Learning about machine learning - Fine Point Communications

This winter, I interviewed a roboticist for a forthcoming magazine story. While our chat had a particular focus, we also touched briefly on the technological sensation of the moment — the debut of the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT.

Computer scientists, he said, see great potential in electronic assistants that rely on “large-language models” to interpret human commands, turning them into discrete steps that can be executed autonomously. The hoopla around ChatGPT, he added, was an opportunity for people to learn about and grow comfortable with this type of digital helper.

He also was cautious: American culture tends to get ahead of itself when it comes to technology. Future possibilities excite our imaginations, yet we tend to overlook the obstacles that will slow or even stall such advances.

Two months later, obstacles are more apparent — especially with “generative AI” tools such as ChatGPT — as the novelty subsides. For instance, some of ChatGPT’s responses to human instructions have been not charming or delightful but bizarre and creepy, leading to tough questions about the material technologists use to “train” applications.

People also are recognizing pitfalls in our own training — of seeing the Internet as having all the answers and search-engine results as a close-enough version of The Truth. The combination of these trainings portend ominously, some say, suggesting how malicious AI could “flood our information channels with propaganda and untruth.”

As the discussion continues, schools are playing major roles: Humanities teachers are considering the impact of generative AI on classwork. STEM faculty are incorporating courses and units about machine learning into curricula. Advancement officers are talking about “leveraging AI to streamline the donor relations process,” while magazine editors at this month’s CASE Editors Forum learned how graphic artists see generative AI as a mortal threat to their livelihood.

It’s a challenge for any communications office to stay abreast of such a complex, swift-moving topic.

A good way to approach it, though, is to put on your reporter hat and start talking to your co-workers with the idea of developing a set of internal talking points. Questions to get you started could include:

What are the faculty saying to one another about AI?
How would teachers respond to questions about AI from parents or board members?
Where are the opportunities for your school to embrace this emerging technology?
Where does the school draw the line between legitimate computer assistance and digital plagiarism?

Whether you actually produce the talking points matters less than the exercise of asking questions. The true goal for you is to gain a better understanding of what has been settled and what remains up for debate in your school. You may even prompt the academics to start asking their own questions.

There’s an old-fashioned term for this kind of Q&A: intelligence-gathering. Less flashy than the computerized kind, but pretty darn valuable in a moment where things seem so fluid.

Independent schools have their day

The annual CASE Editors Forum happened this month, a great opportunity to find inspiration and to talk shop with fellow communicators about our field.

A traditional part of the program has involved a session with the previous year’s winner of the Robert Sibley Magazine of the Year award. Regular readers of Refill may recall that the 2022 winner was, for the first time, an independent school: Milton Academy.

Milton’s associate editor, Marisa Donelan, explained the planning and execution of the two issues that won the coveted award.

She was joined onstage by editors of two other CASE award-winning magazines: Carrie Harrington of the Peddie School, whose Peddie Chronicle has won gold (2018) and silver (2020) awards in the Circle of Excellence competition; and Allyson Irish of Phillips Academy Andover, whose Andover magazine was the 2021 gold winner in COE.

Their panel conversation highlighted how some of the best magazines in the business understand and respond to their readership. I appreciated the audience-first approach they all share.

I also was struck by the autonomy that the three magazines have; the editors have the agency and authority to determine what will run in their book and what belongs in a different medium or publication. This is a much healthier arrangement than having the table of contents decided by folks working outside the communications office.

Best of all was the vibe. Editors Forum sessions tend to focus on the concerns (and budgets) of higher ed. But the conference’s magazine exchange proves annually that independent schools are publishing books every bit as good as the bigger institutions. It was great to have one session focused solely on the dynamics of K-12 communications.

The audience was small but passionately engaged with what Donelan, Harrington and Irish were sharing. And, as the session concluded, the speakers invited colleagues from other schools to join them for a photo celebrating the moment when independent schools were center stage at Editors Forum.

From left, Carrie Harrington (Peddie School), Marisa Donelan (Milton School), Sean Ramsden (Lawrenceville School), Sherri Watkins (Bullis School), Lisa Prejean (Mercersburg Academy), Julie Kayzerman (Newark Academy), Allyson Irish (Phillips Academy Andover), and Liz Regalia (Ashley Hall).

What’s new at Fine Point Communications

Big news this month at Fine Point HQ: We have joined forces with RW Jones Agency, a national strategic communications firm!

Like Fine Point, RW Jones focuses on education clients. Colleges and universities call upon it for public relations, crisis communications, campus-climate assessment, audience surveys and research data analysis, social media strategy and execution, and on-camera media training.

Bringing this range of services to independent schools drove our merger. K-12 education needs these services as much as higher ed does, yet such a breadth of scope is beyond a one-person consultancy. Together with RW Jones, Fine Point Communications can reach farther and accomplish more for clients.

I have joined RW Jones as a senior vice president and managing director of Fine Point Communications, which becomes the agency’s trade name for our work with independent schools.

Importantly, Fine Point will continue much as it has been since its founding: I remain deeply invested in the success of independent education and will continue to promote the amazing communications work of our schools. The monthly Refill newsletter will live on, too!

This one-sheet provides an overview of Fine Point Communications’ new, broader range of services. The Fine Point website will soon get updates that reflect the changes. In the meantime, if you would like to learn more, please reach out.