2019 February

Especially for students: This is how you’ll look for a job in 2019 [Dishman] + 2 items re: in-demand skills

On 02/11/2019, in 21st century, career development, collaboration, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, higher education, marketplaces, Microsoft, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, strategy, student-related, tools, training / L&D, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

This is how you’ll look for a job in 2019 — from linkedin.com by Lydia Dishman

Some brand new strategies and time-tested traditions dictate the way job seekers will conduct the hunt in 2019.

Excerpt:

In addition to making sure you list at least five skills, Guo suggests adding the field you work in since more than 300,000 people search by industry on LinkedIn each week. And don’t forget to update the city you work in since this can make you up to 23 times more likely to be found in search, according to LinkedIn’s data.

From DSC:
This next article is likely somewhat of an ad to take courses out at Lynda.com, but it’s still helpful I think:

The Skills Companies Need Most in 2019 – And How to Learn Them— from linkedin.com by Paul Petrone

Also see (emphasis DSC):

These are the 10 most in-demand skills of 2019, according to LinkedIn — from weforum.org by Emma Charlton
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
According to analysis from networking site LinkedIn, 2019’s employers are looking for a combination of both hard and soft skills, with creativity topping the list of desired attributes. The findings chime with the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs report, which concluded that “human” skills like originality, initiative and critical thinking are likely to increase in value as technology and automation advances. “Strengthening a soft skill is one of the best investments you can make in your career, as they never go out of style,” LinkedIn Learning Editor, Paul Petrone wrote in a blog. “Plus, the rise of AI is only making soft skills increasingly important, as they are precisely the type of skills robots can’t automate.”

State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US & Canada: 2018 Year-End Edition [Hill]

On 02/09/2019, in Canada, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, education technology, higher education, IT in HE, teaching & learning, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

State of Higher Ed LMS Market for US and Canada: 2018 Year-End Edition — from mfeldstein.com by Phill Hill

Excerpts:

The market continues to consolidate around the Big Four – Blackboard, Canvas, D2L Brightspace, and Moodle.
The Homegrown option for LMS usage is going away, at least in a statistical sense. Only a handful of schools even consider this option.

Reflections on “135 Million Reasons To Believe In A Blockchain Miracle” [Maddock]

On 02/09/2019, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, Blockchain, change, changing business models, emerging technologies, India, internet, law schools, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, new business models, political science, by Daniel Christian

135 Million Reasons To Believe In A Blockchain Miracle — from forbes.com by Mike Maddock

Excerpts:

Which brings us to the latest headlines about a cryptocurrency entrepreneur’s passing—taking with him the passcode to unlock C$180 million (about $135 million U.S.) in investor currency—which is now reportedly gone forever. Why? Because apparently, the promise of blockchain is true: It cannot be hacked. It is absolutely trustworthy.

Gerald Cotton, the CEO of a crypto company, reportedly passed away recently while building an orphanage in India. Unfortunately, he was the only person who knew the passcode to access the millions his investors had entrusted in him.

…

This is how we get the transition to Web 3.0.

Some questions to consider:

Who will build an easy-to-use “wallet” of the future?
Are we responsible enough to handle that much power?

Perhaps the most important question of all is: What role do our “trusted” experts play in this future?

From DSC:
I’d like to add another question to Mike’s article:

How should law schools, law firms, legislative bodies, government, etc. deal with the new, exponential pace of change and with the power of emerging technologies like #blockchain , #AI, #ML , #FacialRecognition etc.?

From DSC:
From Mary Grush’s recent article re: Learning Engineering, I learned that back in the late 1960’s, Herbert Simon believed there would be value in providing college presidents with “learning engineers” (see his article entitled, “The Job of a College President”).

An excerpt:

What do we find in a university? Physicists well educated in physics, and trained for research in that discipline; English professors learned in their language and its literature (or at least some tiny corner of it); and so on down the list of the disciplines. But we find no one with a professional knowledge of the laws of learning, or of the techniques for applying them (unless it be a professor of educational psychology, who teaches these laws, but has no broader responsibility for their application in the college).

Notice, our topic is learning, not teaching. A college is a place where people come to learn. How much or how little teaching goes on there depends on whether teaching facilitates learning, and if so, under what circumstances. It is a measure of our naivete that we assume implicitly, in almost all our practices, that teaching is the way to produce learning, and that something called a “class” is the best environment for teaching.

But what do we really know about the learning process: about how people learn, about what they learn, and about what they can do with what they learn? We know a great deal today, if by “we” is meant a relatively small group of educational psychologists who have made this their major professional concern. We know much less, if by “we” is meant the rank and file of college teachers.

What is learned must be defined in terms of what the student should be able to do. If learning means change in the student, then that change should be visible in changed potentialities of behavior.

Herbert Simon, 1967

From DSC:
You will find a great deal of support for active learning in Simon’s article.

How Museums are using Augmented Reality [Coates]

On 02/09/2019, in 21st century, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

How Museums are using Augmented Reality — from museumnext.com by Charlotte Coates

Excerpt:

How can museums use augmented reality?
There are many possibilities for the use of AR in museums. The most straightforward way is to use it to add explanations of pieces. This means visitors will get more information when they view exhibitions using AR. Museums could even use it to display digital versions of artists next to their work. These 3D personas are then able to provide a narration. AR gives an opportunity to add a third dimension to displays, bringing objects or scenes to life. There are already many institutions around the world using AR. These projects bring something new to existing collections and attract wider audiences. Here are some interesting ways that museums are using augmented reality.

Google is bringing translation to its Home speakers [Newman]

On 02/08/2019, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, Google, innovation, languages and translation, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, technologies for your home, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

Google is bringing translation to its Home speakers — from businessinsider.com by Peter Newman

Excerpt:

Google has added real-time translation capabilities to its Google Home smart speakers, the Home Hub screened speaker, as well as other screened devices from third parties, according to Android Police.

Also see:

Google Assistant is now your multilingual interpreter — from androidpolice.com by Hagop Kavafian

Accenture Technology Vision 2019: The post-digital era is upon us — from accenture.com

In brief

Digital transformation grants companies exceptional capabilities. But it also creates enormous expectations.
Amid these rising expectations, every business is investing in digital technologies, raising the question of how leaders will set themselves apart.
Companies looking to differentiate themselves must be aware of five distinct trends that will characterize the “post-digital” future.

Here is the link for the report.

Is Teaching an Art or a Science? New Book Takes a Fresh Look at ‘How Humans Learn.’ — from edsurge.com by Jeff Young

Excerpts:

Eyler: That is the perennial question. We actually wrote a post for our Teaching Center’s blog with that title, “Is teaching an art or a science?” It has by far been read more than any other blog post that we’ve written.

My answer might be a little unfulfilling because I think it’s actually both. I think there is a scientific element to teaching. The book is about understanding the science of how we learn, how learning has evolved over time, and the social interactions that shape teaching. And the best teachers also often approach teaching and teaching issues scientifically. They have a hypothesis of what they think will help students learn, and they’re going to test it out and then learn from it and revise.

But if we focus too much on the science, we lose the human element of teaching—what I think of as the art of teaching.

…

What’s the thing that surprised you most in your research or putting this book together?

Much of what surprised me most makes up a lot of the final chapter, which is on failure. As teachers, we don’t get trained to think of failure as a positive thing in any way, even though as researchers we know that failure is a part of the learning process. No one walks into a lab right away and comes up with the Nobel Prize-winning discovery. It’s an iterative cycle.

We have these educational systems that are set up to move in exactly the opposite way. We give students really high-stakes assignments and assessments with very few opportunities to do them.

Christensen Institute: Now’s the time for a makeover in college accreditation [Schaffhauser]

On 02/05/2019, in 21st century, accreditation, career development, colleges, community colleges, higher education, ideas, innovation, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, society, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Christensen Institute: Now’s the time for a makeover in college accreditation — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

As authors Alana Dunagan and Michael Horn noted, “It is impossible to know what innovative models can or will be accredited, as similar initiatives are treated differently by different accreditors — even by the same accreditor at different points in time. Institutions that are able to innovate are those blessed by geography — a cooperative, forward-thinking regional accreditor — as well as finances.” Others believe they can’t afford to innovate or are in the position of facing an accreditation process that dings them when experimental programs fail and are shut down.

From DSC: If you think teaching and learning is easy, I dare you to try these 3 things!

On 02/04/2019, in accessibility / UDL, assessment, curriculum, Daniel S. Christian, K-12 related, learning, learning preferences, society, special needs, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, Uncategorized, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
For anyone out there who thinks that teaching and learning is easy and who agrees with the uninformed saying that goes “Those who can’t do…teach”…might I recommend a few potential to-do’s for you to try out…?

Try teaching 30-35 students yourself for at least 4-6 weeks about a topic that you just found out that you’ll be teaching and one that you don’t know much about. (And see if you enjoy the process that some teachers sometimes have to go through…putting down the tracks right in front of the trains that are rapidly moving down the tracks right behind them.) Also, you must have at least one student in your class who requires an Individualized Education Program (IEP) as well as 4-5 students who constantly cause trouble and who don’t want to be in school at all.
.
Identify each student’s strengths, weaknesses, and learning preferences — and their Zone of Proximal Development — then customize the learning that each of your 30-35 learners receives (with the goal of keeping each student moving forward at their most appropriate pace, while staying encouraged and yet appropriately challenged).
.
Attend Individualized Education Program (IEP) meetings and work with other IEP team members to significantly contribute to the appropriate student’s (or students’) teaching and learning environment(s). For a real challenge, at least one of those students will be someone who is struggling, but is very much hanging in there — someone who is “right in the middle of the pack,” so to speak. (My guess is that if you did this, you would never think of teaching, nor teachers, nor other specialists in quite the same way again. My guess is that you would develop a whole new appreciation for how complex teaching and learning really is.)

Regarding that last item about at least one of your students requiring an IEP, here are some questions that might come up:

What specialized services are needed this year?
What do the teachers need to know about this student’s cognitive processing/executive functioning?
How has the student been doing with the specialized services and teaching and learning strategies that have been attempted since the last IEP meeting?
If their scores are going down, how are you going to address that issue (especially given limited resources)?
How is the student’s motivation level doing? Is attending school still a positive experience? Or are things starting to become negative and/or downright painful for the student? Are they starting to get bummed out about having to come to school?
How are they relating with and collaborating with other students? If poorly, how are you going to address that issue? How are you going to handle group-related projects (especially after reading all of those articles that assert which skills the workplace values these days)?
What do you do with grades and assessments? Do you treat the student differently and give them higher grades to keep them encouraged? But if you do that, will your school system back you up on that or will someone come down hard on you for doing that? Or, perhaps you will find yourself struggling internally — trying to figure out what grades are really for and wondering if they are helpful in the first place. In fact, you might find yourself wondering if grades aren’t really just a mechanism for ranking and comparing individuals, schools, and even entire school systems (which, as we know, impacts property values)?
What do grades really produce — game players or (lifelong) learners? It won’t surprise you to know that I would argue that the former is what gets “produced.” Grades don’t really produce as many learners as they do game-players (i.e., students who know the minimum amount of work that they need to do and still get that all important A).

So, as you can hopefully see here, learning is messy. It’s rarely black and white…there’s a lot of gray out there and a lot of things to consider. It’s not a one-size fits all. And teaching others well is certainly NOT easy to do!

RELEVANT IDEAS:

While I’m thinking about related ideas here…wouldn’t it be great if EVERY. SINGLE. STUDENT. could have their own IEP and their own TEAM of specialists — people who care about their learning?

What if each student could have their own cloud-based learner profile — a portion of which would be a series of VoiceThreads per student, per period of time (or per mastering a particular topic or area)? Such VoiceThreads could include multimedia-based comments, insights, and recommendations for how the student is doing and how they best learn. Through the years, those teams of people — people who care about that student’s learning — could help that student identify their:

strengths
weaknesses
passions/interests
their optimal learning strategies and preferences
potential careers

The students could periodically review such feedback.

For every single student, we could build a history of feedback, helpful suggestions,
and recommendations via audio, video, text, graphics, etc.

Why Facebook’s banned “Research” app was so invasive [Matsakislo]

On 02/01/2019, in 21st century, Apple, data related items, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, Google, hearts -- matters of the heart, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, platforms, technologies for your home, the downsides of how people use tech, United States, by Daniel Christian

Why Facebook’s banned “Research” app was so invasive — from wired.com by Louise Matsakislo

Excerpts:

Facebook reportedly paid users between the ages of 13 and 35 $20 a month to download the app through beta-testing companies like Applause, BetaBound, and uTest.

…
Apple typically doesn’t allow app developers to go around the App Store, but its enterprise program is one exception. It’s what allows companies to create custom apps not meant to be downloaded publicly, like an iPad app for signing guests into a corporate office. But Facebook used this program for a consumer research app, which Apple says violates its rules. “Facebook has been using their membership to distribute a data-collecting app to consumers, which is a clear breach of their agreement with Apple,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “Any developer using their enterprise certificates to distribute apps to consumers will have their certificates revoked, which is what we did in this case to protect our users and their data.” Facebook didn’t respond to a request for comment.

Facebook needed to bypass Apple’s usual policies because its Research app is particularly invasive. First, it requires users to install what is known as a “root certificate.” This lets Facebook look at much of your browsing history and other network data, even if it’s encrypted. The certificate is like a shape-shifting passport—with it, Facebook can pretend to be almost anyone it wants.

To use a nondigital analogy, Facebook not only intercepted every letter participants sent and received, it also had the ability to open and read them. All for $20 a month!

Facebook’s latest privacy scandal is a good reminder to be wary of mobile apps that aren’t available for download in official app stores. It’s easy to overlook how much of your information might be collected, or to accidentally install a malicious version of Fortnite, for instance. VPNs can be great privacy tools, but many free ones sell their users’ data in order to make money. Before downloading anything, especially an app that promises to earn you some extra cash, it’s always worth taking another look at the risks involved.

AI bias: 9 questions leaders should ask [Casey]

On 02/01/2019, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, bots, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, intelligent systems, MBA, organizational change, platforms, workplace, by Daniel Christian

AI bias: 9 questions leaders should ask — from enterprisersproject.com by Kevin Casey
Artificial intelligence bias can create problems ranging from bad business decisions to injustice. Use these questions to fight off potential biases in your AI systems.

Excerpt:

People questions to ask about AI bias
1. Who is building the algorithms?
2. Do your AI & ML teams take responsibility for how their work will be used?
3. Who should lead an organization’s effort to identify bias in its AI systems?
4. How is my training data constructed?

Data questions to ask about AI bias
5. Is the data set comprehensive?
6. Do you have multiple sources of data?

Management questions to ask about AI bias
7. What proportion of resources is appropriate for an organization to devote to assessing potential bias?
8. Have you thought deeply about what metrics you use to evaluate your work?
9. How can we test for bias in training data?

Learning Ecosystems

Reflections on “135 Million Reasons To Believe In A Blockchain Miracle” [Maddock]

How Museums are using Augmented Reality [Coates]

Google is bringing translation to its Home speakers [Newman]

Accenture Technology Vision 2019: The post-digital era is upon us

Christensen Institute: Now’s the time for a makeover in college accreditation [Schaffhauser]

AI bias: 9 questions leaders should ask [Casey]

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