health

Coursera, EdX offer free access to courses for universities impacted by Coronavirus [Kelly]

On 03/19/2020, in colleges, community colleges, health, K-12 related, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, online media, open courseware and systems, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Coursera, EdX offer free access to courses for universities impacted by Coronavirus
— from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
With universities all over the world looking to quickly move face-to-face classes online, massive open online course companies Coursera and edX have stepped in to offer access to their vast portfolios of course content.

Excerpt:

Coursera announced today it will provide the Coursera for Campus platform free to higher education institutions impacted by coronavirus. “Universities can sign up to provide their enrolled students with access to more than 3,800 courses and 400 specializations from Coursera’s top university and industry partners,” explained Coursera CEO Jeff Maggioncalda, in a blog post. The access will last through the end of July….

Also see:

Updated list of statewide school closures with closure dates — from thejournal.com by David Nagel
Getting Smart has launched the Getting Through series to support educators, leaders and families on the path forward during such an uncertain time.
Excerpt:
Getting Smart has launched the Getting Through series to support educators, leaders and families on the path forward during such an uncertain time. This series will provide resources and inspiration as we face long term school closures, new learning environments, and address equity and access from a new lens. Whether you are just getting started with distance or online learning, or you’ve had plans in place and have the opportunity to share your work and guidance with others, there is a place for your voice and an opportunity to learn.

Next-gen supercomputers are fast-tracking treatments for the coronavirus in a race against time [Wood]

On 03/19/2020, in 21st century, biology, health, IBM, research, science, society, STEAM-related, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
On one hand:

Next-gen supercomputers are fast-tracking treatments for the coronavirus in a race against time — from cnbc.com by Charlie Wood

Key points:

Scientists are using IBM’s Summit, the world’s fastest supercomputer, to help find promising candidate drugs to fight the coronavirus epidemic.
Using the computer’s muscle, researchers digitally simulated how 8,000 different molecules would interact with the virus.
The project was able to identify 77 candidate molecules that other researchers can now test in trials.
Supercomputing is also being used to tackle other major global issues, such as climate change.

On the other hand:

AI could help with the next pandemic—but not with this one — from technologyreview.comby Will Douglas Heaven
Some things need to change if we want AI to be useful next time, and you might not like them.

“The hype outstrips the reality. In fact, the narrative that has appeared in many news reports & breathless press releases—that AI is a powerful new weapon against diseases—is only partly true & risks becoming counterproductive.”

“Count your blessings.” You will, after reading even just the first few paragraphs of this article. [Christian]

On 03/18/2020, in biology, business, corporate / business world, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, policy, society, sociology, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

Six quick— but very important— points about Coronavirus and poverty in the US –– from commondreams.org by Bill Quigley; with thanks to a colleague at WMU-Cooley Law School for her message on this.
The most vulnerable among us simply do not have the same options as the most privileged.

Excerpts:

In the United States, tens of millions of people are at a much greater risk of getting sick from the coronavirus than others. The most vulnerable among us do not have the option to comply with suggestions to stay home from work or work remotely. Most low wage workers do not have any paid sick days and cannot do their work from home. The over two million people in jails and prisons each night do not have these options nor do the half a million homeless people.

One. Thirty-four million workers do not have a single day of paid sick leave. Even though most of the developed world gives its workers paid sick leave there is no federal law requiring it for workers.

Two. Low wage workers and people without a paid sick day have to continue to work to survive.

Three. About 30 million people in the US do not have health insurance, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

Four. Staying home is not an option for the homeless.

Five. Nearly 2.2 million people are in jails and prisons every day, the highest rate in the world.

Six. Solutions? [The article lists several.]

Johns Hopkins dashboard maps global coronavirus cases [Kelly] + other resources re: the coronavirus

On 03/10/2020, in Asia, Australia, biology, Canada, colleges, community colleges, Europe, global / globalization, health, higher education, India, nursing, UK, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Johns Hopkins dashboard maps global coronavirus cases — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University has developed an interactive, web-based dashboard that tracks the status of COVID-19 around the world. The resource provides a visualization of the “location and number of confirmed COVID-19 cases, deaths and recoveries for all affected countries,” according to a university blog post.

CDC issues COVID-19 guidance to higher ed — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have issued interim guidance for higher education administrators on how to respond to coronavirus (COVID-19). It’s intended to prevent “community spread” of the virus in two ways: by telling colleges and universities how to keep students, staff and faculty safe and by providing information to academic experts who may be called upon by local health departments for help. The guidance is also intended to assist administrators in planning “for the continuity of teaching, learning and research” if COVID-19 shows up locally and to reduce the stigma attached to the illness for those who have been affected.

COVID-19 resources as listed out on Educause

Excerpt:

COVID-19, or Coronavirus 19, is a respiratory disease caused by a novel (new) coronavirus. This virus has been detected in the United States (CDC, COVID19 Summary). For further information concerning the source and spread of the disease, please see the WHO and CDC sites listed below.

Healthy looks different on every body...and learning looks different with every mind.

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.

Getting Campuses Ready for the Coronavirus — from insidehighered.com by Chuck Staben
What should leaders be doing to prepare their colleges if the situation worsens? Chuck Staben offers suggestions.

Colleges Prepare for Coronavirus Outbreaks on Campus — from wsj-com by Melissa Korn
Task forces map out prospects for quarantines, class cancellations as schools brace for virus spread

Teaching during a campus closure…— from linkedin.com by Bill Knapp
Here are some suggestions on preparing your on-campus students in the event of an unexpected campus closure (#COVID-19).

Coronavirus Forces Universities Online — from .insidehighered.com by Lindsay McKenzie
Compelled to close their campuses to limit the spread of coronavirus, U.S. universities with Chinese branches move at lightning speed to take teaching online.

NYU Response to Coronavirus Accelerates Digital Tool Adoption — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

Instructors conducted some 700-plus sessions during the first week, using a multitude of tools to enable live feedback and interaction in both synchronous and asynchronous ways, including learning management system NYU Classes, media sharing service NYU Stream, web and audio conference tool NYU Zoom and commenting utility VoiceThread.

Keith Ross, dean of Engineering and Computer Science at NYU Shanghai, suggested that the health crisis has one silver lining: It’s bringing the faculty up to speed with online teaching tools in quick order. In a university article about the efforts, he mused that once the crisis has passed, faculty may choose to integrate the use of some of the tools into their traditional face-to-face courses.
…
NYU Stream and VoiceThread are letting students interact asynchronously. They can watch pre-recorded videos uploaded by instructors and then take quizzes, ask questions, make annotations and communicate with classmates using text, audio and video. Also available for use: NYU Web Publishing to publish and manage blogs; Slido and Piazza to conduct community voting and quizzes; Slack to support office hours; and Examity to proctor exams remotely.

How to Respond to Coronavirus: 6 Steps for Schools — from edweek.org by Mark Lieberman

10 Breakthrough Technologies 2020 [MIT]

On 02/27/2020, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, global / globalization, health, internet, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, privacy, science, society, STEAM-related, by Daniel Christian

XRHealth launches first virtual reality telehealth clinic [Draper]

On 02/22/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, health, platforms, society, tools, United States, usability, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, wearables, web-based collaboration, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

XRHealth launches first virtual reality telehealth clinic — from wearable-technologies.com by Sam Draper

Excerpt:

XRHealth (formerly VRHealth), a leading provider of extended reality and therapeutic applications, announced the first virtual reality (VR) telehealth clinic that will provide VR therapy to patients. VR telehealth clinicians providing care are currently certified in Massachusetts, Connecticut, Florida, Michigan, Washington D.C., Delaware, California, New York, and North Carolina and will be expanding their presence in additional states in the coming months. The XRHealth telehealth services are covered by Medicare and most major insurance providers.

Trends to Watch in 2020

On 12/27/2019, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, ethics, future, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, internet, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, Natural Language Processing (NLP), pace of change, platforms, professional development, programming, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

7 Artificial Intelligence Trends to Watch in 2020 — from interestingengineering.com by Christopher McFadden

Excerpts:

Per this article, the following trends were listed:

Computer Graphics will greatly benefit from AI
Deepfakes will only get better, er, worse
Predictive text should get better and better
Ethics will become more important as time goes by
Quantum computing will supercharge AI
Facial recognition will appear in more places
AI will help in the optimization of production pipelines

Also, this article listed several more trends:

According to sources like The Next Web, some of the main AI trends for 2020 include:

The use of AI to make healthcare more accurate and less costly
Greater attention paid to explainability and trust
AI becoming less data-hungry
Improved accuracy and efficiency of neural networks
Automated AI development
Expanded use of AI in manufacturing
Geopolitical implications for the uses of AI

Artificial Intelligence offers great potential and great risks for humans in the future. While still in its infancy, it is already being employed in some interesting ways.

According to sources like Forbes, some of the next “big things” in technology include, but are not limited to:

Blockchain
Blockchain As A Service
AI-Led Automation
Machine Learning
Enterprise Content Management
AI For The Back Office
Quantum Computing AI Applications
Mainstreamed IoT

Also see:

Artificial intelligence predictions for 2020: 16 experts have their say — from verdict.co.uk by Ellen Daniel

Excerpts:

Organisations will build in processes and policies to prevent and address potential biases in AI
Deepfakes will become a serious threat to corporations
Candidate (and employee) care in the world of artificial intelligence
AI will augment humans, not replace them
Greater demand for AI understanding
Ramp up in autonomous vehicles
To fully take advantage of AI technologies, you’ll need to retrain your entire organisation
Voice technologies will infiltrate the office
IT will run itself while data acquires its own DNA
The ethics of AI
Health data and AI
AI to become an intrinsic part of robotic process automation (RPA)
BERT will open up a whole new world of deep learning use cases

The hottest trend in the industry right now is in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Over the past year, a new method called BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) has been developed for designing neural networks that work with text. Now, we suddenly have models that will understand the semantic meaning of what’s in text, going beyond the basics. This creates a lot more opportunity for deep learning to be used more widely.

To the youth out there: You can — and do — make significant, positive impacts on our society!

On 12/21/2019, in cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, health, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, neurodivergent/special needs, programming, society, student-related, tools, youth, by Daniel Christian

To the youth out there: Again, as we saw with Time’s Person of the Year for 2019, youth can — and do — make huge, significant contributions to our society! The impact you can have is real. https://t.co/E6GShPjDEO

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) December 21, 2019

With thanks to Mr. Joe Byerwalter for this resource.

“Much of what’s being sold as ‘AI’ today is snake oil.” [Arvind Narayanan; Assoc. Prof. of CS at Princeton ]

On 11/22/2019, in adjunct faculty, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, blogs / blogging / vlogging, bots, change, collaboration, communications, computer science, copyright/ownership/NFTs, corporate / business world, engineering, ethics, faculty, health, ideas, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, robotics, social learning / networks, social media, tools, United States, universities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Much of what’s being sold as “AI” today is snake oil. It does not and cannot work. In a talk at MIT yesterday, I described why this happening, how we can recognize flawed AI claims, and push back. Here are my annotated slides: https://t.co/iCpyFw5urN pic.twitter.com/pmOTI3vq8p

— Arvind Narayanan (@random_walker) November 19, 2019

From DSC:
I wish that more faculty members would share their research, teaching methods, knowledge, and commentary with the world as this professor does (vs. talking to other professors behind publishers’ walled off content). In this case, Arvind happens to use Twitter. But if one doesn’t like to use Twitter, there’s also LinkedIn, WordPress/blogging, podcasting, and other outlets.

Emerging Tech Trend: Patient-Generated Health Data — from futuretodayinstitute.com — Newsletter Issue 124

Excerpt:

Near-Futures Scenarios (2023 – 2028):

Pragmatic: Big tech continues to develop apps that are either indispensably convenient, irresistibly addictive, or both, and we pay for them, not with cash, but with the data we (sometimes unwittingly) let the apps capture. But for the apps for health care and medical insurance, the stakes could literally be life-and-death. Consumers receive discounted premiums, co-pays, diagnostics and prescription fulfillment, but the data we give up in exchange leaves them more vulnerable to manipulation and invasion of privacy.

Catastrophic: Profit-driven drug makers exploit private health profiles and begin working with the Big Nine. They use data-based targeting to over prescribe patients, netting themselves billions of dollars. Big Pharma target and prey on people’s addictions, mental health predispositions and more, which, while undetectable on an individual level, take a widespread societal toll.

Optimistic: Health data enables prescient preventative care. A.I. discerns patterns within gargantuan data sets that are otherwise virtually undetectable to humans. Accurate predictive algorithms identifies complex combinations of risk factors for cancer or Parkinson’s, offers early screening and testing to high-risk patients and encourages lifestyle shifts or treatments to eliminate or delay the onset of serious diseases. A.I. and health data creates a utopia of public health. We happily relinquish our privacy for a greater societal good.

Watchlist: Amazon; Manulife Financial; GE Healthcare; Meditech; Allscripts; eClinicalWorks; Cerner; Validic; HumanAPI; Vivify; Apple; IBM; Microsoft; Qualcomm; Google; Medicare; Medicaid; national health systems; insurance companies.

Are smart cities the pathway to blockchain and cryptocurrency adoption? [McFarlane]

On 10/24/2019, in 21st century, architecture, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, emerging technologies, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, intelligent systems, interaction design, internet, law schools, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, policy, political science, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Are smart cities the pathway to blockchain and cryptocurrency adoption? — from forbes.com by Chrissa McFarlane

Excerpts:

At the recent Blockchain LIVE 2019 hosted annually in London, I had the pleasure of giving a talk on Next Generation Infrastructure: Building a Future for Smart Cities. What exactly is a “smart city?” The term refers to an overall blueprint for city designs of the future. Already half the world’s population lives in a city, which is expected to grow to sixty-five percent in the next five years. Tackling that growth takes more than just simple urban planning. The goal of smart cities is to incorporate technology as an infrastructure to alleviate many of these complexities. Green energy, forms of transportation, water and pollution management, universal identification (ID), wireless Internet systems, and promotion of local commerce are examples of current of smart city initiatives.

What’s most important to a smart city, however, is integration. None of the services mentioned above exist in a vacuum; they need to be put into a single system. Blockchain provides the technology to unite them into a single system that can track all aspects combined.

From DSC:
There are many examples of the efforts/goals of creating smart cities (throughout the globe) in the above article. Also see the article below.

DC: Some solid points to consider.

“As cities around the world become increasingly ‘smart’, I argue that – amid the optimised encounters and experiences – there also need to be slow moments, when people can mindfully engage with and enjoy the city.” https://t.co/NhzWIKgFOU

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) October 24, 2019

Pre-to-3: App uses medical model to screen for dyslexia [Jacobson]

On 10/11/2019, in assistive technologies, health, innovation, K-12 related, learning, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, student-related, teachers, tools, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

Pre-to-3: App uses medical model to screen for dyslexia — from educationdive.com by Linda Jacobson
?Children can administer the assessment themselves, and teachers get resources on how to respond if students are missing key literacy milestones.

Excerpt:

That’s why she wanted to provide educators with a screening instrument children can administer themselves, and one that provides strategies to help children when they miss key early literacy milestones in areas such as vocabulary, oral listening comprehension and phonological awareness.

The Boston Children’s Hospital Early Literacy Screening System is a 20-minute, game-based, adaptive app being piloted in 40 schools in nine states.

Learning Ecosystems

“Count your blessings.” You will, after reading even just the first few paragraphs of this article. [Christian]

Johns Hopkins dashboard maps global coronavirus cases [Kelly] + other resources re: the coronavirus

XRHealth launches first virtual reality telehealth clinic [Draper]

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