To End Student Debt, Tie Tuition to Post-Graduation Salaries — from wired.com by Austen Allred
Opinion: If colleges only get paid when their graduates do, they’re incentivized to provide a service that actually gets students hired.

Excerpt:

But unlike student loans, if regulated responsibly, ISAs power a risk-averse path to higher education. Responsible ISAs—which typically require zero upfront cost, repayment only if and when the graduate lands a job earning a sizable income, and an ethical repayment cap, such as $30,000 total—eliminate cost as a barrier to entry. But it’s the way that ISAs align the incentives of school and student that makes the model paradigm-changing.

The financial tool serves a diversity of students. People who can’t afford the cost of a traditional on-campus degree, or who don’t have access to federal- or state-based aid programs, can pursue a postsecondary education at no upfront cost. Additionally, those who are transitioning back into the workforce or changing careers can retrain in in-demand fields.

There’s no one-size-fits-all path to higher education. But Income Share Agreements prove that shouldering enormous risk doesn’t have to be a prerequisite for students. ISAs imagine a future in which graduates aren’t burdened by growing debt, and where opportunity is as evenly distributed as talent.

 

From DSC:
Can you hear and feel the culture clash that’s embedded here? I can.

On one side of the coin, there exists many faculty members, deans, provosts, and college/university presidents as well as other members of administration who maintain a more liberal arts perspective — that college is meant for learning and preparing students for many jobs…not just their first jobs. 

On the other side of the coin are students who are paying ever increasing amounts of money to obtain their degrees. They want good jobs, and aren’t necessarily at school for the noble cause of learning. Many of these folks have different perspectives about what higher education is for…what it’s purpose is meant to be.

As the price of higher ed has increased, the former ways of viewing what a college education is supposed to be about — i.e., learning and a broad-based liberal arts type of education — are being increasingly shoved out the door. This is now by necessity I might add.

Along these lines, I can hear one of my former colleagues — an academic dean from years ago –adamantly insisting that higher education is not a business and that our students are not customers.

Since that time, it’s become very clear to me that higher education is most definitely a business. Not focusing on the multi-million dollar TV contracts or what many football coaches get paid…or not focusing on the revenue that research universities make on patents…let’s just focus on charging someone the price of a nice home for a 4-year degree. That alone makes it a business in my mind. The rising price of education has created customers.

(By the way, this development occurred on the watch of many of those same faculty members, provosts, presidents and other members of administration, etc. that claim a more noble goal of higher education.)

Students today can’t afford to attend school the way boomers did. As the article states:

When I went to college, nobody talked about student debt. Nobody talked about trade-offs. Everybody lived by one credo: Go to the best school you can, study the thing that you love, and it will work out on the other side. Frankly, for Boomers, that’s what happened. If you got a degree, you could expect to land a decent job with a decent salary. Even if you did accrue debt during college, payments were often manageable and short-lived.

That is certainly not the case anymore, as the article points out:

Bottom line:

Change has to occur. It can’t keep going on like this. We are at the precipice of massive change. It has to change or we are in massive trouble as a nation. The ramifications of this kind of student debt last for decades!

This is why a next generation, online-based learning platform will be the answer for many people. Surely such a delivery method and learning experience will not work for everyone — as the face-to-face (F2f) experience is still excellent and preferred by many people. But the F2F experience is arguably becoming the Maserati….and increasingly out of reach…and it’s burying people in debt for decades to come.

 

 

Why more law schools are prioritizing technology integration — from edtechmagazine.com by Eli Zimmerman
Universities are investing in video conferencing, artificial intelligence and more to ensure future lawyers remain competitive and prepared.

Excerpt:

Lawyers are beginning to show interest in incorporating technology into practice — the American Bar Association has even dedicated an entirely new section of their website to available, relevant technologies. As this interest grows, law schools are incorporating innovative solutions into their curriculums to prepare students for legal careers that will involve more technology than ever before.

The push for a more technology-oriented law school experience comes as professionals and educators become more aware of the inevitable merge of traditional practice with the tools of tomorrow.

“If we can help students understand that technology, and specifically AI, can create a much more streamlined, efficacious means of connecting lawyers to consumers of legal services, and reorient or recalibrate what it means to provide legal services by lawyers, then that’s an enormous benefit for us as legal educators in educating our students to the value and capacity of law to provide access to justice,” says Daniel Rodriguez, former dean of Northwestern University Pritzker School of Law in a Legal AI News article.

 

Also see:

  • Client-Driven Innovation: The Future of Legal Technology — from lawtechnologytoday.org by Vishal Rajpara
    Excerpt:
    After nearly 20 years of steady innovation-focused primarily on e-discovery, legal technology appears to be entering a new phase. While the legal profession as a whole is still somewhat skeptical of technology and wary of change—especially when compared to other industries—most lawyers now accept the premise that automation and process optimization are essential to managing law firms and legal departments more efficiently in a dynamic, hypercompetitive business environment that is increasingly data-driven.

 

Advanced technologies built into the platform.
Artificial intelligence technologies like machine learning, natural language processing, and data analytics must be included in legal technology platforms rather than dangled as extras for an additional cost. The utility and power of these technologies have the potential to transform the industry if organizations can apply them—at a reasonable, predictable, and sustainable cost—to workflows where they make the most sense. These capabilities are game-changers that can be applied to nearly every facet of legal operations and litigation, whether it’s ECA and TAR in discovery or billing and invoicing or long-term multi-matter management. AI and analytics help organizations leverage data to understand the details of their operations, monitor trends, refine processes, and predict budget and resource requirements.

 

 

Report: Smart-city IoT isn’t smart enough yet — from networkworld.com by Jon Gold
A report from Forrester Research details vulnerabilities affecting smart-city internet of things (IoT) infrastructure and offers some methods of mitigation.

 

What will happen when 28 billion devices are connected online? — from fastcompany.com
The Internet of Things is already well on its way. Here’s how it will impact our future.

Excerpt:

The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network that connects a staggering array of devices, from household appliances to factory machines. During a panel discussion at Cisco Live 2019 in June, two leading figures in IoT shared their thoughts on this rapidly evolving technology that has already transformed the world.

 

DSC: Holy smokes!!! How might this be applied to education/learning/training in the 21st century!?!

DC: Holy smokes!!! How might this be applied to education/learning/training in the 21st century!?!

 

“What if neither distance nor language mattered? What if technology could help you be anywhere you need to be and speak any language? Using AI technology and holographic experiences this is possible, and it is revolutionary.”

 

 

Also see:

Microsoft has a wild hologram that translates HoloLens keynotes into Japanese — from theverge.com by
Azure and HoloLens combine for a hint at the future

Excerpt:

Microsoft has created a hologram that will transform someone into a digital speaker of another language. The software giant unveiled the technology during a keynote at the Microsoft Inspire partner conference [on 7/17/19] in Las Vegas. Microsoft recently scanned Julia White, a company executive for Azure, at a Mixed Reality capture studio to transform her into an exact hologram replica.

The digital version appeared onstage to translate the keynote into Japanese. Microsoft has used its Azure AI technologies and neural text-to-speech to make this possible. It works by taking recordings of White’s voice, in order to create a personalized voice signature, to make it sound like she’s speaking Japanese.

 

 

 

Governments take first, tentative steps at regulating AI — from heraldnet.com by James McCusker
Can we control artificial intelligence’s potential for disrupting markets? Time will tell.

Excerpt:

State legislatures in New York and New Jersey have proposed legislation that represents the first, tentative steps at regulation. While the two proposed laws are different, they both have elements of information gathering about the risks to such things as privacy, security and economic fairness.

 

 

50 Twitter Accounts Lawyers Should Follow [Updated 2019] — from postali.com

Accounts are from the following areas:

  • Attorneys, Journalists & Legal Influencers
  • Legal Tech, Marketing Practice Management & Business Development
  • Legal Publications, News & Bar Associations
 

Texas A&M Launches State’s First Inclusive 4-Year College Program for Students with Disabilities — from people.com by Char Adams
Aggie ACHIEVE is the state’s first four-year postsecondary education program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities

Excerpt:

Texas A&M University is opening the door to higher education for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities — making history as the first program of its kind in the state.

The school has vowed to help students with disabilities realize their dreams of becoming Aggies with a four-year post-secondary education program specifically designed to support them, the public university announced in a statement.

Texas A&M Launches State's First Inclusive 4-Year College Program for Students with Disabilities

 

 

Is this the future of (low-cost) healthcare? — from computerworld.com by Johnny Evans
A Zipnostic pilot program in New York hints at how Apple tech could transform healthcare.

Excerpt:

The thing is, the home visit isn’t by a doctor but an onsite “care coordinator” equipped with a full set of professional testing equipment and direct video contact with the doctor.

The coordinator runs through tests using a high-resolution camera, ultrasound, EKG, glucometer, blood pressure, oximeter, and other state-of-the-art equipment, all of which is controlled using Zipnostic’s own apps.

Test data is made available to the real doctor at the end of the camera, who can take control of the testing procedure and provide an on-the-spot medical diagnosis based on real data.

The idea is that a diagnosis can be provided at around a fifteenth of the cost of a visit to the ER, and that the data driving the diagnosis can be much more accurate than you get from, say, a video chat using an app.

 

 

5 Years Since Starbucks Offered to Help Baristas Attend College, How Many Have Graduated? — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpts:

…nearly 3,000 Starbucks employees who have earned bachelor’s degrees online through the company-university partnership program.

 

The arrangement was possible logistically because Humberstone took her courses in business and environmental sustainability entirely online. And it was feasible financially because Starbucks and Arizona State University covered most of her tuition bill.

 

You’re already being watched by facial recognition tech. This map shows where — from fastcompany.com by Katharine Schwab
Digital rights nonprofit Fight for the Future has mapped out the physical footprint of the controversial technology, which is in use in cities across the country.

 

 

From DSC:
In reviewing some of the learning spaces I ran across out at inventionlandinstitute.com/innovation-labs

 

An example of a wonderful learning space at Inventionland Institute

 

Another example of a wonderful learning space at Inventionland Institute

 

Another example of a wonderful learning space at Inventionland Institute

 

Another example of a wonderful learning space at Inventionland Institute

 

Another example of a wonderful learning space at Inventionland Institute

 

…I wondered…why can’t more learning spaces look like this!?!

 
 
 

The coming deepfakes threat to businesses — from axios.com by Kaveh Waddell and Jennifer Kingson

Excerpt:

In the first signs of a mounting threat, criminals are starting to use deepfakes — starting with AI-generated audio — to impersonate CEOs and steal millions from companies, which are largely unprepared to combat them.

Why it matters: Nightmare scenarios abound. As deepfakes grow more sophisticated, a convincing forgery could send a company’s stock plummeting (or soaring), to extract money or to ruin its reputation in a viral instant.

  • Imagine a convincing fake video or audio clip of Elon Musk, say, disclosing a massive defect the day before a big Tesla launch — the company’s share price would crumple.

What’s happening: For all the talk about fake videos, it’s deepfake audio that has emerged as the first real threat to the private sector.

 

From DSC…along these same lines see:

 
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