Four futurists weigh in on the jobs of the future — from impactlab.com by Thomas Frey
On 06/27/2017,
in Amazon, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), Australia, Blockchain, bots, Canada, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, computer science, corporate / business world, data related items, disruption, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engineering, entrepreneurship, Europe, Facebook / Meta Platforms, global / globalization, Google, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, innovation, machine-to-machine communications, Microsoft, music, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, reinvent, robotics, social media, staying relevant, surviving, technology (general), trends, United States, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Winner takes all — from by Michael Moe, Luben Pampoulov, Li Jiang, Nick Franco, & Suzee Han
We did a lot of things that seemed crazy at the time. Many of those crazy things now have over a billion users, like Google Maps, YouTube, Chrome, and Android.
— Larry Page, CEO, Alphabet
Excerpt:
An alphabet is a collection of letters that represent language. Alphabet, accordingly, is a collection of companies that represent the many bets Larry Page is making to ensure his platform is built to not only survive, but to thrive in a future defined by accelerating digital disruption. It’s an “Alpha” bet on a diversified platform of assets.
If you look closely, the world’s top technology companies are making similar bets.
Technology in general and the Internet in particular is all about a disproportionate gains to the leader in a category. Accordingly, as technology leaders like Facebook, Alphabet, and Amazon survey the competitive landscape, they have increasingly aimed to develop and acquire emerging technology capabilities across a broad range of complementary categories.
On 06/26/2017,
in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, computer science, human-computer interaction (HCI), languages and translation, Natural Language Processing (NLP), professional development, programming, trends, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces,
by Daniel Christian
Introducing Deep Learning and Neural Networks — Deep Learning for Rookies — from medium.com by Nahua Kang
Excerpts:
Here’s a short list of general tasks that deep learning can perform in real situations:
- Identify faces (or more generally image categorization)
- Read handwritten digits and texts
- Recognize speech (no more transcribing interviews yourself)
- Translate languages
- Play computer games
- Control self-driving cars (and other types of robots)
And there’s more. Just pause for a second and imagine all the things that deep learning could achieve. It’s amazing and perhaps a bit scary!
…
Currently there are already many great courses, tutorials, and books on the internet covering this topic, such as (not exhaustive or in specific order):
- Michael Nielsen’s Neural Networks and Deep Learning
- Geoffrey Hinton’s Neural Networks for Machine Learning
- Goodfellow, Bengio, & Courville’s Deep Learning
- Ian Trask’s Grokking Deep Learning,
- Francois Chollet’s Deep Learning with Python
- Udacity’s Deep Learning Nanodegree (not free but high quality)
- Udemy’s Deep Learning A-Z ($10–$15)
- Stanford’s CS231n and CS224n
- Siraj Raval’s YouTube channel
The list goes on and on. David Venturi has a post for freeCodeCamp that lists many more resources. Check it out here.
On 06/22/2017,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, adult learning, Amazon, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, assistive technologies, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain, blogs / blogging / vlogging, bots, Bring your own device (BYOD), business side of he, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital audio, digital learning, digital textbooks, digital video, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, machine-to-machine communications, microlearning, Microsoft, mobile learning, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, reinvent, robotics, RSS, second screen apps, simulations, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, tablets, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, TVs, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Learning from the Living [Class] Room:
A vision for a global, powerful, next generation learning platform
By Daniel Christian
NOTE: Having recently lost my Senior Instructional Designer position due to a staff reduction program, I am looking to help build such a platform as this. So if you are working on such a platform or know of someone who is, please let me know: danielchristian55@gmail.com.
I want to help people reinvent themselves quickly, efficiently, and cost-effectively — while providing more choice, more control to lifelong learners. This will become critically important as artificial intelligence, robotics, algorithms, and automation continue to impact the workplace.
![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
Learning from the Living [Class] Room:
A global, powerful, next generation learning platform
What does the vision entail?
- A new, global, collaborative learning platform that offers more choice, more control to learners of all ages – 24×7 – and could become the organization that futurist Thomas Frey discusses here with Business Insider:
“I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider.
- A learner-centered platform that is enabled by – and reliant upon – human beings but is backed up by a powerful suite of technologies that work together in order to help people reinvent themselves quickly, conveniently, and extremely cost-effectively
- An AI-backed system of analyzing employment trends and opportunities will highlight those courses and “streams of content” that will help someone obtain the most in-demand skills
- A system that tracks learning and, via Blockchain-based technologies, feeds all completed learning modules/courses into learners’ web-based learner profiles
- A learning platform that provides customized, personalized recommendation lists – based upon the learner’s goals
- A platform that delivers customized, personalized learning within a self-directed course (meant for those content creators who want to deliver more sophisticated courses/modules while moving people through the relevant Zones of Proximal Development)
- Notifications and/or inspirational quotes will be available upon request to help provide motivation, encouragement, and accountability – helping learners establish habits of continual, lifelong-based learning
- (Potentially) An online-based marketplace, matching learners with teachers, professors, and other such Subject Matter Experts (SMEs)
- (Potentially) Direct access to popular job search sites
- (Potentially) Direct access to resources that describe what other companies do/provide and descriptions of any particular company’s culture (as described by current and former employees and freelancers)
Further details:
While basic courses will be accessible via mobile devices, the optimal learning experience will leverage two or more displays/devices. So while smaller smartphones, laptops, and/or desktop workstations will be used to communicate synchronously or asynchronously with other learners, the larger displays will deliver an excellent learning environment for times when there is:
- A Subject Matter Expert (SME) giving a talk or making a presentation on any given topic
- A need to display multiple things going on at once, such as:
- The SME(s)
- An application or multiple applications that the SME(s) are using
- Content/resources that learners are submitting in real-time (think Bluescape, T1V, Prysm, other)
- The ability to annotate on top of the application(s) and point to things w/in the app(s)
- Media being used to support the presentation such as pictures, graphics, graphs, videos, simulations, animations, audio, links to other resources, GPS coordinates for an app such as Google Earth, other
- Other attendees (think Google Hangouts, Skype, Polycom, or other videoconferencing tools)
- An (optional) representation of the Personal Assistant (such as today’s Alexa, Siri, M, Google Assistant, etc.) that’s being employed via the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
This new learning platform will also feature:
- Voice-based commands to drive the system (via Natural Language Processing (NLP))
- Language translation (using techs similar to what’s being used in Translate One2One, an earpiece powered by IBM Watson)
- Speech-to-text capabilities for use w/ chatbots, messaging, inserting discussion board postings
- Text-to-speech capabilities as an assistive technology and also for everyone to be able to be mobile while listening to what’s been typed
- Chatbots
- For learning how to use the system
- For asking questions of – and addressing any issues with – the organization owning the system (credentials, payments, obtaining technical support, etc.)
- For asking questions within a course
- As many profiles as needed per household
- (Optional) Machine-to-machine-based communications to automatically launch the correct profile when the system is initiated (from one’s smartphone, laptop, workstation, and/or tablet to a receiver for the system)
- (Optional) Voice recognition to efficiently launch the desired profile
- (Optional) Facial recognition to efficiently launch the desired profile
- (Optional) Upon system launch, to immediately return to where the learner previously left off
- The capability of the webcam to recognize objects and bring up relevant resources for that object
- A built in RSS feed aggregator – or a similar technology – to enable learners to tap into the relevant “streams of content” that are constantly flowing by them
- Social media dashboards/portals – providing quick access to multiple sources of content and whereby learners can contribute their own “streams of content”
In the future, new forms of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) such as Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) will be integrated into this new learning environment – providing entirely new means of collaborating with one another.
Likely players:
- Amazon – personal assistance via Alexa
- Apple – personal assistance via Siri
- Google – personal assistance via Google Assistant; language translation
- Facebook — personal assistance via M
- Microsoft – personal assistance via Cortana; language translation
- IBM Watson – cognitive computing; language translation
- Polycom – videoconferencing
- Blackboard – videoconferencing, application sharing, chat, interactive whiteboard
- T1V, Prsym, and/or Bluescape – submitting content to a digital canvas/workspace
- Samsung, Sharp, LCD, and others – for large displays with integrated microphones, speakers, webcams, etc.
- Feedly – RSS aggregator
- _________ – for providing backchannels
- _________ – for tools to create videocasts and interactive videos
- _________ – for blogs, wikis, podcasts, journals
- _________ – for quizzes/assessments
- _________ – for discussion boards/forums
- _________ – for creating AR, MR, and/or VR-based content
On 06/14/2017,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, computer science, Daniel S. Christian, education, education technology, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, platforms, research, robotics, society, sociology, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, trends, UK, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Given the increasing use of robotics, automation, and artificial intelligence…how should the question of “What sort of education will you need to be employable in the future?” impact what’s being taught within K-12 & within higher education? Should certain areas within higher education, for example, start owning this research, as well as the strategic planning and whether changes are needed to the core curricula for this increasingly important trend?
The future’s coming at us fast — perhaps faster than we think. It seems prudent to work through some potential scenarios and develop plans for those various scenarios now, rather than react to this trend at some point in the future. If we wait, we’ll be trying to “swim up the backside of the wave” as my wise and wonderful father-in-law would say.
The above reflections occurred after I reviewed the posting out at cmrubinworld.com (with thanks to @STEMbyThomas for this resource):
- The Global Search for Education: What Does My Robot Think?
Excerpt:
The Global Search for Education is pleased to welcome Ling Lee, Co-Curator of Robots and the Contemporary Science Manager for Exhibitions at the Science Museum in London, to discuss the impact of robots on our past and future.
On 06/05/2017,
in 21st century, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, educational games / serious games, Facebook / Meta Platforms, global / globalization, Google, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), India, innovation, intelligent systems, interactivity, internet, media/film, mobile technologies, platforms, social media, society, tools, user experience (UX), vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, wearables,
by Daniel Christian
2017 Internet Trends Report — from kpcb.com by Mary Meeker
Mary Meeker’s 2017 internet trends report: All the slides, plus analysis — from recode.net by Rani Molla
The most anticipated slide deck of the year is here.
Excerpt:
Here are some of our takeaways:
- Global smartphone growth is slowing: Smartphone shipments grew 3 percent year over year last year, versus 10 percent the year before. This is in addition to continued slowing internet growth, which Meeker discussed last year.
- Voice is beginning to replace typing in online queries. Twenty percent of mobile queries were made via voice in 2016, while accuracy is now about 95 percent.
- In 10 years, Netflix went from 0 to more than 30 percent of home entertainment revenue in the U.S. This is happening while TV viewership continues to decline.
- China remains a fascinating market, with huge growth in mobile services and payments and services like on-demand bike sharing. (More here: The highlights of Meeker’s China slides.)
Read Mary Meeker’s essential 2017 Internet Trends report — from techcrunch.com by Josh Constine
Excerpt:
This is the best way to get up to speed on everything going on in tech. Kleiner Perkins venture partner Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report is essentially the state of the union for the technology industry. The widely anticipated slide deck compiles the most informative research on what’s getting funded, how Internet adoption is progressing, which interfaces are resonating, and what will be big next.
You can check out the 2017 report embedded below, and here’s last year’s report for reference.