After reading the article “Twenty Years of Edtech” which wrote by Weller (2018), in my opinion, the “Edtech Trend” which interested me the most is the trend in 2016, which was The Return of AI (Artificial intelligence). At the same time, I also found some connections between it and (). Now I want to discuss them separately.

First, discuss the similarities and differences between constructivism and connectivism. According to the reading materials, constructivism is an educational theory instead of a technology (1997), but connectivism is a set of principles instead of a pedagogy (2005). This makes them fundamentally different. In my opinion, connectivism can be regarded as an advanced version of constructivism. From the perspective of how learners acquire knowledge, connectivism and constructivism also express different views. Constructivism believes that learners construct their own knowledge based on their experience and relationship with concepts that often form social interaction. However, Connectivism thinks that the way learners learn new knowledge is uncertain, however, knowledge spreads in the network irregularly, and learning is a chaotic process, the process of the learners’ contact with knowledge is defined as learning. The former is more like a talk of experience, the latter is more like the self-exploration after finding a way to move. But these two also have something in common, for example, both of them not only encourage learners to combine the available resources around them to create their own creation and collaboration, but also help learners avoid the constraints of distance and time differences.

Next, talk about the Edtech that I am most interested in—The Return of AI (2016). I first came into contact with the concept of Artificial intelligence because of some songs and their music videos, such as “365” by Katy Perry, which showed the scene of Artificial Intelligence getting along with people in the near future. In my opinion, by comparison, it should have a closer relationship with Connectivism, because as Weller (2018) said, the main function of Artificial intelligence is “prediction”, it would predict the types of errors people would make to provide advice on how to rectify those errors. So it is more like a guide for learners, which is more in line with the definition of connectivism.

Finally, I want to know more about the ethical problems brought by Artificial Intelligence technology and their possible solutions in the future. In the music video of Katy Perry’s song “365”, humans have managed to put Artificial Intelligence as emotional sustenance, and destroy the machine after failing the sustenance, but the machine also had feelings for humans. Although it may seem kind of ridiculous, such ethical issues may indeed happen. Frankly speaking, this reminds me of cloning technology, which is also a technological method that is not supported due to ethical issues. It is no doubt that the development of science and technology is an indispensable helper in learning, from the constructivism angle, it can help learners learn new things from the past and gain knowledge from experience; from the connectivism angle, it can help learners exercise divergent thinking. But the ultimate goal of technology is to help people improve their lives, not to be superior to humans. This will be a controversial topic now and in the future.