business

2021 Year End report ADA Digital Accessibility Lawsuits [usablenet.com]

On 04/14/2022, in accessibility / UDL, business, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, higher education, instructional design, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, marketing/social marketing, United States, universities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

2021 Year End report ADA Digital Accessibility Lawsuits — from info.usablenet.com (need to complete form to get access to the report)

Excerpts:

The UsableNet data and research team reviews hundreds of website and app accessibility lawsuits in federal courts under ADA and in California state courts for our bi-annual lawsuit reports.
…
Highlights from the report include:

The top-line numbers in 2021
The trend of repeat digital lawsuits
Where key cases have brought some relief and re-focus on connecting to brick and mortar
A break-down of the impact on E-commerce
Top plaintiffs and plaintiff firms
The increase in lawsuits involving accessibility widgets and overlays

Also relevant/see:

The 4 W’s of digital accessibility (and how to begin) — from blog.usablenet.com

How a Statewide Entrepreneurship Contest Launched 3 Indianapolis High Schoolers into a Million-Dollar Business [Newcomb]

On 04/11/2022, in business, career development, collaboration, education, education reform, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, funding / grants, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, student-related, United States, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

How a Statewide Entrepreneurship Contest Launched 3 Indianapolis High Schoolers into a Million-Dollar Business — from the74million.org by Tim Newcomb

Excerpt:

If not for a statewide pitch competition for entrepreneurial students, three Indianapolis high schoolers likely wouldn’t have started their business. And they certainly wouldn’t have seen that company, Find Ideal Applicants, earn $20,000 in early-stage investment that valued the company at $1.5 million.

State leaders “wanted to see if they could intersect students with entrepreneurship and innovation,” he says. Students learn how to see a problem as an opportunity and come up with a plan. Wettrick says the faster students understand the benefits of learning from their mistakes, the more success they will have sooner in their lives.

Radar trends to watch: April 2022 — from oreillky.com by Mike Loukides
Developments in Programming, Biology, Hardware, and More

5 Digital Transformation Themes for Higher Education — from
Explore key topics and event recordings from our latest deep dive into Digital Transformation in Higher Education.

The semiconductor decade: A trillion-dollar industry — from mckinsey.com by Ondrej Burkacky, Julia Dragon, and Nikolaus Lehmann

Drilling down into individual subsegments, about 70 percent of growth is predicted to be driven by just three industries: automotive, computation and data storage, and wireless.

Addendum later on 4/8/22:

10 Legal Tech Trends for 2022 and Beyond…with Thought Leaders’ Insights! — from netdocuments.com

Announcing the 2022 AI Index Report — from hai.stanford.edu by Stanford University

Excerpt/description:

Welcome to the Fifth Edition of the AI Index

The AI Index is an independent initiative at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), led by the AI Index Steering Committee, an interdisciplinary group of experts from across academia and industry. The annual report tracks, collates, distills, and visualizes data relating to artificial intelligence, enabling decision-makers to take meaningful action to advance AI responsibly and ethically with humans in mind.

The 2022 AI Index report measures and evaluates the rapid rate of AI advancement from research and development to technical performance and ethics, the economy and education, AI policy and governance, and more. The latest edition includes data from a broad set of academic, private, and non-profit organizations as well as more self-collected data and original analysis than any previous editions.

Also relevant/see:

Andrew Ng predicts the next 10 years in AI — from venturebeat.com by George Anadiotis
Nvidia’s latest AI wizardry turns 2D photos into 3D scenes in milliseconds — from thenextweb.com by Thomas Macaulay
The Polaroid of the future?
Nvidia events are renowned for mixing technical bravado with splashes of showmanship — and this year’s GTC conference was no exception. The company ended a week that introduced a new enterprise GPU and an Arm-based “superchip” with a trademark flashy demo. Some 75 years after the world’s first instant photo captured the 3D world in a 2D picture…

Nvidia believes Instant NeRF could generate virtual worlds, capture video conferences in 3D, and reconstruct scenes for 3D maps.

What’s ahead for AI, VR, NFTs, and more? — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides
Here are some predictions for tech in 2022.

What is ADA Website Accessibility? [boia.org]

On 03/27/2022, in accessibility / UDL, business, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, web design and production, workplace, by Daniel Christian

What is ADA Website Accessibility? — from boia.org

Excerpt:

If you’re confused about ADA website compliance, you’re not alone. According to a 2021 report from non-profit organization WebAIM (Web Accessibility In Mind), 97.4% of the top one million home pages on the internet have detectable accessibility issues — and many of those issues could be interpreted as violations of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

Under the ADA, businesses and public agencies must provide reasonable accommodations to persons with disabilities in “places of public accommodation.” That certainly applies to websites, as the Department of Justice has repeatedly confirmed.

Addendum on 3/28/22:

Guidance on Web Accessibility and the ADA — from beta.ada.gov

The IoT is revolutionizing what your business can do — from mckinsey.com

Excerpt:

Reflections on “Do We Really Want Academic Permanent Records to Live Forever on Blockchain?” [Bohnke]

On 03/19/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, Alternatives, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, business, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, elearning, formal learning, future, future of higher education, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, microlearning, more voice more choice more control, online learning, open courseware and systems, participation, professional development, project-based learning, publishing, real-world assignments, social learning / networks, society, student-related, technologies for your home, the downsides of how people use tech, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Christin Bohnke raises a great and timely question out at edsurge.com in her article entitled:
Do We Really Want Academic Permanent Records to Live Forever on Blockchain?

Christin does a wonderful job of addressing the possibilities — but also the challenges — of using blockchain for educational/learning-related applications. She makes a great point that the time to look at this carefully is now:

Yet as much as unchangeable education records offer new chances, they also create new challenges. Setting personal and academic information in stone may actually counter the mission of education to help people evolve over time. The time to assess the benefits and drawbacks of blockchain technology is right now, before adoption in schools and universities is widespread.

As Christin mentions, blockchain technology can be used to store more than formal certification data. It could also store such informal certification data such as “research experience, individual projects and skills, mentoring or online learning.”

The keeping of extensive records via blockchain certainly raises numerous questions. Below are a few that come to my mind:

Will this type of record-keeping help or hurt in terms of career development and moving to a different job?
Will — or should — CMS/LMS vendors enable this type of feature/service in their products?
Should credentials from the following sources be considered relevant?
- Microlearning-based streams of content
- Data from open courseware/courses
- Learning that we do via our Personal Learning Networks (PLNs) and social networks
- Learning that we get from alternatives such as bootcamps, coding schools, etc.
Will the keeping of records impact the enjoyment of learning — or vice versa? Or will it depend upon the person?
Will there be more choice, more control — or less so?
To what (granular) level of competency-based education should we go? Or from project-based learning?
Could instructional designers access learners’ profiles to provide more personalized learning experiences?
…and I’m certain there are more questions than these.

All that said…

To me, the answers to these questions — and likely other questions as well — lie in:

Giving a person a chance to learn, practice, and then demonstrate the required skills (regardless of the data the potential employer has access to)
.
Giving each user the right to own their own data — and to release it as they see fit. Each person should have the capability of managing their own information/data without having to have the skills of a software engineer or a database administrator. When something is written to a blockchain, there would be a field for who owns — and can administer — the data.

In the case of finding a good fit/job, a person could use a standardized interface to generate a URL that is sent out to a potential employer. That URL would be good for X days. The URL gives the potential employer the right to access whatever data has been made available to them. It could be full access, in which case the employer is able to run their own queries/searches on the data. Or the learner could restrict the potential employer’s reach to a more limited subset of data.

Visually, speaking:

I still have a lot more thinking to do about this, but that’s where I’m at as of today. Have a good one all!

The Conversation: Twitter Trends 2022 — from marketing.twitter.com

Excerpt:

Billions of Tweets reveal tomorrow’s big movements.

The biggest movements start quietly. An idea becomes conversation becomes a seismic cultural shift. And if you want in on what’s next, listen to what people on Twitter are saying right now.

To help you out, we analyzed¹billions of Tweets over a two-year period to find three must-know trends about to go big. From The Great Restoration to Fan-Built Worlds to Finance Goes Social, the talk on Twitter reveals the underlying shifts in power shaping where the world is going.

Where’s the upskilling and reskilling market headed? — from edtechreview.in by Priyanka Gupta
Upskilling and Reskilling are the new buzzwords in the edtech industry and corporate learning. With times changing at light speed, unlearning and relearning have become the norm.

Excerpt:

To understand more about the reskilling and Upskilling market, read further about:

The Need of Upskilling and Reskilling
Workforce Shift and The Upcoming Trends
The Key Element in the Future of Upskilling
The Challenges Ahead

Life of Technical Skills
Technical skills change rapidly. The industry standards for technologies and processes shift more quickly than any education system can turn out leaders. A survey by Prudential reveals that only 46% of working professionals think their skills will make them competitive in the coming ten years. Unless the skill providers speed up their initiatives or programs’ design, development and deployment, organisations and professionals will struggle to find relevancy in jobs and employees relating to skill levels with the dynamic nature of technology and related jobs.

Best from the brightest: Key ideas & insights for L&P Professionals — from tier1performance.com by Will Thalheimer; with thanks to Christy Tucker for this resource
Gather your learning and performance team together, share conversations with your friends in the field—this trove of gold from 2021 is the bedrock for our evolving and improving work in 2022.

To help fight our FOMO (fear of missing out), I’ve asked 48 thought leaders in the L&P field to share their favorite content from 2021—stuff they created or were involved in, ideas they think are critically important to folks like you and me as L&P professionals. They shared articles, blog posts, podcast episodes, videos, and eLearnings. They also shared their recommendations for other thought leaders and other content—and the most important trends impacting our work for 2022.

I looked at every one of their recommendations and I am blown away by the insights you’ll find in the content shared below. This is a formidable treasure trove from some of the best minds in our field.

Will Thalheimer

How sponsorship can help women in tech advance [McKinsey] + 2 other resources re: women in tech

On 03/13/2022, in Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), business, career development, corporate / business world, society, sociology, United States, by Daniel Christian

How sponsorship can help women in tech advance — from mckinsey.com

Excerpt:

While women earn about half of science and engineering degrees, they make up less than 20 percent of people employed in these fields. And for many who choose this career path, they are commonly the only person of their gender in a room.

This International Women’s Day, we’re looking at one workplace element that can help reverse those trends for women in tech: connecting with a sponsor who creates opportunities for them and advocates for their advancement.

Women in Tech: Breaking Bias in the Workplace — from technative.io

Excerpt:

However, as important having a mentor is, it is imperative to have strong decision making power of your own. Future Processing’s Mleczko suggests women take control of their lives actively: “You are the only one who can decide about your life and your future. Do not let your dreams go just because other people say you are not capable of something. Some things need time, so be patient but do not resign. Everyone started at the very beginning.”

Inclusive Hiring in Tech: How to Write More Inclusive Job Descriptions — by Jill Bender

Addendums on 3/17/22:

Overcoming the gender disparity in tech — technative.io
Women Building a Community in IT at the University of California — from er.educause.edu

Hybrid learning for hybrid jobs: Reskilling for the digital age [Porcaro]

On 03/13/2022, in blended learning, business, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, hybrid learning, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, reinvent, skills, staying relevant, training / L&D, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Hybrid learning for hybrid jobs: Reskilling for the digital age — from chieflearningofficer.com by David Porcaro
Just as “hybrid jobs” have become “jobs,” the old definition of “hybrid learning” that mixes in-person and online experiences is fast becoming just “learning.” It’s incumbent on employers, training providers and learners themselves to ensure that as we navigate that shift, we’re building a more meaningful and productive learning experience in the process.

What would happen if we reimagined hybrid learning as “learning that equips workers for hybrid jobs,” and built a new approach from there? That’s the question we’ve been working to answer at General Assembly, where our work with employers across a range of fields — from the tech industry to retail and manufacturing — has helped us understand what it takes for learners to be successful in the digital age. Our learning philosophy focuses on four key goals, which could form the building blocks of a new definition of hybrid learning.

Also relevant/see:

Leveraging experiential learning in a hybrid world — from chieflearningofficer.com by George Hallenbeck
The disruption brought on by the shift to hybrid work provides excellent opportunities for experiential learning. By balancing intentionality with support and maximizing the quantity, quality and diversity of learning experiences, both organizations and individual leaders can adapt and thrive in this new era of work.

This Hilarious AR App Teaches Kids Financial Responsibility — from vrscout.com by Bobby Carlton

Excerpts:

Adventures with Zeee Bucks is a mobile AR experience that is designed to help youngsters sharpen their financial skills by earning and saving Zeee bucks, and even help them save real money.
…
You can download the app today for free on the iOS and Android stores.

The Five-Day Workweek Is Dying [Thompson] + items re: the environment and a new DNA test

On 03/11/2022, in Australia, business, corporate / business world, health, UK, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

My thanks to Mr. Jack Uldrich for the following three items:

The Five-Day Workweek Is Dying — from theatlantic.com by Derek Thompson
And the implications for work and cities are going to be fascinating.

Excerpt:

According to data from Kastle Systems, which tracks building access across the country, office attendance is at just 33 percent of its pre-pandemic average. That’s lower than in-person attendance in just about any other industry for which we have good data. Even movie theaters—a business sometimes written off as “doomed”—have recovered almost twice as much.

What once seemed like a hot take is becoming a stone-cold reality: For tens of millions of knowledge-economy workers, the office is never coming all the way back. The implications—for work, cities, and the geography of labor—will be fascinating.

Panama – ENVIRONMENT: 175 countries sign plastic waste treaty — from menafn.com

Excerpt:

At a meeting of the UN Environment Assembly (UNEA) in Nairobi, Kenya, 175 countries on March 2 passed a resolution on the first treaty to directly tackle the 9 billion tonnes of plastic produced since the plastic age ramped up in the 1950s. Work now begins on how to implement the treaty by 2024.

Single DNA Test for Over 50 Genetic Diseases Will Cut Diagnosis From Decades to Days — from

Excerpt:

A new DNA test, developed by researchers at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney and collaborators from Australia, UK and Israel, has been shown to identify a range of hard-to-diagnose neurological and neuromuscular genetic diseases quicker and more-accurately than existing tests.

Majority of workers who quit a job in 2021 cite low pay, no opportunities for advancement, feeling disrespected — from pewresearch.org by Kim Parker and Juliana Menasce Horowitz

Excerpt:

A new Pew Research Center survey finds that low pay, a lack of opportunities for advancement and feeling disrespected at work are the top reasons why Americans quit their jobs last year. The survey also finds that those who quit and are now employed elsewhere are more likely than not to say their current job has better pay, more opportunities for advancement and more work-life balance and flexibility.

Also relevant/see:

EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: The Workforce Shakeup — from by Mark McCormack
A sizable wave of staff departures is headed toward higher education. Staff cite either institutional or personal reasons for staying or leaving, suggesting a range of institutional strategies for attracting and retaining talent.

Excerpt:

Middle-managers and middle-tenure staff, in particular, may be at risk of leaving, suggesting a number of solutions institutions might deploy to help attract and retain needed talent.

Addendum on 3/13/22:

I quit — from mckinsey.com

Learning Ecosystems

2021 Year End report ADA Digital Accessibility Lawsuits [usablenet.com]

What is ADA Website Accessibility? [boia.org]

Where’s the upskilling and reskilling market headed? [Gupta]

Best from the brightest: Key ideas & insights for L&P Professionals [Thalheimer]

How sponsorship can help women in tech advance [McKinsey] + 2 other resources re: women in tech

Hybrid learning for hybrid jobs: Reskilling for the digital age [Porcaro]

The Five-Day Workweek Is Dying [Thompson] + items re: the environment and a new DNA test

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