human-computer interaction (HCI)

Entrepreneurs & VCs out there, take note. How much longer before the functionalities found in tools like Bluescape & Mural are available via tvOS-based devices?

On 08/04/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, Bring your own device (BYOD), collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, engineering, entrepreneurship, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interactivity, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, multimedia, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, project-based learning, real-world assignments, social learning / networks, technologies for your home, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, TVs, ubiquitous learning, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
How much longer before the functionalities that are found in tools like Bluescape & Mural are available via tvOS-based devices? Entrepreneurs and VCs out there, take note. Given:

the growth of freelancing and people working from home and/or out on the road
the need for people to collaborate over a distance
the growth of online learning
the growth of active/collaborative learning spaces in K-12 and higher ed
the need for lifelong learning

…this could be a lucrative market. Also, it would be meaningful work…knowing that you are helping people learn and earn.

9 items re: AR and VR

On 08/03/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, architecture, Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), education technology, emerging technologies, engineering, health, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, Microsoft, mobile learning, mobile technologies, universities, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Baidu shows off DuSee, an augmented reality platform for China’s mobile users — from techcrunch.com by Lucas Matney

Excerpt:

Soon, hundreds of millions of mobile users in China will have direct access to an augmented reality smartphone platform on their smartphones.

Baidu, China’s largest search engine, unveiled an AR platform today called DuSee that will allow China’s mobile users the opportunity to test out smartphone augmented reality on their existing devices. The company also detailed that they plan to integrate the technology directly into their flagship apps, including the highly popular Mobile Baidu search app.

#Zuckerberg Claims Future of #AR is in Smartphones, Not Glasseshttps://t.co/QbpL9OhElN pic.twitter.com/Zd17yiRFG5

— Roblem VR (@RoblemVR) July 29, 2016

From DSC:
With “a billion iOS devices out in the world“, I’d say that’s a good, safe call…at least for one of the avenues/approaches via which AR will be offered.

Deaking University to bring AR to classrooms — from by Emma Boyle
Medicine and engineering classes will be first to access to the technology.

Excerpt:

Recently it’s appeared that augmented reality (AR) is gaining popularity as a professional platform, with Visa testing it as a brand new e-commerce solution and engineering giant Aecom piloting a project that will see the technology used in their construction projects across three continents. Now, it’s academia’s turn with Deakin University in Australia announcing that it plans to use the technology as a teaching tool in its medicine and engineering classrooms.

As reported by ITNews, AR technology will be introduced to Deakin University’s classes from December, with the first AR apps to be used during the university’s summer programme which runs from November to March, before the technology is distributed more widely in the first semester of 2017.

Microsoft kicks open the $3K HoloLens doors to all developers and companies — from digitaltrends.com by Kevin Parrish

Also see: HoloLens Development Edition Updates

Amazing MIT Research Project Lets You Reach Into Augmented Reality — from uploadvr.com by Jamie Feltham

Excerpt:

Creating realistic interactions with objects and people in virtual reality is one of the industry’s biggest challenges right now, but what about for augmented reality?

That’s an area that researchers from Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have recently made strides in with what they call Interactive Dynamic Video (IDV). First designed with video in mind, PhD student Abe Davis has created a unique concept that could represent a way to not only interact with on-screen objects, but for those objects to also realistically react to the world around them.

If that sounds a little confusing, then we recommend taking a look at…

Augmented reality “will change the way architects work” says Greg Lynn — from dezeen.com

Excerpt:

Venice Architecture Biennale 2016: augmented reality will revolutionise the architecture and construction industries according to architect Greg Lynn, who used Microsoft HoloLens to design his contribution to the US Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (+ movie).

.

Augmented Reality In Healthcare Will Be Revolutionary — from medicalfuturist.com
Augmented reality is one of the most promising digital technologies at present – look at the success of Pokémon Go – and it has the potential to change healthcare and everyday medicine completely for physicians and patients alike.

Excerpt:

Nurses can find veins easier with augmented reality
The start-up company AccuVein is using AR technology to make both nurses’ and patients’ lives easier. AccuVein’s marketing specialist, Vinny Luciano said 40% of IVs (intravenous injections) miss the vein on the first stick, with the numbers getting worse for children and the elderly. AccuVein uses augmented reality by using a handheld scanner that projects over skin and shows nurses and doctors where veins are in the patients’ bodies. Luciano estimates that it’s been used on more than 10 million patients, making finding a vein on the first stick 3.5x more likely. Such technologies could assist healthcare professionals and extend their skills.

The man behind HBO’s virtual reality bet says these new glasses could replace going to a movie theater — from businessinsider.com by Nathan McAlone

Excerpt:

But even with a wealth of hardware partners over the years, Urbach says he’d never tried a pair of consumer VR glasses that could effectively trick his brain until he began working with Osterhout Design Group (ODG).

ODG has previously made military night-vision goggles, and enterprise-focused glasses that overlay digital objects onto the real world. But now the company is partnering with OTOY, and will break into the consumer AR/VR market with a model of glasses codenamed “Project Horizon.”

The glasses work by using a pair of micro OLED displays to reflect images into your eyes at 120 frames-per-second. And the quality blew Urbach away, he tells Business Insider.

You could overlay images onto the real world in a way that didn’t appear “ghost-like.” We have the ability to do true opacity matching,” he says.

Live streaming VR performances — from digitalbodies.net by Emory Craig

Excerpt:

Live streaming VR events continue to make the news. First, it was the amazing Reggie Watts performance on AltspaceVR. Now the startup Rivet has launched an iOS app (sorry, Android still to come) for live streams of concerts. As the musician, record producer and visual artist Brian Eno once said,

You can’t really imagine music without technology.

In the near future, we may not be able to imagine a live performance without the option of a live stream in virtual reality.

Virtual Reality And Education Expanding Your Brain Expeditions Pioneer Program — from iamvr.co

Excerpt:

While statistics on VR use in K-12 schools and colleges have yet to be gathered, the steady growth of the market is reflected in the surge of companies (including zSpace, Alchemy VRand Immersive VR Education) solely dedicated to providing schools with packaged educational curriculum and content, teacher training and technological tools to support VR-based instruction in the classroom. Myriad articles, studies and conference presentations attest to the great success of 3D immersion and VR technology in hundreds of classrooms in educationally progressive schools and learning labs in the U.S. and Europe.

…

Much of this early foray into VR-based learning has centered on the hard sciences — biology, anatomy, geology and astronomy — as the curricular focus and learning opportunities are notably enriched through interaction with dimensional objects, animals and environments. The World of Comenius project, a biology lesson at a school in the Czech Republic that employed a Leap Motion controller and specially adapted Oculus Rift DK2 headsets, stands as an exemplary model of innovative scientific learning.

In other areas of education, many classes have used VR tools to collaboratively construct architectural models, recreations of historic or natural sites and other spatial renderings. Instructors also have used VR technology to engage students in topics related to literature, history and economics by offering a deeply immersive sense of place and time, whether historic or evolving.

“Perhaps the most utopian application of this technology will be seen in terms of bridging cultures and fostering understanding among young students.”

Addendum on 8/5/16:

Why VR Will Revolutionize Education — from uploadvr.com

Take a step inside the classroom of tomorrow [Fearn]

On 08/01/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, bots, change, collaboration, communications, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, history, human-computer interaction (HCI), immersion, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, love of learning, Microsoft, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, UK, United States, user experience (UX), Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Take a step inside the classroom of tomorrow — from techradar.com by Nicholas Fearn
Making learning fun

Excerpt:

But the classroom of tomorrow will look very different. The latest advancements in technology and innovation are paving the way for an educational space that’s interactive, engaging and fun.

The conventions of learning are changing. It’s becoming normal for youngsters to use games like Minecraft to develop skills such as team working and problem solving, and for teachers to turn to artificial intelligence to get a better understanding of how their pupils are progressing in lessons.

Virtual reality is also introducing new possibilities in the classroom. Gone are the days of imagining what an Ancient Egyptian tomb might look like – now you can just strap on a headset and transport yourself there in a heartbeat.

The potential for using VR to teach history, geography and other subjects is incredible when you really think about it – and it’s not the only tech that’s going to shake things up.
…

Artificial intelligence is already doing groundbreaking things in areas like robotics, computer science, neuroscience and linguistics, but now they’re now entering the world of education too.

London-based edtech firm Digital Assess has been working on an AI app that has the potential to revolutionise the way youngsters learn.

With the backing of the UK Government, the company has been trialing its web-based application Formative Assess in schools in England.

Using semantic indexing and natural language processing in a similar way to social networking sites, an on-screen avatar – which can be a rubber duck or robot – quizzes students on their knowledge and provides them with individual feedback on their work.

Uploaded on Jul 21, 2016

Description:
A new wave of compute technology -fueled by; big data analytics, the internet of things, augmented reality and so on- will change the way we live and work to be more immersive and natural with technology in the role as partner.

Also see:

The classroom of the future: Assisted by robots? — from futureready.dell.com by Ed Boyd, Vice President, Dell Experience Design Group

Excerpt:

We haven’t even scratched the surface of the things technology can do to further human progress. Education is the next major frontier. We already have PC- and smartphone-enabled students, as well as tech-enabled classrooms, but the real breakthrough will be in personalized learning.

Every educator divides his or her time between teaching and interacting. In lectures they have to choose between teaching to the smartest kid in the class or the weakest. Efficiency (and reality) dictates that they must teach to the theoretical median, meaning some students will be bored and some will still struggle. What if a digital assistant could step in to personalize the learning experience for each student, accelerating the curriculum for the advanced students and providing greater extra support for those that need more help? The digital assistant could “sense” and “learn” that Student #1 has already mastered a particular subject and “assign” more advanced materials. And it could provide additional work to Student #2 to ensure that he or she was ready for the next subject. Self-paced learning to supplant and support classroom learning…that’s the next big advancement.

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.

Why IT leaders should pay attention to augmented reality [and so should those in higher ed as well]

On 07/20/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), business, corporate / business world, future, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, mobile learning, vendors, wearables, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Why IT leaders should pay attention to augmented reality — from gartner.com by Heather Pemberton Levy

Excerpt:

Business will be a leading use case for AR over the next several years. An example is DHL’s use of wearables and AR in a warehouse pilot program to achieve improvement in the picking process. Other AR apps allow for automatic sign translation, or in a hands-busy environment, technicians can get equipment maintenance instructions through their HMDs while keeping focused on the task at hand.

“Virtual reality (VR) and AR capabilities will merge with the digital mesh to form a more seamless system of devices capable of orchestrating a flow of information that comes to the user as hyperpersonalized and relevant apps and services,” said Mr. Blau. “Integration across multiple mobile, wearable, IoT and sensor-rich environments (the digital mesh) will extend immersive applications beyond isolated and single-person experiences. Rooms and spaces will become active with things, and their connection through the mesh will appear and work in conjunction with immersive virtual worlds. “

From DSC:
I would add those working in higher education to this as well — as well as vendors working on education-related solutions.

Virtual, Augmented & Mixed Reality are the 4th Wave of Digital Technology [Merel]

On 07/19/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, Augmented Reality (AR), business, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, corporate / business world, human-computer interaction (HCI), Mixed Reality (MR), platforms, programming, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, by Daniel Christian

Virtual, Augmented & Mixed Reality are the 4th Wave of Digital Technology — from uploadvr.com by Tim Merel

Excerpt:

Consumer computing platform changes aren’t straight lines, they’re waves. PC, internet and mobile were the first 3 waves, and each was faster, larger and more disruptive than the last. Now the fourth wave of virtual, augmented and mixed reality is bearing down on us, so let’s dive in. The water’s fine.

From DSC:
As you might suppose, waves are best experienced when riding on top of one — versus getting crushed by one or having to try to swim after a wave once it’s passed you by. Though much of this wave is forthcoming, the point in posting this now is to encourage us to put these Human Computer Interaction (HCI)-related changes on our radars…or, to go with the former analogy, to encourage us to grab our surfboards!

Also relevant/see:

What are the differences among virtual, augmented and mixed reality? — from recode.net by Eric Johnson

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.

Interesting and likely to grow enormously –> Algorithmia: A marketplace for algorithms

On 07/12/2016, in computer science, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, marketplaces, programming, by Daniel Christian

About:

Algorithmia was born in 2013 with the goal of advancing the art of algorithm development, discovery and use. As developers ourselves we believe that given the right tools the possibilities for innovation and discovery are limitless.

Today we build what we believe to be the next era of programming: a collaborative, always live and community driven approach to making the machines that we interact with better.

The community drives the Algorithmia API. One API that exposes the collective knowledge of algorithm developers across the globe.

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

AI chatbot apps to infiltrate businesses sooner than you think — from searchbusinessanalytics.techtarget.com by Bridget Botelho
Artificial intelligence chatbots aren’t the norm yet, but within the next five years, there’s a good chance the sales person emailing you won’t be a person at all.

Excerpt:

In fact, artificial intelligence has come so far so fast in recent years, Gartner predicts it will be pervasive in all new products by 2020, with technologies including natural language capabilities, deep neural networks and conversational capabilities.

Other analysts share that expectation. Technologies that encompass the umbrella term artificial intelligence — including image recognition, machine learning, AI chatbots and speech recognition — will soon be ubiquitous in business applications as developers gain access to it through platforms such as the IBM Watson Conversation API and the Google Cloud Natural Language API.

3 corporate departments that chatbots will disrupt — from venturebeat.com by Natalie Lambert

Excerpt:

Customer Service
Human Resources
Marketing

Facebook Messenger’s 11,000 chatbots are much more interactive — from androidcentral.com by Harish Jonnalagadda

Excerpt:

Facebook introduced chatbots on Messenger three months ago, and the search giant has shared today that over 11,000 bots are active on the messaging service. The Messenger Platform has picked up an update that adds a slew of new features to bots, such as a persistent menu that lists a bot’s commands, quick replies, ability to respond with GIFs, audio, video, and other files, and a rating system to provide feedback to bot developers.

Chatbots are coming to take over the world — from telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Excerpts:

In another example, many businesses use interactive voice response (IVR) telephony systems, which have limited functionalities and often provide a poor user experience. Chatbots can replace these applications in future where the user will interact naturally to get relevant information without following certain steps or waiting for a logical sequence to occur.
…
Chatbots are a good starting point, but the future lies in more advanced versions of audio and video bots. Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Microsoft’s Cortana, Google with its voice assistance, are working in the same direction to achieve it. Bot ecosystems will become even more relevant in the phase of IoT mass adoption and improvement of input/output (I/O) technology.

With big players investing heavily in AI, Chatbots are likely to be an increasing feature of social media and other communications platforms.

Everything You Wanted to Know About Chatbots But Were Afraid to Ask — from businessinsider.com by Andrew Meola

Excerpt:

Chatbots are software programs that use messaging platforms as the interface to perform a wide variety of tasks—everything from scheduling a meeting to reporting the weather, to helping a customer buy a sweater.

Because texting is the heart of the mobile experience for smartphone users, chatbots are a natural way to turn something users are very familiar with into a rewarding service or marketing opportunity.

And when you consider that the top 4 messaging apps reach over 3 billion global users (MORE than the top 4 social networks), you can see that the opportunity is huge.

Stanford’s virtual reality lab cultivates empathy for the homeless — from kqed.org by Rachael Myrow

Excerpt:

The burgeoning field of Virtual Reality — or VR as it is commonly known — is a vehicle for telling stories through 360-degree visuals and sound that put you right in the middle of the action, be it at a crowded Syrian refugee camp, or inside the body of an 85-year-old with a bad hip and cataracts. Because of VR’s immersive properties, some people describe the medium as “the ultimate empathy machine.” But can it make people care about something as fraught and multi-faceted as homelessness?

A study in progress at Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab explores that question, and I strapped on an Oculus Rift headset (one of the most popular devices people currently use to experience VR) to look for an answer.

A new way of understanding homelessness
The study, called Empathy at Scale, puts participants in a variety of scenes designed to help them imagine the experience of being homeless themselves.

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.

Interesting thought: “The future of online learning will happen via messaging services.” [Daily Bits Of]

On 06/22/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, change, changing business models, colleges, communications, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, elearning, emerging technologies, faculty/staff, future, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, microlearning, new business models, online learning, social learning / networks, social media, streams of content, teachers, training / L&D, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

What the bot revolution could mean for online learning — from huffingtonpost.com by Daily Bits Of

Excerpt:

We’re embracing the bot revolution
With these limitations in mind, we embrace the bot movement. In short, having our bite-sized courses delivered via messaging platforms will open up a lot of new benefits for our users.

The courses will become social.
It will become easier to consume a course via a channel that fits best for the course.
The courses will become more interactive.
Bots will remove some of the friction

The future of online learning will happen via messaging services.

Also relevant here:

From DSC:
By posting such items, I’m not advocating that we remove teachers, professors, trainers, coaches, etc. from the education/training equations. Rather, I am advocating that we use technology as tools for educating and training people — and using technologies to help people of all ages grow, and reinvent themselves when necessary. Such tools should be used to help our overworked teachers, professors, trainers, etc. of the world in delivering excellent, effective elearning experiences for our students/employees.

Learning Ecosystems

9 items re: AR and VR

Why IT leaders should pay attention to augmented reality [and so should those in higher ed as well]

Virtual, Augmented & Mixed Reality are the 4th Wave of Digital Technology [Merel]

Interesting and likely to grow enormously –> Algorithmia: A marketplace for algorithms

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

Stanford’s virtual reality lab cultivates empathy for the homeless [Myrow]

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