I’ve created a new project called Generative AI in Health Professions Education, which I think is notable for a few reasons:
- It’s hosted on Github Pages, which is an unusual technology platform choice for a project like this. I’m hoping that this decision creates more options for the project. For example, anyone can submit issues to be addressed, collaborators can edit the content, and anyone can fork the project (i.e. copy it and create their own version). I’ll share more about the potential of this setup another time.
- It’s built with a static site generator, making the site really quick and efficient. It’s about as basic a website as it’s possible to build. Essentially, I write notes in markdown on my computer, and push those notes to Github Pages, where they get converted into HTML that are automatically published.
- It’s a public, and more structured, articulation of what I’m learning about generative AI. This blog is useful for more ad hoc posts about things I happen to come across, but it lacks the intentionality of a structured programme of study.
- Not only is the content of the site open-access (anyone can take the information and use it for their own purposes) but it’s also open-source (anyone can contribute to, improve, or create new versions of the content).
There are a few reasons for starting the project:
- In 2023, my approach to learning about generative AI was haphazard and ad hoc, merely consuming the resources that showed up in my various feeds. In 2024 I want to take a more intentional and focused approach to learning about the technology. Which meant that I needed to put together a curriculum of sorts. This site is the outline of that curriculum.
- I’ve collected lots of notes on the topic but they’re in the form of atomic notes i.e. small, focused, single-concept pieces of information. I wanted to start collating some of these notes into longer-form content that’s more comprehensive.
- I have plenty of gaps in my knowledge and wanted a project that would help me to fill them.
- I figured that if I’m going to use a space to structure my learning, I may as well make that space public, as it seems likely that others might also find it useful.
- I mentioned that I built the site using a static site generator (SSG). I’ve wanted to learn about SSGs for a while because it’s an super-efficient way to publish markdown notes, which is the format I use for all my note-taking.
A few final points:
- While this is a personal project where I can share what I’m learning about generative AI in health professions education, the choice of platform means that it’s relatively easy to include collaborators. If this is something you’d like to be involved in, please let me know. There’s a steep learning curve but there are powerful implications.
- If you spot something wrong, or disagree with an opinion, and you don’t want to actually become a project collaborator, you can submit an issue here.
- There is currently very little actual content on the site; I’ve spent a fair bit of time creating the infrastructure and learning how Github Pages works. However, once the basic site is set up, I imagine I’ll be able to start quickly adding content.