Inclusive Hiring in Tech: How to Write More Inclusive Job Descriptions — from one of our nieces, Ms. Jill Bender
Addendum on 3/8/22:
- How sponsorship can help women in tech advance — from mckinsey.com
On 03/07/2022,
in Amazon, Apple, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), career development, computer science, corporate / business world, culture, innovation, participation, programming, technology (general), United States, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
On 03/04/2022,
in Amazon, collaboration, formal learning, funding / grants, higher education, reinvent, skills, society,
by Daniel Christian
Amazon Boosts Upskilling Opportunities for Hourly Employees by Partnering with More Than 140 Universities and Colleges to Fully Fund Tuition — from press.aboutamazon.com
Excerpt:
- Amazon employees in the U.S. will benefit from new Career Choice partnerships with Southern New Hampshire University, Colorado State University–Global, Western Governors University, National University, and numerous local universities
- Amazon also partners with GEDWorks and Smart Horizons to provide employees with free high school completion and GED preparation, Voxy EnGen and goFLUENT to provide English language proficiency training, and Outlier to provide college preparation courses
- New benefits are part of Amazon’s Career Choice program and move the company closer to meeting its Upskilling 2025 pledge—a $1.2 billion commitment to upskill more than 300,000 Amazon employees by 2025
Also see:
- Amazon’s Employees Can Go to College, Free. What’s in It for Higher Ed? — from chronicle.com by Abbi Ross
Amazon’s announcement is an eye-catching development in the yearslong effort across higher education to enroll more adult learners and increase the share of the U.S. population that has some education beyond high school. While the jury’s still out on whether tuition-benefit programs deliver on all their promises, as most are relatively new, they have become an increasingly popular offering for major corporations. Last fall, Amazon announced a $1.2 billion investment to expand its efforts.
Amazon employees will have choices. They can enroll at a local participating college and take a few courses en route to a certificate or credential, or they can enroll in a full associate- or bachelor’s-degree program
On 01/07/2022,
in Amazon, career development, changing business models, collaboration, community colleges, computer science, funding / grants, new business models, platforms, programming, United States,
by Daniel Christian
Amazon Gift Signals Confidence in Community Colleges — from insidehighered.com by Suzanne Smalley
The company is giving $3 million to kick-start a computer science bachelor’s degree program at community and technical colleges throughout Washington State.
Excerpt:
Amazon is funding a pilot that will support the launch of new computer science bachelor’s degree programs at community and technical colleges in Seattle and across Washington State, an investment meant to address a workforce shortage plaguing the e-commerce giant and other employers who can’t find qualified candidates for unfilled computer science positions.
On 12/29/2021,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Africa, Alternatives, Amazon, Australia, Canada, career development, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, Europe, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, India, innovation, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, love of learning, Microsoft, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, platforms, teaching online, training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, universities, vendors, vocational / trades,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
As the article below clearly relays, MOOCs did NOT fail! In the last decade, they have reached 220 million learners worldwide!
I don’t know the total number of graduates from the Ivy League — throughout all of the relevant institutions’ histories — but I would bet you that MOOCs have reached far more learners. And MOOCs did so in less than a decade.
And you’re going to tell me MOOCs have been a failure?!!!! Are you being serious!?!?! You can talk about completion rates all that you want to (and that misses the point, as some people sign up for MOOCs without ever intending to finish the entire course). As with other things, people get out of something what they put into that thing.
A Decade of MOOCs: A Review of Stats and Trends for Large-Scale Online Courses in 2021 — from edsurge.com by Dhawal Shah
Excerpts:
Now, a decade later, MOOCs have reached 220 million learners, excluding China where we don’t have as reliable data, . In 2021, providers launched over 3,100 courses and 500 microcredentials.
…
Originally, MOOC providers relied on universities to create courses. But that dependence is declining as more and more of the courses are created by companies every year. These corporate partners in course creation include tech giants Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Facebook.
…the majority of the new courses launched on Coursera in 2021 are not from universities anymore.
…
These mass online courses were born without a business model. Yet within a decade, MOOCs went from no revenue to bringing in well over a half a billion dollars annually.
On 12/17/2021,
in Alternatives, Amazon, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), professional development, training / L&D,
by Daniel Christian
AWS Expands Access to Free Cloud Skills Training on its Mission to Educate 29 Million People by 2025 — from businesswire.com; with thanks to Ryan Craig for the resource
New AWS digital learning experience, technical courses on Amazon.com, expanded access to AWS re/Start, and Amazon’s first dedicated in-person cloud learning center will put cloud skills training into the hands of millions of people
New AWS Global Digital Skills Study finds the need for digital skills training is greater than ever, with 85% of workers feeling they need more technical knowledge than they did pre-pandemic
Excerpt:
SEATTLE–(BUSINESS WIRE)–[On 11/28/21], Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com, Inc. company (NASDAQ: AMZN), announced four initiatives to empower learners and make it even easier for anyone with a desire to learn to access free cloud computing skills training and unlock new career possibilities in the cloud. The initiatives announced today include the launch of AWS Skill Builder—a new digital learning experience, the addition of AWS courses to the Amazon.com website, the expansion of the AWS re/Start global reskilling program, and the opening of the AWS Skills Center—Amazon’s first dedicated, in-person cloud learning space.
On 12/02/2021,
in 5G, Amazon, innovation, internet, IT in HE, telecommunications,
by Daniel Christian
Why AWS’s move into private 5G networking is game-changing — from zdnet.com by Zeus Kerravala
As the cost of SIM-connected devices decreases and eSIMs become more common, the industry could see a big move from Wi-Fi to 5G.
Excerpt:
One of the notable announcements at Amazon Web Services’ re:Invent 2021 conference [on 11/30/21] was the unveiling of AWS Private 5G, a fully-managed service enabling businesses to deploy their own high-capacity mobile networks. The service is designed to be used inside buildings as an augmentation of — and eventual replacement for — Wi-Fi.
On 11/15/2021,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), change, colleges, computer science, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, game-changing environment, Google, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, liberal arts, Microsoft, pace of change, platforms, programming, society, student-related, teaching & learning, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
From my perspective, both of the items below are highly-related to each other:
Let’s Teach Computer Science Majors to Be Good Citizens. The Whole World Depends on It. — from edsurge.com by Anne-Marie Núñez, Matthew J. Mayhew, Musbah Shaheen and Laura S. Dahl
Excerpt:
Change may need to start earlier in the workforce development pipeline. Undergraduate education offers a key opportunity for recruiting students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic, gender, and disability groups into computing. Yet even broadened participation in college computer science courses may not shift the tech workforce and block bias from seeping into tech tools if students aren’t taught that diversity and ethics are essential to their field of study and future careers.
Computer Science Majors Lack Citizenship Preparation
Unfortunately, those lessons seem to be missing from many computer science programs.
…and an excerpt from Why AI can’t really filter out “hate news” — with thanks to Sam DeBrule for this resource (emphasis DSC):
The incomprehensibility and unexplainability of huge algorithms
Michael Egnor: What terrifies me about artificial intelligence — and I don’t think one can overstate this danger — is that artificial intelligence has two properties that make it particularly deadly in human civilization. One is concealment. Even though every single purpose in artificial intelligence is human, it’s concealed. We don’t really understand it. We don’t understand Google’s algorithms.
There may even be a situation where Google doesn’t understand Google’s algorithms. But all of it comes from the people who run Google. So the concealment is very dangerous. We don’t know what these programs are doing to our culture. And it may be that no one knows, but they are doing things.
Note:Roman Yampolskiy has written about the incomprehensibility and unexplainability of AI: “Human beings are finite in our abilities. For example, our short term memory is about 7 units on average. In contrast, an AI can remember billions of items and AI capacity to do so is growing exponentially. While never infinite in a true mathematical sense, machine capabilities can be considered such in comparison with ours. This is true for memory, compute speed, and communication abilities.” So we have built-in bias and incomprehensibility at the same time.
From DSC:
That part about concealment reminds me that our society depends upon the state of the hearts of the tech leaders. We don’t like to admit that, but it’s true. The legal realm is too far behind to stop the Wild West of technological change. The legal realm is trying to catch up, but they’re coming onto the race track with no cars…just as pedestrians walking or running as fast as they can….all the while, the technological cars are whizzing by.
The net effect of all of this is that we are more dependent upon the ethics, morals, and care for their fellow humankind (or not) of the C-Suites out there (especially Facebook/Meta Platforms, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and Apple) than we care to admit. Are they producing products and services that aim to help our societies move forward, or are they just trying to make some more bucks? Who — or what — is being served?
The software engineers and software architects are involved here big time as well. “Just because we can doesn’t mean we should.” But that perspective is sometimes in short supply.
On 09/28/2021,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, collaboration, content development, aggregation, repositories, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, expectations, experimentation, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, platforms, teachers, tools, United States, vendors, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Discovery Education Collaborates with AWS to Enhance Recommendation Engine — from discoveryeducation.com
Excerpt:
SILVER SPRING, MD [On Monday,?September 27, 2021] — Discovery Education—a worldwide edtech leader supporting learning wherever it takes place — announced that it has enhanced its K-12 learning platform with Amazon Web Services (AWS) machine learning capabilities. The pioneering use of machine learning within the Discovery Education platform helps educators spend less time searching for digital resources and more time teaching.
…
Several months of planning and deep collaboration with AWS enabled Discovery Education to innovatively integrate Amazon Personalize technology into the “Just For You” area of its K-12 platform. The “Just For You” row connects educators to a unique, personalized set of resources based on the grade level taught, preferences, and assets used in the past.
“For some time, educators have desired more resources to help personalize teaching and learning. ML technology is already being used to curate our entertainment experiences, help with workforce productivity, and more, and it’s exciting to see this innovation is being integrated into classrooms,” said Alec Chalmers, Director, EdTech and GovTech Markets at AWS.
From DSC:
It looks like Amazon continues to make inroads into the education space. Team up this type of recommendation engine with an AI that’s pulling the latest skills that are needed for — and embedded within — job descriptions and you have a learning powerhouse.
Disruption ahead…?
Also see:
- How Machine Learning Is Having an Impact on Education — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
Discovery Education has partnered with Amazon Web Services to enhance its platform with machine learning. It’s one of many ways machine learning is being used in K-12 today.
On 09/12/2021,
in Amazon, colleges, corporate / business world, cost of getting a degree, funding / grants, higher education, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Amazon offers to pay college tuition for most US workers — from cnn.com by Nathaniel Meyersohn
Excerpt:
New York (CNN Business)Amazon is offering to cover four-year college tuition for most of its approximately 750,000 hourly workers in the United States, the latest major employer to offer the perk to attract and retain hourly employees in a tight job market.
Starting in January, Amazon for the first time will pay for tuition, fees and books for warehouse, transportation and other hourly employees who want to pursue bachelor’s degrees. It will also begin covering high school diploma programs, GED’s and English as a Second Language (ESL) certifications for employees.
Amazon (AMZN) has not finalized a list of colleges workers will be eligible to attend using the benefit.
On 08/17/2021,
in A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), digital learning, education technology, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, IT in HE, vision/possibilities, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
The Hardware and Materials Innovations Enabling Consumer Augmented Reality — from luxresearchinc.com by Vladimir Roznyatovskiy
Excerpt:
Consumer mass-market augmented reality (AR) products and applications could become a fourth wave of modern technological progress, following the PC and smartphone in transformative impact on nearly all aspects of life and business.
However, making widespread consumer AR a reality will require significant innovations in optical components, light engines, and cameras and sensors to reduce size and weight while improving performance. These advances will create significant opportunities for materials and hardware developers. It will be five years to seven years before these efforts translate into viable mass-market devices, but once they do, the opportunities for consumer insights and engagement will be tremendous and a significant source of competitive differentiation.
Many Americans aren’t aware they’re being tracked with facial recognition while shopping [Spadafora]
On 08/16/2021,
in 21st century, Amazon, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, ethics, future, law schools, legal reform, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, policy, robotics, society, the downsides of how people use tech, trends, United States, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Many Americans aren’t aware they’re being tracked with facial recognition while shopping — from techradar.com by Anthony Spadafora
You’re not just on camera, you’re also being tracked
Excerpt:
Despite consumer opposition to facial recognition, the technology is currently being used in retail stores throughout the US according to new research from Piplsay.
While San Francisco banned the police from using facial recognition back in 2019 and the EU called for a five year ban on the technology last year, several major retailers in the US including Lowe’s, Albertsons and Macy’s have been using it for both fraud and theft detection.
From DSC:
I’m not sure how prevalent this practice is…and that’s precisely the point. We don’t know what all of those cameras are actually doing in our stores, gas stations, supermarkets, etc. I put this in the categories of policy, law schools, legal, government, and others as the legislative and legal realm need to scramble to catch up to this Wild Wild West.
Along these lines, I was watching a portion of 60 minutes last night where they were doing a piece on autonomous trucks (reportedly to hit the roads without a person sometime later this year). When asked about oversight, there was some…but not much.
Readers of this blog will know that I have often wondered…”How does society weigh in on these things?”
Along these same lines, also see:
- The NYPD Had a Secret Fund for Surveillance Tools — from wired.com by Sidney Fussell
Documents reveal that police bought facial-recognition software, vans equipped with x-ray machines, and “stingray” cell site simulators—with no public oversight.