2017 August

Why Natural Language Processing is the Future of Business Intelligence — from dzone.com by Gur Tirosh
Until now, we have been interacting with computers in a way that they understand, rather than us. We have learned their language. But now, they’re learning ours.

Excerpt:

Every time you ask Siri for directions, a complex chain of cutting-edge code is activated. It allows “her” to understand your question, find the information you’re looking for, and respond to you in a language that you understand. This has only become possible in the last few years. Until now, we have been interacting with computers in a way that they understand, rather than us. We have learned their language.

But now, they’re learning ours.

The technology underpinning this revolution in human-computer relations is Natural Language Processing (NLP). And it’s already transforming BI, in ways that go far beyond simply making the interface easier. Before long, business transforming, life changing information will be discovered merely by talking with a chatbot.

This future is not far away. In some ways, it’s already here.

What Is Natural Language Processing?
NLP, otherwise known as computational linguistics, is the combination of Machine Learning, AI, and linguistics that allows us to talk to machines as if they were human.

But NLP aims to eventually render GUIs — even UIs — obsolete, so that interacting with a machine is as easy as talking to a human.

Share of good jobs held by those without a BA has shrunken from 60% in 1991 to 45% today.

On 08/12/2017, in 21st century, business, career development, change, colleges, community colleges, higher education, parents/guardians, society, student-related, workplace, by Daniel Christian

‘Good Jobs’ Still Exist; Most Require Post-High School Education — from campustechnology.comby Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Good jobs — those that pay at least $35,000 a year — don’t necessarily require a bachelor’s degree. These good jobs have a median salary of $55,000. And 30 million of them exist in this country, compared to 36 million “good jobs” for workers with four-year college degrees. The share of good jobs held by those without a BA has shrunken from 60 percent in 1991 to 45 percent today. Those are the singular findings of a research project undertaken by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce and supported by JPMorgan Chase & Co to understand the impact of economic change wrought by the Great Recession.

The share of good jobs held by those without a BA has shrunken from 60 percent in 1991 to 45 percent today.

People without a bachelor’s degree make up two-thirds (64 percent) of all workers. According to the authors of “Good Jobs that Pay without a BA,” many of those workers believe they can no longer find good jobs.

Also see:

goodjobsdata.org

Instructional Design Firm Launches Digital Marketplace; Enables Innovative U’s to Offer Unbundled Alternative Credentials

On 08/12/2017, in CMS/LMS, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, higher education, innovation, instructional design, marketplaces, MBA, teaching & learning, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Instructional Design Firm Launches Digital Marketplace; Enables Innovative Universities to Offer Unbundled Alternative Credentials — from prnewswire.com
iDesign Course Market will help colleges deliver course content, accept payment, and issue digital credentials and certificates online

Excerpt:

DALLAS, Aug. 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Instructional design firm, iDesign, [on 8/10/17] announced Course Market, a digital marketplace that universities can use to offer standalone courses and digital credentials in high demand fields. Course Market integrates LMS technology from Instructure and Credly’s pioneering credential platform to deliver engaging learner experiences with real value in the job market. Institutions that utilize Course Market can seamlessly enroll students in continuing education programs, accept payment, deliver content, and issue digital badges or certificates, which can be instantly uploaded and shared through social networks like LinkedIn or Facebook.

“Alternative credentials are unquestionably gaining traction among working adults looking for accelerated pathways to new schools and executive education. We view Course Market as a great tool for universities that want to expand access to learners who may otherwise be unable to take advantage of traditional degree programs,” said William Valenta, Assistant Dean of MBA and Executive Programs at University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business. “By applying Course Market’s technology and infrastructure to our existing educational offerings, the Katz school successfully enhanced access, affordability, and career relevance.”

Nearly 1/2 of companies say they don’t have the digital skills they need [Goldman]

On 08/09/2017, in business, career development, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, ideas, leadership, MBA, staying relevant, surviving, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Nearly half of companies say they don’t have the digital skills they need — from hbr.org by Jeremy Goldman

Excerpt:

The companies that think their employees’ digital IQs are unimportant are probably few and far between. After all, in just one decade the concept of “digital” has changed from a niche skill set to something that’s mandatory for virtually all blue-chip companies. If you don’t feel that your employees’ digital IQs are competitive, you have a major problem on your hands.

Unfortunately, for many companies, that’s exactly the situation they find themselves in. On a global basis, companies are losing faith in their digital smarts. In PwC’s 2017 Global Digital IQ Survey, 52% rated their digital IQ as strong. Compare that with 67% and 66% in 2016 and 2015, respectively. The survey, conducted among 2,200 technology executives, identified critical skill gaps such as cybersecurity and privacy.

Chatbot “Bobbot” has driven 1000’s of potential leads, 10% increase in converting visitors to students

On 08/08/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, business side of he, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, emerging technologies, experimentation, Facebook / Meta Platforms, higher education, IBM, Natural Language Processing (NLP), student-related, tools, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Codify Academy Taps IBM Cloud with Watson to Design Cognitive Chatbot — from finance.yahoo.com
Chatbot “Bobbot” has driven thousands of potential leads, 10 percent increase in converting visitors to students

Excerpt:

ARMONK, N.Y., Aug. 4, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced that Codify Academy, a San Francisco-based developer education startup, tapped into IBM Cloud’s cognitive services to create an interactive cognitive chatbot, Bobbot, that is improving student experiences and increasing enrollment.

Using the IBM Watson Conversation Service, Bobbot fields questions from prospective and current students in natural language via the company’s website. Since implementing the chatbot, Codify Academy has engaged thousands of potential leads through live conversation between the bot and site visitors, leading to a 10 percent increase in converting these visitors into students.

Bobbot can answer more than 200 common questions about enrollment, course and program details, tuition, and prerequisites, in turn enabling Codify Academy staff to focus on deeper, more meaningful exchanges.

Also see:

Chatbots — The Beginners Guide — from chatbotsmagazine.com

Excerpt:

If you search for chatbots on Google, you’ll probably come across hundreds of pages starting from what is a chatbot to how to build one. This is because we’re in 2017, the year of the chatbots revolution.

I’ve been introduced to many people who are new to this space, and who are very interested and motivated in entering it, rather they’re software developers, entrepreneurs, or just tech hobbyists. Entering this space for the first time, has become overwhelming in just a few months, particularly after Facebook announced the release of the messenger API at F8 developer conference. Due to this matter, I’ve decided to simplify the basic steps of entering this fascinating world.

Reflections on “Digital Ivy: Harvard Business School’s Next Online Program” [Corcoran]

On 08/08/2017, in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, higher education, innovation, leadership, MBA, online learning, platforms, strategy, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Digital Ivy: Harvard Business School’s Next Online Program — from edsurge.com by Betsy Corcoran

Excerpts:

A triad of Harvard institutions—its business School, the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS), and the department of statistics—are teaming up with Maryland-based digital education company, 2U, to offer an online executive education certificate in business analytics.
…
Orchestrating a cross-disciplinary program is no small feat, particularly at Harvard. “This was really hard [for Harvard] to pull off,” Paucek says. “It’s an intense, cross-disciplinary new offering from a school founded in 1636. The field is new, the offering of a complex blended certificate is new, and it’s being done with HBS, SEAS and the faculty, all blessed by the central administration. And it’s powered by an outside company that’s only 10 years old.”

The bottom line: HBS, Harvard SEAS and FAS faculty all want to put their imprint on the topic that is mesmerizing nearly every type of organization.

Also see:

Andrew Ng spreads the gospel of AI with a new online school — from wired.com by Tom Simonite

Excerpt:

Andrew Ng a soft-spoken AI researcher whose online postings talk loudly.

A March blog post in which the Stanford professor announced he was leaving Chinese search engine Baidu temporarily wiped more than a billion dollars off the company’s value. A June tweet about a new Ng website, Deeplearning.ai, triggered a wave of industry and media speculation about his next project.

Today that speculation is over. Deeplearning.ai is home to a series of online courses Ng says will help spread the benefits of recent advances in machine learning far beyond big tech companies such as Google and Baidu. The courses offers coders without an AI background training in how to use deep learning, the technique behind the current frenzy of investment in AI.

From DSC:
For those of you who shun online learning and think such programs will dilute your face-to-face based brands — whether individual colleges, universities, faculty members, provosts, deans, IT-based personnel, administrators, members of the board of trustees, and/or other leaders and strategists within higher education — you might want to intentionally consider what kind of future you have without a strong, solid online presence. Because if one of the top — arguably thee top — universities in the United States is moving forward forcefully with online learning, what’s your story/excuse?

And if one of the top thinkers in artificial intelligence backs online learning, again…what’s your story/excuse?

If Amazon.com dominates and Sears (and related retail stores who were powerhouses just years ago) are now closing…you are likely heading for major trouble as the world continues down the digital/virtual tracks — and you aren’t sending any (or very few) cars down those tracks. You won’t have any credibility in the future — at least not in the digital/virtual/online-based realms. Oh, and by the way, you might want to set some more funding aside for the mental and physical health of your admissions/enrollment teams in such situations…as their jobs are going to be increasingly stressful and difficult in order to meet their target numbers.

Also see:

Could Georgia Tech Use Online to Shave Time Off Bachelor’s Degrees? — from insidehighered.com by Mark Lieberman
University uses model from closely observed master’s in computer science on undergraduates for first time, finds notable success and sees path to shaving a year or more off in-person instruction.

4 items involving bootcamps

On 08/04/2017, in 21st century, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, higher education, ideas, innovation, new business models, programming, student-related, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

The Future of Coding Bootcamps — from edsurge.com by Jeff Young

Excerpt:

EdSurge set out to answer some of those questions with a series of articles about the future of coding bootcamps. We’ll be adding to the series over the next few weeks, and let us know if you have particular questions you want us to pursue.

Coding Boot Camps Won’t Save Us All — from edsurge.com by Jeff Young

Excerpt:

That doesn’t mean the rest of the boot camps are doomed. In fact, there are at least 95 other coding boot camp companies in the U.S., and some say they are still growing. But it should bring a dose of realism to what had been a narrative of unending growth and the idea that somehow boot camps were a silver bullet for what ails higher education.

More bootcamps are quietly coming to a university near you — from edsurge.com by Sydney Johnson

Excerpt:

In the last two years, a surge of nonprofit, four-year institutions have hopped on the bootcamp bandwagon. These programs, often on skills such as software development or data analytics, have arrived in a number of ways—from universities partnering with local for-profit bootcamps, or colleges creating their own intensive training programs completely in-house.But while bootcamps are often associated with tech skills, it seems that traditional universities trying out the model are interested in more than just coding. An increasing number of traditional higher-ed institutions are now applying bootcamp trainings to other fields, such as healthcare, accounting and even civics and political science.

Online learning startup Codecademy launches paid Pro courses — from techcrunch.com by Ryan Lawler

Excerpt:

Codecademy has spent the last several years building a large community of learners with free lessons aimed at teaching its users the basics of how to code. But now it’s betting that many of them will be willing to pay for more intensive courses.

When Codecademy founder and CEO Zach Sims founded the company in 2011, he did so with the hope of allowing more people interested in programming to gain access to educational content they’d need to get started.

A leading Silicon Valley engineer explains why every tech worker needs a humanities education [Chou]

On 08/04/2017, in career development, computer science, ethics, leadership, liberal arts, morals/values, productivity / tips and tricks, programming, society, strategy, vision/possibilities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

A leading Silicon Valley engineer explains why every tech worker needs a humanities education — from qz.com by Tracy Chou

Excerpts:

I was no longer operating in a world circumscribed by lesson plans, problem sets and programming assignments, and intended course outcomes. I also wasn’t coding to specs, because there were no specs. As my teammates and I were building the product, we were also simultaneously defining what it should be, whom it would serve, what behaviors we wanted to incentivize amongst our users, what kind of community it would become, and what kind of value we hoped to create in the world.

I still loved immersing myself in code and falling into a state of flow—those hours-long intensive coding sessions where I could put everything else aside and focus solely on the engineering tasks at hand. But I also came to realize that such disengagement from reality and societal context could only be temporary.
…
At Quora, and later at Pinterest, I also worked on the algorithms powering their respective homefeeds: the streams of content presented to users upon initial login, the default views we pushed to users. It seems simple enough to want to show users “good” content when they open up an app. But what makes for good content? Is the goal to help users to discover new ideas and expand their intellectual and creative horizons? To show them exactly the sort of content that they know they already like? Or, most easily measurable, to show them the content they’re most likely to click on and share, and that will make them spend the most time on the service?

Ruefully—and with some embarrassment at my younger self’s condescending attitude toward the humanities—I now wish that I had strived for a proper liberal arts education. That I’d learned how to think critically about the world we live in and how to engage with it. That I’d absorbed lessons about how to identify and interrogate privilege, power structures, structural inequality, and injustice. That I’d had opportunities to debate my peers and develop informed opinions on philosophy and morality. And even more than all of that, I wish I’d even realized that these were worthwhile thoughts to fill my mind with—that all of my engineering work would be contextualized by such subjects.

It worries me that so many of the builders of technology today are people like me; people haven’t spent anywhere near enough time thinking about these larger questions of what it is that we are building, and what the implications are for the world.

Also see:

Why We Need the Liberal Arts in Technology’s Age of Distraction — from time.com by Tim Bajarin

Excerpt:

In a recent Harvard Business Review piece titled “Liberal Arts in the Data Age,” author JM Olejarz writes about the importance of reconnecting a lateral, liberal arts mindset with the sort of rote engineering approach that can lead to myopic creativity. Today’s engineers have been so focused on creating new technologies that their short term goals risk obscuring unintended longterm outcomes. While a few companies, say Intel, are forward-thinking enough to include ethics professionals on staff, they remain exceptions. At this point all tech companies serious about ethical grounding need to be hiring folks with backgrounds in areas like anthropology, psychology and philosophy.

Overall, tech-related skills accounted for nearly two-thirds of Upwork’s list of the 20 fastest-growing skills. [Gottlieb]

On 08/04/2017, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Adobe, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, career development, CMS/LMS, computer science, economics, emerging technologies, Facebook / Meta Platforms, marketing/social marketing, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, programming, tools, trends, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, workplace, by Daniel Christian

VR Is the Fastest-Growing Skill for Online Freelancers — from bloomberg.com by Isabel Gottlieb
Workers who specialize in artificial intelligence also saw big jumps in demand for their expertise.

Excerpt:

Overall, tech-related skills accounted for nearly two-thirds of Upwork’s list of the 20 fastest-growing skills.

Also see:

How to Prepare Preschoolers for an Automated Economy — from nytimes.com by Claire Miller and Jess Bidgood

Excerpt

MEDFORD, Mass. — Amory Kahan, 7, wanted to know when it would be snack time. Harvey Borisy, 5, complained about a scrape on his elbow. And Declan Lewis, 8, was wondering why the two-wheeled wooden robot he was programming to do the Hokey Pokey wasn’t working. He sighed, “Forward, backward, and it stops.”

Declan tried it again, and this time the robot shook back and forth on the gray rug. “It did it!” he cried. Amanda Sullivan, a camp coordinator and a postdoctoral researcher in early childhood technology, smiled. “They’ve been debugging their Hokey Pokeys,” she said.

The children, at a summer camp last month run by the Developmental Technologies Research Group at Tufts University, were learning typical kid skills: building with blocks, taking turns, persevering through frustration. They were also, researchers say, learning the skills necessary to succeed in an automated economy.

Technological advances have rendered an increasing number of jobs obsolete in the last decade, and researchers say parts of most jobs will eventually be automated. What the labor market will look like when today’s young children are old enough to work is perhaps harder to predict than at any time in recent history. Jobs are likely to be very different, but we don’t know which will still exist, which will be done by machines and which new ones will be created.

Five lessons for libraries looking to innovate in the 21st Century [Wilansky]

On 08/04/2017, in 21st century, education, experimentation, ideas, innovation, journalism, learning, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, library / librarians, love of learning, productivity / tips and tricks, society, by Daniel Christian

Five lessons for libraries looking to innovate in the 21st Century — from knightfoundation.org by Laura Sue Wilansky

Excerpt:

In June, Knight Foundation sent a cohort of U.S. librarians from institutions around the country to the Next Library Conference, an annual gathering held in Aarhus, Denmark that brings together library leaders from around the world to discuss innovative programs, services and ideas in the field. 20 U.S. librarians from 11 cities joined hundreds of colleagues who attended the conference from around the globe, from China to Kenya to the Caribbean.

The goal was to spread best practices in library innovation, while helping their capacity to meet new digital age demands. The initiative is part of Knight’s larger work to help libraries better serve 21st century information needs. We believe libraries are essential to addressing information challenges and creating opportunities for communities to engage with information, new ideas and each other. The conference was an opportunity to connect U.S. libraries in order to share practices and approaches being used to attract new patrons around the world, as well as gather insights from them that can help to further inform our strategy.

Here are some of the lessons the librarians brought home…

“We need to focus intently on making our buildings locations for experimentation, innovation, education, recreation and relaxation.”

155 chatbots in this brand new landscape. Where does your bot fit? [Chan]

On 08/03/2017, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, business, corporate / business world, marketing/social marketing, tools, trends, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

155 chatbots in this brand new landscape. Where does your bot fit? — from venturebeat.com by Carylyne Chan

Excerpt:

Since we started building bots at KeyReply more than two years ago, the industry has seen massive interest and change. This makes it hard for companies and customers to figure out what’s really happening — so we hope to throw some light on this industry by creating a landscape of chatbot-related businesses. There’s no way to put everyone into this landscape, so we have selected examples that give readers an overview of the industry, such as notable or dominant providers and tools widely used to develop bots.

To put everything into a coherent structure, we arranged companies along the axes according to the functions of their bots and how they built them.

On the horizontal axis, the “marketing” function refers to a bot’s ability to drive exposure, reach, and interaction with the brand or product for potential and current customers. The “support” function refers to a bot’s ability to assist current customers with problems and to resolve those problems for them.

On the vertical axis, “managed” refers to companies outsourcing the development of bots to external vendors, whereas “self-serve” refers to them building their bots in-house or with an off-the-shelf tool.

Penn State World Campus implements 360-degree videos in online courses [Dawson]

On 08/03/2017, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, emerging technologies, experimentation, higher education, innovation, online learning, special needs, tools, United States, universities, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, visualizing information, by Daniel Christian

Penn State World Campus implements 360-degree videos in online courses — from news.psu.edu by Mike Dawson
Videos give students virtual-reality experiences; leaders hopeful for quick expansion

Excerpt:

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State World Campus is using 360-degree videos and virtual reality for the first time with the goal of improving the educational experience for online learners.

The technology has been implemented in the curriculum of a graduate-level special education course in Penn State’s summer semester. Students can use a VR headset to watch 360-degree videos on a device such as a smartphone.

The course, Special Education 801, focuses on how teachers can respond to challenging behaviors, and the 360-degree videos place students in a classroom where they see an instructor explaining strategies for arranging the classroom in ways best-suited for the learning activity. The videos were produced using a 360-degree video camera and uploaded into the course in just a few a days.

University of Michigan becomes country’s first campus to use self-driving shuttles [wbur.org]

On 08/03/2017, in Uncategorized, by Daniel Christian

University of Michigan becomes country’s first campus to use self-driving shuttles — from wbur.org

Excerpt:

This fall students at the University of Michigan will have a new way of getting around campus. Two self-driving shuttles will cover a nearly two-mile route — a first on any campus around the country.

The project is a partnership with Mcity, a 32-acre testing facility on the campus where tech startups and automakers research self-driving vehicles. Mcity Director Huei Peng joins Here & Now’s Robin Young to talk about the shuttle project.
Interview Highlights

“Autonomous vehicles operate largely in two different ways, generally speaking. No. 1 is fixed route: We’ve mapped the route in advance, driving very slowly, collecting a lot of data. The second type would be free routing. You can literally go anywhere there’s a road on the map. So these shuttles largely rely on the GPS, the pre-planned route.”

Campus Technology Announces 2017 Impact Award Honorees

On 08/02/2017, in Augmented Reality (AR), colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital storytelling, education technology, higher education, ideas, immersion, innovation, IT in HE, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Campus Technology Announces 2017 Impact Award Honorees — from campustechnology.com

Excerpt:

“When you consider the use of technology in education, one of the most important factors is impact — how it benefits students, improves teaching, streamlines costs, contributes to the community, furthers the institutional mission, etc.,” said Rhea Kelly, executive editor of Campus Technology. “These 10 projects are making a difference in higher education in variety of inspiring ways, and we are so pleased to recognize them with this year’s Impact Awards.”

From DSC:
I was a Member of the Review Board for this year’s Impact Awards program. As such, I want to extend my sincere congratulations to these recipients! I also want to extend congratulations to the many other people/organizations who — though they didn’t win an award this year — are doing some great work out there as well!

Learning Ecosystems

Why Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the Future of Business Intelligence [Tirosh]

Instructional Design Firm Launches Digital Marketplace; Enables Innovative U’s to Offer Unbundled Alternative Credentials

Nearly 1/2 of companies say they don’t have the digital skills they need [Goldman]

Reflections on “Digital Ivy: Harvard Business School’s Next Online Program” [Corcoran]

A leading Silicon Valley engineer explains why every tech worker needs a humanities education [Chou]

Overall, tech-related skills accounted for nearly two-thirds of Upwork’s list of the 20 fastest-growing skills. [Gottlieb]

Five lessons for libraries looking to innovate in the 21st Century [Wilansky]

155 chatbots in this brand new landscape. Where does your bot fit? [Chan]

Penn State World Campus implements 360-degree videos in online courses [Dawson]

University of Michigan becomes country’s first campus to use self-driving shuttles [wbur.org]

Campus Technology Announces 2017 Impact Award Honorees

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