Google - Learning Ecosystems

Will a “Google PhD” become as good as a university-granted PhD? [Dawson]

On 07/05/2022, in 21st century, Alternatives, career development, change, entrepreneurship, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, heutagogy, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, skills, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Will a “Google PhD” become as good as a university-granted PhD? — from rossdawson.com by Ross Dawson

Excerpt:

A fundamental issue now is the degree to which employers care about the piece of paper as against the knowledge and capability. That is rapidly shifting as companies realize they will often miss out on exceptionally talented people if they insist on formal qualifications.

Entrepreneurs of course only care whether they have the knowledge to do what they’re undertaking.

It is a shifting landscape. Traditional advanced degrees have their place and will not disappear.

But “Google PhDs” will in some cases be as good, if they result in an equivalent level of expertise.

Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best of Show at ISTE 2022

On 07/05/2022, in A/V -- audio/visual, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, Google, K-12 related, programming, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Tech & Learning Announces Winners of Best of Show at ISTE 2022 — from techlearning.com

Excerpt:

Tech & Learning’s Best of Show Awards at ISTELive 22(opens in new tab) celebrate the products, and businesses behind each one, who are transforming education in schools around the world. Tech & Learning’s panel of judges awarded the products and solutions to exhibitors at ISTELive 22 Live who show the greatest promise to the industry, according to the U.S.’s most tech-savvy and knowledgeable educators.

“It was great to be back in person at ISTELive22 and see so many examples of innovation on the exhibit hall floor,” says Christine Weiser, content director for Tech & Learning. “Our judges chose the following winners as examples of excellence in terms of value, quality, ease of use, and versatility. Congratulations to our winners!”

Radar Trends to Watch: June 2022 [O’Reilly]

On 06/03/2022, in 21st century, algorithms, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, bots, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, internet, IT in HE, NVIDIA, platforms, programming, robotics, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Radar Trends to Watch: June 2022 — from oreilly.com

Excerpt:

The explosion of large models continues. Several developments are especially noteworthy. DeepMind’s Gato model is unique in that it’s a single model that’s trained for over 600 different tasks; whether or not it’s a step towards general intelligence (the ensuing debate may be more important than the model itself), it’s an impressive achievement. Google Brain’s Imagen creates photorealistic images that are impressive, even after you’ve seen what DALL-E 2 can do. And Allen AI’s Macaw (surely an allusion to Emily Bender and Timnit Gebru’s Stochastic Parrots paper) is open source, one tenth the size of GPT-3, and claims to be more accurate. Facebook/Meta is also releasing an open source large language model, including the model’s training log, which records in detail the work required to train it.

Building a culture of pioneering responsibly [Ibrahim]

On 06/01/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, algorithms, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), corporate / business world, ethics, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, Google, Microsoft, morals/values, by Daniel Christian

How to ensure we benefit society with the most impactful technology being developed today — from deepmind.com by Lila Ibrahim

In 2000, I took a sabbatical from my job at Intel to visit the orphanage in Lebanon where my father was raised. For two months, I worked to install 20 PCs in the orphanage’s first computer lab, and to train the students and teachers to use them. The trip started out as a way to honour my dad. But being in a place with such limited technical infrastructure also gave me a new perspective on my own work. I realised that without real effort by the technology community, many of the products I was building at Intel would be inaccessible to millions of people. I became acutely aware of how that gap in access was exacerbating inequality; even as computers solved problems and accelerated progress in some parts of the world, others were being left further behind.

After that first trip to Lebanon, I started reevaluating my career priorities. I had always wanted to be part of building groundbreaking technology. But when I returned to the US, my focus narrowed in on helping build technology that could make a positive and lasting impact on society. That led me to a variety of roles at the intersection of education and technology, including co-founding Team4Tech, a non-profit that works to improve access to technology for students in developing countries.

Also relevant/see:

Microsoft AI news: Making AI easier, simpler, more responsible — from venturebeat.com by Sharon Goldman

But one common theme bubbles over consistently: For AI to become more useful for business applications, it needs to be easier, simpler, more explainable, more accessible and, most of all, responsible.

27 Fun Ways to Celebrate the End of the School Year — from commonsense.org by Erin Wilkey O.

Excerpt:

This year, things are closer to “normal,” but we can still be creative in recognizing and celebrating students’ accomplishments. Use this list of ideas to help you plan some fun end-of-year activities — we’ve included a special section at the end for celebrating the class of 2022. Many of the ideas here play out in the digital world, but we’ve mixed in some offline options as well.

We hope these activities bring you and your students some much-deserved joy as we close out the 2021–2022 school year.

Google accelerates audiobook production exponentially — from provideocoalition.com by Allan Tépper

Excerpt:

In March 2022, I published Google’s Aloud auto-dubs your English video in Castilian or Portuguese, free. Now, Google is doing a similar quantum leap for audiobook production. In fact, I already converted and published one of my own books as an audiobook successfully using Google’s semi-automatic voices. Ahead, I’ll explain how Google’s process can convert the manuscript into a presentable audiobook in a few hours instead of over a month of work, using one of Google’s automated voices which are available for different languages and regions.

Google Maps to add “immersive view” [futuretimeline.net]

On 05/20/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning, Augmented Reality (AR), Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, innovation, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Google Maps to add “immersive view” — from futuretimeline.net
Google Maps, the world’s most-downloaded travel app, will soon become more immersive and intuitive thanks to a major upgrade.

Excerpts:

A new “immersive view” will generate far more detailed graphics than are available currently. This will provide sweeping views of cities in full 3D, complete with simulated cars, real-time weather, realistic day/night cycles, shadow effects, water reflections, and even animations like birds flying through the sky.
…
The company also announced an update for Live View. First launched in 2019, this provides augmented reality (AR) walking routes in the form of arrows, directions, and distance markers.

These improvements are possible thanks to advances in computer vision and AI that allow billions of aerial, street view, and other images to combine and create a rich, seamless, digital model of the world.

Addendums on 5/23/22:

Google Wants To Deliver World-Scale AR Using Google Maps — from vrscout.com by Bobby Carlton

Somewhat relevant/see:

Earth // Around The World From The Air 4K from Kien Lam on Vimeo.

You can practice for a job interview with Google AI — from engadget.com by J. Fingas
You’ll know how to answer key questions.

Accessibility-related postings from Canvas, Apple, and Google

On 05/18/2022, in A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, Apple, assistive technologies, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, Google, internet, IT in HE, by Daniel Christian

New Accessibility Features Coming to Apple Devices — from .lifewire.com by Cesar Cadenas; fact checked by Jerri Ledford
Helping people with disabilities navigate the world

Excerpt:

Door Detection is a new mode coming to Apple’s Magnifier app. As the name suggests, the feature helps people find the door and how far they are it, and describes various attributes of the door. These attributes include if the door is open or closed as well as how to open it.

?? Periodic Table of Chrome Extensions to help meet students’ needs including speech to text, text to speech, readability, writing, productivity, brain breaks & more! From @dhorndorff https://t.co/G4aeHuiciq #edtech #GoogleEDU #accessibility pic.twitter.com/w0reUdUdg9

— Eric Curts (@ericcurts) May 13, 2022

Addendum on 5/19/22:

How Browser “Reader Modes” Improve the Experiences of People with Disabilities — from boia.org

Addendums on 5/20/22:

For people with disabilities, AI can only go so far to make the web more accessible — from protocol.com
AI and automated software that promises to make the web more accessible abounds, but people with disabilities and those who regularly test for digital accessibility problems say it can only go so far.
Accessibility and the Intangibles: How 2 Students With Disabilities Chose a College — from chronicle.com by Eric Hoover

All the Software Google Announced at I/O 2022 [wired.com]

On 05/16/2022, in Google, IT in HE, platforms, tools, by Daniel Christian

All the Software Google Announced at I/O 2022 — from wired.com
From Android to translation to visual web search, here are all the enhancements coming to your phone, tablet, and desktop this year.

Excerpt:

Last month, Google rolled out a feature called Multisearch. It lets you combine elements in a single search query, like using a photo and text at the same time. Soon, Multisearch will get a new tweak. Called Near Me, the feature lets you factor in your location while Multisearching, helping to sniff out local restaurants or shops based on photos and text. Multisearch Near Me will be available globally later this year, though it only works with English input for now.

Another interesting item from wired:

Thousands of Popular Websites See What You Type — Before You Hit Submit
A surprising number of the top 100,000 websites effectively include keyloggers that covertly snag everything you type into a form.

Google teases new AR glasses [The Verge]

On 05/13/2022, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, Augmented Reality (AR), future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, innovation, languages and translation, tools, user experience (UX), user interface design, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

Google teases new AR glasses at #GoogleIO2022 pic.twitter.com/Ui5gAm2hAE

— The Verge (@verge) May 11, 2022

From DSC:
I love the parts about seeing instant language translations — including sign language! Very cool indeed!
(With thanks to Ori Inbar out on Twitter for this resource.)

Realtime American Sign Language translation via potential set of AR glasses from Google

Also see:

AR Smart Glasses Make Their Way To The Veterinary Office — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick
Johnson & Johnson will train Mexican students and doctors in the metaverse — from entrepreneur.com; with thanks to Dany DeGrave out on Twitter for this resource
The company launches an Innovation Room with state-of-the-art technology that demonstrates the academic use that can be given to immersive viewers that serve to access the metaverse.

AI research is a dumpster fire and Google’s holding the matches — from thenextweb.com by Tristan Greene
Scientific endeavor is no match for corporate greed

Excerpts:

The world of AI research is in shambles. From the academics prioritizing easy-to-monetize schemes over breaking novel ground, to the Silicon Valley elite using the threat of job loss to encourage corporate-friendly hypotheses, the system is a broken mess.

And Google deserves a lion’s share of the blame.
…
Google, more than any other company, bears responsibility for the modern AI paradigm. That means we need to give big G full marks for bringing natural language processing and image recognition to the masses.

It also means we can credit Google with creating the researcher-eat-researcher environment that has some college students and their big-tech-partnered professors treating research papers as little more than bait for venture capitalists and corporate headhunters.

But the system’s set up to encourage the monetization of algorithms first, and to further the field second. In order for this to change, big tech and academia both need to commit to wholesale reform in how research is presented and reviewed.

Also relevant/see:

Every month Essentials publish an Industry Trend Report on AI in general and the following related topics:

AI Research
AI Applied Use Cases
AI Ethics
AI Robotics
AI Marketing
AI Cybersecurity
AI Healthcare

It’s never too early to get your AI ethics right — from protocol.com by Veronica Irwin
The Ethical AI Governance Group wants to give startups a framework for avoiding scandals and blunders while deploying new technology.

Excerpt:

To solve this problem, a group of consultants, venture capitalists and executives in AI created the Ethical AI Governance Group last September. In March, it went public, and published a survey-style “continuum” for investors to use in advising the startups in their portfolio.

The continuum conveys clear guidance for startups at various growth stages, recommending that startups have people in charge of AI governance and data privacy strategy, for example. EAIGG leadership argues that using the continuum will protect VC portfolios from value-destroying scandals.

Radar trends to watch: May 2022 — from oreilly.com
Developments in Web3, Security, Biology, and More

Excerpt:

April was the month for large language models. There was one announcement after another; most new models were larger than the previous ones, several claimed to be significantly more energy efficient.

You Can Now Ask Google to Remove Personal Info From Searches [Rich]

On 05/03/2022, in cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, Google, health, privacy, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

You Can Now Ask Google to Remove Personal Info From Searches — from lifewire.com by Rob Rich
But that won’t remove the information at its source

Excerpt:

Google is taking a more active role in stopping the spread of sensitive and personal information by allowing you to request its removal from searches.

The new policy applies to what Google refers to as personally identifiable information (PII), such as details that could be used for identity theft or more direct harm. Info like bank account or credit card numbers, medical records, personal contact details, social security numbers, and so on. Whether or not it acts on these requests is discretionary, however.

Also relevant/see:

Mental Health Apps Found to Have Bad User Protections — from lifewire.com by Cesar Cadenas
According to Mozilla’s ‘Privacy Not Included’ report

Learning Ecosystems

Will a “Google PhD” become as good as a university-granted PhD? [Dawson]

Radar Trends to Watch: June 2022 [O’Reilly]

Building a culture of pioneering responsibly [Ibrahim]

Google accelerates audiobook production exponentially [Tépper]

Google Maps to add “immersive view” [futuretimeline.net]

All the Software Google Announced at I/O 2022 [wired.com]

Google teases new AR glasses [The Verge]

“AI research is a dumpster fire and Google’s holding the matches” [Greene] + two other items re: AI

Radar trends to watch: May 2022 | Developments in Web3, Security, Biology, & More [oreilly.com]

You Can Now Ask Google to Remove Personal Info From Searches [Rich]

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