On 04/26/2020,
in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, education, education technology, health, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), K-12 related, languages and translation, Microsoft, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online media, platforms, psychology, remote teaching and learning, youth,
by Daniel Christian
Special education and accessibility resources for remote learning — from education.microsoft.com
Excerpt:
For special educators, diversity demands they provide inclusive, accessible learning environments that inspire confidence and encourage independence differently for each student. Learn about how to create a personalized and engaging remote learning experience for all of your students through the resources provided in these pages.
These resources are intended for all educators, but will be especially helpful for educators and support staff who work in the following areas: special education, assistive technology, blind and visually impaired, deaf and hard of hearing, occupational therapy, physical therapy, speech language pathology, early childhood special education, behavior, counseling, school psychology, language interpretation, literacy, autism, and many other areas that assist students who need specially designed instruction.
On 04/23/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Augmented Reality (AR), business, change, colleges, community colleges, health, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interface design, K-12 related, law schools, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, smart classrooms, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, workplace, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
10 ways COVID-19 could change office design — from weforum.org by Harry Kretchmer
“Think road markings, but for offices. From squash-court-style lines in lobbies to standing spots in lifts, and from circles around desks to lanes in corridors, the floors and walls of our offices are likely to be covered in visual instructions.”
From DSC:
After reading the above article and quote, I wondered..rather than marking up the floors and walls of spaces, perhaps Augmented Reality (AR) will provide such visual instructions for navigating office spaces in the future. Then I wondered about other such spaces as:
- Learning spaces
- Gyms
- Retail outlets
- Grocery stores
- Restaurants
- Small businesses
- Other common/public spaces
On 04/07/2020,
in adjunct faculty, Adobe, Apple, assessment, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, faculty/staff, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legal technologies, Microsoft, mobile learning, mobile technologies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, remote teaching and learning, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, universities, usability, vendors,
by Daniel Christian
Q: For those who prefer or need to handwrite their essays, what are some ways/methods that students can use to scan in — and then submit — their essays into Canvas?
A: Below are a few different options, potential solutions, and resources:
- Students can also scan in their essays via most combination printers/scanners these days. Then they can insert those scans into a Word doc and submit it.
- A Google search presents many different ways to scan in items into a Word document. That Word doc can then be submitted or saved as a PDF file (and then be submitted as as PDF file).
- Also see How to create a PDF of handwritten assignments — from Canvas @ Yale. Yale recommended the following apps:
Also see:
- The new Office app now generally available for Android and iOS — from microsoft.com by the Microsoft 365 team
Excerpt:
Integrating our Lens technology to unlock the power of the camera with capabilities like converting images into editable Word and Excel documents, scanning PDFs, and capturing whiteboards with automatic digital enhancements to make the content easier to read.
On 04/03/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, cost of getting a degree, data related items, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engineering, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, morals/values, more voice more choice more control, new business models, personalized/customized learning, platforms, science, social learning / networks, society, STEAM-related, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, TVs, United States, universities,
by Daniel Christian
Why education is a ‘wicked problem’ for learning engineers to solve — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig
Excerpts (emphasis DSC):
So, back to the wicked problem: How do we make education that’s both quality education and at the same time accessible and affordable?
“Now, we are building a new technology that we call Agent Smith. It’s another AI technology— and we’re very excited about it—that builds [a] Jill Watson for you. And Agent Smith can build a Jill Watson for you in less than 10 percent of the hours.”
…
So one question for online education is, can we build a new set of tools—and I think that’s where AI is going to go, that learning engineering is going to go—where AI is not helping individual humans as much as AI is helping human-human interaction.
Huge ethical issues and something that learning engineering has not yet started focusing on in a serious manner. We are still in a phase of, “Look ma, no hands, I can ride a bike without hands.”
…
Technology should not be left to technologists.
On 03/06/2020,
in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, bots, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, communications, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interaction design, interactivity, internet, languages and translation, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, mobile learning, mobile technologies, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, podcasting, productivity / tips and tricks, smart classrooms, teaching online, technologies for your home, telecommunications, tools, trends, TVs, United States, vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces,
by Daniel Christian
How innovations in voice technology are reshaping education — from edsurge.com by Diana Lee
Voice is the most accessible form you can think of when you think about any interface. In education, it’s already started to take off.
It could be basic questions about, “Am I taking a class to become X?” or “How strong are my skills relative to other people?” An assistant can help with that. It could potentially be a coach, something that follows you the rest of your life for education. I’m excited about that. People that can’t normally get access to this kind of information will get access to it. That’s the future.
From DSC:
The use of voice will likely be a piece of a next-generation learning platform.
On 03/01/2020,
in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, IT in HE, online learning, online media, United States, universities, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, XR - extended reality,
by Daniel Christian
Over 75 Purdue University students will attend their commencement ceremonies in VR — from vrscout.com by Kyle Melnick
Viewers will “march down” the procession line alongside their peers via a mobile 360-degree camera.
Excerpt:
[Last] Thursday over 400 students at Purdue University Global participated in their final commencement ceremonies. Of those graduating, over 75 will have done so remotely over the internet, and therefore will not be there in-person to walk the stage.
This year, a new pilot program led by Purdue Global’s director of learning and leadership community, Patti Pelletier, is offering remote students the chance to “attend” their ceremonies in VR.
On 02/26/2020,
in business, business side of he, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, disruption, future, game-changing environment, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, leadership, MBA, new business models, pace of change, platforms, presentations, professional development, reinvent, society, staying relevant, strategy, surviving, technology (general), tools, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, webinars, workplace,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
The items below are meant for those involved with digital transformation, developing strategy, and keeping one’s organization thriving into the future.
Strategy in the Digital Revolution with Ryan McManus — from dukece.com; with thanks to Laura Goodrich for this resource out on Twitter
Description of webinar:
Today, every business is focused on digital transformation, yet most organizations are struggling to realize value from their efforts and investments. Less than 20% of business leaders believe their digital transformation efforts have been successful. With unprecedented access to data and technology, how is it that firms and their leaders are experiencing such disappointing results?
At the root of the problem is the disconnect between how leaders understand strategy and the new rules of the digital revolution. Most leaders haven’t been taught how to think about a world that is very different from the one which gave rise to popular strategic concepts, and as a result, they apply outdated strategy models and thinking to the new world, trying to squeeze the competitive realities of the digital revolution into linear, analog strategic planning concepts.
In this complimentary on-demand webinar, Ryan McManus, lecturer at Columbia University Business School and Duke Corporate Education, discusses the New Strategy Playbook, including:
- The current state and evolution of the digital revolution, and what’s next
- The four levels of digital strategy: how you can adapt your approach to win
- Why traditional approaches to strategy have reached their limits
- Implications for leadership development
Example slides:
Also see:
On 02/09/2020,
in 24x7x365 access, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, internet, society, technologies for your home, tools,
by Daniel Christian
The Internet of Things (IoT) and its impacts on consumer engagement [infographic] — from socialmediatoday.com by AJ Ghergich
Excerpts:
The Internet of Things enables a device to have more intelligence than it would as a stand-alone system.
Internet connectivity provides devices the capacity to share data, in order to power commands and processes that can help improve consumers’ lives.
…
And as this technology becomes more commonplace, the parts comprising such devices will become more financially accessible, algorithms will become more detailed and capable, and the internet of things will become even more powerful. This means the data from social media platforms, as well as from consumers’ daily lives, will be connected, and our devices will continue to make our world more streamlined. And that has significant implications for all sectors.
For a broader overview of the internet of things, and its growing impacts on how we live, check out this infographic from the team at Salesforce.
On 02/04/2020,
in 21st century, Blockchain, computer science, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, programming, Web3,
by Daniel Christian
How Blockchain’s ‘paradigm shift’ puts more pressure on legal’s tech evolution — from law.com by Rhys Dipshan
As part of the Legalweek 2020 Q&A series, Legaltech News speaks with blockchain researcher and entrepreneur Bettina Warburg on blockchain’s potential disruption in the legal space, what attorneys most misunderstand about the technology, and more.
Excerpt:
Artificial intelligence may still take up much of spotlight these days, but it’s far from the only technology that can fundamentally alter how the legal industry, and the broader economy, operates.
Blockchain technology, for instance, has wide-reaching consequences for record keeping, contracting, data governance and identity management. And beyond that, it may even change how the digital economy functions and work as underlying driver for integrated, autonomously running machines. What all this means for attorneys is that specialization, technical skills, and more technology knowledge will likely become even more important than it is today.
We are not just in the days of Bitcoin, where one user transfers bitcoin to another user’s account. Instead, blockchain should be understood as part of an evolution toward a third generation Web (called Web3) that provides us with virtual machines that are stateful.
Web3 will be the basis of our transition from a digital economy to a decentralized economy. The economic opportunities of the decentralized economy can include wholly new business models: everything from fractionalized ownership and rights to assets that are secured digitally, to new kinds of verifiable and unique assets (such as virtual world avatars), to the ability for machines to transact with one another autonomously. A stateful virtual machine essentially allows us to have a shared verified reality upon which to transact digitally.
While it may sound futuristic, it is also the most obvious use for a digital infrastructure that can verify the transaction of value.
On 01/23/2020,
in 21st century, Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, collaboration, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, ethics, faith, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, online learning, pace of change, platforms, policy, political science, professional development, society, technologies for your home, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, trends, Uncategorized, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, youth,
by Daniel Christian
From DSC:
As some of you may know, I’m now working for the WMU-Thomas M. Cooley Law School. My faith gets involved here, but I believe that the LORD wanted me to get involved with:
- Using technology to increase access to justice (#A2J)
- Contributing to leveraging the science of learning for the long-term benefit of our students, faculty, and staff
- Raising awareness regarding the potential pros and cons of today’s emerging technologies
- Increase the understanding that the legal realm has a looooong way to go to try to get (even somewhat) caught up with the impacts that such emerging technologies can/might have on us.
- Contributing and collaborating with others to help develop a positive future, not a negative one.
Along these lines…in regards to what’s been happening with law schools over the last few years, I wanted to share a couple of things:
1) An article from The Chronicle of Higher Education by Benjamin Barton:
2) A response from our President and Dean, James McGrath:
From DSC:
I also wanted to personally say that I arrived at WMU-Cooley Law School in 2018, and have been learning a lot there (which I love about my job!). Cooley employees are very warm, welcoming, experienced, knowledgeable, and professional. Everyone there is mission-driven. My boss, Chris Church, is multi-talented and excellent. Cooley has a great administrative/management team as well.
There have been many exciting, new things happening there. But that said, it will take time before we see the results of these changes. Perseverance and innovation will be key ingredients to crafting a modern legal education — especially in an industry that is just now beginning to offer online-based courses at the Juris Doctor (J.D.) level (i.e., 20 years behind when this began occurring within undergraduate higher education).
My point in posting this is to say that we should ALL care about what’s happening within the legal realm! We are all impacted by it, whether we realize it or not. We are all in this together and no one is an island — not as individuals, and not as organizations.
We need:
- Far more diversity within the legal field
- More technical expertise within the legal realm — not only with lawyers, but with legislators, senators, representatives, judges, others
- Greater use of teams of specialists within the legal field
- To offer more courses regarding emerging technologies — and not only for the legal practices themselves but also for society at large.
- To be far more vigilant in crafting a positive world to be handed down to our kids and grandkids — a dream, not a nightmare. Just because we can, doesn’t mean we should.
Still not convinced that you should care? Here are some things on the CURRENT landscapes:
- You go to drop something off at your neighbor’s house. They have a camera that gets activated. What facial recognition database are you now on? Did you give your consent to that? No, you didn’t.
- Because you posted your photo on Facebook, YouTube, Venmo and/or on millions of other websites, your face could be in ClearView AI’s database. Did you give your consent to that occurring? No, you didn’t.
- You’re at the airport and facial recognition is used instead of a passport. Whose database was that from and what gets shared? Did you give your consent to that occurring? Probably not, and it’s not easy to opt-out either.
- Numerous types of drones, delivery bots, and more are already coming onto the scene. What will the sidewalks, streets, and skies look like — and sound like — in your neighborhood in the near future? Is that how you want it? Did you give your consent to that happening? No, you didn’t.
- …and on and on it goes.
Addendum — speaking of islands!
Palantir CEO: Silicon Valley can’t be on ‘Palo Alto island’ — Big Tech must play by the rules — from cnbc.com by Jessica Bursztynsky
Excerpt:
Palantir Technologies co-founder and CEO Alex Karp said Thursday the core problem in Silicon Valley is the attitude among tech executives that they want to be separate from United States regulation.
“You cannot create an island called Palo Alto Island,” said Karp, who suggested tech leaders would rather govern themselves. “What Silicon Valley really wants is the canton of Palo Alto. We have the United States of America, not the ‘United States of Canton,’ one of which is Palo Alto. That must change.”
“Consumer tech companies, not Apple, but the other ones, have basically decided we’re living on an island and the island is so far removed from what’s called the United States in every way, culturally, linguistically and in normative ways,” Karp added.