Stephen Downes’ reflection on “Every Student Needs a Learning Coach” — from by Nate McClennen

Excerpt (from Stephen):

The key to making this happen, I think, is to reorganize local schooling to take advantage of online (and increasingly, AI-generated) learning services, allowing in-person educators to adopt this coaching function.

Key points from Nate’s article:

  • As learning becomes more personalized, learning opportunities expanded and unbounded, and learning science research more robust, an updated and revised advisory role is more important than ever.
  • Redefining the coaching/mentor/advisor role as the educational landscape shifts is critical to ensure success for every learner.

Also relevant to using AI in education/see:

 

 

Taking stock as the world population hits 8 billion — from mckinsey.com

Excerpt:

November 13, 2022 Projections show the global population will surpass 8 billion people on November 15, and in 2023, India is expected to surpass China to become the world’s most populous nation. It was only 11 years ago that the world reached the last billion; these milestones generate considerations of resource allocation, food security, climate change, and more. Already, one in nine people can’t get enough to eat every day, even while 33 to 40 percent of our food is lost or wasted each year, according to research from senior partners Clarisse Magnin and Björn Timelin. As we continue to grow, how can we support an unprecedented population while raising the quality of life for all? Explore our insights to learn more about how to avoid a food crisis, common misconceptions around global migration, the future of an aging population, and more.

Also see:

EIEIO’s e-newsletter of 11/13/22  where it says:

This week on Tuesday, it’s projected that a baby will be born somewhere on Planet Earth that brings the population to 8 billion people. Notably, the global population reached 7 billion people just eleven years ago. When I was born, in 1962, there was 3 billion people, and the United States had a population of 180 million versus roughly 335 million today.

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What we know from Nobel Laureate Economist James Heckman out of the University of Chicago is that $1 invested in early childhood education produces a $7 return in economic gain. Moreover, while investment in education produces a compelling return at all stages, the earlier you invest in education, the higher the return.

 

From DSC:
I virtually attended the Law 2030 Conference (Nov 3-4, 2022). Jennifer Leonard and staff from the University of Pennsylvania’s Carey Law School put together a super conference! It highlighted the need for change within the legal industry. A major shout out to Jennifer Leonard, Theodore Ruger (Law School Dean), and others!

I really appreciate Jen’s vision here, because she recognizes that the legal industry needs to involve more disciplines, more specialists, and others who don’t have a JD Degree and/or who haven’t passed the Bar. On Day 1 of the conference (in the afternoon), Jen enlisted the help of several others to use Design Thinking to start to get at possible solutions to our entrenched issues.

America, our legal system is being tightly controlled and protected — by lawyers. They are out to protect their turf — no matter the ramifications/consequences of doing so. This is a bad move on many lawyers part. It’s a bad move on many Bar Associations part. Lawyers already have some major PR work to do — but when America finds out what they’ve been doing, their PR problems are going to be that much larger. I’d recommend that they change their ways and really start innovating to address the major access to justice issues that we have in the United States.

One of the highlights for me was listening to the powerful, well-thought-out presentation from Michigan’s Chief Justice Bridget McCormack — it was one of the best I’ve ever heard at a conference! She mentioned the various stakeholders that need to come to the table — which includes law schools/legal education. I also appreciated Jordan Furlong’s efforts to deliver a 15-minute presentation (virtual), which it sounded like he worked on most of the night when he found out he couldn’t be there in person! He nicely outlined the experimentation that’s going on in Canada.

Here’s the recording from Day 1:

 


Jeff Selingo’s comments this week reminded me that those of us who have worked in higher education for much of our careers also have a lot of work to do as well.


 

Addendum on 11/8/22:

 


 

“Unleash all this creativity”: Google AI’s breathtaking potential — from axios.com by Jennifer Kingson

Excerpt:

Google’s research arm on Wednesday showed off a whiz-bang assortment of artificial intelligence (AI) projects it’s incubating, aimed at everything from mitigating climate change to helping novelists craft prose.

Why it matters: AI has breathtaking potential to improve and enrich our lives — and comes with hugely worrisome risks of misuse, intrusion and malfeasance, if not developed and deployed responsibly.

Driving the news: The dozen-or-so AI projects that Google Research unfurled at a Manhattan media event are in various stages of development, with goals ranging from societal improvement (such as better health diagnoses) to pure creativity and fun (text-to-image generation that can help you build a 3D image of a skirt-clad monster made of marzipan).

The “1,000 Languages Initiative”: Google is building an AI model that will work with the world’s 1,000 most-spoken languages.

  • AI “can have immense social benefits” and “unleash all this creativity,” said Marian Croak, head of Google Research’s center of expertise on responsible AI.
  • “But because it has such a broad impact on people, the risk involved can also be very huge. And if we don’t get that right … it can be very destructive.”

    And as Axios’ Scott Rosenberg has written, society is only just beginning to grapple with the legal and ethical questions raised by AI’s new capacity to generate text and images.
 

Using Virtual Reality for Career Training — from techlearning.com by Erik Ofgang
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Indiana have had success using virtual reality simulations to teach students about career opportunities.

a Woman with a virtual reality set on occupies one half of the screen. The other shows virtual tools that she is controlling.

Excerpts:

Virtual reality can help boost CTE programs and teach students about potential careers in fields they may know nothing about, says Lana Taylor from the Indiana Alliance of Boys & Girls Clubs of America.

One of those other resources has been a partnership with Transfer VR to provide students access to headsets to participate in career simulations that can give them a tactile sense of what working in certain careers might be like.

“Not all kids are meant to go to college, not all kids want to do it,” Taylor says. “So it’s important to give them some exposure to different careers and workforce paths that maybe they hadn’t thought of before.” 


AI interviews in VR prepare students for real jobseeking — from inavateonthenet.net

 

HundrED Global Collection 2023 — from hundred.org
Meet the 100 most impactful innovations that are changing the face of education in a post-COVID world.

The HundrED Global Collection 2023

Excerpt:

The year 2022 has been a year to look to the future, as the global education conversation moves again toward themes of education transformation and the futures of education. The 100 innovations selected for this year’s global collection are impacting the lives of over 95 million students worldwide. The collection highlights the important role of teachers in education innovation; the continued need for students to develop 21st century skills, including social and emotional learning; an increasing focus on student wellbeing and mental health; and equity in education.

For more information, download the full Global Collection 2023 report.
You can also browse the innovation pages of the selected innovators here.
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From DSC:
Here’s an excerpt of the email I received today from EducationHQ out of Australia — though I think it applies here in the United States as well:

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Amplify and value teachers’ voice in education policymaking: researchers — from educationhq.com
Amplify and value teachers’ voice in education policymaking: researchers

Excerpt:

Monash University’s Teachers’ Perceptions of their Work Survey has revealed teachers’ waning satisfaction in their role and highlighted their…

Also from educationhq.com

Teachers changed my life: Trauma-informed education shows kids they matter — from educationhq.com by Beck Thompson
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Nonprofit Bringing Businesses to Life in the Classroom — to the Tune of $400,000 — from the74million.org by Tim Newcomb
Making candles out of crayons, building birdhouses, fashioning furniture: Real World Scholars has helped 50,000 students become entrepreneurs

Not much entices a second grader to skip out on recess to get back to schoolwork. But excitement around a classroom-run business can do just that, especially when it means creating candles out of crayons and selling them in the local community.

Students design their ideal urban home in My ArchiSchool exhibition — from dezeen.com

Students were able to bring family members to the exhibition. Architectural model by Ethan Chan

Excerpt:

Promotion: fifty-two students presented digital designs and architectural models of their ideal home as part of Hong Kong-based education institute My ArchiSchool’s latest exhibition. As part of the exhibition, My ArchiSchool students were asked to design their ideal home within an urban environment. The exhibition, which took place on 2 October 2022 at the Sky100 on the 100th floor of the International Commerce Centre in Hong Kong, showcased photomontages of digital designs presented alongside physical models.

5 Resources that help students become digital citizens — from rdene915.com by Rachelle Dene Poth

Excerpt:

We need to create opportunities for students to become more digitally aware and literate, and to be responsible when using technology. There are many ways to do this, depending on our content area and grade level. We can model best practices for our students, bring in a specific digital citizenship curriculum to guide them through their learning, or use digital tools and resources available to have students explore and create.

Helping students learn to safely navigate what has become a highly digital world is something that we are all responsible for. Students need to be aware of the impact of their posts online, how to create and manage social accounts and protect their information, and how to properly access and use resources they obtain through technology.

3 Reasons School and District Leaders Should Get on Social Media — from edweek.org by Marina Whiteleather

Excerpt:

School and district leaders can—and should—be using social media in their work.

That’s the message shared by Stephanie McConnell, a superintendent in the Hawkins Independent School District in Texas, and Salome Thomas-El, a K-8 principal in Delaware, during an Education Week K-12 Essentials forum on Oct. 13.

At the event, McConnell and Thomas-El provided insights and advice for school leaders who are hesitant to post on certain social platforms or unsure how to use them.

 

Nikolas Badminton – Elevate Festival 2022 Keynote — futurist.com by Nikolas Badminton

Excerpts/words/phrases:

  • Shifting from “What is?” to “What if? (i.e., paradigm shifts)
  • Megatrends
  • Potential futures
  • Signals of change
  • Scenarios
  • Trajectories
  • Think about the good as well as the bad
  • Telling stories
  • Black swans/elephants
  • Making your organization more profitable and resilient

 

 

Digital Learning Definitions — from wcet.wiche.edu

Excerpt:

Higher education uses many variations of terms to describe slightly different digital learning modalities,  such as: “in-person,” “online,” “hybrid,” “hyflex,” “synchronous,” “asynchronous,” and many more. These variations have long confused students, faculty, administrators, and the general public,

WCET has worked on this issue in the past, and continues to advocate for simple, easy to understand terms that can bring consistent agreement to the use of these phrases. The WCET Steering Committee has made it a priority to attack this issue.

In 2022, WCET sponsored and led a partnership with Bay View Analytics and the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association to conduct a survey to explore the use of the terms by higher education professionals. The Online Learning Consortium (OLC), Quality Matters (QM), and the University Professional and Continuing Education Association (UPCEA) assisted with survey participation and promotion. The works published below highlight the findings of the study.

Also relevant/see:

 

HSF embraces the metaverse with new digital law course for students — from legalcheek.com by Thomas Connelly

Excerpt:

The global law firm has launched a series of free workshops exploring how lawyers help clients navigate novel legal and regulatory issues relating to techy-topics including the metaverse, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), robotics and artificial intelligence (AI).

From DSC:
This kind of thing needs to happen in law schools across many countries.

 

Megatrends | September 25, 2022 — by Michael Moe, Tim Juang, Owen Ritz, & Kit Royce

“The trend is your friend.” – Martin Zweig

“Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.” – Bill Clinton

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” – Coco Chanel

“I don’t set the trends. I just find out what they are and exploit them.” – Dick Clark

Megatrends are powerful technological, economic, and social forces that develop from a groundswell (early adoption), move into the mainstream (mass market), and disrupt the status quo (mature market), driving change, productivity, and ultimately growth opportunities for companies, industries, and entire economies.


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The metaverse is not a vertical trend; it’s a horizontal trend that will impact sectors ranging from healthcare, education, socialization, entertainment, commerce, and more.

 

Top Tools for Learning 2022 [Jane Hart]

Top Tools for Learning 2022

 

Top tools for learning 2022 — from toptools4learning.com by Jane Hart

Excerpt:

In fact, it has become clear that whilst 2021 was the year of experimentation – with an explosion of tools being used as people tried out new things, 2022 has been the year of consolidation – with people reverting to their trusty old favourites. In fact, many of the tools that were knocked off their perches in 2021, have now recovered their lost ground this year.


Also somewhat relevant/see:


 

State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report — from gallup.com

This annual report represents the collective voice of the global employee. In this edition, the pandemic and its aftershock continued to disrupt the workplace. Check out the most recent employee data and workplace trends in the State of the Global Workplace: 2022 Report.

Explore Key Findings
The pulse of the global workplace is low, but it’s still beating. Our findings depict a difficult 2021, but leave much room for leaders to ask, “How am I creating a thriving workplace for my employees today?”

  1. Global engagement and wellbeing trends are stable, but low.
  2. Employee stress is at a new all-time high.
  3. South Asian and European workers’ hope declined.
  4. Here’s the one place the job market recovered.
  5. Despite challenges, this is the best region to be a worker.
  6. The global economy loses trillions to low engagement.

Also relevant/see:

Job unhappiness is at a staggering all-time high, according to Gallup — from cnbc.com by Leah Collins

Key Points:

  • The job market continues to boom, with millions of workers still leaving their jobs each month despite talk of a slowing economy and recession.
  • Also booming, according to Gallup polling, worker disengagement and unhappiness.
  • This is not just an HR issue but a bottom line one as well: business units with engaged workers have 23% higher profit, while employees who are not engaged cost the world $7.8 trillion in lost productivity, equal to 11% of global GDP.

The Backlash Against Quiet Quitting Is Getting Loud — from wsj.com by Kathryn DillFollow and Angela YangFollow
First came the viral phenomenon. Now critics are taking to task those who advocate for coasting on the job.

2 years of pandemic, war, and climate crisis have made many Americans rethink work as just ‘silly little jobs’ — from businessinsider.com by Juliana Kaplan

Work smarter, not harder: Gen Z is driving the ‘quiet quitting’ trend — but is it as negative as it seems? Young professionals are weighing in — from linkedin.com by Gianna Prudente

The anti-work movement — from axios.com by Erica Pandey

What’s happening: This is a rebellion against the “rise and grind” ethos.

The rising approach is to work to live, instead of live to work. Don’t leave your job — but focus on fun, fulfilling activities outside of work while staying on the payroll.

Execs anticipate job cuts — from linkedin.com by Joseph Gobran

Excerpt:

Business leaders are seemingly optimistic right now. More than 83% of CEOs are focusing business strategy on growth as just 30% see recession as a serious risk within the next year, according to a recent PwC survey of over 700 executives in the U.S. It’s a cautious optimism — companies are still preparing for economic risks. About 50% of CEOs plan on reducing company headcount and 44% plan on rescinding job offers. Despite potential cuts, 64% of execs said they plan on raising salaries for current employees.

 

Third edition of Teaching at a Distance is now published — from tonybates.ca by Tony Bates

Excerpts:

The book has been up-dated to take account of the impact of the pandemic on teaching and learning, and with more emphasis for those in k-12 education to balance the post-secondary focus.
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20 Things To Remember About Forgetting — from theelearningcoach.com by Connie Malamed
What Causes Us To Forget

Excerpt:

Even though we use it all day and night, we are usually not aware of our memory’s processes until they fail. Yet remembering and forgetting are crucial aspects of learning. In learning design, it’s important to know what causes us to forget. Here are some key facts about the forgetting process that relate to learning, instruction and creativity.

Jigsaw Explorer — Free Online Jigsaw Puzzles for Students — from educatorstechnology.com by Med Kharbach, PhD

Excerpt:

Jigsaw Explorer is a website that offers a wide variety of online jigsaw puzzles that you can use with kids and students in and out of class. Jigsaw Explorer also allows you to create your own puzzles based on your photos and you can share these puzzles with others via email or through social media websites.

Help All Students Be Seen: Five Tips for Stronger Connections — from blog.edmentum.com by Amy Collins

Excerpt:

I began to challenge myself to set aside my preconceived boxes for them and see each one as a person—complex, with parts they reveal to the world easily and parts they hide. As I did this more and more, I was amazed at how my strategies needed to change in order to truly see each student and make those strong connections that lead to more effective learning. In this blog post, I hope to share some thoughts on how to adjust your own thinking to see the true student within.

An excerpt from Eva Keiffenheim’s recent Learn Letter| learning science to make the most of your mind

Resources for Evidence-Based Teaching
Are you an educator who wants to improve teaching? This website can be a great help. You can access proven, practical and free educational articles on psychology, assessment, behavior, and social-emotional learning. One of my favorite articles include 6 high-impact teaching strategies.
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This YouTube Star Says AI Will Become a Creative ‘Collaborator’ With Students — from soundcloud.com by Jeff Young and Taryn Southern

Description:

Taryn Southern is a pioneering YouTuber who these days experiments with how cutting edge tech might transform human expression. She’s recorded a pop album that she co-wrote with some AI code, for instance, and she’s created a digital clone of herself that she can use to make videos for her popular YouTube channel. Here’s what she sees coming for education.

#convergence #AR #VR #MR #AI #blockchain #HCI #Metaverse
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Teacher shortage? Here’s one way around it — from edcircuit.com by EdCircuit Staff

Excerpt:

After seeing the teacher shortage first hand in China, Jessie Sullivan and Isla Iago launched an innovative new start-up that teaches children how to read and write through YouTube – without the need for adult expertise or attention. Since the release in July, the start-up called See Say Write is already being used by schools, homes, and children’s charities in seven different countries.

[Administrator Tips] Sharing the Benefits of Virtual Learning with Homeschooling Families — from blog.edmentum.com

Excerpt:

One of the long-lasting results of the pandemic is the number of ongoing virtual learning programs that have been created, allowing schools to retain students who found that they need or prefer to learn in a virtual environment. Another segment of students who have been increasingly turning to online learning is homeschoolers.

Virtual learning programs offered through the school district have a great deal of benefits to offer homeschooling families. Promoting these benefits and showing families that a district virtual program offers the best of both worlds can help bring families back from independent homeschooling.

While there certainly are differences between traditional homeschooling and online schooling, it is helpful to point out the similarities and benefits so that homeschooling families can make an educated decision about the options available to them.


Addendums on 8/22/22:


 

Lawyers trying to strangle alternative legal advice — from calmatters.org by Dan Walters
“Scope of practice” conflicts are common in the California Legislature and one is a bill that would forbid the State Bar from exploring alternative legal services.

Excerpt:

There is, however, a darker side to California’s licensing system. It gives licensees monopolies over specific services defined by the Legislature.

Therefore, who is legally authorized to provide what service is ultimately as much a political issue as one of professional competency. No session of the Legislature is complete without at least one “scope of practice” battle.

Also relevant/see:

ABA Sides Against Opening Law Firms Up to New Competition — from news.bloomberglaw.com by Sam Skolnik

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The American Bar Association is pouring cold water on efforts to loosen restrictions on who can own law firms, including moves that could open firms up to new competition from corporations.

The group’s House of Delegates on Tuesday passed a non-binding resolution discouraging changes to state rules barring the sharing of legal fees with non-lawyers. But it also encouraged state bar groups to explore innovations designed to increase access to justice by making legal services more affordable.

“By reaffirming our core value of independence of the legal profession and the prohibition against nonlawyer ownership, the ABA House’s action today is a huge victory for all lawyers,” said Foley Hoag partner Stephen Younger, a previous president of the New York State Bar Association.

From DSC:
Yes…that emphasized part of the last paragraph seems to say it all. A victory for lawyers, but not a victory for the American people. Not for those who are trying to access the legal system. Not for those who are fighting to provide more access to justice.


Addendums on 8/13/22:

***

And it’s not just in the United States either:

***

How Did Legal Services Get So Unaffordable, and What Are We Going to Do About It? — from chicagobarfoundation.org

Excerpt:

Over the past 50 years, we gradually have gone from a time in our country where the average middle-class person or small business generally could find affordable legal services when they needed them to a time today where everyday people struggle to afford legal help and lawyers often joke that they could not afford their own services if the need arose.

 

How will the Metaverse Influence Business and Legal Processes? — from jdsupra.com

Excerpt:

While some will be hesitant to use the metaverse and adoption is difficult to predict, it is not going away and will undoubtedly affect internal processes, business dealings, case strategy, and more. Organizations should start thinking about the possibilities now to be better prepared for future challenges. Below are some predictions on how the metaverse will influence operations, strategy, and investments across different areas of the enterprise.

Lawyers & the Metaverse — from joetechnologist.com by Elizabeth Beattie and Joseph Raczynski

Excerpt:

In a new Q&A interview, Thomson Reuters’ technologist and futurist Joseph Raczynski offers his insight about the Metaverse and how it will impact the legal industry.

I have likely spoken to thousands of lawyers over the last several years. They are extraordinarily bright, but with one limiting factor — their dedication to their craft. This means that they do not have the time to lift their heads to see what is coming. All these emerging technologies will impact their practices in some way, as well as the business of law. At a minimum, lawyers need the opportunity to focus on the big four: AI, blockchain, workflow, and the grab bag of general emerging technology. There are a multitude of places to learn about these things, but I would include some of the classics such as Google Alerts, Twitter threads on these topics, and magazines like Wired, which should be a staple for everyone.

These legal issues should be on college business officers’ radars — from highereddive.com by Rick Seltzer
A panel at the National Association of College and University Business Officers’ annual meeting covered legal questions spanning many offices on campus.

Let’s not presume that virtual hearings are the best solution in family law — from canadianlawyermag.com by John Silvester

Excerpts:

Proponents argue that virtual hearings are less expensive for clients, leading to enhanced access to justice for those who cannot afford to pay for their lawyers to travel to a courthouse and then sit and wait for hearings to commence. Sounds reasonable, right?

Not so fast.

Virtual hearings are advantageous in some scenarios, but there are at least three reasons why moving to an almost entirely virtual legal world may prove problematic.

LawNext Podcast: CALI Executive Director John Mayer on Using Tech to Advance Legal Education and Access to Justice — from lawnext.com by Bob Ambrogi and John Mayer

Excerpt:

In this episode of LawNext, Mayer joins host Bob Ambrogi to discuss the history and mission of CALI and to share his thoughts on the use of technology to enhance legal education. They also talk about how and why A2J Author was developed and how it is used by courts and legal services organizations to help those who are without legal representation. Mayer also shares his thoughts on the future of innovation in law and on the future of CALI.

Louisiana Approves Virtual Custody Services and Proposes Virtual Currency Business Licensing Rules — from natlawreview.com by Moorari Shah and A.J. S. Dhaliwal

Excerpt:

Recently, the Louisiana lawmakers and regulators have taken steps to legalize operations in the state involving virtual currencies. On June 15, the Louisiana governor signed a bill that, effective August 1, 2022, will allow financial institutions and trust companies to provide virtual currency custody services to their customers as long as they satisfy certain requirements on risk-management and compliance. On June 20, the Louisiana Office of Financial Institutions (OFI) published proposed rules on licensing and regulation of virtual currency businesses in the state pursuant to the Louisiana Virtual Currency Business Act, which went into effect on August 1, 2020.

 
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