From DSC:
A classroom of the future perhaps? These graphics depict VR-based chats/talk shows from @guntersuniverse
On 05/12/2017,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, experimentation, face-to-face, higher education, ideas, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, platforms, robotics, smart classrooms, student-related, technologies for your home, telepresence, traditional / tradition, universities, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Robot students? College classrooms try letting far-away students attend via remote-control stand-in — from edsurge.com by Sydney Johnson
Excerpt:
Someone looking in on Bill McCaw’s educational leadership class at the University of Montana might see students talking in small groups, or peers helping each other on assignments. It’s an age-old classroom scene, except for one space-age detail: More than half of the students are robots.
Ok, to be more precise, nine of the fourteen students in the course are joining the class remotely by using a robot stand-in. The hope is that the approach will let students, who are working professionals, join from hundreds of miles away and feel more a part of the group than would be possible with standard videoconference links.
“The space in Montana is huge. That’s why this is really important for us,” says McCaw.
From DSC:
I appreciate the level of experimentation that’s going on here — it’s stretching the existing paradigms and asking how we might bring in remote learners into our face-to-face based classrooms. This is one approach.
Another approach uses tool like the ones below — which make having students be in the same physical learning space less important:
On 05/09/2017,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, microlearning, mobile learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, music, Natural Language Processing (NLP), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, streams of content, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, tools, trends, user experience (UX), vendors, virtual tutoring, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Amazon introduces Echo Show
The description reads:
- Echo Show brings you everything you love about Alexa, and now she can show you things. Watch video flash briefings and YouTube, see music lyrics, security cameras, photos, weather forecasts, to-do and shopping lists, and more. All hands-free—just ask.
- Introducing a new way to be together. Make hands-free video calls to friends and family who have an Echo Show or the Alexa App, and make voice calls to anyone who has an Echo or Echo Dot.
- See lyrics on-screen with Amazon Music. Just ask to play a song, artist or genre, and stream over Wi-Fi. Also, stream music on Pandora, Spotify, TuneIn, iHeartRadio, and more.
- Powerful, room-filling speakers with Dolby processing for crisp vocals and extended bass response
- Ask Alexa to show you the front door or monitor the baby’s room with compatible cameras from Ring and Arlo. Turn on lights, control thermostats and more with WeMo, Philips Hue, ecobee, and other compatible smart home devices.
- With eight microphones, beam-forming technology, and noise cancellation, Echo Show hears you from any direction—even while music is playing
- Always getting smarter and adding new features, plus thousands of skills like Uber, Jeopardy!, Allrecipes, CNN, and more
From DSC:
Now we’re seeing a major competition between the heavy-hitters to own one’s living room, kitchen, and more. Voice controlled artificial intelligence. But now, add the ability to show videos, text, graphics, and more. Play music. Control the lights and the thermostat. Communicate with others via hands-free video calls.
Hmmm….very interesting times indeed.
Developers and corporates released 4,000 new skills for the voice assistant in just the last quarter. (source)
…with the company adding about 100 skills per day. (source)
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
Addendum on 5/10/17:
- Everything You Need to Know About Amazon’s New Echo Show Alexa-Enabled Touch Screen Device — from medium.com
Excerpts:- A touchscreen
- Video calling / intercom
- Music player
- News / Video player
- Cameras
- Skills / Apps
- Shopping
On 05/09/2017,
in 21st century, active learning, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assistive technologies, Augmented Reality (AR), blogs / blogging / vlogging, bots, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, computer science, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, flipping -- inverted learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, Mixed Reality (MR), mobile technologies, online learning, pace of change, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, social learning / networks, strategy, streams of content, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, traditional / tradition, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, youth,
by Daniel Christian
The 2017 Dean’s List: EdTech’s 50 Must-Read Higher Ed Blogs — from edtechmagazine.com by Meghan Bogardus Cortez
These administrative all-stars, IT gurus, teachers and community experts understand how the latest technology is changing the nature of education.
Excerpt:
With summer break almost here, we’ve got an idea for how you can use some of your spare time. Take a look at the Dean’s List, our compilation of the must-read blogs that seek to make sense of higher education in today’s digital world.
Follow these education trailblazers for not-to-be-missed analyses of the trends, challenges and opportunities that technology can provide.
If you’d like to check out the Must-Read IT blogs from previous years, view our lists from 2016, 2015, 2014 and 2013.
From DSC:
I would like to thank Tara Buck, Meghan Bogardus Cortez, D. Frank Smith, Meg Conlan, and Jimmy Daly and the rest of the staff at EdTech Magazine for their support of this Learning Ecosystems blog through the years — I really appreciate it.
Thanks all for your encouragement through the years!
On 05/09/2017,
in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, change, digital learning, emerging technologies, Europe, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, Microsoft, Natural Language Processing (NLP), vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces,
by Daniel Christian
Microsoft Cortana-Powered Speaker Challenges Amazon’s Echo With Skype Calls — from foxbusiness.com by y Jay Greene
Excerpt:
Microsoft Corp. is hoping to challenge Amazon.com Inc.’s Echo smart speaker for a spot on the kitchen counter with a device from Samsung Electronics Co. that can make phone calls. The Invoke, which will debut this fall, comes more two years after the release of the Echo, which has sold more 11 million units through late last year, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley. It also will compete with Alphabet Inc.’s Google Home, which was released last fall. The voice-controlled Invoke, made by Samsung’s Harman Kardon unit, will use Microsoft’s Cortana digital assistant to take commands.
Microsoft Screams ‘Me Too’ With Cortana-Powered Rival to Amazon Echo and Google Home — from gizmodo.com by Alex Cranz
Excerpt:
With Microsoft’s Build developer conference just two days away, the company has revealed one of the most anticipated announcements from the event: A new Cortana-powered speaker made by German audio giant Harman Kardon.
Now, it’s fair to see this speaker for what it is: An answer to the Google Home and Amazon Echo. Both assistant-powered speakers are already in homes across our great nation, listening to your noises, noting your habits, and in general invading your lives under the guise of smart home helpfulness. The new Microsoft speaker, dubbed “Invoke,” one will presumably do the good stuff, let giving you updates on the weather and letting you turn on some soothing jazz for your dog with just a spoken command. Microsoft is also hoping that partnering with Harmon Kardon means its speaker can avoid one of the bigger problems with these devices—their tendency to sound cheap and tinny.
Harman Kardon’s Invoke speaker is a Cortana-powered take on an Amazon Echo — from theverge.com by Chaim Gartenberg
Excerpt:
As teased earlier, the Invoke speaker will offer 360-degree speakers, Skype calling, and smart home control all through voice commands. Design-wise, the Invoke strongly resembles Amazon’s Echo that its meant to compete with: both offer a similar cylindrical aluminum shape, light ring, and a seven-microphone array. That said, Harmon Kardon seems to be taking the “speaker” portion of its functionality more seriously than Amazon does, with the Invoke offering three woofers and three tweeters (compared to the Echo, which offers just a single of each driver). Microsoft is also highlighting the Invoke’s ability to make and receive Skype calls to other Skype devices as well as cellphones and landlines, which is an interesting addition to a home assistant.
From DSC:
Here we see yet another example of the increasing use of voice as a means of communicating with our computing-related devices. AI-based applications continue to develop.
On 05/08/2017,
in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, Adobe, animation, art, assessment, attention, blogs / blogging / vlogging, change, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, higher education, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, liberal arts, media/film, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, new media literacies, passions, pedagogy, podcasting, project-based learning, real-world assignments, RSS, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, universities, using teams, vendors, web design and production, web-based collaboration, writing, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC and Adobe — for faculty members and teachers out there:
Do your students an enormous favor by assigning them a digital communications project. Such a project could include images, infographics, illustrations, animations, videos, websites, blogs (with RSS feeds), podcasts, videocasts, mobile apps and more. Such outlets offer powerful means of communicating and demonstrating knowledge of a particular topic.
As Adobe mentions, when you teach your students how to create these types of media projects, you prepare them to be flexible and effective digital communicators. I would also add that these new forms and tools can be highly engaging, while at the same time, they can foster students’ creativity. Building new media literacy skills will pay off big time for your students. It will land them jobs. It will help them communicate to a global audience. Students can build upon these skills to powerfully communicate numerous kinds of messages in the future. They can be their own radio station. They can be their own TV station.
For more information, see this page out at Adobe.com.
From DSC:
This is where we may need more team-based approaches…because one person may not be able to create and grade/assess such assignments.
On 05/06/2017,
in 21st century, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, assistive technologies, digital audio, emerging technologies, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, legislatures / government / legal, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, user experience (UX), vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
This type of technology could be good, or it could be bad…or, like many technologies, it could be both — depends upon how it’s used. The resources below mention some positive applications, but also some troubling applications.
Lyrebird claims it can recreate any voice using just one minute of sample audio — from theverge.com by James Vincent
The results aren’t 100 percent convincing, but it’s a sign of things to come
Excerpt:
Artificial intelligence is making human speech as malleable and replicable as pixels. Today, a Canadian AI startup named Lyrebird unveiled its first product: a set of algorithms the company claims can clone anyone’s voice by listening to just a single minute of sample audio.
Also see:
Imitating people’s speech patterns precisely could bring trouble — from economist.com by
You took the words right out of my mouth
Excerpt:
UTTER 160 or so French or English phrases into a phone app developed by CandyVoice, a new Parisian company, and the app’s software will reassemble tiny slices of those sounds to enunciate, in a plausible simulacrum of your own dulcet tones, whatever typed words it is subsequently fed. In effect, the app has cloned your voice. The result still sounds a little synthetic but CandyVoice’s boss, Jean-Luc Crébouw, reckons advances in the firm’s algorithms will render it increasingly natural. Similar software for English and four widely spoken Indian languages, developed under the name of Festvox, by Carnegie Mellon University’s Language Technologies Institute, is also available. And Baidu, a Chinese internet giant, says it has software that needs only 50 sentences to simulate a person’s voice.
Until recently, voice cloning—or voice banking, as it was then known—was a bespoke industry which served those at risk of losing the power of speech to cancer or surgery.
…
More troubling, any voice—including that of a stranger—can be cloned if decent recordings are available on YouTube or elsewhere. Researchers at the University of Alabama, Birmingham, led by Nitesh Saxena, were able to use Festvox to clone voices based on only five minutes of speech retrieved online. When tested against voice-biometrics software like that used by many banks to block unauthorised access to accounts, more than 80% of the fake voices tricked the computer.
Per Candyvoice.com:
Expert in digital voice processing, CandyVoice offers software to facilitate and improve vocal communication between people and communicating objects. With applications in:
Health
Customize your devices of augmentative and alternative vocal communication by integrating in them your users’ personal vocal model
Robots & Communicating objects
Improve communication with robots through voice conversion, customized TTS, and noise filtering
Video games
Enhance the gaming experience by integrating vocal conversion of character’s voice in real time, and the TTS customizing
Also related:
From DSC:
Given this type of technology, what’s to keep someone from cloning a voice, putting together whatever you wanted that person to say, and then making it appear that Alexa recorded that other person’s voice?
On 05/06/2017,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, collaboration, digital learning, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, health, ideas, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Mixed Reality (MR), online learning, personalized/customized learning, platforms, robotics, telepresence, tools, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
I appreciate the innovative work of Dr. Susan Aldridge and Marci Powell; check the Virtually Inspired site out for some examples of what I’m talking about.
On 05/04/2017,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, Blockchain, business, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, creativity, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, emerging technologies, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, online tutoring, organizational change, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, training / L&D, trends, vision/possibilities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
The Future of Jobs and Jobs Training — from by Lee Rainie and Janna Anderson
As robots, automation and artificial intelligence perform more tasks and there is massive disruption of jobs, experts say a wider array of education and skills-building programs will be created to meet new demands. There are two uncertainties: Will well-prepared workers be able to keep up in the race with AI tools? And will market capitalism survive?
Excerpt:
Machines are eating humans’ jobs talents. And it’s not just about jobs that are repetitive and low-skill. Automation, robotics, algorithms and artificial intelligence (AI) in recent times have shown they can do equal or sometimes even better work than humans who are dermatologists, insurance claims adjusters, lawyers, seismic testers in oil fields, sports journalists and financial reporters, crew members on guided-missile destroyers, hiring managers, psychological testers, retail salespeople, and border patrol agents. Moreover, there is growing anxiety that technology developments on the near horizon will crush the jobs of the millions who drive cars and trucks, analyze medical tests and data, perform middle management chores, dispense medicine, trade stocks and evaluate markets, fight on battlefields, perform government functions, and even replace those who program software – that is, the creators of algorithms.
Several policy and market-based solutions have been promoted to address the loss of employment and wages forecast by technologists and economists. A key idea emerging from many conversations, including one of the lynchpin discussions at the World Economic Forum in 2016, is that changes in educational and learning environments are necessary to help people stay employable in the labor force of the future. Among the six overall findings in a new 184-page report from the National Academies of Sciences, the experts recommended: “The education system will need to adapt to prepare individuals for the changing labor market. At the same time, recent IT advances offer new and potentially more widely accessible ways to access education.”
In the next 10 years, do you think we will see the emergence of new educational and training programs that can successfully train large numbers of workers in the skills they will need to perform the jobs of the future?
From DSC:
The following questions (from the article) might be fodder for initial conversations regarding what changes need to immediately occur within higher education. Those changes might be to establish teams/task forces/etc. charged with answering these kinds of questions.
- What are the most important skills needed to succeed in the workforce of the future?
- Which of these skills can be taught effectively via online systems – especially those that are self-directed – and other nontraditional settings?
- Which skills will be most difficult to teach at scale?
- Will employers be accepting of applicants who rely on new types of credentialing systems, or will they be viewed as less qualified than those who have attended traditional four-year and graduate programs?
The following section further supports a vision that I’ve been tracking entitled, “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” — where I see the “New Amazon.com of Higher Education” unfolding. Blockchain-based technologies will likely be involved here.
A diversifying education and credentialing ecosystem: Most of these experts expect the education marketplace – especially online learning platforms – to continue to change in an effort to accommodate the widespread needs. Some predict employers will step up their own efforts to train and retrain workers. Many foresee a significant number of self-teaching efforts by jobholders themselves as they take advantage of proliferating online opportunities.
Respondents see a new education and training ecosystem emerging in which some job preparation functions are performed by formal educational institutions in fairly traditional classroom settings, some elements are offered online, some are created by for-profit firms, some are free, some exploit augmented and virtual reality elements and gaming sensibilities, and a lot of real-time learning takes place in formats that job seekers pursue on their own.
A considerable number of respondents to this canvassing focused on the likelihood that the best education programs will teach people how to be lifelong learners. Accordingly, some say alternative credentialing mechanisms will arise to assess and vouch for the skills people acquire along the way.
DC: Many societies around the globe are looking at massive change coming at them. What changes should those of us working in higher education begin to make — immediately? In the longer term?
These respondents suggest that workers of the future will learn to deeply cultivate and exploit creativity, collaborative activity, abstract and systems thinking, complex communication, and the ability to thrive in diverse environments.
Addendum on 5/6/17:
- How to Prepare for an Automated Future — from nytimes.com by Claire Cain Miller
Excerpt:
We don’t know how quickly machines will displace people’s jobs, or how many they’ll take, but we know it’s happening — not just to factory workers but also to money managers, dermatologists and retail workers. The logical response seems to be to educate people differently, so they’re prepared to work alongside the robots or do the jobs that machines can’t. But how to do that, and whether training can outpace automation, are open questions.
On 05/03/2017,
in bots, career development, computer science, programming, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
What to look for when hiring an entry-level data scientist? — from datasciencecentral.com
Excerpt:
What I look for the most is some signal that the junior data scientist:
- Has the drive and determination to be a self-directed learner
- They understand the fundamentals of “enough” programming,
- They understand how to analyze data when the goals and metrics are not explicit or time boxed.
Let’s put aside the need for some level of formal training, that is a non-negotiable baseline. You have to have enough understanding of mathematics and statistics to know when you are getting yourself into trouble, you have to understand data management practice enough to understand how to access data, and you have to understand enough about machine learning to make the appropriate series of tradeoffs in model development and validation. That is table stakes, however what makes one candidate stand out above the others is everything else surrounding these core concepts.
Also see:
On 05/03/2017,
in 21st century, collaboration, communications, education, education technology, emerging technologies, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), multimedia, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Microsoft Announces New Laptops and OS Perfect for 21st-Century Students — from edtechmagazine.com by Meghan Bogardus Cortez
Windows 10 S, Surface Laptop and other updates are coming to classrooms in the fall.
Excerpt:
Surface Laptop Introduces Seamless Technology
Perhaps the biggest cheers from the crowd came from the announcement of the new Surface Laptop, which will be available in June 2017.
…
The laptop checks in at 2.76 pounds with a 13.5-inch PixelSense display and 3:2 aspect ratio. Equipped with a fabric overlay on the backlit keyboard, the laptop is so seamless it doesn’t even have speaker grills. Instead, Panay says users can be immersed in sound while working on things like video. With a Surface Pen and the laptop’s LCD touch module, annotation is easy, even on videos.
Microsoft Debuts Surface Laptops, Windows 10 S for Education, Teams for Office 365 for Education — from campustechnology.com by David Nagel
Excerpt:
Microsoft has unveiled several new offerings for education, including the forthcoming Surface Laptop and a new version of Windows 10 designed for school environments — Windows 10 S.
Also see:
Also see:
From Mixed Reality to New Minecraft and OS, Microsoft Unleashes a Flurry of EDU Upgrades — from edsurge.com by Jenny AbamuMay
Excerpt:
“How can technology create more opportunity, not for a few but for all,” asked Nadella, noting how his own grandfather was not able to go to school because of the limited resources his family had. “Democratizing education must be something that is for everyone and not just for a select few, this is something that is deeply personal.”
His passionate and personal plea set the tone for the flurry of announcements and updates that followed. By the end of the whirlwind showcase, educators were weary but excited about future possibilities.
Also see:
Microsoft Unveils K-12 Operating System, Tools to Challenge Google — from edweek.org by Sean Cavanagh
Excerpt:
Microsoft unveiled a new, streamlined operating system, a slim laptop and a bevy of classroom tools, a group of products that in design and spirit seem aimed at competing with ascendant Chromebooks and other Google offerings in the school market.
At a product announcement on Tuesday crowded with company employees and tech journalists, Microsoft executives repeatedly touted a theme in describing the new operating system, Windows 10 S, and the accompanying products: simplicity.
The goal is “simplify to magnify,” Terry Myerson, Microsoft’s executive vice president of the Windows and devices group, told the assembled crowd. “Simplicity is power.”
“Technology should help, not hinder, teachers’ work in the classroom,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said. It should make educators’ jobs easier, and “spark students’ creativity.”
Impressive surrealist photo editing by Hüseyin Sahin — from designer-daily.com
Also see:
Spectacular sculptures made of glass and concrete by Ben Young — from designer-daily.com
On 05/02/2017,
in Daniel S. Christian, learning, learning ecosystem, love of learning,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
I ran across this animation that I saw over 7 years ago (and recorded some audio/thoughts about it at that time). I did so because I thought it was a great illustration of a Learning Ecosystem. I thought I’d re-post it here — because I still think that’s the case.
On 05/02/2017,
in change, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, education technology, higher education, online learning, universities, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
‘Volatile’ but growing online ed market — from insidehighered.com by Carl Straumsheim
Online enrollment continues to grow as the total number of students in college shrinks. The growth is particularly strong at private nonprofit colleges, report finds.
Excerpt:
The enrollment growth at private nonprofit colleges means the sector has passed for-profit colleges as the second-largest in the distance education market. Public institutions still teach the majority of online students: 67.8 percent, according to the 2015 data. Of the six million who studied online in fall 2015, 4.1 million attended public institutions, one million private nonprofit colleges and about 871,000 for-profit institutions.
From DSC:
And this growth is without the next wave of artificial intelligence-enabled applications and customized/personalized services that it will deliver.
I fully well realize that even if AI-based education comes into existence (which it will) and the online world delivers incredible learning experiences — and results — many people will still want to learn in a face-to-face manner. I get it.
But especially for the lifelong learner, colleges and universities need to move towards implementing more programs aimed at helping lifelong learners QUICKLY reinvent themselves.