24x7x365 access

From DSC:
Our family uses AT&T for our smartphones and for our Internet access. What I would really like from AT&T is to be able to speak into an app — either located on a smartphone or have their routers morph into Alexa-type of devices — to be able to speak to what I want my router to do:

“Turn off Internet access tonight from 9pm until 6am tomorrow morning.”
“Only allow Internet access for parents’ accounts.”
“Upgrade my bandwidth for the next 2 hours.”

Upon startup, the app would ask whether I wanted to setup any “admin” types of accounts…and, if so, would recognize that voice/those voices as having authority and control over the device.

Would you use this type of interface? I know I would!

P.S. I’d like to be able to speak to our
thermostat in that sort of way as well.

Blockchain Deployment Checklist [Friedman]

On 03/06/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Blockchain, credentialing, education, emerging technologies, experimentation, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, platforms, student-related, technologies for your home, tools, United States, by Daniel Christian

Blockchain Deployment Checklist — from The Journal by Sara Friedman
While the technology is still in the nascent stages, blockchain-based education systems have the potential to revolutionize how school districts manage student data.

From DSC:
Unfortunately, the checklist provided in this solid article was too long and complicated…it needs to be streamlined. But I think it’s likely that we’ll see more products out there in the future that will remove these complexities.

Along these lines, I think we’ll see cloud-based learner profiles in the future. Throughout our lifetimes, we will own the data and direct who can — and can’t — access it.

Also see:

Blockchain 101 — from legal.thomsonreuters.com by Judith Alison Lee and Gibson Dunn
Fujitsu and Sony think blockchain is the best way to store education records — from zdnet.com by Asha McLean (with thanks to Michael Mathews, CIO at ORU, for his post on LinkedIn on this)

Mirrorworld v. AR Cloud or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the spatial future [Inbar]

On 02/26/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), society, tools, trends, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Mirrorworld v. AR Cloud or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the spatial future — from medium.com by Ori Inbar

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

An exact digital replica of the real world is an essential infrastructure, but it’s only part of the meaning of the new spatial computing platform. Unless you are Snow White’s step mother (or Lord Farquaad), the mirror is merely a reflection of the real world; it doesn’t enhance it. The Augmented content overlaid on top of the world’s digital replica is what’s really interesting: “context, meaning, and function” in Kelly’s words. Without it — it’s like the Internet before the Web — great potential, used by few. Hence my initial instinct to include Augmented Reality in the moniker. So should we keep looking for a better term that captures the “augmented” sauce on top of the mirror ? Can’t we simply settle on “Spatial Computing”…?
…
Ask any millennial and she’ll confirm: “I need info about what’s in front of me right now” — what’s this Restaurant, this object, that person? And she is sick of searching it the old fashioned way.
…
The New Spatial Economy
Changing how information is organized will profoundly disrupt the Web economy. A handful of companies became giants thanks to the current model. No wonder they are all contenders in the battle for AR Cloud dominance. The Web Economy was defined by “clicks on links” (CPM/CPC). The AR Cloud-based spatial economy will transition to what I like to call “clicks on bricks” — a punning rhyme that captures a new world where everything is driven by digital interaction with the physical world.

From DSC:
Hmmm….where everything is driven by digital interaction with the physical world.

AR will spark the next big tech platform — call it Mirrorworld [Kelly]

On 02/13/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), computer science, emerging technologies, Google, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

AR will spark the next big tech platform — call it Mirrorworld — from wired.com by Kevin Kelly

Excerpt:

It is already under construction. Deep in the research labs of tech companies around the world, scientists and engineers are racing to construct virtual places that overlay actual places. Crucially, these emerging digital landscapes will feel real; they’ll exhibit what landscape architects call placeness. The Street View images in Google Maps are just facades, flat images hinged together. But in the mirrorworld, a virtual building will have volume, a virtual chair will exhibit chairness, and a virtual street will have layers of textures, gaps, and intrusions that all convey a sense of “street.”

The mirrorworld—a term first popularized by Yale computer scientist David Gelernter—will reflect not just what something looks like but its context, meaning, and function. We will interact with it, manipulate it, and experience it like we do the real world.

Also see:
Google Maps in augmented reality points you in the right direction — from mashable.com by Sasha Lekach

Bobst launches augmented reality helpline — from proprint.com.au by Sheree Young

Excerpt:

Swiss packaging and label equipment supplier Bobst has launched a new augmented reality smart headset to help answer customer questions.

Rapid problem solving thanks to a new augmented reality helpline service introduced by Swiss packaging and label equipment supplier Bobst stands to save printers time and money, the company says.

The Helpline Plus AR innovation provides a remote assistance service to Bobst’s customers using a smart headset with augmented reality glasses. The technology is being gradually rolled out globally, Bobst says.

Customers can use the headset to contact technical experts and iron out any issues they may be having as well as receive real time advice and support.

C-Level View | Feature: Technology Change: Closing the Knowledge Gap — A Q&A with Mary Grush & Daniel Christian

On 02/12/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, pace of change, society, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, by Daniel Christian

C-Level View | Feature:
Technology Change: Closing the Knowledge Gap — A Q&A with Mary Grush & Daniel Christian

Excerpts:

Technology changes quickly. People change slowly. The rate of technology change often outpaces our ability to understand it.
…
It has caused a gap between what’s possible and what’s legal. For example, facial recognition seems to be starting to show up all around us — that’s what’s possible. But what’s legal?
…
The overarching questions are: What do we really want from these technologies? What kind of future do we want to live in?
…
Those law schools that expand their understanding of emerging technologies and lead the field in the exploration of related legal issues will achieve greater national prominence.

Daniel Christian

For a next gen learning platform: A Netflix-like interface to check out potential functionalities / educationally-related “apps” [Christian]

On 02/12/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, library / librarians, lifelong learning, love of learning, MBA, media/film, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, streams of content, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
In a next generation learning system, it would be sharp/beneficial to have a Netflix-like interface to check out potential functionalities that you could turn on and off (at will) — as one component of your learning ecosystem that could feature a setup located in your living room or office.

For example, put a Netflix-like interface to the apps out at eduappcenter.com (i.e., using a rolling interface at first, then going to a static page/listing of apps…again…similar to Netflix).

Amazon has 10,000 employees dedicated to Alexa — here are some of the areas they’re working on [Hartmans]

On 01/23/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, Bring your own device (BYOD), business, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, microlearning, mobile learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, society, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, using teams, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Amazon has 10,000 employees dedicated to Alexa — here are some of the areas they’re working on — from businessinsider.com by Avery Hartmans

Summary (emphasis DSC):

Amazon’s vice president of Alexa, Steve Rabuchin, has confirmed that yes, there really are 10,000 Amazon employees working on Alexa and the Echo.
Those employees are focused on things like machine learning and making Alexa more knowledgeable.
Some employees are working on giving Alexa a personality, too.

From DSC:
How might this trend impact learning spaces? For example, I am interested in using voice to intuitively “drive” smart classroom control systems:

“Alexa, turn on the projector”
“Alexa, dim the lights by 50%”
“Alexa, open Canvas and launch my Constitutional Law I class”

Per Jon Bergmann:

We now know exactly what we need to do to effectively reach every student, so we are kicking off 2019 with a new series to help you reflect on each element daily.

The series is called “Do This, Not That.” In less than 90 seconds daily, we’ll cover one of the elements in the Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning and point to things you’ll want to start doing, stop doing, or continue doing to reach every student in every class every day.

Here’s the first 60-second episode.

The series as of today includes these videos/topics:

#1 Explain How – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#2 Microconversations – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning 2019

#3 Embracing Failure in Education – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#4 Choice of Utilization- Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#5 Differentiation – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#6 Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to Plan – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#7 Barriers to Change – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#8 Chunk Media – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#9 Appropriate Media – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning 2019

#10 Big Ideas – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

Addendum on 1/21/19:

Google says there will be 1 billion devices with Assistant by the end of the month — from marketwatch.com by Emily Bary

Reflections on “Facial recognition has to be regulated to protect the public, says AI report” [Knight]

On 12/31/2018, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Australia, Canada, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital photography, digital video, emerging technologies, ethics, Europe, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, intelligent systems, internet, law schools, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, machine-to-machine communications, Michigan, morals/values, pace of change, platforms, society, sociology, technologies for your home, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, UK, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Facial recognition has to be regulated to protect the public, says AI report — from technologyreview.com by Will Knight
The research institute AI Now has identified facial recognition as a key challenge for society and policymakers—but is it too late?

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Artificial intelligence has made major strides in the past few years, but those rapid advances are now raising some big ethical conundrums.

Chief among them is the way machine learning can identify people’s faces in photos and video footage with great accuracy. This might let you unlock your phone with a smile, but it also means that governments and big corporations have been given a powerful new surveillance tool.

A new report from the AI Now Institute (large PDF), an influential research institute based in New York, has just identified facial recognition as a key challenge for society and policymakers.

Also see:

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
At the core of the cascading scandals around AI in 2018 are questions of accountability: who is responsible when AI systems harm us? How do we understand these harms, and how do we remedy them? Where are the points of intervention, and what additional research and regulation is needed to ensure those interventions are effective? Currently there are few answers to these questions, and the frameworks presently governing AI are not capable of ensuring accountability. As the pervasiveness, complexity, and scale of these systems grow, the lack of meaningful accountability and oversight – including basic safeguards of responsibility, liability, and due process – is an increasingly urgent concern.

Building on our 2016 and 2017 reports, the AI Now 2018 Report contends with this central
problem and addresses the following key issues:

The growing accountability gap in AI, which favors those who create and deploy these
technologies at the expense of those most affected
The use of AI to maximize and amplify surveillance, especially in conjunction with facial
and affect recognition, increasing the potential for centralized control and oppression
Increasing government use of automated decision systems that directly impact individuals and communities without established accountability structures
Unregulated and unmonitored forms of AI experimentation on human populations
The limits of technological solutions to problems of fairness, bias, and discrimination

Within each topic, we identify emerging challenges and new research, and provide recommendations regarding AI development, deployment, and regulation. We offer practical pathways informed by research so that policymakers, the public, and technologists can better understand and mitigate risks. Given that the AI Now Institute’s location and regional expertise is concentrated in the U.S., this report will focus primarily on the U.S. context, which is also where several of the world’s largest AI companies are based.

From DSC:
As I said in this posting, we need to be aware of the emerging technologies around us. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should. People need to be aware of — and involved with — which emerging technologies get rolled out (or not) and/or which features are beneficial to roll out (or not).

One of the things that’s beginning to alarm me these days is how the United States has turned over the keys to the Maserati — i.e., think an expensive, powerful thing — to youth who lack the life experiences to know how to handle such power and, often, the proper respect for such power. Many of these youthful members of our society don’t own the responsibility for the positive and negative influences and impacts that such powerful technologies can have (and the more senior execs have not taken enough responsibility either)!

If you owned the car below, would you turn the keys of this ~$137,000+ car over to your 16-25 year old? Yet that’s what America has been doing for years. And, in some areas, we’re now paying the price.

The corporate world continues to discard the hard-earned experience that age brings…as they shove older people out of the workforce. (I hesitate to use the word wisdom…but in some cases, that’s also relevant/involved here.) Then we, as a society, sit back and wonder how did we get to this place?

Even technologists and programmers in their 20’s and 30’s are beginning to step back and ask…WHY did we develop this application or that feature? Was it — is it — good for society? Is it beneficial? Or should it be tabled or revised into something else?

Below is but one example — though I don’t mean to pick on Microsoft, as they likely have more older workers than the Facebooks, Googles, or Amazons of the world. I fully realize that all of these companies have some older employees. But the youth-oriented culture in American today has almost become an obsession — and not just in the tech world. Turn on the TV, check out the new releases on Netflix, go see a movie in a theater, listen to the radio, cast but a glance at the magazines in the check out lines, etc. and you’ll instantly know
what I mean.

In the workplace, there appears to be a bias against older employees as being less innovative or tech-savvy — such a perspective is often completely incorrect. Go check out LinkedIn for items re: age discrimination…it’s a very real thing. But many of us over the age of 30 know this to be true if we’ve lost a job in the last decade or two and have tried to get a job that involves technology.

Microsoft argues facial-recognition tech could violate your rights — from finance.yahoo.com by Rob Pegoraro

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

On Thursday, the American Civil Liberties Union provided a good reason for us to think carefully about the evolution of facial-recognition technology. In a study, the group used Amazon’s (AMZN) Rekognition service to compare portraits of members of Congress to 25,000 arrest mugshots. The result: 28 members were mistakenly matched with 28 suspects.

The ACLU isn’t the only group raising the alarm about the technology. Earlier this month, Microsoft (MSFT) president Brad Smith posted an unusual plea on the company’s blog asking that the development of facial-recognition systems not be left up to tech companies.

Saying that the tech “raises issues that go to the heart of fundamental human rights protections like privacy and freedom of expression,” Smith called for “a government initiative to regulate the proper use of facial recognition technology, informed first by a bipartisan and expert commission.”

But we may not get new laws anytime soon.

Just because we can…

MOOCs are dead, welcome MOOC-based degrees — from iblnews.org

Coursera, edX, Udacity grew their businesses by over 20% in 2018 — from iblnews.org

Also see:

Reinventing the College Degree: A Future with Modular Credentials — from iblnews.org

Excerpt:

Rapidly changing technology is impacting the workforce and the economy, highlighting the need to be continually learning and refreshing skills in order to stay relevant. Additionally, the jobs of the future will require a set of skills from a variety of subject areas. “We have to rethink our education system,” writes Anant Agarwal, CEO at edX, on a column in Quartz.

A summary of Mr. Agarwal’s ideas:

Lego-like modular education…
MOOCs at scale, with personalized pacing and open admissions…
Modular credentials…

Can online learning help higher ed reverse its tuition spiral? — from edsurge.com by Robert Ubell (Columnist)

Excerpt:

Classic economic theory predicts that when demand falls, so do prices. But when it comes to the price of college in the past few decades, it’s been just the other way around.

As data from the National Student Clearinghouse Center shows, tuition has escalated even as enrollments fell.

The dispiriting result is that half of all low-income high school graduates, cowed by sticker shock, don’t even bother to fill-out applications to go to college. A report by the American Council on Education concludes: “The rapid price increases in recent years, especially in the public college sector, may have led many students—particularly low-income students—to think that college is out of reach financially.”

Still, colleges that have devoted imagination and commitment show that even with the financial stranglehold in which most schools are locked, the spiral can actually be arrested.

College leaders need to recognize that prices have shot up too far. In the next budget cycle, as they face their treacherous spreadsheets—and before they add yet another percentage point to next year’s tuition—they must act to roll back the perilous climb.

Elon Musk receives FCC approval to launch over 7,500 satellites into space — from digitaltrends.com by Kelly Hodgkins

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The FCC this week unanimously approved SpaceX’s ambitious plan to launch 7,518 satellites into low-Earth orbit. These satellites, along with 4,425 previously approved satellites, will serve as the backbone for the company’s proposed Starlink broadband network. As it does with most of its projects, SpaceX is thinking big with its global broadband network. The company is expected to spend more than $10 billion to build and launch a constellation of satellites that will provide high-speed internet coverage to just about every corner of the planet.

To put this deployment in perspective, there are currently only 1,886 active satellites presently in orbit. These new SpaceX satellites will increase the number of active satellites six-fold in less than a decade.

New simulation shows how Elon Musk’s internet satellite network might work — from digitaltrends.com by Luke Dormehl

Excerpt:

From Tesla to Hyperloop to plans to colonize Mars, it’s fair to say that Elon Musk thinks big. Among his many visionary ideas is the dream of building a space internet. Called Starlink, Musk’s ambition is to create a network for conveying a significant portion of internet traffic via thousands of satellites Musk hopes to have in orbit by the mid-2020s. But just how feasible is such a plan? And how do you avoid them crashing into one another?

From DSC:
Is this even the FCC’s call to make?

One one hand, such a network could be globally helpful, positive, and full of pros. But on the other hand, I wonder…what are the potential drawbacks with this proposal? Will nations across the globe launch their own networks — each of which consists of thousands of satellites?

While I love Elon’s big thinking, the nations need to weigh in on this one.

LinkedIn Learning Opens Its Platform (Slightly) [Young]

On 11/09/2018, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, education technology, elearning, formal learning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, marketplaces, microlearning, Microsoft, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online tutoring, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, social learning / networks, social media, society, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, using teams, vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

LinkedIn Learning Opens Its Platform (Slightly) — from edsurge by Jeff Young

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

A few years ago, in a move toward professional learning, LinkedIn bought Lynda.com for $1.5 billion, adding the well-known library of video-based courses to its professional social network. Today LinkedIn officials announced that they plan to open up their platform to let in educational videos from other providers as well—but with a catch or two.

The plan, announced Friday, is to let companies or colleges who already subscribe to LinkedIn Learning add content from a select group of other providers. The company or college will still have to subscribe to those other services separately, so it’s essentially an integration—but it does mark a change in approach.

For LinkedIn, the goal is to become the front door for employees as they look for micro-courses for professional development.

LinkedIn also announced another service for its LinkedIn Learning platform called Q&A, which will give subscribers the ability to pose a question they have about the video lessons they’re taking. The question will first be sent to bots, but if that doesn’t yield an answer the query will be sent on to other learners, and in some cases the instructor who created the videos.

Also see:

LinkedIn becomes a serious open learning experience platform — from clomedia.com by Josh Bersin
LinkedIn is becoming a dominant learning solution with some pretty interesting competitive advantages, according to one learning analyst.

Excerpt:

LinkedIn has become quite a juggernaut in the corporate learning market. Last time I checked the company had more than 17 million users, 14,000 corporate customers, more than 3,000 courses and was growing at high double-digit rates. And all this in only about two years.

And the company just threw down the gauntlet; it’s now announcing it has completely opened up its learning platform to external content partners. This is the company’s formal announcement that LinkedIn Learning is not just an amazing array of content, it is a corporate learning platform. The company wants to become a single place for all organizational learning content.

LinkedIn now offers skills-based learning recommendations to any user through its machine learning algorithms.

Is there demand for staying relevant? For learning new skills? For reinventing oneself?

Well…let’s see.

From DSC:
So…look out higher ed and traditional forms of accreditation — your window of opportunity may be starting to close. Alternatives to traditional higher ed continue to appear on the scene and gain momentum. LinkedIn — and/or similar organizations in the future — along with blockchain and big data backed efforts may gain traction in the future and start taking away some major market share. If employers get solid performance from their employees who have gone this route…higher ed better look out.

Microsoft/LinkedIn/Lynda.com are nicely positioned to be a major player who can offer society a next generation learning platform at an incredible price — offering up-to-date, microlearning along with new forms of credentialing. It’s what I’ve been calling the Amazon.com of higher ed (previously the Walmart of Education) for ~10 years. It will take place in a strategy/platform similar to this one.

Also, this is what a guerilla on the back looks like:

Also see:

Meet the 83-Year-Old App Developer Who Says Edtech Should Better Support Seniors — from edsurge.com by Sydney Johnson
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Now at age 83, Wakamiya beams with excitement when she recounts her journey, which has been featured in news outlets and even at Apple’s developer conference last year. But through learning how to code, she believes that experience offers an even more important lesson to today’s education and technology companies: don’t forget about senior citizens.Today’s education technology products overwhelmingly target young people. And while there’s a growing industry around serving adult learners in higher education, companies largely neglect to consider the needs of the elderly.

Introducing several new ideas to provide personalized, customized learning experiences for all kinds of learners! [Christian]

On 11/06/2018, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, attention, blended learning, bots, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, interface design, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, library / librarians, memory, more voice more choice more control, neurodivergent/special needs, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, reading, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), tools, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, universities, user experience (UX), user interface design, using teams, vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I have often reflected on differentiation or what some call personalized learning and/or customized learning. How does a busy teacher, instructor, professor, or trainer achieve this, realistically?

It’s very difficult and time-consuming to do for sure. But it also requires a team of specialists to achieve such a holy grail of learning — as one person can’t know it all. That is, one educator doesn’t have the necessary time, skills, or knowledge to address so many different learning needs and levels!

Think of different cognitive capabilities — from students that have special learning needs and challenges to gifted students
Or learners that have different physical capabilities or restrictions
Or learners that have different backgrounds and/or levels of prior knowledge
Etc., etc., etc.

Educators and trainers have so many things on their plates that it’s very difficult to come up with _X_ lesson plans/agendas/personalized approaches, etc. On the other side of the table, how do students from a vast array of backgrounds and cognitive skill levels get the main points of a chapter or piece of text? How can they self-select the level of difficulty and/or start at a “basics” level and work one’s way up to harder/more detailed levels if they can cognitively handle that level of detail/complexity? Conversely, how do I as a learner get the boiled down version of a piece of text?

Well… just as with the flipped classroom approach, I’d like to suggest that we flip things a bit and enlist teams of specialists at the publishers to fulfill this need. Move things to the content creation end — not so much at the delivery end of things. Publishers’ teams could play a significant, hugely helpful role in providing customized learning to learners.

Some of the ways that this could happen:

Use an HTML like language when writing a textbook, such as:

<MainPoint> The text for the main point here. </MainPoint>

<SubPoint1>The text for the subpoint 1 here.</SubPoint1>

<DetailsSubPoint1>More detailed information for subpoint 1 here.</DetailsSubPoint1>

<SubPoint2>The text for the subpoint 2 here.</SubPoint2>

<DetailsSubPoint2>More detailed information for subpoint 2 here.</DetailsSubPoint2>

<SubPoint3>The text for the subpoint 3 here.</SubPoint3>

<DetailsSubPoint3>More detailed information for subpoint 3 here.</DetailsSubPoint1>

<SummaryOfMainPoints>A list of the main points that a learner should walk away with.</SummaryOfMainPoints>

<BasicsOfMainPoints>Here is a listing of the main points, but put in alternative words and more basic ways of expressing those main points. </BasicsOfMainPoints>

<Conclusion> The text for the concluding comments here.</Conclusion>

<BasicsOfMainPoints> could be called <AlternativeExplanations>
Bottom line: This tag would be to put things forth using very straightforward terms.

Another tag would be to address how this topic/chapter is relevant:
<RealWorldApplication>This short paragraph should illustrate real world examples
of this particular topic. Why does this topic matter? How is it relevant?</RealWorldApplication>

On the students’ end, they could use an app that works with such tags to allow a learner to quickly see/review the different layers. That is:

Show me just the main points
Then add on the sub points
Then fill in the details
OR
Just give me the basics via an alternative ways of expressing these things. I won’t remember all the details. Put things using easy-to-understand wording/ideas.

It’s like the layers of a Microsoft HoloLens app of the human anatomy:

Or it’s like different layers of a chapter of a “textbook” — so a learner could quickly collapse/expand the text as needed:

This approach could be helpful at all kinds of learning levels. For example, it could be very helpful for law school students to obtain outlines for cases or for chapters of information. Similarly, it could be helpful for dental or medical school students to get the main points as well as detailed information.

Also, as Artificial Intelligence (AI) grows, the system could check a learner’s cloud-based learner profile to see their reading level or prior knowledge, any IEP’s on file, their learning preferences (audio, video, animations, etc.), etc. to further provide a personalized/customized learning experience.

To recap:

“Textbooks” continue to be created by teams of specialists, but add specialists with knowledge of students with special needs as well as for gifted students. For example, a team could have experts within the field of Special Education to help create one of the overlays/or filters/lenses — i.e., to reword things. If the text was talking about how to hit a backhand or a forehand, the alternative text layer could be summed up to say that tennis is a sport…and that a sport is something people play. On the other end of the spectrum, the text could dive deeply into the various grips a person could use to hit a forehand or backhand.
This puts the power of offering differentiation at the point of content creation/development (differentiation could also be provided for at the delivery end, but again, time and expertise are likely not going to be there)
Publishers create “overlays” or various layers that can be turned on or off by the learners
Can see whole chapters or can see main ideas, topic sentences, and/or details. Like HTML tags for web pages.
Can instantly collapse chapters to main ideas/outlines.

Learning Ecosystems

Mirrorworld v. AR Cloud or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the spatial future [Inbar]

AR will spark the next big tech platform — call it Mirrorworld [Kelly]

C-Level View | Feature: Technology Change: Closing the Knowledge Gap — A Q&A with Mary Grush & Daniel Christian

Is SpaceX’s proposed Starlink broadband network a good thing for the world? Is it even the FCC’s call?

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