From DSC:
Normally I don’t advertise or “plug” where I work, but as our society is in serious need of increasing Access to Justice (#A2J) & promoting diversity w/in the legal realm, I need to post this video.
Hmmm…can’t help but wonder if online-based courts would help mightily in this situation? [Christian]
On 03/23/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), change, communications, Daniel S. Christian, health, ideas, law schools, leadership, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, society, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
DC: Hmmm…can’t help but wonder if online-based courts would help mightily in this situation? #legal #law #courts #lawschool #innovation #change #A2J https://t.co/lIxFg1X7Rb pic.twitter.com/88wWStlb10
— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) March 23, 2020
COVID-19 Leaves Backlogged Courts With A Justice Pile-Up — from law360.com by Cara Bayles
On 03/22/2020,
in Daniel S. Christian, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
Psalm 25:4-5 New International Version (NIV) — from biblegateway.com
4 Show me your ways, Lord,
teach me your paths.
5 Guide me in your truth and teach me,
for you are God my Savior,
and my hope is in you all day long.
On 03/18/2020,
in curriculum, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, engineering, face-to-face, ideas, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, science, society, STEAM-related, student-related, teachers, traditional / tradition, United States, user experience (UX), youth,
by Daniel Christian
My wife sent me this video from John Bennett, a math teacher. This was posted to YouTube back on 11/8/11.
In fact, if it were up to me, I’d would no longer require math to be taught…in middle school and high school.
NOTES:
- 300 million people in the U.S. (as John mentioned back in October 2011)
- 1.5 million engineers
- 1/2 of a percent; and you can add another 1/2 of a percent for other kinds of jobs that require that kind of math
- That leaves 99% of us in the United States who don’t use what we learned about in middle school and high school math classes. But the problem is, math has caused major stress for people in the last 40 years.
- John Bennett had some major cognitive dissonance to the reasons WHY he was suggesting his students know the math concepts that he was trying to relay.
- He came to ask, “When do most of us use math in real life?”
- Money. Financial stuff. Balancing checkbook. Tipping. Cooking and carpentry.
- Why are we still teaching algebra? Because it teaches us about inductive and deductive reasoning. Math helps us develop that kind of reasoning.
- So a better plan would be to:
- Let people who want to take math in middle school and high school take it.
- For the rest of the students, provide strategy games and logic puzzles that help develop those cognitive reasoning skills.
From DSC:
When this math teacher meets people out in society, people confess how much stress math brought to them in school….and they’re aren’t joking.
Given that we are all required to be lifelong learners these days, I love what John Bennett is saying here…because we really aren’t serving society at large by requiring math be taught in middle school and high school.
- It causes stress and very negative learning experiences for many people.
- We don’t use it. (By the way, I could plug and chug ok, but I had no idea what I was doing. No real understanding. I haven’t used algebra and/or calculus since my youth.)
What does it take to change our curricula like that?! Is it possible? I sure hope so.
On 03/10/2020,
in A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, attention, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, elearning, engagement / engaging students, face-to-face, faculty/staff, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, learning theories, multimedia, online learning, pedagogy, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX),
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
For those of you who teach and/or give presentations, you might be interested in a new video that I put together regarding cognitive load. It addresses at least two main questions:
- What is cognitive load?
and - Why should I care about it?
How do I put it into practice?
- Simplify the explanations of what you’re presenting as much as possible and break down complex tasks into smaller parts
- Don’t place a large amount of text on a slide and then talk about it at the same time — doing so requires much more processing than most people can deal with.
- Consider creating two versions of your PowerPoint files:
- A text-light version that can be used for presenting that content to students
- A text-heavy version — which can be posted to your LMS for the learners to go through at their own pace — and without trying to process so much information (voice and text, for example) at one time.
- Design-wise:
- Don’t use decorative graphics — everything on a slide should be there for a reason
- Don’t use too many fonts or colors — this can be distracting
- Don’t use background music when you are trying to explain something
On 03/06/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, bots, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, internet, languages and translation, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, smart classrooms, teaching online, technologies for your home, telecommunications, tools, trends, TVs, United States, vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces,
by Daniel Christian
How innovations in voice technology are reshaping education — from edsurge.com by Diana Lee
Voice is the most accessible form you can think of when you think about any interface. In education, it’s already started to take off.
It could be basic questions about, “Am I taking a class to become X?” or “How strong are my skills relative to other people?” An assistant can help with that. It could potentially be a coach, something that follows you the rest of your life for education. I’m excited about that. People that can’t normally get access to this kind of information will get access to it. That’s the future.
From DSC:
The use of voice will likely be a piece of a next-generation learning platform.
On 03/04/2020,
in assistive technologies, biology, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, health, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, law schools, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, learning preferences, learning theories, lifelong learning, love of learning, neurodivergent/special needs, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
What I mean by this is this:
While I certainly agree that research has produced excellent, proven, effective pedagogies that work with many students (the majority even), the fact is, learning is messy. When a child walks into a classroom, there isn’t even one other child with the exact same neural situation.
Nor is there even one other student with the exact same experiences, background, passions, motivations, interests, etc. I’ve experienced this with our daughter who isn’t a part of the 80% that the typical education train addresses. Look out if you are part of the 10% of either side of the bell curve! As your learning experiences are too costly to address and likely won’t be addressed in many cases.
All that said, I still agree that the teaching and learning strategies are still highly relevant across the masses. My point is that there is still a lot of diversity out there. They say that learning is messy for a reason. If you doubt that, go sit in on an IEP sometime.
On 03/02/2020,
in active learning, attention, collaboration, communications, Daniel S. Christian, education, engagement / engaging students, ideas, innovation, K-12 related, learning, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, love of learning, maker movement, participation,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
When I saw the learning space as pictured below, I couldn’t help but ask a couple of questions:
- Doesn’t this look like a colorful, fun, engaging active learning space?
- One that encourages communication and collaboration?
The natural light is wonderful. And the physical setup seems to let the students know that they will be collaborating with each other the second they walk into this learning space…and it does so without saying a word.
On 02/27/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Access to Justice (A2J), Daniel S. Christian, data related items, ideas, innovation, law schools, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, MBA, presentations, society, staying relevant, vision/possibilities, workplace, youth,
by Daniel Christian
“Strategy is about folding the future back – it’s not about pushing the present forward!”
Vijay Govindarajan, keynote speaker
at today’s Law 2030 event;
also see the recording here
You can also find video of Day 1 here and Day 2 here.
The PowerPoint slides from each presenter are available at https://www.law2030.org.
From DSC:
The keynote at this morning’s Law 2030 event was done by Vijay Govindarajan, Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business. Vijay offered up a great presentation that reminded me to:
- THINK BIG!
- Establish a sizable possibility gap!
- Have unrealistic goals!
- Don’t limit your future accomplishments with current expectations!
- Strive to live to your potential!
His keynote made me think of this graphic from a while back:
Below is one of the slides from his talk:
Also see the Law2030 hashtag over on Twitter.
On 02/26/2020,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, communities of practice, computer science, Cost of legal services - including access, Daniel S. Christian, Europe, innovation, law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, policy, RSS, social media, society, staying relevant, streams of content, technology (general), United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Also see:
EU Proposes Strict Regulations for AI — from futuretech360.com by John K. Waters
Excerpt:
The European Union this week unveiled its first proposed regulations for artificial intelligence (AI) technology, along with a strategy for handling personal digital data. The new regs provide guidance around such AI use cases as autonomous vehicles and biometric IDs.
Published online by the European Commission, the proposed regulations would apply to “high-risk” uses of AI in areas such as health care, transportation and criminal justice. The criteria to determine risk would include such considerations as whether a person might get hurt, say, by a self-driving car or a medical device, and how much influence a human has on an AI’s decision in areas like job recruiting and law enforcement.
From DSC:
Here are two other example of AI’s further integration into the legal realm:
Casetext is Automating Litigation — from businesswire.com
Casetext’s new litigation automation technology, Compose, automates substantive legal work — and a substantial number of billable hours
Excerpt:
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Casetext, the legal technology company known for its groundbreaking A.I. legal research platform, today announces a new product that will define litigation automation: Compose. Compose, which automates the first draft of a legal brief, is poised to disrupt the $437 billion1 legal services industry and fundamentally change our understanding of what types of professional work are uniquely human.
UC Irvine School of Law To Integrate Blue J Legal’s AI-Enabled Tax Platform into Curriculum — from businesswire.com
First of its kind initiative aims to prepare graduate students for careers in tax law where AI will be integral to the decision-making process
The joint effort aims to demonstrate why advanced technological integration in higher education is important and how to leverage it, specifically in tax law.
DC: Given today’s pace of change, pulse-checking &putting things on our radars are key.I appreciate the power of “streams of content” 2enhance our personal learning ecosystems. Along these lines, I also like Feedly & subscribing to a variety of RSS feeds.https://t.co/SzvTBMXfQE pic.twitter.com/2FE4dX1skB
— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) February 26, 2020
On 02/15/2020,
in biology, Daniel S. Christian, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, learning, learning theories, parents/guardians, psychology, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
An Existential Crisis in Neuroscience — from by Grigori Guitchounts
We’re mapping the brain in amazing detail—but our brain can’t understand the picture.
Excerpt:
Neuroscientists have made considerable progress toward understanding brain architecture and aspects of brain function. We can identify brain regions that respond to the environment, activate our senses, generate movements and emotions. But we don’t know how different parts of the brain interact with and depend on each other. We don’t understand how their interactions contribute to behavior, perception, or memory. Technology has made it easy for us to gather behemoth datasets, but I’m not sure understanding the brain has kept pace with the size of the datasets.
From DSC:
The word “mystery” comes to my mind when I read parts of this thought-provoking article — as does the phrase “Glory to God!“.
As I’ve watched my mom slowly leave us due to Alzheimer’s (as did my grandma on her side) and as I’ve watched my good friend prepare to leave us due to cancer, I’m also reminded to be grateful for the people in my life when they’re still there. Plus, I’m reminded to be thankful for good health when I have it. It may be cliche, but it’s true. And I’ll end this posting with another one:
“One doesn’t know the worth of water until the well’s run dry.”
On 02/15/2020,
in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, computer science, Daniel S. Christian, design, heutagogy, higher education, IT in HE, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, pace of change, platforms, programming, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, vendors, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
The 5 top tech skills companies want in new hires right now — from fortune.com by Anne Fisher; with thanks to Ryan Craig for his relaying this resource
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
Tim Tully agrees. Chief technology officer at data giant Splunk—whose clients number 92 of the Fortune 100—Tully says that the most important trait IT job candidates need now is “a strong desire to learn.” It might be too broad of a requirement, but consider Tully’s own list of the five most essential tech skills now:
1. Real-time data management
2. Design thinking
3. App development
4. A.I. and machine learning
5. A composite of the first four skills
From DSC:
I’m especially posting this for students who are considering a tech-related career. If that’s you, Tim’s words ring true — you must have a strong desire to learn. And I would add, to keep learning and to keep learning and to keep learning…
If you are in IT, it’s wise to check in regularly on career progress – because staying still for too long could quickly lead to falling behind. (source)
Also, given the pace of change and today’s current marketplace, you need to be ready to be let go and take a right turn (i.e., be flexible and adaptable). You need to have a healthy learning ecosystem built up and maintained — one that will support you over the long haul. Heutagogy comes into play here. And at least for me, prayer helps greatly here too — as one can easily put one’s eggs into the wrong basket(s) when we’re talking about tech-related jobs.
And for you applying for jobs, don’t get discouraged by those organizations/people who are looking for those “purple unicorns” that Ryan Craig talks about in his Gap Letter Volume II, #4 (i.e., the perfect candidate who meets a ridiculously long list of requirements for the job).
Also see:
Below is a relevant excerpt from that report:
