay attention to anything that doesn’t interest us personally, and of increasing information fragmentation and echo chambers?
3/ 🔍 Research
When products become traps
This working paper applies a welfare-based methodology to determine factors that make people feel obliged to use a particular product. The research involves 1000 university students and identifies fear of missing out as a key influence keeping people using Tik Tok and Instagram.
Of students surveyed actively using Instagram and TikTok almost 60% of Instagram users, and about 30% of TikTok users would prefer to live in a world without the platform. The research points to the possibility that large shares of consumers are trapped using these products and would prefer them not to exist.
🔗 When Product Markets Become Collective Traps: The Case of Social Media (University of Chicago Becker Friedman Institute)
4/ 🦉Learning
Student guidelines to utilise AI
Harvard educators have compiled practical recommendations to guide students and educators. Their recommendations cover different roles that might benefit students:
AI as feedback generator
AI as personal tutor
AI as team coach
AI as learner
5/ 🚀 Skills
Socratic questioning
Whether to enhance learning experiences or to sharpen lifelong problem-solving skills, the art of Socratic questioning can help uncover new levels of insight. Derived from the teaching methods of the ancient Greek philosopher Socrates, the approach encourages participants to examine their assumptions and explore underlying motivations.
Socratic questioning involves asking as series of open-ended questions to engage individuals in a thought-provoking dialogue. Types of questions include clarification, probing and assumption queries (there’s some great suggestions via the page linked below). It is a valuable tool in education and the workplace, as it encourages active participation, individuals to think critically and construct well-reasoned conclusions.
Socratic questions can be helpful to use with children in everyday conversations to help you be a better listener, understand their perspectives and encourage them to apply critical thinking.
🔗 Generative AI: The teacher that can help close the skills gap? (VentureBeat)
Upskilling and reskilling will be needed to utilise and adapt to AI augmentation in workplaces. In a recent survey of 800 executives, they estimate that nearly half (49%) of the skills that exist in their workforces today won’t be relevant in 2025. (Forbes)
Get your knowledge haul.
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