LinkedIn 2019 Talent Trends: Soft Skills, Transparency and Trust — from linkedin.com by Josh Bersin

Excerpts:

This week LinkedIn released its 2019 Global Talent Trends research, a study that summarizes job and hiring data across millions of people, and the results are quite interesting. (5,165 talent and managers responded, a big sample.)

In an era when automation, AI, and technology has become more pervasive, important (and frightening) than ever, the big issue companies face is about people: how we find and develop soft skills, how we create fairness and transparency, and how we make the workplace more flexible, humane, and honest.

The most interesting part of this research is a simple fact: in today’s world of software engineering and ever-more technology, it’s soft skills that employers want. 91% of companies cited this as an issue and 80% of companies are struggling to find better soft skills in the market.

What is a “soft skill?” The term goes back twenty years when we had “hard skills” (engineering and science) so we threw everything else into the category of “soft.” In reality soft skills are all the human skills we have in teamwork, leadership, collaboration, communication, creativity, and person to person service. It’s easy to “teach” hard skills, but soft skills must be “learned.”

 

 

Also see:

Employers Want ‘Uniquely Human Skills’ — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

According to 502 hiring managers and 150 HR decision-makers, the top skills they’re hunting for among new hires are:

  • The ability to listen (74 percent);
  • Attention to detail and attentiveness (70 percent);
  • Effective communication (69 percent);
  • Critical thinking (67 percent);
  • Strong interpersonal abilities (65 percent); and
  • Being able to keep learning (65 percent).
 

2019 Top 10 IT Issues — from educause.edu

2019 Reveals Focus on “Student Genome”
In 2019, after a decade of preparing, higher education stands on a threshold. A new era of technology is ushering in myriad opportunities to apply data that supports and advances our higher ed mission. This threshold is similar to the one science stood on in the late 20th century: the prospect of employing technology to put genetic information to use meaningfully and ethically. Much in the same way, higher education must first “sequence” the data before we can apply it with any reliability or precision.

Our focus in 2019, then, is to organize, standardize, and safeguard data before applying it to our most pressing priority: student success.

The issues cluster into three themes:

  • Empowered Students: In their drive to improve student outcomes, institutions are increasingly focused on individual students, on their life circumstances, and on their entire academic journey. Leaders are relying on analytics and technology to make progress. Related issues: 2 and 4
  • Trusted Data: This is the work of the Student Genome Project, where the “sequencing” is taking place. Institutions are collecting, securing, integrating, and standardizing data and preparing the institution to use data meaningfully and ethically. Related issues: 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8
  • 21st Century Business Strategies: This is the leadership journey, in which institutions address today’s funding challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s more competitive ecosystem. Technology is now embedded into teaching and learning, research, and business operations and so must be embedded into the institutional strategy and business model. Related issues: 7, 9 and 10

 

 

 

 

13 industries soon to be revolutionized by artificial intelligence — from forbes.com by the Forbes Technology Council

Excerpt:

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have a rapidly growing presence in today’s world, with applications ranging from heavy industry to education. From streamlining operations to informing better decision making, it has become clear that this technology has the potential to truly revolutionize how the everyday world works.

While AI and ML can be applied to nearly every sector, once the technology advances enough, there are many fields that are either reaping the benefits of AI right now or that soon will be. According to a panel of Forbes Technology Council members, here are 13 industries that will soon be revolutionized by AI.

 

 

The information below is per Laura Kelley (w/ Page 1 Solutions)


As you know, Apple has shut down Facebook’s ability to distribute internal iOS apps. The shutdown comes following news that Facebook has been using Apple’s program for internal app distribution to track teenage customers for “research.”

Dan Goldstein is the president and owner of Page 1 Solutions, a full-service digital marketing agency. He manages the needs of clients along with the need to ensure protection of their consumers, which has become one of the top concerns from clients over the last year. Goldstein is also a former attorney so he balances the marketing side with the legal side when it comes to protection for both companies and their consumers. He says while this is another blow for Facebook, it speaks volumes for Apple and its concern for consumers,

“Facebook continues to demonstrate that it does not value user privacy. The most disturbing thing about this news is that Facebook knew that its app violated Apples terms of service and continued to distribute the app to consumers after it was banned from the App Store. This shows, once again, that Facebook doesn’t value user privacy and goes to great lengths to collect private behavioral data to give it a competitive advantage.The FTC is already investigating Facebook’s privacy policies and practices.As Facebook’s efforts to collect and use private data continue to be exposed, it risks losing market share and may prompt additional governmental investigations and regulation,” Goldstein says.

“One positive that comes out of this story is that Apple seems to be taking a harder line on protecting user privacy than other tech companies. Apple has been making noises about protecting user privacy for several months. This action indicates that it is attempting to follow through on its promises,” Goldstein says.

 

 

 

 

Emerging technology trends can seem both elusive and ephemeral, but some become integral to business and IT strategies—and form the backbone of tomorrow’s technology innovation. The eight chapters of Tech Trends 2019 look to guide CIOs through today’s most promising trends, with an eye toward innovation and growth and a spotlight on emerging trends that may well offer new avenues for pursuing strategic ambitions.

 

 

Amazon is pushing facial technology that a study says could be biased — from nytimes.com by Natasha Singer
In new tests, Amazon’s system had more difficulty identifying the gender of female and darker-skinned faces than similar services from IBM and Microsoft.

Excerpt:

Over the last two years, Amazon has aggressively marketed its facial recognition technology to police departments and federal agencies as a service to help law enforcement identify suspects more quickly. It has done so as another tech giant, Microsoft, has called on Congress to regulate the technology, arguing that it is too risky for companies to oversee on their own.

Now a new study from researchers at the M.I.T. Media Lab has found that Amazon’s system, Rekognition, had much more difficulty in telling the gender of female faces and of darker-skinned faces in photos than similar services from IBM and Microsoft. The results raise questions about potential bias that could hamper Amazon’s drive to popularize the technology.

 

 

A landmark ruling gives new power to sue tech giants for privacy harms — from fastcompany.com by Katharine Schwab

Excerpt:

A unanimous ruling by the Illinois Supreme Court says that companies that improperly gather people’s data can be sued for damages even without proof of concrete injuries, opening the door to legal challenges that Facebook, Google, and other businesses have resisted.

 

 

From DSC:
I just found out about this and I wanted to pass it along to you aspiring young writers/playwrights out there! If it’s too late for this year, put it on your radar for next year!


Worldwide Plays Festival Submission Deadline: February 1, 2019

Announcing the judges of the 10th Annual Writopia Lab Worldwide Plays Festival Competition, an exciting, immersive festival of plays written by young playwrights ages 5-19, turning a multi-roomed theater space in midtown Manhattan into The Neighborhood, where audiences will be lead from place to place, play to play, plunged into the wacky and provoking minds of children and teens.

The Judges are:

  • Gideon Glick (currently on Broadway in To Kill A Mockingbird),
  • Abe Koogler (Obie Award Winner for Manhattan Theatre Club’s Fulfillment Center),
  • Jordana Spiro (Netflix’ Ozark),
  • Madhuri Shekar (writer on upcoming HBO’s The Nevers),
  • Matthew Shapiro (Emmy Winning Co-Producer Marvelous Mrs. Maisel)

Named after David Letterman’s Worldwide Pants due to funding of earlier festivals, Writopia Lab’s Worldwide Plays Festival has produced hundreds of full productions of plays written by young playwrights over the past decade.

This year, we invite playwrights from 1st through 12th grade around the world to enter our competition. We will select winning plays in three age groups: Elementary School, Middle School and High School.

From hundreds of submissions from across the country, 36 will be selected for production and three will receive a cash prize as part of our festival in May of 2019 at TheaterLab, in the theater district of New York City. Prizes include $750 for best high school play, $500 for best middle school play, and $250 for best elementary school play.

Winners will be notified by March, 2019.

For more information about how to submit, please visit: https://www.writopialab.org/programs/specialty-programs/worldwide-plays-festival

This Year’s Theme:

The Neighborhood
“Life is so rich when you go off the logical path and embark on eccentric adventures,”

Steve Young, producer and writer of Bathrooms over Broadway, and former head writer at The Late Show with David Letterman.

In this spirit, we ask playwrights from all walks of life-from homeless shelters to townhouses-to embark on eccentric adventures in their own neighborhoods and share their discoveries with us on the stage. Plays take place in one of three locations: The Convenience Store or Bodega, The Community Center (Church, Mosque, Synagogue, Yoga Studio, etc.) or Outside Your Door. Most of our writers attend highly segregated school systems and find great comfort-and meaningful challenge-in working closely in workshops with peers from diverse backgrounds.

At showtime, actors playing a rich array of complex neighborhood characters (also written by young writers), lead groups of audiences from room to room, weaving together a multitude of plays by young playwrights–urban and suburban, gay and straight, binary and nonbinary, outside and in-celebrating a totality of experience around the corner, down the block, across the hall in your America.

Festival Performances:
Where: Theaterlab, 357 West 36th Street, 3rd floor
When: Wednesday May 1st, 2019 to Sunday May 5th, 2019

Media Contact:
Lance Laytner
Public Good Relations
(917)573-8960
lance@publicgoodrelations.com

 


Also per Inside VR & AR:


Google has teamed up with Boston-based Commonwealth Shakespeare Company to produce a VR version of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet.” Called “Hamlet 360: Thy Father’s Spirit,”  the Bard’s classic tale of murder and revenge was tailored specifically for virtual reality, with some scenes lengthened and the overall run time pared way down. Director Steven Maler told the New York Times the production is a way “to show people how exciting it can be to be in the space where it’s happening.” The viewer sees the action from the point of view of the ghost of Hamlet’s father. Hamlet 360 was filmed on a Yi Halo 360 camera and is posted on WGBH-Boston’s YouTube channel. — NYTIMES

 

 

When the future comes to West Michigan, will we be ready?


 

UIX: When the future comes to West Michigan, will we be ready? — from rapidgrowthmedia.com by Matthew Russell

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

“Here in the United States, if we were to personify things a bit, it’s almost like society is anxiously calling out to an older sibling (i.e., emerging technologies), ‘Heh! Wait up!!!'” Christian says. “This trend has numerous ramifications.”

Out of those ramifications, Christian names three main points that society will have to address to fully understand, make use of, and make practical, future technologies.

  1. The need for the legal/legislative side of the world to close the gap between what’s possible and what’s legal
  2. The need for lifelong learning and to reinvent oneself
  3. The need to make pulse-checking/futurism an essential tool in the toolbox of every member of the workforce today and in the future

 

When the future comes to West Michigan, will we be ready?

Photos by Adam Bird

 

From DSC:
The key thing that I was trying to relay in my contribution towards Matthew’s helpful article was that we are now on an exponential trajectory of technological change. This trend has ramifications for numerous societies around the globe, and it involves the legal realm as well. Hopefully, all of us in the workforce are coming to realize our need to be constantly pulse-checking the relevant landscapes around us. To help make that happen, each of us needs to be tapping into the appropriate “streams of content” that are relevant to our careers so that our knowledgebases are as up-to-date as possible. We’re all into lifelong learning now, right?

Along these lines, increasingly there is a need for futurism to hit the mainstream. That is, when the world is moving at 120+mph, the skills and methods that futurists follow must be better taught and understood, or many people will be broadsided by the changes brought about by emerging technologies. We need to better pulse-check the relevant landscapes, anticipate the oncoming changes, develop potential scenarios, and then design the strategies to respond to those potential scenarios.

 

 

Online curricula helps teachers tackle AI in the classroom — from educationdive.com by Lauren Barack

Dive Brief:

  • Schools may already use some form of artificial intelligence (AI), but hardly any have curricula designed to teach K-12 students how it works and how to use it, wrote EdSurge. However, organizations such as the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) are developing their own sets of lessons that teachers can take to their classrooms.
  • Members of “AI for K-12” — an initiative co-sponsored by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence and the Computer Science Teachers Association — wrote in a paper that an AI curriculum should address five basic ideas:
    • Computers use sensors to understand what goes on around them.
    • Computers can learn from data.
    • With this data, computers can create models for reasoning.
    • While computers are smart, it’s hard for them to understand people’s emotions, intentions and natural languages, making interactions less comfortable.
    • AI can be a beneficial tool, but it can also harm society.
  • These kinds of lessons are already at play among groups including the Boys and Girls Club of Western Pennsylvania, which has been using a program from online AI curriculum site ReadyAI. The education company lent its AI-in-a-Box kit, which normally sells for $3,000, to the group so it could teach these concepts.

 

AI curriculum is coming for K-12 at last. What will it include? — from edsurge.com by Danielle Dreilinger

Excerpt:

Artificial intelligence powers Amazon’s recommendations engine, Google Translate and Siri, for example. But few U.S. elementary and secondary schools teach the subject, maybe because there are so few curricula available for students. Members of the “AI for K-12” work group wrote in a recent Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence white paper that “unlike the general subject of computing, when it comes to AI, there is little guidance for teaching at the K-12 level.”

But that’s starting to change. Among other advances, ISTE and AI4All are developing separate curricula with support from General Motors and Google, respectively, according to the white paper. Lead author Dave Touretzky of Carnegie Mellon has developed his own curriculum, Calypso. It’s part of the “AI-in-a-Box” kit, which is being used by more than a dozen community groups and school systems, including Carter’s class.

 

 

 

 

Provosts count more on online programs — from insidehighered.com by Doug Lederman
More say they will increase emphasis on and allocate “major funds” to online offerings. Survey also finds solid but not spectacular support for open educational resources, and that backing for competency-based programs is more philosophical than practical.

Excerpt:

Increasing numbers of college and university chief academic officers plan to expand their online offerings and make major allocations of funds to online programs, a new survey by Inside Higher Ed shows.

The 2019 Survey of College and University Chief Academic Officers, published today by Inside Higher Ed in conjunction with Gallup, finds that 83 percent of provosts say they will increase their emphasis on expanding online programs and offerings. That figure has edged up slightly in recent years, from 79 percent in 2016.

A more significant rise has occurred in the proportion of academic officers anticipating a “major allocation of funds” to online programs. The survey asks provosts to assess the likelihood of increased funds to several categories of programs, including professional programs, STEM fields and the arts and sciences. As seen in the chart below, the share of provosts agreeing or strongly agreeing they would allocate major funds to online programs has grown to 56 percent this year from 46 percent four years earlier.

 

 

 

6 key trends to 21st century teaching — from edsurge.com

Excerpt:

It’s popular these days to complain that college teaching hasn’t changed in hundreds of years. And sure, it’s possible to find some professors on any campus holding yellowed lecture notes, or clinging to dusty chalk. But the reality is that the internet and digital technologies have already brought profound changes to instructional styles and tools in higher education.

So what are the new teaching approaches catching on at today’s campuses? And what are the broader cultural changes around college teaching?

We set out to answer those questions over the past year, with a series of articles and interviews exploring what teaching in the 21st century looks like. Some show the nuances of the challenges of teaching with technology by telling stories of innovative professors, including how a water agency official who teaches an online community college course got started in creating open educational resources when her class was incorporated into a zero-cost textbook degree program. Others dive into research on the culture of teaching, like a talk with an anthropologist studying how professors react to (and sometimes resist) research on teaching practices.

 

 

 

Philippians 4:9 New International Version (NIV) — biblegateway.com

Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

 

James 1:22-25 New International Version (NIV) — from biblegateway.com

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.23 Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror 24 and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. 25 But whoever looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues in itnot forgetting what they have heard, but doing itthey will be blessed in what they do.

 

From DSC:
The word engagement comes to mind here…as does the association between doing and not forgetting (i.e., memory…recall…creating “mental hooks” to hang future learning/content on…which can ultimately impact our behaviors).

 

 

 

Towards a Reskilling Revolution: Industry-Led Action for the Future of Work — from weforum.org

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution impacts skills, tasks and jobs, there is growing concern that both job displacement and talent shortages will impact business dynamism and societal cohesion. A proactive and strategic effort is needed on the part of all relevant stakeholders to manage reskilling and upskilling to mitigate against both job losses and talent shortages.

Through the Preparing for the Future of Work project, the World Economic Forum provides a platform for designing and implementing intra-industry collaboration on the future of work, working closely with the public sector, unions and educators. The output of the project’s first phase of work, Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All, highlighted an innovative method to identify viable and desirable job transition pathways for disrupted workers. This second report, Towards a Reskilling Revolution: Industry-Led Action for the Future of Work extends our previous research to assess the business case for reskilling and establish its magnitude for different stakeholders. It also outlines a roadmap for selected industries to address specific challenges and opportunities related to the transformation of their workforce.

 

See the PDF file / report here.

 

 

 

 

Tiny microbots fold like origami to travel through the human body — from digitaltrends.com by Georgina Torbet

Excerpt:

Tiny robots modeled after bacteria could be used to deliver drugs to hard to reach areas of the human body. Scientists at École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETH Zurich) have developed what they call elastic microbots that can change shape depending on their environment.

 
© 2024 | Daniel Christian