GenAI-SIPD? SIPD? PD? Let’s start at the beginning. GenAI, of course, stands for generative AI. Why? Literally because these AI tools generate something. The ones I am most interested in generate text. They have a large language model – LLM – under the hood. This LLM was created by using – what computer scientists call – machine learning. The result of this process is essentially a bunch of more or less probable connections that are stored in an artificial neural network. OK that was ‘generative’, and what’s AI? Yes, artificial intelligence. But what’s that? In the narrow sense – and before the acronym AI proliferated what feels like every conversation – it is simply a fairly large area of inquiry, research, and development. The phrase was coined in a proposal for funding a summer workshop in 1956; the proposal was written in 1955 by a then 28-year old computer scientist, John McCarthy, and his colleagues. Sub-areas of AI are robotics, expert systems, machine learning, etc.
So strictly speaking when we say things like: The AI hallucinated or The AI answered my question perfectly, we are not taking about the area of inquiry anymore. We are talking about a specific tool that we would expect to use some AI technology. Personally, I prefer the phrase ‘AI tool’, because it does remind me that these sophisticated, impressive tools are just that — tools.
And PD? The widely accepted abbreviation for professional development, the ongoing training, professional, including teachers, do to keep sharp and fresh at their profession. And SIPD? The very new abbreviation that Phil Hubbard and I coined in our position paper on Sustained Integrated Professional Development for world languages teachers in the context of GenAI. It is sustained, because we outlined the seven principles and the ten knowledge and skill areas in such a way that it can be sustainable for busy teachers. And it is integrated because you can and should integrate each learning activity, each PD activity into activities you would be doing or would have to be doing anyway. We all lead busy lives. And a good teacher had a full work day also before GenAI entered the mainstream.
What is sipped about it? When writing the position paper, it occurred to Phil that S-I-P-D could also be pronounced sip. And since we were talking about microlearning to make this PD sustained and integrated, we called this little steps sips and then you sip your PD … in small sips. Maybe that’s enough on the word play. We hope you enjoy listening to this podcast episode. All episodes are available on many different platforms. Wherever you get your podcasts from as they say; here, I chose to highlight the YouTube channel.
