education technology

What are the learning-related implications/applications of chatbots?

On 07/25/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, bots, communities of practice, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, education, education technology, emerging technologies, Facebook / Meta Platforms, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, personalized/customized learning, platforms, student-related, technologies for your home, training / L&D, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
After seeing the items below, I couldn’t help but wonder…what are the learning-related implications/applications of chatbots?

For K-12
For higher ed?
For corporate training/L&D?

Nat Geo Kids’ T-Rex chatbot aims to ‘get into the mindset of readers’ — from digiday.com by Lucinda Southern

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

It seems even extinction doesn’t stop you from being on Facebook Messenger.

National Geographic Kids is the latest publisher to try out chatbots on the platform. Tina the T-Rex, naturally, is using Messenger to teach kids about dinosaurs over the summer break, despite a critical lack of opposable thumbs.
…
Despite being 65 million years old, Tina is pretty limited in her bot capabilities; she can answer from a pre-programmed script, devised by tech company Rehab Studio and tweaked by Chandler, on things like dinosaur diet and way of life.

Also see:

Holographic storytelling — from jwtintelligence.com by Jade Perry

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The stories of Holocaust survivors are brought to life with the help of interactive 3D technologies.

‘New Dimensions in Testimony’ is a new way of preserving history for future generations. The project brings to life the stories of Holocaust survivors with 3D video, revealing raw first-hand accounts that are more interactive than learning through a history book.

Holocaust survivor Pinchas Gutter, the first subject of the project, was filmed answering over 1000 questions, generating approximately 25 hours of footage. By incorporating natural language processing from Conscience Display, viewers were able to ask Gutter’s holographic image questions that triggered relevant responses.

Love this VR of a classroom lesson – 7 uses that really takes you there — from donaldclarkplanb.blogspot.com by Donald Clark

Excerpt:

I received a fascinating link via Twitter from Chris Edwards, a Deputy Head in Surrey, who was interested in views on his experiment with a 360 camera and VR. In the 360 degree video, Mike Kent, a Geography teacher, delivers a great lesson and you can look round the entire room as students and teacher move around, get things done, interact with the teacher and go through a Q&A session. It is fascinating. They’re using this approach for lesson observations allowing the teacher, or their colleagues, to watch it back in full Virtual Reality. This gives the teacher a view of themselves, from the student’s point of view, as well as observe ‘everything’ that happens in the classroom. It made me think of different possibilities…..

Good lessons by great teachers must surely be worth viewing by novice teachers. The rich set of processes, actions, behaviours, body language and interactions that go into a great lesson are complex, wonderfully captured in this example and could be done on any subject. A bank of such lessons would be far more useful than dry lesson plans.

From DSC:
Donald covers a range of ideas including using these 360 degree cameras and VR in regards to addressing:

Exemplar lessons
Teacher training in school
Behaviour training
Students
Parents
Class layout
Research

Also see:
(You can turn around/view the entire room and somewhat move about the space by zooming in and out):

Also see:

The new Google Arts & Culture, on exhibit now’ — from googleblog.blogspot.com

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Just as the world’s precious artworks and monuments need a touch-up to look their best, the home we’ve built to host the world’s cultural treasures online needs a lick of paint every now and then. We’re ready to pull off the dust sheets and introduce the new Google Arts & Culture website and app, by the Google Cultural Institute. The app lets you explore anything from cats in art since 200 BCE to the color red in Abstract Expressionism, and everything in between. Our new tools will help you discover works and artifacts, allowing you to immerse yourself in cultural experiences across art, history and wonders of the world—from more than a thousand museums across 70 countries…

Also see:

Google’s new app isn’t the next best thing to the Louvre. It might be better
Google Arts & Culture turns art from all over the world into a meta museum.

How might these enhancements to Siri and tvOS 10 impact education/training/learning-related offerings & applications? [Christian]

On 07/14/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adult learning, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, business, career development, change, changing business models, communities of practice, competency-based learning/education, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, distance education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, formal learning, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, lifelong learning, microlearning, mirroring and/or multiple devices, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, online learning, online tutoring, open courseware and systems, pace of change, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, second screen apps, social learning / networks, staying relevant, storytelling, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, TVs, user experience (UX), videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I read the article mentioned below. It made me wonder how 3 of the 4 main highlights that Fred mentioned (that are coming to Siri with tvOS 10) might impact education/training/learning-related applications and offerings made possible via tvOS & Apple TV:

Live broadcasts
Topic-based searches
The ability to search YouTube via Siri

The article prompted me to wonder:

Will educators and trainers be able to offer live lectures and training (globally) that can be recorded and later searched via Siri?
What if second screen devices could help learners collaborate and participate in active learning while watching what’s being presented on the main display/”TV?”
What if learning taken this way could be recorded on one’s web-based profile, a profile that is based upon blockchain-based technologies and maintained via appropriate/proven organizations of learning? (A profile that’s optionally made available to services from Microsoft/LinkedIn.com/Lynda.com and/or to a service based upon IBM’s Watson, and/or to some other online-based marketplace/exchange for matching open jobs to potential employees.)
Or what if you could earn a badge or prove a competency via this manner?

Hmmm…things could get very interesting…and very powerful.

More choice. More control. Over one’s entire lifetime.

Heutagogy on steroids.

Micro-learning.

Perhaps this is a piece of the future for MOOCs…

Apple TV gets new Siri features in tvOS 10 — from iphonefaq.org by Fred Straker

Excerpt:

The forthcoming update to Apple TV continues to bring fresh surprises for owners of Apple’s set top box. Many improvements are coming to tvOS 10, including single-sign-on support and an upgrade to Siri’s capabilities. Siri has already opened new doors thanks to the bundled Siri Remote, which simplifies many functions on the Apple TV interface. Four main highlights are coming to Siri with tvOS 10, which is expected to launch this fall.

Addendum on 7/17/16:

CBS News Launches New Apple TV App Designed Exclusively for tvOS — from macrumors.com

Excerpt:

CBS today announced the launch of an all-new Apple TV app that will center around the network’s always-on, 24-hour “CBSN” streaming network and has been designed exclusively for tvOS. In addition to the live stream of CBSN, the app curates news stories and video playlists for each user based on previously watched videos.

The new app will also take advantage of the 4th generation Apple TV’s deep Siri integration, allowing users to tell Apple’s personal assistant that they want to “Watch CBS News” to immediately start a full-screen broadcast of CBSN. While the stream is playing, users can interact with other parts of the app to browse related videos, bookmark some to watch later, and begin subscribing to specific playlists and topics.

From DSC:
I would like to highlight a few items from this month’s Campus Technology magazine:

2016 Campus Technology Innovators Awards
We honor 11 institutions using technology in innovative ways to improve teaching, learning, administration and operations in higher education.

Editorial: CT Innovators Honorable Mentions
Gleaned from this year’s Campus Technology Innovators award nominations, these 8 projects are making strides in virtual reality, synchronous online learning, digital literacy and more.

How blockchain will disrupt the higher education transcript
Blockchain technology could offer a more learner-centered alternative to traditional credentialing.

“The Future of Higher Education” [GoodCall] & “2026 The Decade Ahead” [The Chronicle]

On 07/13/2016, in 21st century, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, distance education, education reform, education technology, elearning, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, legislatures / government / legal, Michigan, online learning, student-related, universities, by Daniel Christian

What will higher education look like 5, 10 or 20 years from now? — from goodcall.com by Donna Fuscaldo

Excerpts:

More Focus on ROI
Students and families will focus more on college return on investment, affordability and student loan debt
Over the next five years, D’Amico sees a shift happening, where potential students will weigh college return on investment, including the outcomes of the past students, job prospects upon graduation and the overall college experience more seriously than whether a school has a state-of-the-art gym. Similar to how people get real-person reviews of restaurants, doctors and other services, the same diligence will be applied to shopping for college.
Blending the Traditional and the Technological
Internet will play bigger role in learning
…progress will continue to be made in marrying a traditional college education with online classes. The Internet is increasingly becoming a tool for colleges and universities around the country who see the value it can bring.
Greater Accountability
Schools will be more accountable to students and graduates

2026 The Decade Ahead — from the Chronicle of Higher Education by Jeff Selingo

Description:
What changes are in store for higher education over the next 10 years? Evolutionary shifts in three critical areas will have significant consequences for students and institutions as a whole.

Tomorrow’s students will be significantly more diverse and demand lower tuition costs. Faculty tenure policies will be reexamined as deep-seated Boomers retire. And how colleges are preparing students to succeed in an evolving global economy will be intensely scrutinized. What does this mean for your institution?

Digital Edition: $149.00
Print Edition: $199.00

The Midwest, which produces 100,000 more graduates than the Northeast in any given year, will face an even steeper decline. The biggest producers of high schools graduates in the Midwest — Ohio, Michigan, and Illinois — will all experience historic downturns, with Michigan ending with 86,000 fewer graduates by 2028, a nearly 30 percent drop from 2009. (p.10)

Since 2007, 72 institutions have shut down, nearly all of them with enrollments of less than 1,000. The report outlined six different factors facing higher education institutions in the future, including small size, no online programs, tuition discount rates greater than 35%, and deficit spending. (p.19)

Pokémon Go — AR’s killer app, at least so far

On 07/12/2016, in A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), society, tools, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I posted an item yesterday warning parents of the potential dangers of Pokémon Go. But I don’t want to leave it at that. I’m generally pro-technology and there are many solid, good, positive reasons for using most technologies. So I also want to post some other, more positive items showing the enormous success of this augmented reality (AR)-based app.

5 Crazy Facts That Prove the Ridiculous Popularity of ‘Pokemon GO’ — from uploadvr.com by David Jagneaux

Excerpts:

Nintendo’s Valuation Increased by $9 Billion
People Are Already Using it As Much as Twitter
It’s Helping People Fight Depression and Anxiety
Businesses Are Changing the Way They Operate
Pokemon GO is Bringing People Closer to Together

The Weekend Pokémon Go Took Over America — from wired.com by Emily Dreyfuss, Brian Barrett, Kevin McFarland, Emma Ellis, Jake Muncy, and Chris Kohler

This Surprising Game Is Driving People To Church — from ministrytech.com

‘Pokemon Go’ Readies for Wider Launch as Nintendo Shares Soar — from uploadvr.com by by Jamie Feltham

Pokemon Go Is Driving Augmented Reality And Geolocation Adoption — from zugara.com by Matthew Szymczyk

What #PokemonGo means for immersive learning — from learningintandem.blogspot.com by Koreen Pagano

Excerpt:

But let’s end with some larger implications for learning, particularly organizational learning.

New hire training: tour facilities with augmented reality or virtual reality. Meet key folks in the organization. See behind the scenes production, or visit HQ virtually.
Skill refinement: once the basics have been taught, present ongoing practice scenarios. Could be internal, customer-facing, or software/equipment training.
Product training: provide the ability to interact with multiple customers and see how the product benefits them differently.
Application in context: how do you navigate a real-life complex environment effectively? Think busy retail, insurance adjusters, combat/disaster zones, crime scenes, etc.
Just in time geographically relevant support: have a question in context? What if an app let you access training and tips relevant to where you are?

Pokémon Go is Improving Thousands of Users’ Mental Health — from interestingengineering.com by Trevor English

“Pokémon Go” May Prove That AR Is More Mainstream Than VR — from fastcompany.com by Daniel Terdiman
Ever seen this many people with VR headsets on at one time? Didn’t think so.

Playing Pokemon Go? You Need the Right Gear — from wired.com by Tim Moynihan

And along the security/safety awareness line:

Pokémon Go can be a huge security risk – here’s how to play privately! — from imore.com by Rene Ritchie Mon
Police Urge Pokémon GO Players to Stay Alert — from pixelkin.org by Nicole Tanner
Pokémon Go shouldn’t have full access to your Gmail, Docs and Google account — but it does — from techcrunch.com by Devin Coldewey

Supporting Deaf & Hard of Hearing Students | Tools, Technology & Key Resources

On 07/01/2016, in accessibility / UDL, education technology, face-to-face, higher education, K-12 related, neurodivergent/special needs, student-related, tools, usability, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

Supporting Deaf and Hard of Hearing Students Tools, Technology and Key Resources to Cultivate Academic Success — from accreditedschoolsonline.org

Excerpts:

Students with hearing disabilities face unique challenges inside the classroom. Many common learning modes that people take for granted — lectures, discussion groups and even one-on-one conversations — can be a struggle for those who have any level of hearing difficulty. However, that doesn’t mean a college degree is out of reach. Today’s wide range of tools, devices and systems can help students who are deaf or hard of hearing thrive in an educational setting. This guide focuses on those resources, tech tools and expert tips that students of all ages can use achieve academic success.

Paper 53 is the ‘sketch-iPad’ you always wanted — from edtech4beginners.com

Excerpt:

Paper 53 is a brilliant app which combines drawings, notes, photos and sketches. It is available on the Appstore. The app is simple and user-friendly; just use your finger (or a stylus) to draw, paint, select colours, erase and lots more.

Google’s virtual reality field trips are available to everyone — from engadget.com by Jon Fingas
Students can also use Google Cast to share their screens across the classroom.

10 very good new educational web tools — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

Below is a collection of some new educational web tools and mobile apps to try out in your instruction. The purpose is to keep you updated about the new releases in the EdTech world and empower you with the necessary technology to take your teaching and learning to the next level. Some of the things you can do with these applications include: Learn English pronunciation from native speakers, easily save web content to Google, search YouTube without having to stop the video playing, learn basic math skills through challenging games and activities, unshare sent files in Gmail, create interactive and engaging videos by adding polls, short questions and quizzes, create beautiful presentations and animations using drawn images and stick figures and many more.

Teaching with digital timelines — from Derek Bruff

Excerpt:

This year the Center for Teaching hosted a few educational technology working groups for faculty, staff, and students interested in exploring ways particular technologies might meet their instructional goals. One of the groups investigated the use of digital timeline tools, like Tiki-Toki and TimelineJS, that facilitate the creation of online, multimedia, interactive, and collaborative timelines. I had used such tools in my own teaching, having asked my 2010 writing seminar students to create a class timeline on the history of cryptography, and I was eager to talk with other instructors about the potential of student-produced timelines.

Top 5 AI virtual assistants: Now and into the future — from interestingengineering.com

Excerpt:

In Silicon Valley and elsewhere there’s currently an AI arms race going on. The first wave of this race is centered around artificial virtual assistants that are poised to become our new digital best friends in the very near future. While many people are familiar with Apple’s popular AI virtual assistant, Siri, there are four other main players in the AI virtual assistant space.

From DSC:
Twitter is also a tool that you should consider putting in your toolbox — or in your students’ toolboxes. Consider how it was used here –> This Henry VIII Twitter Account Is The Best Way To Learn About Brexit | @KngHnryVIII tells it like it is (and like how it was in the 1500s).

Heuristic Media is working on 37 apps, 1 for each Shakespeare play — with The Tempest as its pilot app.

Addendum on 6/30/16:

A Good Infographic Featuring 30 Web Tools for Teacher Librarians — from educatorstechnology.com
.
7 Apps for Student Creators — from edutopia.org by Monica Burns
.
Introducing the new mobile app for Microsoft Flow — from flow.microsoft.com with thanks to Mr. Michael Haan, Technology Integration Specialist/Purchasing w/ Calvin Information Technology, for this resource

Teachers, professors, & students: Here’s an interesting way to use Twitter to learn about a historical figure.

On 06/30/2016, in adjunct faculty, education technology, Europe, faculty/staff, higher education, history, ideas, K-12 related, pedagogy, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, UK, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Twitter is a tool that you should consider putting in your toolbox — or in your students’ toolboxes. Consider how it was used here –> This Henry VIII Twitter Account Is The Best Way To Learn About Brexit | @KngHnryVIII tells it like it is (and like how it was in the 1500s).

How chatbots and deep learning will change the future of organizations — from forbes.com by Daniel Newman

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Don’t let the fun, casual name mislead you. Chatbots—software that you can “chat with”—have serious implications for the business world. Though many businesses have already considered their use for customer service purposes, a chatbot’s internal applications could be invaluable on a larger scale. For instance, chatbots could help employees break down siloes and provide targeted data to fuel every department. This digital transformation is happening, even in organizational structures that face challenges with other formats of real-time communication.

Still unclear on what chatbots are and what they do? Think of a digital assistant—such as iPhone’s Siri or Alexa, the Artificial Intelligence within the Amazon Echo. A chatbot reduces or eliminates the need for many mobile apps, as the answers are stored inside the chatbot. Need to know what the weather’s like in LA? Ask your chatbot. Is your flight running on time? Ask your chatbot. Is the package you ordered going to be delivered while you’re away? You get the gist.

From DSC:
How might institutions of higher education as well as K-12 school districts benefit from such internal applications of chatbots? How about external applications of chatbots? If done well, such applications could facilitate solid customer service (i.e., self-service knowledgebases) and aid in communications.

Hold Tight: The Chatbot Era Has Begun — from chatbotsmagazine.com by
Chatbots: What they are, and why they’re so important for businesses

Excerpt:

Imagine being able to have your own personal assistant at your fingertips, who you can chat with, give instructions and errands to, and handle the majority of your online research — both personally and professionally.

That’s essentially what a chatbot does.

Capable of being installed on any messenger platform, such as Facebook messenger or text messages, a chat bot is a basic artificial intelligence computer software program that does the legwork for you — and communicates in a way that feels like an intelligent conversation over text or voice messaging.

Once-in-a-decade paradigm shift: Messaging — from chatbotsmagazine.com by Beerud Sheth
In the history of the personal computing industry, we have had a paradigm shift about once every decade.

Smart assistants and chatbots will be top consumer applications for AI over next 5 years, poll says — from venturebeat.com by Blaise Zerega

Excerpt:

Virtual agents and chatbots will be the top consumer applications of artificial intelligence over the next five years, according to a consensus poll released today by TechEmergence, a marketing research firm for AI and machine learning.

The emphasis on virtual agents and chatbots is in many ways not surprising. After all, the tech industry’s 800-pound gorillas have all made big bets: Apple with Siri, Amazon with Alexa, Facebook with M and Messenger, Google with Google Assistant, Microsoft with Cortana and Tay. However, the poll’s data also suggests that chatbots may soon be viewed as a horizontal enabling technology for many industries.

From DSC:
Might this eventually affect students’ expectations? Blackboard’s partnership with IBM and Amazon may come into play here.

Some like it bot: Why chatbots could be the start of something big — from business.sprint.com
Chatbots are on the rise. With Google, Facebook and Microsoft competing to be the caring voice your customers turn to, what does this mean for your enterprise?

Excerpt:

The most prevalent indicator that the artificial intelligence-driven future is rapidly becoming reality is the rise of the chatbot – an A.I. software program designed to chat with people. Well, more accurately, the re-emergence of the bot. Basically, robots talking to humans talking to robots is the tech vision for the future.

Maybe one of the most obvious uses for this technology would be in service. If you can incorporate your self-service knowledge base into a bot that responds directly to questions and uses customer data to provide the most relevant answers, it’s more convenient for customers…

Chatbot lawyer overturns 160,000 parking tickets in London and New York — from theguardian.com by Samuel Gibbs
Free service DoNotPay helps appeal over $4m in parking fines in just 21 months, but is just the tip of the legal AI iceberg for its 19-year-old creator

Excerpt:

An artificial-intelligence lawyer chatbot has successfully contested 160,000 parking tickets across London and New York for free, showing that chatbots can actually be useful.

Dubbed as “the world’s first robot lawyer” by its 19-year-old creator, London-born second-year Stanford University student Joshua Browder, DoNotPay helps users contest parking tickets in an easy to use chat-like interface.

Addendum on 6/29/16:

A New Chatbot Would Like to Help You With Your Bank Account — from wired.com by Cade Metz

Excerpt:

People in Asia are already using MyKai, and beginning today, you can too. Because it’s focused on banking—and banking alone—it works pretty well. But it’s also flawed. And it’s a bit weird. Unsettling, even. All of which makes it a great way of deconstructing the tech world’s ever growing obsession with “chatbots.”
…
MyKai is remarkably adept at understanding what I’m asking—and that’s largely because it’s focused solely on banking. When I ask “How much money do I have?” or “How much did I spend on food in May?,” it understands. But when I ask who won the Spain-Italy match at Euro 2016, it suggests I take another tack. The thing to realize about today’s chatbots is that they can be reasonably effective if they’ve honed to a particular task—and that they break down if the scope gets to wide.

Blackboard announces partnerships with IBM & Amazon | IBM Watson to come into play

On 06/28/2016, in Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, digital learning, education technology, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, innovation, K-12 related, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Blackboard Partners with IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS) – North America Customer Announcement

Date Published: Jun 27,2016
Product: Collaborate, ANGEL, Learn, CE/Vista, Xythos, Moodlerooms, Analytics, Open Content
Article No.: 000042385

Announcement Details:
We are excited to share some news with you about Blackboard’s new partnership with IBM and Amazon Web Services (AWS) which will have far-reaching and lasting impacts for the education technology industry. This communication will provide details on how this will benefit our customers and other business partners.

This partnership will enable us to accelerate our focus on developing innovative educational products and services that serve the needs of our customers. And it will open the door for us to develop novel solutions benefiting the education ecosystem. There are two parts to this partnership that will benefit you:

Selection of AWS as our strategic cloud platform and partnership with IBM for operations and infrastructure management

We will partner with IBM in the operations and infrastructure management of Blackboard’s data centers. We have also selected AWS as our cloud services provider and entered into an agreement with IBM to manage our cloud services environments. This partnership will enable Blackboard to focus on what we do best – developing innovative educational products and services – while relying on the world-class data hosting and operational capabilities of IBM and AWS.

This partnership does not affect our Transact customers.

This partnership offers customers many benefits. It will enable us to accelerate our focus on developing innovative educational products and services that serve the needs of our customers. Furthermore, we will leverage IBM’s experience, scale, and tools with the goal of delivering the highest quality of service possible to our customers. This includes stringent service level agreements intended to ensure that Blackboard customers receive the most reliable and resilient hosting services available in the marketplace. In addition, this partnership allows for enhanced technical, organizational and physical security measures to safeguard Blackboard customer data. We will also leverage the power of the AWS ecosystem to accelerate product development and deployment; further improving customer experience in the future.

Our relationship with Amazon and IBM is integrated. There are no gaps in accountability for delivering reliable services to our clients. And its backed by a comprehensive and robust set of service level commitments to deliver highly available and responsive services for you.

Exclusive partnership to co-develop cognitive education solutions utilizing Watson

Blackboard and IBM have entered into an exclusive agreement to develop cognitive educational solutions for the K-12 and higher education markets. The partnership will combine Blackboard’s expertise in developing innovative education products in use by millions around the world, with the power of IBM Watson’s cognitive computing technology to create exclusive solutions to address some of the most pressing problems in education.

IBM Watson is a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data. In short, it can help to ‘hyper personalize’ the educational experience.

To sum it up, we’re tremendously excited about partnering with IBM and Amazon to deliver extraordinary capability to our customers. And we’re excited by what’s on the horizon for Blackboard and our customers as we continue to focus on delivering innovative products that address some of the most pressing challenges in education.

To learn more about our partnership, check out our press release on Blackboard.com. We’ll also provide further details in the weeks ahead through webinars and at BbWorld.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Why did Blackboard select IBM and AWS as their partners?
We spent considerable time selecting our partners, and we’re confident in what both IBM and Amazon will deliver for our customers. IBM is one of the world’s top infrastructure management organizations, and is uniquely positioned because of its experience and work in the education space. AWS is the clear leader in cloud services, with the largest global cloud infrastructure footprint, the most well-developed ecosystem, tremendous momentum and rate of innovation.Both companies share our values and dedication to maintaining the privacy of customer data, and both have invested heavily in world-class security programs to keep your data safe in accordance with global standards and regulations.

2. Will the partnership extend to infrastructure provision and management for Blackboard’s Transact customers?
No. Transact will continue to operate as today with no changes.

3. How can I learn more about this partnership between Blackboard and IBM and the benefits to me?
In order to provide you with an opportunity to ask questions and learn more about this partnership and how it will benefit you, we have planned for several sessions at BbWorld, and have scheduled a series of customer webinars. BbWorld is scheduled for July 12-14 and the webinars will be scheduled in July and August.

4. Will this change in responsibility affect who I call if I have a question or issue?
No. Your support will continue to be handled by the same Blackboard team that exists today.

5. Will I see any changes as a result of the partnership? Yes. We expect that you will see operational improvements starting in the 3-6 month timeframe. These include improved system availability and accelerated response time to issues.

6. What does this mean for Security and Privacy?
IBM and AWS share our focus on providing highly secure environments and experiences. This partnership will provide an enhanced data security program and robust technical, organizational and physical security measures to protect customer data, including student data. Further, our agreement with IBM and AWS contains detailed provisions intended to safeguard data in North American markets in specific consideration of applicable privacy laws and regulations. These provisions include geographic restrictions on the location and transfer of customer data, and encryption standards, to comply with applicable law.

7. Does this partnership mean that I will need to move out of my existing Learn hosted environment?
No. While in time many customers are planning to transition their Learn deployment to our cloud environment, customers who are currently running Learn 9.1 in our managed hosting datacenters will not be required to move.

8. What about other Blackboard applications besides Learn?
Many other Blackboard applications are already delivered in a software-as-a-service model using Blackboard-managed datacenters. Over the coming years, IBM and Blackboard will work together to move these applications from Blackboard datacenters to AWS. Any migration plan will be developed in full consideration of giving customers an uninterrupted service and user experience.

9. What about the current SaaS deployment for Blackboard Learn?
There is no impact. Learn SaaS already runs on AWS.

10. What is IBM Watson?
IBM Watson is a technology platform that uses natural language processing and machine learning to reveal insights from large amounts of unstructured data. In short, it can help to ‘hyper personalize’ the educational experience.

Watson gained a level of fame in 2011 when the team put their technology up against two of Jeopardy’s greatest champions in the history of the game. It was an exciting two-day match that resulted in Watson beating out the competition – not just from right answers, but also from using the right strategy for wagers to win the game.

See how Watson beat the Jeopardy leaders in this short video.

How does Watson work? Watch this educational video.

11. Are there any definitive plans for the cognitive education solutions developed with Watson that I need to plan for at my institution?
We are in the early stages of this relationship. Blackboard and the Watson Education team are starting the process of scoping out the solutions that will bring the most value to K-12 and higher education. We plan to communicate our progress and solicit your input as we move forward.

12. What if I have more questions about this partnership?
There are three ways you can get answers to your questions:

Attend one of the multiple sessions planned for BbWorld.
Attend one of the online webinars will be schedule in the coming weeks.
Contact your Account Executive or Customer Success Advocate.

Addendum on 6/29/16:

Blackboard Inc. and IBM Enter Strategic Relationship to Develop Cognitive Solutions and Manage Infrastructure Operations
Excerpt:
IBM and Blackboard will work collaboratively to develop cognitive educational solutions utilizing the capabilities of both companies to advance learner success. The companies will combine Blackboard’s expertise in developing innovative education products used by millions of people around the world with the power of IBM Watson’s cognitive computing technology. The new solutions will offer greater support for teachers and students to address their collaborative needs in the classroom and help students complete and achieve their educational goals.

ISTE 2016 Monday Highlights

On 06/28/2016, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, data related items, education technology, Google, innovation, K-12 related, Microsoft, vendors, by Daniel Christian

ISTE 2016 Monday highlights: Monarch to newspapers, Soundtrap teams up with Google, and Google releases Google Cast — from jeadigitalmedia.org

ISTE 2016: Michio Kaku says education needs a revolution — from by Jena Passut
The theoretical physicist says a fourth wave of technology is about to begin, and educators must prepare students to thrive in the new landscape.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

There have been three major waves of technology: steam power and locomotive, electricity and automobile, and high tech, Kaku said. We are about to enter a fourth wave — biotechnology, nanotechnology and artificial intelligence — that will drive the economy, he said.

How should educators respond when computers become part of the wallpaper and Internet-enabled contact lenses make information accessible at the blink of an eye?

“I don’t just want my students to learn,” she said. “I want them to want to learn.”

— Kerry Gallagher

ISTE and Microsoft collaborate to provide new school planning and professional learning resources — from iste.org
ISTE and Microsoft collaborate to provide new school planning and professional learning resources; multi-project initiative to include first of its kind blueprint for school transformation, leadership courses, school development tools.

Excerpt:

DENVER -June 26, 2016 -At today’s ISTE 2016 opening general session, the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE®) and Microsoft Corp. announced they plan to combine and expand a host of their world-class initiatives to ensure educators and school leaders around the world have access to school planning and professional development resources. This collaboration stems from a shared belief that technology has the power to transform learning, and can do so most effectively when it’s embedded in how a school or educator thinks about and drives new learning opportunities.

Innovation is more than creating new things — iste.org

8 questions to ask before creating a makerspace — iste.org

Amazon unveils online education service for teachers — from nytimes.com by Natasha Singer

The top 10 companies working on education in virtual reality & augmented reality [Lewis]

On 06/27/2016, in A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), education technology, emerging technologies, learning ecosystem, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

The top 10 companies working on education in virtual reality & augmented reality — from touchstoneresearch.com by Drew Lewis

Excerpt:

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are new technologies which have been making all kinds of waves recently; but VR and AR are not only going to be used for gaming, several companies are exploring applications for VR and AR to be used in education. Around 90% of what we see and do is retained, which is something that has always been missing from education; students do not retain as much information if they are just reading a textbook compared to having more real applications of what they’re learning. Which is why VR and AR in education are so beneficial; these technologies engage students in a completely new way which is more fun and engaging for them, and it increases retention. Several companies are currently working on innovations in this space; and the work we’ve seen so far is surely a good sign of things to come.

Learning Ecosystems

Highlighting a few items from this month’s Campus Technology Magazine

Pokémon Go — AR’s killer app, at least so far

The top 10 companies working on education in virtual reality & augmented reality [Lewis]

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