From DSC:
A powerful, wonderful piece:
Published on Mar 13, 2014
A heartwarming message from 15 people with Down syndrome to a future mom.
On 03/17/2014,
in global / globalization, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, society,
by Daniel Christian
On 12/20/2013,
in 21st century, economics, education, education reform, faith, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, higher education, history, journalism, learning, legislatures / government / legal, liberal arts, media/film, Michigan, music, presentations, professional development, psychology, religion, society, sociology,
by Daniel Christian
Many of these presentations will be live streamed at:
Also see:
On 12/17/2013,
in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, change, corporate / business world, data related items, emerging technologies, future, health, IBM, marketing/social marketing, society,
by Daniel Christian
See also:
- IBM’s 5 in 5: In the future, computers will learn — from asmarterplanet.com by Steve Hamm
- Personalized learning: In 5 years the classroom will learn you
- Primer: Learning Machines — from IBM by Dario Gil
Also see:
- ‘Classrooms of the future’ and DNA-tailored health care: IBM’s 5-in-5 tech predictions — from ctvnews.ca
Addendum on 12/18/13:
IBM reveals its top five innovation predictions for the next five years — from venturebeat.com by Dean Takahashi
Excerpt:
Globally, two out of three adults haven’t gotten the equivalent of a high school education. But IBM believes the classrooms of the future will give educators the tools to learn about every student, providing them with a tailored curriculum from kindergarten to high school.
“Your teacher spends time getting to know you every year,” Meyerson said. “What if they already knew everything about how you learn?”
In the next five years, IBM believes teachers will use “longitudinal data” such as test scores, attendance, and student behavior on electronic learning platforms — and not just the results of aptitude tests. Sophisticated analytics delivered over the cloud will help teachers make decisions about which students are at risk, their roadblocks, and the way to help them. IBM is working on a research project with the Gwinnett County Public Schools in Georgia, the 14th largest school district in the U.S. with 170,000 students. The goal is to increase the district’s graduation rate. And after a $10 billion investment in analytics, IBM believes it can harness big data to help students out.
“You’ll be able to pick up problems like dyslexia instantly,” Meyerson said. “If a child has extraordinary abilities, they can be recognized. With 30 kids in a class, a teacher cannot do it themselves. This doesn’t replace them. It allows them to be far more effective. Right now, the experience in a big box store doesn’t resemble this, but it will get there.”
On 10/25/2013,
in health, heutagogy, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning,
by Daniel Christian
Teaching how to learn — from phys.org
Excerpt:
Medicine is a constantly changing field. With each passing year, new diseases and treatments continue to be discovered, and some of what has been “known” in medicine is proven wrong. Doctors must keep their knowledge and skills up to date after completing medical school and clinical training, medical educators say, but many often lack access to the training necessary to identify learning needs, or craft plans to fill knowledge gaps on their own.
Citing a growing body of evidence, education leaders at Harvard Medical School said at Medical Education Day 2013 that the issue will be addressed by shifting the focus of HMS’s standard medical education curriculum from simply transferring factual knowledge to students to fostering more independent learning and problem solving.
That, in turn, means faculty members must develop new skills to help transform medical students into lifelong learners.
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“We want students to develop skills and habits of mind that encourage lifelong, self-directed learning, but we don’t do a lot to prepare them for that,” said Richard Schwartzstein, director of the Academy at Harvard Medical School and Ellen and Melvin Gordon Professor of Medical Education at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, who served as the day’s course director.
On 09/27/2013,
in collaboration, experimentation, face-to-face, Google, health, innovation, learning spaces, smart classrooms, using teams, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Many of our learning spaces — if not all of them — need to be completely interchangeable, flexible, mobile, adaptive. Putting chairs and tables on wheels is a great place to start! I also like what they did w/ the electricity here; very flexible.
Also see:
- Watch: This Desk Knows When You Should Stand, Sit, Or Just Breathe — from fastcompany.com by Christina Chaey
The Stir Kinetic Smart Desk, from veterans of Apple, Ideo, NASA, and Disney, adjusts heights and tracks your habits in an effort to help you work smarter and healthier.
and
The Kinetic Desk from Stir
From DSC:
My wife had purchased a few things at the store the other day, including the plastic plate below. So when I reached for a smaller plate and grabbed hold of this one, I stopped and stared for a moment at it. Then my kids heard me say, “This is great design!” After that, I literally had to stop, put it on the counter, and take a picture of it so I could post it on this blog. The design is so simple, so straightforward, and yet so functional. I don’t have to remember what all the food groups are — they are right there for me to “fill up.” Great, minimalist design. Simple, yet still very effective.
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“I feel soooo much joy when I dance.” Music and life at the level of the soul. Talk about gifts…wow!
On 09/05/2013,
in art, Australia, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, music, relationships,
by Daniel Christian
“I want to change the world…one smile at a time.”
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From DSC:
If you watch this ~8 min clip, I guarantee that you will smile — and, if it hits you like it hit me, you will even cry. But you will be touched. It’s music and life at the level of the soul.
I’d like to thank Joe and Kate Byerwalter for this excellent and fun find.
Rarely do I want to go out an immediately purchase a tune that I’ve just heard.
But that’s what happened when I heard the tune that Tommy Franklin danced to:
Shooting Stars from The Bag Raiders
On 09/05/2013,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, blended learning, career development, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, global / globalization, health, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, lifelong learning, marketing/social marketing, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, passions, personalized/customized learning, professional development, research, second screen apps, social learning / networks, social media, society, storytelling, strategy, streams of content, teaching online, technologies for your home, training / L&D, trends, TVs, ubiquitous learning, United States, using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
IBM Watson continues to expand into different disciplines/areas, which currently include:
- Healthcare
- Finance
- Customer Service
But Watson is also entering the marketing and education/research realms.
I see a Watson-type-of-tool as being a key ingredient for future MOOCs and the best chance for MOOCs to morph into something very powerful indeed — offloading the majority of the workload to computers/software/intelligent tutoring/learning agents, while at the same time allowing students to connect with each other and/or to Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) as appropriate.
The price of education could hopefully come way down — depending upon the costs involved with licensing Watson or a similar set of technologies — as IBM could spread out their costs to multiple institutions/organizations. This vision represents another important step towards the “Walmart of Education” that continues to develop before our eyes.
Taking this even one step further, I see this system being available to us on our mobile devices as well as in our living rooms — as the telephone, the television, and the computer continue to converge. Blended learning on steroids.
What would make this really powerful would be to provide:
- The ability to create narratives/stories around content
- To feed streams of content into Watson for students to tap into
- Methods of mining data and using that to tweak algorithms, etc. to improve the tools/learning opportunities
Such an architecture could be applied towards lifelong learning opportunities — addressing what we now know as K-12, higher education, and corporate training/development.
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![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
On 08/28/2013,
in analytics, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, health, IBM, innovation, interactivity, internet, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, mirroring and/or multiple devices, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, second screen apps, social learning / networks, streams of content, technologies for your home, technology (general),
by Daniel Christian
IBM and USTA captivate tennis fans with immersive second screen experience — from MarketWatch.com
Analytics, cloud, mobile and social computing technologies deliver US Open to fans’ fingertips
Excerpt:
The innovative digital US Open environment provides fans, players, broadcasters and media with access to a range of Big Data insights streaming from the courts, including stats, facts, videos, live scoring, and historical and real-time analysis of tennis data served to tablets, smartphones, PCs and other devices.
Also see:
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From DSC:
Questions I wonder about:
- How might this sort of thing help us in education? What if, instead of a tennis match, it was a debate on X vs. Y…?
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- Could we use it in educational gaming apps?
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- If so, what sorts of apps that lean on social learning could we create?
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- How could professional development/conferences use this type of immersive second screen experience? What sorts of opportunities for participation would open up?
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- Could we develop things like this that help us learn things IN REAL TIME from the streams of content flowing by? (Do learning agents employ this sort of thing?)
Somewhat-related items:
College students bring targeted media to doctors’ waiting rooms — from entrepreneur.com by Michelle Goodman
Excerpt:
Their idea was to sell doctors’ offices prepackaged video segments containing tips on diet, exercise and other lifestyle tweaks patients could make to improve their health. A TV screen in the reception area would broadcast this programming, modeled after segments on shows such as Today, while patients waited for appointments.
To test the idea, Agarwal, Shah and classmate Derek Moeller bought TVs and DVD players, culled content from the internet and distributed the equipment and “shows” to 50 doctors in five states.
MOOCing the Liberal Arts? Technology and Relationship in Liberal Arts Education
The Thirteenth Annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts
February 13 – 15, 2014
The Thirteenth Annual Conversation on the Liberal Arts
February 13 – 15, 2014
On 06/28/2013,
in 21st century, Apple, career development, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future of higher education, game-changing environment, Google, health, IBM, leadership, mathematics, science, strategy, trends, United States, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
Shortfall in educated U.S. workers to worsen: study — — from reuters.com by Paige Gance
Excerpt:
WASHINGTON | Wed Jun 26, 2013 5:55pm EDT (Reuters) – U.S. workers with advanced skills in areas such as math, science and healthcare are growing more scarce, with a shortfall of 20 million adequately educated workers expected by 2020, a study released on Wednesday found.
“The United States has been under-producing workers with postsecondary education since the 1980s,” researchers at Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce said in the study. “Jobs will return, but not everyone will be ready for them.”
They predicted that 65 percent of the projected 165 million jobs in 2020 will require more than a high school diploma, up from 59 percent in 2010.
From DSC:
IF the status quo is maintained, the outlook for the U.S. is not good.
That is, if the prices of obtaining a degree in higher ed keep going up and the middle class continues to be hollowed out, a smaller pool of people will even be able to afford getting a postsecondary education (regardless of whether it’s in healthcare, math, or science).
How much longer do the status quo’ers think that the U.S. Federal Government will wait around, watching this situation develop? How much longer before the Federal Government looks elsewhere for its workforce development (let alone the students out there who need to make a living)?
There is not an infinite period of time for institutions of traditional higher education to respond. MOOCs are a start, but they are but one option and they need to be improved. Along those lines:
The organization who can collaborate with those perfecting IBM’s Watson, Apple’s Siri, or Google Now — and integrate those technologies into a low-cost solution for postsecondary education — will be a potent force in the future.
On 05/20/2013,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, health, nursing, productivity / tips and tricks, telecommunications, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
iDoctor: Could a smartphone be the future of medicine?
Description of video (which was done back in January 2013):
One of the world’s top physicians, Dr. Eric Topol, has a prescription that could improve your family’s health and make medical care cheaper. The cardiologist claims that the key is the smartphone. Topol has become the foremost expert in the exploding field of wireless medicine. Dr. Nancy Snyderman reports.
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Also see:
- Why informatics is the next big degree in healthcare — from askforeducation.com
- What’s the future of medicine? — quib.ly
On 03/28/2013,
in future, geography / geology, global / globalization, health, hearts -- matters of the heart, society, sociology,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
Check out this very cool news from my friend and Bible Study fellow — Mr. Patrick Mohney, President of SEA Biofuels, LLC
This is really amazing.
First of all, people in the developing world, even today, use either campfires or some other smokey cooking system. This type of cooking is the norm for three billion people today, this leads to millions of deaths per year, as well as a leading contributor of greenhouse gases. Also, I learned that in some parts of the world, women that normally collect the cooking fuel, are the subject of physical violence and rape as they collect fuel in a territory that another clan, family or tribe feel belongs to them. I hear these things and think, “Seriously, we have to fix this!”
We could fix this, if we had a clean and environmentally friendly alternative fuel that they could afford. Now we have just that. We make fuel from excess agricultural waste like rice husks, coconut shells or almost any woody bio-material.
The stove-fuel combo is the most efficient in the world, but the reason that I am excited about it, is that it is less expensive to operate for the consumer than the alternative fuels. As it turns out, people that use wood or charcoal to cook with, usually pay for it, and it is not cheap. Our fuel is usually half to three quarters of the price of the status quo fuel at retail to the consumer. This is why our stove and fuel is presently the only option that is scale-able and can help millions, or billions of people.
I know you are busy, but we can solve this for half of the worlds people, if you could just pass this on or make some noise. Like us on FB.
Our mission statement is, “Be a Blessing to others and you will be Blessed”.
God Bless you and your family.
Patrick Mohney
President
SEA Biofuels, LLC
From DSC and Patrick:
Contribute something today — make the world a better place to live in.
On 03/22/2013,
in 21st century, business, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, health, higher education, K-12 related, learning spaces, smart classrooms, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
The doctor will see you now…through the eyes of a robot — from techhive.com by Jacob Siegal @jacobsiegal
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‘Robodocs’? ‘Tricorders’? How telemedicine will shape the future of health — from gigaom.com by Ki Mae Heussner
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From DSC:
Reminds me of a card I saw at the store which said something along the lines of “we live in strange times indeed my friend…when we take insurance advice from a Gecko!” …or something along those lines… 🙂
On 01/11/2013,
in 21st century, future, health, nursing, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration,
by Daniel Christian
Welcome to the doctor’s office of the future: It’s a kiosk — from dvice.com by Alice Truong
Image: HealthSpot
Also see:
- Digitizing the doctor’s office: 7 ways technology will shape healthcare in 2013 — from gigaom.com’s Tech News and Analysis section