Will more institutions of higher education join something like the new “University Learning Store?”

On 04/05/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, business, career development, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, elearning, experimentation, future of higher education, higher education, ideas, innovation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, microlearning, new business models, online learning, platforms, professional development, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:

Will more institutions of higher education be joining/contributing courses to this type of University Learning Store? I’ve often wondered about the place of consortia in higher ed…perhaps this will be one of the ways that institutions pool their resources. (i.e., creating and contributing content, tapping into content that’s been aggregated)
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How will corporate training / L&D groups view his sort of development? Will it be helpful to them?
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Will the University Learning Store, like Lynda.com, continually expand the list of topics that they are offering/addressing?
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Will these types of efforts morph into what I’ve been calling Learning from the Living [Class] Room? (i.e., learning on demand across a lifetime; employing web-based learner profiles, cognitive computing, social networking/learning while offering the ability to instantly form or join communities of practice) Another way of asking this question is this: “As technology-enabled collaborations increase what’s possible, what’s to keep courses from being ported to tvOS-based apps for on demand learning?”

For example, fast forward a few years from the technologies found in “The Video Call Center” and one could imagine some powerful means of collaborating from one’s living room:

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

Also see:

Micro-credentials offer universities an opportunity to bridge skill gaps — from centerdigitaled.com by Tanya Roscorla
By working with employers, universities can help students of all ages learn skills that industry leaders need.

Excerpt:

Higher education leaders are pondering how to make bite-sized, low-cost learning opportunities available to students in different ways.

Working adults who change jobs and careers frequently often don’t need to go through an entire degree program to learn different skills. However, they do need a flexible way to earn credentials that are recognized by employers and that demonstrate their ability to apply the skills they learn, said David Schejbal, dean of continuing education, outreach and e-learning at University of Wisconsin-Extension. University micro-credentials can help fill that role.

Six universities have been working with employers to find out what skills they need their employees to have, including the Georgia Institute of Technology, University of California Davis Extension, University of California Irvine Extension, University of Wisconsin-Extension, University of Washington and University of California, Los Angeles.

As a result of collaborating with industry, these universities created short courses and certification programs for the University Learning Store that launched last week. These courses fall into three categories: power skills, technical skills and career advancement skills. Power skills used to be called “soft skills” and include communication, collaboration and critical thinking.

Microsoft Build: the 10 most important announcements — from theverge.com by Ben Popper and Dieter Bohn
Here come the bots!

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Every year, Microsoft holds a developer event called “Build.” And recently, those events have gone from snoozers to exciting showcases. Microsoft has a winner with Windows 10 (as long as you ignore the phones), a robust personal assistant in Cortana (that works just fine on a laptop), and a wild holographic future to plan with HoloLens. It’s a lot to take in, and at this year’s Build Microsoft we got updates on all of it. And a few surprises.

Going in, we weren’t totally sure what would be coming next for Windows 10, but it turns out there’s a lot that Microsoft has planned. It’s not just that there are new apps, there are also new bots, which will help people handle all sorts of small tasks. In fact, those bots and Microsoft’s vision of how they should work stole the entire show. Windows, Xbox: you’re cool, but the future is bots.

Why Microsoft wants to help developers build bots — from pcworld.com by Blair Hanley Frank
Conversations are cross-platform and mobile, even when Windows 10 Mobile isn’t winning

Excerpt:

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is pushing developers to create virtual assistants and intelligent chatbots to help users do everything from managing their calendars to booking hotel reservations.

To that end, Microsoft has published a new Bot Framework, which makes it easier to build chatbots using either C# or Node.js. Working with the tools isn’t so easy that anyone could do it, but they can help reduce some of the difficulties of conversing with a computer.

It was one of the main announcements from Nadella’s keynote address at Microsoft’s Build developer conference Wednesday.

Also see:

Microsoft’s Build 2016 message: ‘we love Cortana’ (but should users?) — from thenextweb.com by Nate Swanner
Excerpt:
Build 2016 has one clear takeaway: Cortana is what matters, at least for now. At almost every product or service announcement at this morning’s keynote, Microsoft made a point to mention that it would also work with Cortana. At a deep dive event for press later in the day, Microsoft further highlighted its commitment to the digital assistant.
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Microsoft’s new Bot Framework will let anyone build assistants for their apps — thenextweb.com by Napier Lopez

From DSC:
Questions/relevance for those working higher ed:

Are Computer Science programs able to keep up with the pace of these Human Computer Interaction (HCI)-related changes? The changes in AI/cognitive computing? Are courses being created to address these new skills? These developments also impact those teaching about user experience design, application/product design, and more.
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How will such personal assistants be used by the students? By faculty members?

App to the Future | Entering the Age of TV Apps [kaltura.com]

On 03/18/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Apple, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, interactivity, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, second screen apps, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

App to the Future | Entering the Age of TV Apps — from blog.kaltura.com

Excerpt:

We’re just starting to see the potential for TV apps. Now that half of US internet homes own a connected TV device (an overall trend you can see worldwide), the potential is enormous.
…
TV Apps today are much like mobile apps 8 years ago. It shows promise, but the best is yet to come. At their core, TV apps are about a better user experience. The big screen offers a better way to browse through massive video libraries and to watch HD video.

From DSC:

TV Apps today are much like mobile apps 8 years ago.
It shows promise, but the best is yet to come.

I couldn’t agree more.

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

Digitally-based means of learning are going to skyrocket!!! Here’s why. [Christian]

On 03/18/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, analytics, assessment, assistive technologies, blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, face-to-face, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multi-touch, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, second screen apps, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, student-related, teaching & learning, telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, trends, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, webinars, by Daniel Christian

Key point from DSC:
Digitally-based means of learning are going to skyrocket!!! Far more than what we’ve seen so far! There are several trends that are occurring to make this so.

As background here, some of the keywords and phrases that are relevant to this posting include:

Wireless content sharing
Wireless collaboration solutions
Active learning based classrooms
Conference rooms
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Enterprise wireless display solutions
Enterprise collaboration solutions
Cross platform support: iOS, Android, Windows
Personalized learning
Learning analytics

Some of the relevant products in this area include:

Bluescape
Mezzanine from Oblong Industries
Montage from DisplayNote Technologies
ThinkHub and ViewHub from T1V
Mersive Solstice
Crestron AirMedia
Barco Clickshare
Haworth Workware Wireless
Christi Brio
AMX enzo
NovoConnect from Vivitek
Arrive MediaPoint
Apple TV
Chromecast

From DSC:

First of all, consider the following products and the functionalities they offer.

People who are in the same physical space can collaborate with people from all over the world — no matter if they are at home, in another office, on the road, etc.

For several of these products, remote employees/consultants/trainers/learners can contribute content to the discussions, just like someone in the same physical location can.

ThinkHub-March2016

From DSC:

Many of these sorts of systems & software are aimed at helping people collaborate — again, regardless of where they are located. Remote learners/content contributors are working in tandem with a group of people in the same physical location. If this is true in business, why can’t it be true in the world of education?

So keep that in mind, as I’m now going to add on a few other thoughts and trends that build upon these sorts of digitally-based means of collaborating.

Q: Towards that end…ask yourself, what do the following trends and items have in common?

The desire to capture and analyze learner data to maximize learning
Colleges’ and universities’ need to increase productivity (which is also true in the corporate & K-12 worlds)
The trend towards implementing more active learning-based environments
The increasing use of leveraging students’ devices for their learning (i.e., the BYOD phenomenon)
The continued growth and increasing sophistication of algorithms

A: All of these things may cause digitally-based means of learning to skyrocket!!!

To wrap up this line of thought, below are some excerpts from recent articles that illustrate what I’m trying to get at here.

Embrace the Power of Data
A continuous improvement mindset is important. Back-end learning analytics, for example, can reveal where large numbers of students are struggling, and may provide insights into questions that require new feedback or content areas that need more development. Data can also highlight how students are interacting with the content and illuminate things that are working well—students’ lightbulb moments.

— Five Principles for Your Learning Design Toolkit
from edsurge.com by Amanda Newlin

Mitchell gave the example of flight simulators, which not only provide students with a way to engage in the activity that they want to learn, but also have data systems that monitor students’ learning over time, providing them with structured feedback at just the right moment. This sort of data-centric assessment of learning is happening in more and more disciplines — and that opens the door to more innovation, he argued.

…

A promising example, said Thille, is the use of educational technology to create personalized and adaptive instruction. As students interact with adaptive technology, the system collects large amounts of data, models those data, and then makes predictions about each student based on their interactions, she explained. Those predictions are then used for pedagogical decision-making — either feeding information back into the system to give the student a personalized learning path, or providing insights to faculty to help them give students individualized support.

…

“We need the models and the data to be open, transparent, peer-reviewable and subject to academic scrutiny.”

…

“We began to actually examine what we could do differently — based not upon hunches and traditions, but upon what the data told us the problems were for the students we enroll,” said Renick. “We made a commitment not to raise our graduation rate through getting better students, but through getting better — and that gain meant looking in the mirror and making some significant changes.”

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A 21st-century learning culture starts with digital content. In 2010, Jackson State University was looking for ways that technology could better address the needs of today’s learner. “We put together what we call our cyberlearning ecosystem,” said Robert Blaine, dean of undergraduate studies and cyberlearning. “What that means is that we’re building a 21st-century learning culture for all of our students, writ large across campus.” At the core of that ecosystem is digital content, delivered via university-supplied iPads.

— 7 Things Higher Education Innovators Want You to Know
from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

On Bennett’s wish list right now is an application that allows students to give feedback at specific points of the videos that they’re watching at home. This would help him pinpoint and fix any “problem” areas (e.g. insufficient instructions for difficult topics/tasks) and easily see where students are experiencing the most difficulties.

TechSmith’s now-retired “Ask3” video platform, for example, would have done the trick. It allowed users to watch a video and ask text-based questions at the point where playback was stopped. “I’d like to be able to look at my content and say, ‘Here’s a spot where there are a lot of questions and confusion,'” said Bennett, who also sees potential in an “I get it” button that would allow students to hit the button when everything clicks. “That would indicate the minimum viable video that I’d need to produce.” Learning Catalytics offers a similar product at a fee, Bennett said, “but I can’t charge my students $20 a year to use it.”

— 6 Flipped Learning Technologies To Watch in 2016
from thejournal.com by Bridget McCrea

All of these trends lend themselves to causing a major increase in the amount of learning that occurs via digitally-based means and methods.

From DSC:
Hmm…I wonder how job seekers and job providers could benefit if IBM Watson were to team up with LinkedIn.com/Lynda.com? And/or for those freelancers who are seeking to work on new projects with those organizations who have projects to be completed…?

I’m thinking Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based job exchanges/marketplaces, with the engines constantly churning away through — and making sense of — enormous amounts of data in order to find people just the right job for them.

For example, someone in Texas wants to work part time in special education and their LinkedIn.com profile shows that they have x, y, and z as their credentials and that they have taken a, b, c, d, and e courses (which the person could also find on the “marketplace section” as having been necessary in that state). They are looking for 20 hours a week and, as they live in San Antonio, they need something in or near that city.

Would this collaboration bring something that other current job exchanges don’t? I’m not sure, as I don’t know how much data mining is occurring with them. But the scale of the two companies — along with the technologies and the strategies that they are pursuing — could present some interesting affordances.

+

This idea of the need for such a marketplace/mechanism takes on all the more importance if it’s true that we are living in a post-jobs economy and that getting new project-related work is key in putting bread and butter on the table.

Without having looked at this very much, it appears that LinkedIn.com has already been pursuing this type of goal/vision, as seen with the work they are doing involving The Economic Graph.

See:

What are the learning-related ramifications of technologies that provide virtual personal assistants? [Christian]

On 03/09/2016, in 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, communications, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, disruption, distance education, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), e-readers, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, professional development, reinvent, second screen apps, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, tablets, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Everything Siri can do for you and your Apple TV — from imore.com by Lory Gill

Excerpt:

When you ask Siri what it can search for, it will respond, “I can search by title, people (actor, director, character name, guest star, producer, or writer), ratings (like PG or TV-G), reviews (such as best or worst), dates (like 2012 or the 80s), age (like kid-friendly or teen), seasons, episodes, and studio. And of course, I can search by genre.”

But, what else can Siri do?
…
Siri has a fairly robust search feature with multi-layer filtering.
…
While you are watching a movie or TV show, or listening to music, you can get a little extra help from Siri. It’s like having a buddy sitting next to you — but they don’t shush you when you ask a question.
…
You can search for content in the Music app on Apple TV by artist, album, or song title. With a little know-how, you can also turn Siri into your personal deejay.
…
While you may normally look to your smartphone for your weather predictions, Siri can be just as helpful about the conditions around the world as your local weatherman or app. All you have to do is ask.

From DSC:
Following this trajectory out a bit into the future — and in light of significant developments that continue to occur with artificial intelligence, the development and use of algorithms, the potential use of web-based learner profiles (think LinkedIn.com/Lynda.com, MOOCs, the use of nanodegrees), second screen-based apps, and the like — one has to wonder:

“What are the ramifications of this for learning-related applications?!”

Don’t rule out tvOS for some powerful learning experiences / new affordances [Christian]

On 02/26/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communities of practice, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, flipping -- inverted learning, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, multimedia, online learning, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, programming, second screen apps, training / L&D, universities, usability, user experience (UX), using teams, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Don’t rule out tvOS for some powerful learning experiences / new affordances. The convergence of the television, the telephone, and the computer continues…and is now coming into your home. Trainers, faculty members, teachers, developers, and others will want to keep an eye on this space. The opportunities are enormous, especially as second screen-based apps and new forms of human computer interfaces (HCI) unfold.

The following items come to my mind:

Online-based communities of practice. Virtual reality, virtual tutoring. Intelligent systems. Artificial intelligence. Global learning. 24×7, lifelong learning. Career development. Flipping the classroom. Homeschooling. Learning hubs. Online learning. Virtual schools. Webinars on steroids.

With the reach of these powerful technologies (that continue to develop), I would recommend trying to stay informed on what’s happening in the world of tvOS-based apps in the future. Towards that end, below are some items that might help.

Apple releases Apple TV Tech Talks video series for building better tvOS apps — by AppleInsider Staff

Excerpt:

Apple on Wednesday released to developers a series of videos focusing on Apple TV and its tvOS operating system, offering a detailed look at the underlying SDK, resources and best practices associated with coding for the platform.

Also see:

Apple publishes Apple TV Tech Talk videos for developers — from todaysiphone.com

Addendum on 2/26/16:

Apple Adds Multiple New App Categories to tvOS App Store — from macrumors.com by Juli Clover
Excerpt:
[On 2/25/16] Apple updated the tvOS App Store to add several new app categories to make it easier for Apple TV 4 owners to find content on their devices. As outlined by AfterPad, a site that showcases Apple TV apps, the new categories are rolling out to Apple TV users and may not be available to everyone just yet. Some users may only see the new categories under Purchased Apps until the rollout is complete.

EdTech: These four b-schools are exploring virtual reality with Oculus, Google, Samsung — from businessbecause.com by Seb Murray
Elite schools place bets on next big innovation in online learning

Excerpt:

The immersive potential of virtual reality has Silicon Valley’s finest pouring vast sums of money into headsets and other whizzy innovations.

Google, Apple and Samsung are betting that these sci-fi concepts will become a staple of everyday life, with potential uses in gaming, advertising, marketing and increasingly, education.

The hype surrounding VR and the more complex augmented reality, is not lost on universities and business schools, who are eyeing its early pioneers and conducting secretive trials of head-mounted VR displays.

Four of the world’s top-ranked schools have told BusinessBecause they are exploring VR in tie-ups with Oculus, Samsung, and Google, as they place bets on the next big innovation in online learning.

Example slides from their
SlideShare presentation:

and from the PDF:

accenture: Technology Vision 2016 | People First: The Remedy to Digital Culture Shock — from accenture.com

Excerpt:

Winners in the digital age do much more than complete a technology checklist. They know their success hinges on people. Understanding changing customer needs and behaviors is, of course, hugely important. But the real deciding factor in the digital era will be the ability to evolve corporate culture. That means not simply taking advantage of emerging technologies but, critically, embracing the new business strategies that those technologies drive.

You can’t solve this challenge just by consuming more and more technology. Nor, as some fear, by replacing humans with machines. Instead, enterprises must focus on enabling people – consumers, employees and ecosystem partners – to do more with technology. That demands a digital corporate culture enabling people to continuously adapt, learn, create new solutions, drive relentless change, and disrupt the status quo. In an age where tech is grabbing the limelight, true leaders will, in fact, put people first.

But the real deciding factor in the era of intelligence will be a company’s ability to evolve its corporate culture to not only take advantage of emerging technologies, but also, critically, embrace the new business strategies that those technologies drive.

From DSC:
Are we preparing our students to be ready for — and successful in — this changing workplace? Are adults ready for this changing workplace? It appears that some are, and some are left reeling by the pace of change.

What is our role as educators in K-12? In higher ed?

What are the roles of trainers and/or mentors in the marketplace?

How does one help another person to learn quickly?

——–

Addendum:

The Most Digital Companies Are Leaving All the Rest Behind — from Harvard Business Review by James Manyika, Gary Pinkus, and Sree Ramaswamy
Excerpt:
The answer is that a new digital divide has opened up in America. Just about every individual, company and sector of the economy now has access to digital technologies — there are hardly any “have nots” anymore. But a widening gap exists between the “haves” and a group we call the “have-mores”: companies and sectors that are using their digital capabilities far more than the rest to innovate and transform how they operate.

We can do nothing to change the past, but we have enormous power to shape the future. Once we grasp that essential insight, we recognize our responsibility and capability for building our dreams of tomorrow and avoiding our nightmares.

–Edward Cornish

From DSC:
This posting represents Part III in a series of such postings that illustrate how quickly things are moving (Part I and Part II) and to ask:

How do we collectively start talking about the future that we want?
Then, how do we go about creating our dreams, not our nightmares?
Most certainly, governments will be involved….but who else should be involved?

As I mentioned in Part I, I want to again refer to Gerd Leonhard’s work as it is relevant here, Gerd asserts:

I believe we urgently need to start debating and crafting a global Digital Ethics Treaty. This would delineate what is and is not acceptable under different circumstances and conditions, and specify who would be in charge of monitoring digressions and aberrations.

Looking at several items below, ask yourself…is this the kind of future that we want? There are some things mentioned below that could likely prove to be very positive and helpful. However, there are also some very troubling advancements and developments as well.

The point here is that we had better start talking and discussing the pros and cons of each one of these areas — and many more I’m not addressing here — or our dreams will turn into our nightmares and we will have missed what Edward Cornish and the World Future Society are often trying to get at.

Google’s Artificial Intelligence System Masters Game of ‘Go’ — from abcnews.go.com by Alyssa Newcomb

Excerpt:

Google just mastered one of the biggest feats in artificial intelligence since IBM’s Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov at chess in 1997.

The search giant’s AlphaGo computer program swept the European champion of Go, a complex game with trillions of possible moves, in a five-game series, according Demis Hassabis, head of Google’s machine learning, who announced the feat in a blog post that coincided with an article in the journal Nature.

While computers can now compete at the grand master level in chess, teaching a machine to win at Go has presented a unique challenge since the game has trillions of possible moves.

Along these lines, also see:
Mastering the game of go with deep neural networks and tree search — from deepmind.com

Harvard is trying to build artificial intelligence that is as fast as the human brain — from futurism.com
Harvard University and IARPA are working together to study how AI can work as efficiently and effectively as the human brain.

Excerpt:

Harvard University has been given $28M by the Intelligence Advanced Projects Activity (IARPA) to study why the human brain is significantly better at learning and retaining information than artificial intelligence (AI). The investment into this study could potentially help researchers develop AI that’s faster, smarter, and more like human brains.

Digital Ethics: The role of the CIO in balancing the risks and rewards of digital innovation — from mis-asia.com by Kevin Wo; with thanks to Gerd Leonhard for this posting

What is digital ethics?
In our hyper-connected world, an explosion of data is combining with pattern recognition, machine learning, smart algorithms, and other intelligent software to underpin a new level of cognitive computing. More than ever, machines are capable of imitating human thinking and decision-making across a raft of workflows, which presents exciting opportunities for companies to drive highly personalized customer experiences, as well as unprecedented productivity, efficiency, and innovation. However, along with the benefits of this increased automation comes a greater risk for ethics to be compromised and human trust to be broken.

According to Gartner, digital ethics is the system of values and principles a company may embrace when conducting digital interactions between businesses, people and things. Digital ethics sits at the nexus of what is legally required; what can be made possible by digital technology; and what is morally desirable.

As digital ethics is not mandated by law, it is largely up to each individual organisation to set its own innovation parameters and define how its customer and employee data will be used.

New algorithm points the way towards regrowing limbs and organs — from sciencealert.com by David Nield

Excerpt:

An international team of researchers has developed a new algorithm that could one day help scientists reprogram cells to plug any kind of gap in the human body. The computer code model, called Mogrify, is designed to make the process of creating pluripotent stem cells much quicker and more straightforward than ever before.

A pluripotent stem cell is one that has the potential to become any type of specialised cell in the body: eye tissue, or a neural cell, or cells to build a heart. In theory, that would open up the potential for doctors to regrow limbs, make organs to order, and patch up the human body in all kinds of ways that aren’t currently possible.

The world’s first robot-run farm will harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce daily — from techinsider.io by Leanna Garfield

Excerpt (from DSC):

The Japanese lettuce production company Spread believes the farmers of the future will be robots.

So much so that Spread is creating the world’s first farm manned entirely by robots. Instead of relying on human farmers, the indoor Vegetable Factory will employ robots that can harvest 30,000 heads of lettuce every day.

Don’t expect a bunch of humanoid robots to roam the halls, however; the robots look more like conveyor belts with arms. They’ll plant seeds, water plants, and trim lettuce heads after harvest in the Kyoto, Japan farm.

Drone ambulances may just be the future of emergency medical vehicles — from interestingengineering.com by Gabrielle Westfield

Excerpt:

Drones are advancing everyday. They are getting larger, faster and more efficient to control. Meanwhile the medical field keeps facing major losses from emergency response vehicles not being able to reach their destination fast enough. Understandable so, I mean especially in the larger cities where traffic is impossible to move swiftly through. Red flashing lights atop or not, sometimes the roads are just not capable of opening up. It makes total sense that the future of ambulances would be paved in the open sky rather than unpredictable roads.

.

Phone shop will be run entirely by Pepper robots — from telegraph.co.uk by Rhiannon Williams

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Creator company SoftBank said it planned to open the pop-up mobile store employing only Pepper robots by the end of March, according to Engadget.

The four foot-tall robots will be on hand to answer questions, provide directions and guide customers in taking out phone contracts until early April. It’s currently unknown what brands of phone Pepper will be selling.

Wise.io introduces first intelligent auto reply functionality for customer support organizations — from consumerelectronicsnet.com
Powered by Machine Learning, Wise Auto Response Frees Up Agent Time, Boosting Productivity, Accelerating Response Time and Improving the Customer Experience

Excerpt:

BERKELEY, CA — (Marketwired) — 01/27/16 — Wise.io, which delivers machine learning applications to help enterprises provide a better customer experience, today announced the availability of Wise Auto Response, the first intelligent auto reply functionality for customer support organizations. Using machine learning to understand the intent of an incoming ticket and determine the best available response, Wise Auto Response automatically selects and applies the appropriate reply to address the customer issue without ever involving an agent. By helping customer service teams answer common questions faster, Wise Auto Response removes a high percentage of tickets from the queue, freeing up agents’ time to focus on more complex tickets and drive higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Video game for treating ADHD looks to 2017 debut — from educationnews.org

Excerpt:

Akili Interactive Labs out of Boston has created a video game that they hope will help treat children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder by teaching them to focus in a distracting environment.

The game, Project: EVO, is meant to be prescribed to children with ADHD as a medical treatment. And after gaining $30.5 million in funding, investors appear to believe in it. The company plans to use the funding to run clinical trials with plans to gain approval from the US Food and Drug Administration in order to be able to launch the game in late 2017.

Players will enter a virtual world filled with colorful distractions and be required to focus on specific tasks such as choosing certain objects while avoiding others. The game looks to train the portion of the brain designed to manage and prioritize all the information taken in at one time.

Addendum on 1/29/16:

Killer robots are coming but there are no laws about using them — from hackread.com

What are the teaching & learning ramifications of these trends? >> M2M comms, IoT, & “Holograms are coming to a high street near you”

On 01/12/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, maker movement, more voice more choice more control, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, smart classrooms, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), trends, UK, usability, user experience (UX), using teams, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, by Daniel Christian

Holograms are coming to a high street near you — from telegraph.co.uk by Rebecca Burn-Callander
Can you tell what’s real and what’s not?

Excerpt:

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

Some will be used to advertise, others will have the ability to interact with you, and show you information. In shops, when you find a shirt you like, the technology is now here to bring up a virtual clothes rail showing you that same shirt in a variety of colours, and even tell you which ones are in stock, all using the same jaw-dropping imaging we have previously only experienced wearing 3D glasses at the cinema.

Holograms, augmented reality – which superimposes technology over the real world – and virtual reality (VR), its totally immersive counterpart, are tipped to be the hot trends in retail next year. Pioneers of the technology are set to find increasingly entertaining, useful and commercially viable ways of using it to tempt people into bricks-and-mortar stores, and fight back against the rise of online shopping.

WaveOptics’ technology could bring physical objects, such as books, to life in new ways

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

From DSC:
What might our learning spaces offer us in the not-too-distant future when:

Sensors are built into most of our wearable devices?
Our BYOD-based devices serve as beacons that use machine-to-machine communications?
When artificial intelligence (AI) gets integrated into our learning spaces?
When the Internet of Things (IoT) trend continues to pick up steam?

Below are a few thoughts/ideas on what might be possible.

A faculty member walks into a learning space, the sensors/beacons communicate with each other, and the sections of lights are turned down to certain levels while the main display is turned on and goes to a certain site (the latter part occurred because the beacons had already authenticated the professor and had logged him or her into the appropriate systems in the background). Personalized settings per faculty member.

A student walks over to Makerspace #1 and receives a hologram that relays some 30,000-foot level instructions on what the initial problem to be solved is about. This has been done using the student’s web-based learner profile — whereby the sensors/beacons communicate who the student is as well as some basic information about what that particular student is interested in. The problem presented takes these things into consideration. (Think IBM Watson, with the focus being able to be directed towards each student.) The student’s interest is piqued, the problem gets their attention, and the stage is set for longer lasting learning. Personalized experiences per student that tap into their passions and their curiosities.

The ramifications of the Internet of Things (IoT) will likely involve the classroom at some point. At least I hope they do. Granted, the security concerns are there, but the IoT wave likely won’t be stopped by security-related concerns. Vendors will find ways to address them, hackers will counter-punch, and the security-related wars will simply move/expand to new ground. But the wave won’t be stopped.

So when we talk about “classrooms of the future,” let’s think bigger than we have been thinking.

ThinkBiggerYet-DanielChristian-August282013

Also see:

What does the Internet of Things mean for meetings? — from meetingsnet.stfi.re by Betsy Bair

Excerpt:

The IoT has major implications for our everyday lives at home, as well as in medicine, retail, offices, factories, worksites, cities, or any structure or facility where people meet and interact.
…
The first application for meetings is the facility where you meet: doors, carpet, lighting, can all be connected to the Internet through sensors. You can begin to track where people are going, but it’s much more granular.
…
Potentially you can walk into a meeting space, it knows it’s you, it knows what you like, so your experience can be customized and personalized.
…
Right now beacons are fairly dumb, but Google and Apple are working on frameworks, building operating systems, that allow beacons to talk to each other.

Addendum on 1/14/16:

Huddle Space Products & Trends for 2016 — from avnetwork.com by Cindy Davis
Excerpt:
“The concept is that you should be able to walk into these rooms, and instead of being left with a black display, maybe a cable on the table, or maybe nothing, and not know what’s going on; what if when you walked into the room, the display was on, and it showed you what meeting room it was, who had the meeting room scheduled, and is it free, can just walk in and I use it, or maybe I am in the wrong room? Let’s put the relevant information up there, and let’s also put up the information on how to connect. Although there’s an HDMI cable at the table, here’s the wireless information to connect.

Touchpress for Apple TV

Earthlapse

Expand your vocabulary with Elevate Showdown on Apple TV — from appadvice.com by Jeff Byrnes

Excerpt:

Compete to expand your vocabulary
With Elevate Showdown, you race to match words to descriptions, playing against your friends in group mode using a custom Apple TV controller app, or versus competitors from around the world with Game Center integration. In group mode, you can play against up to three other people, while Game Center pits you head-to-head with a competitor.

10 must-have Apple TV apps — from pcmag.com by Jordan Minor
Enjoy the App Store experience on your television with our Apple TV app starter set.

Excerpt (some example apps):

You can now explore 360-degree videos on Apple TV, no VR headset required — from fastcompany.com by Peter Wade
With a new app by Disney-backed virtual reality firm Littlstar, Apple TV users can access the platform’s library of 360-degree videos.

Related item:

Littlstar is the first to bring immersive 360 video to Apple TV — from twinkle.littlstar.com

Excerpt:

New York, NY – December 22, 2015 – Littlstar, the premier global network dedicated to virtual reality and 360 video, today announced the launch of its Apple TV app. The app, which is the first to bring immersive content to the new Apple TV platform, gives users access to a wide range of 360 video content from well-known brands.

Everything you need to know about the new Apple TV App Store — from blog.appfigures.com

Excerpt:

App showdown: Roku vs. Chromecast vs. Apple TV vs. Fire TV vs. Android TV — from macworld.com

Will Lynda.com/LinkedIn.com pursue this powerful vision with an organization like IBM? If so, look out!

On 12/15/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bring your own device (BYOD), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, communities of practice, competency-based learning/education, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, distance education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, immersion, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, reinvent, second screen apps, simulations, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, staying relevant, STEAM-related, streams of content, student-related, surviving, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, television, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Back in July of 2012, I put forth a vision that I called Learning from the Living [Class]Room.

It’s a vision that involves a multitude of technologies — technologies and trends that we continue to see being developed and ones that could easily converge in the not-too-distant future to offer us some powerful opportunities for lifelong learning!

Consider that in won’t be very long before a learner will be able to reinvent himself/herself throughout their lifetime, for a very affordable price — while taking ala carte courses from some of the best professors, trainers, leaders, and experts throughout the world, all from the comfort of their living room. (Not to mention tapping into streams of content that will be available on such platforms.)

So when I noticed that Lynda.com now has a Roku channel for the big screen, it got my attention.

Lets add a few more pieces to the puzzle, given that some other relevant trends are developing quite nicely:

tvOS-based apps are now possible — and already there are over 2600 of them and it’s only been a month or so since Apple made this new platform available to the masses
Now, let’s add the ability to take courses online via a virtual reality interface — globally, at any time; VR is poised to have some big years in 2016 and 2017!
Lynda.com and LinkedIn.com’s fairly recent merger and their developing capabilities to offer micro-credentials, badges, and competency-based education (CBE) — while keeping track of the courses that a learner has taken
The need for lifelong learning is now a requirement, as we need to continually reinvent ourselves — especially given the increasing pace of change and as complete industries are impacted (broadsided), almost overnight
Big data, algorithms, and artificial intelligence (AI) continue to pick up steam; for example, consider the cognitive computing capabilities being developed in IBM’s Watson — which should be able to deliver personalized digital playlists and likely some level of intelligent tutoring as well
Courses could be offered at a fraction of the cost, as MOOC-sized classes could distribute the costs over a greater # of people and back end systems could help grade/assess the students’ work; plus the corporate world continues to use MOOCs to cost-effectively train their employees across the globe (MOOCs would thrive on such a tvOS-based platform, whereby students could watch lectures, demonstrations, and simulations on the big screen and then communicate with each other via their second screens*)
As the trends of machine-to-machine communications (M2M) and the Internet of Things (IoT) pick up, relevant courses/modules will likely be instantly presented to people to learn about a particular topic or task. For example, I purchased a crib and I want to know how to put it together. The chip in the crib communicates to my Smart TV or to my augmented reality glasses/headset, and then a system loads up some multimedia-based training/instructions on how to put it together.
Streams of content continue to be developed and offered — via blogs, via channels like Periscope and Meerkat, via social media-based channels, and via other channels — and these streams of multimedia-based content should prove to be highly useful to individual learners as well as for communities of practice

Anyway, these next few years will be packed with change — the pace of which will likely take us by surprise. We need to keep our eyes upward and outward — peering into the horizons rather than looking downwards — doing so should reduce the chance of us getting broadsided!

*It’s also possible that AR and VR will create
a future whereby we only need 1 “screen”

Addendum:
After I wrote/published the item above…it was interesting to then see the item below:

IBM opens Watson IoT Global Headquarters, extends power of cognitive computing to a connected world — from finance.yahoo.com
1000 Munich-based experts to drive IoT and industry 4.0 innovation
Launches eight new IoT client experience centers worldwide
Introduces Watson API Services for IoT on the IBM Cloud

Excerpt:

MUNICH, Dec. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ — IBM (NYSE: IBM) today announced the opening of its global headquarters for Watson Internet of Things (IoT), launching a series of new offerings, capabilities and ecosystem partners designed to extend the power of cognitive computing to the billions of connected devices, sensors and systems that comprise the IoT. These new offerings will be available through the IBM Watson IoT Cloud, the company’s global platform for IoT business and developers.

masterclass.com

On 12/04/2015, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, innovation, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, online learning, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
With thanks to Elliott Masie who mentioned this item on today’s edition of his Learning TRENDS (#898 – Updates on Learning, Business & Technology).

Elliott writes:

I’m Taking 2 Online Classes from Usher and Dustin Hoffman: When I woke up this morning, I took an Acting Performance Class from Dustin Hoffman. And, this afternoon a Singing Performance Class from Usher.

Now, while I am a Broadway Producer, I don’t aspire to sing or act on a theater stage. But, I am intrigued by leveraging the celebrity and experience of “Hero” level subject matter experts – for an online class.

This is a venture called MasterClass – and offers classes with a dozen asynchronous classes – featuring the teacher – including activities and office hours. These courses cost about $50.

While it is just the beginning of my experience, I decided to do some research – and have enrolled a few Broadway actors and non-actors in the sessions – that will expand to include Kevin Spacey, Serena Williams and others as the teachers.

Do hero teachers add to the learning cycle – beyond enrollment interest. Intriguing and I will share more feedback as we experiment. MasterClass is at http://www.masterclass.com

From their website:

MasterClass is an immersive online experience, which gives everyone the opportunity to learn from the world’s best practitioners. Every class was created by the instructor and includes extensive video content, class workbook, interactive assignments, and community activities.

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

Museum collections enter VR with the launch of the Woofbert VR App for Samsung gear — from techcrunch.com by Jonathan Shieber
The museum and gallery world is getting is getting one of its first doorways into virtual reality with the launch of the new WoofbertVR app, (launched on 11/17/15) on Samsung Gear VR powered by Oculus.

Excerpt:

The company has an amazing app which will soon be able to take users on a tour of several marquee museums with some of the best collections of art and artifacts in the world.

For its first offering, the company is offering users who download the app a free view into one of the most famous rooms in the Courtauld Gallery, a gallery housing one of London’s most famous art collections.

The gallery, on a bend North of the Thames near the Waterloo Bridge, holds a treasure trove of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist masterpieces including works by Gauguin, Renoir, Manet, and Monet.

Through the first offering on the app, users get a voice guided tour of the room’s paintings narrated by the author Neil Gaiman (a Woofbert investor).

Learning Ecosystems

Will more institutions of higher education join something like the new “University Learning Store?”

App to the Future | Entering the Age of TV Apps [kaltura.com]

EdTech: These four b-schools are exploring virtual reality with Oculus, Google, Samsung [Murray]

8 items re: the new Apple TV — including an extraordinary way to experience classical music!

masterclass.com

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