Learning from the Living [Class] Room

Is Blockchain Ready for Prime Time in Education? — from er.educause.edu by Wayne Skipper

Excerpt:

This is not to say that using blockchains to store educational records is in itself a poor use of the technology. Instead, what is needed is an open technology ecosystem that combines public blockchains, private blockchains, and off-chain storage, combining the strengths of each technology to create a decentralized storage mechanism whose verification incentives are not tied to currency markets. This approach offers all the benefits of blockchain-powered record verification without the worry that external economic factors or new technologies might render education records corruptible—and without the need to trust in the continued existence of any single technology company.

In early 2018, Concentric Sky and partners BrightHive and the DXtera Institute proposed such a blockchain ecosystem, called EdRec. EdRec is a learner-centric, open standards approach to learning record storage “on the blockchain,” with self-sovereignty of learner data as its key design principle. The project’s goal is to create a privacy-focused open technology standard that any company can implement in their products.

The proposal was a winner of the US Department of Education’s Reimagining the Higher Education Ecosystem Challenge, and since then, the project has begun to attract numerous institutions and large employers that see the value of a vendor-independent, machine-readable lifelong learning profile based on open technology standards.

Our elevator pitch: Your “permanent” educational record has never been truly yours. Wouldn’t you want to control it, control access as you progress from one transition to the next, and optimize it for your desired success? We’re rewriting the rules of the game for personal education data by empowering learners with control of their own permanent education record across institutions, applications, and platforms.

From concentricsky.com

Also see:

Blockchain: What’s Not to Like? [podcast] — from er.educause.edu by David Rosenthal

From DSC:
I’ve been hoping for this for a while now…

For a next gen learning platform: A Netflix-like interface to check out potential functionalities / educationally-related “apps” [Christian]

On 02/12/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, library / librarians, lifelong learning, love of learning, MBA, media/film, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, online media, online tutoring, personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, streams of content, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
In a next generation learning system, it would be sharp/beneficial to have a Netflix-like interface to check out potential functionalities that you could turn on and off (at will) — as one component of your learning ecosystem that could feature a setup located in your living room or office.

For example, put a Netflix-like interface to the apps out at eduappcenter.com (i.e., using a rolling interface at first, then going to a static page/listing of apps…again…similar to Netflix).

From DSC:
From Mary Grush’s recent article re: Learning Engineering, I learned that back in the late 1960’s, Herbert Simon believed there would be value in providing college presidents with “learning engineers” (see his article entitled, “The Job of a College President”).

An excerpt:

What do we find in a university? Physicists well educated in physics, and trained for research in that discipline; English professors learned in their language and its literature (or at least some tiny corner of it); and so on down the list of the disciplines. But we find no one with a professional knowledge of the laws of learning, or of the techniques for applying them (unless it be a professor of educational psychology, who teaches these laws, but has no broader responsibility for their application in the college).

Notice, our topic is learning, not teaching. A college is a place where people come to learn. How much or how little teaching goes on there depends on whether teaching facilitates learning, and if so, under what circumstances. It is a measure of our naivete that we assume implicitly, in almost all our practices, that teaching is the way to produce learning, and that something called a “class” is the best environment for teaching.

But what do we really know about the learning process: about how people learn, about what they learn, and about what they can do with what they learn? We know a great deal today, if by “we” is meant a relatively small group of educational psychologists who have made this their major professional concern. We know much less, if by “we” is meant the rank and file of college teachers.

What is learned must be defined in terms of what the student should be able to do. If learning means change in the student, then that change should be visible in changed potentialities of behavior.

Herbert Simon, 1967

From DSC:
You will find a great deal of support for active learning in Simon’s article.

Towards a Reskilling Revolution: Industry-Led Action for the Future of Work [WEF]

On 01/25/2019, in 21st century, adult learning, Asia, Australia, business, Canada, career development, change, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, disruption, economics, education, Europe, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, India, learning, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, reinvent, robotics, science, society, sociology, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, technology (general), trends, UK, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Towards a Reskilling Revolution: Industry-Led Action for the Future of Work — from weforum.org

As the Fourth Industrial Revolution impacts skills, tasks and jobs, there is growing concern that both job displacement and talent shortages will impact business dynamism and societal cohesion. A proactive and strategic effort is needed on the part of all relevant stakeholders to manage reskilling and upskilling to mitigate against both job losses and talent shortages.

Through the Preparing for the Future of Work project, the World Economic Forum provides a platform for designing and implementing intra-industry collaboration on the future of work, working closely with the public sector, unions and educators. The output of the project’s first phase of work, Towards a Reskilling Revolution: A Future of Jobs for All, highlighted an innovative method to identify viable and desirable job transition pathways for disrupted workers. This second report, Towards a Reskilling Revolution: Industry-Led Action for the Future of Work extends our previous research to assess the business case for reskilling and establish its magnitude for different stakeholders. It also outlines a roadmap for selected industries to address specific challenges and opportunities related to the transformation of their workforce.

See the PDF file / report here.

Amazon has 10,000 employees dedicated to Alexa — here are some of the areas they’re working on [Hartmans]

On 01/23/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, Bring your own device (BYOD), business, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, microlearning, mobile learning, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, society, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, using teams, vendors, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Amazon has 10,000 employees dedicated to Alexa — here are some of the areas they’re working on — from businessinsider.com by Avery Hartmans

Summary (emphasis DSC):

Amazon’s vice president of Alexa, Steve Rabuchin, has confirmed that yes, there really are 10,000 Amazon employees working on Alexa and the Echo.
Those employees are focused on things like machine learning and making Alexa more knowledgeable.
Some employees are working on giving Alexa a personality, too.

From DSC:
How might this trend impact learning spaces? For example, I am interested in using voice to intuitively “drive” smart classroom control systems:

“Alexa, turn on the projector”
“Alexa, dim the lights by 50%”
“Alexa, open Canvas and launch my Constitutional Law I class”

DC: What will Human Computer Interaction (HCI) look like when we have ~1GBps average download speeds?

On 01/23/2019, in 21st century, Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), Australia, Canada, collaboration, communications, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, Europe, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, innovation, intelligent systems, internet, IT in HE, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, machine-to-machine communications, Mixed Reality (MR), New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, platforms, society, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telepresence, tools, trends, UK, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, web-based collaboration, webinars, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

What is 5G? Everything you need to know — from techradar.com by Mike Moore
The latest news, views and developments in the exciting world of 5G networks.

Excerpt:

What is 5G?
5G networks are the next generation of mobile internet connectivity, offering faster speeds and more reliable connections on smartphones and other devices than ever before.

Combining cutting-edge network technology and the very latest research, 5G should offer connections that are multitudes faster than current connections, with average download speeds of around 1GBps expected to soon be the norm.

The networks will help power a huge rise in Internet of Things technology, providing the infrastructure needed to carry huge amounts of data, allowing for a smarter and more connected world.

With development well underway, 5G networks are expected to launch across the world by 2020, working alongside existing 3G and 4G technology to provide speedier connections that stay online no matter where you are.

So with only a matter of months to go until 5G networks are set to go live, here’s our run-down of all the latest news and updates.

From DSC:
I wonder…

What will Human Computer Interaction (HCI) look like when ~1GBps average download speeds are the norm?
What will the Internet of Things (IoT) turn into (for better or for worse)?
How will Machine-to-Machine (M2M) Communications be impacted?
What will that kind of bandwidth mean for XR-related technologies (AR VR MR)?

Per Jon Bergmann:

We now know exactly what we need to do to effectively reach every student, so we are kicking off 2019 with a new series to help you reflect on each element daily.

The series is called “Do This, Not That.” In less than 90 seconds daily, we’ll cover one of the elements in the Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning and point to things you’ll want to start doing, stop doing, or continue doing to reach every student in every class every day.

Here’s the first 60-second episode.

The series as of today includes these videos/topics:

#1 Explain How – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#2 Microconversations – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning 2019

#3 Embracing Failure in Education – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#4 Choice of Utilization- Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#5 Differentiation – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#6 Use Bloom’s Taxonomy to Plan – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#7 Barriers to Change – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#8 Chunk Media – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

#9 Appropriate Media – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning 2019

#10 Big Ideas – Global Elements of Effective Flipped Learning (2019)

Addendum on 1/21/19:

Massive Online Courses Find A New Audience With Continuing Medical Education [Johnson]

On 01/18/2019, in health, higher education, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, new business models, online learning, UK, United States, universities, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Massive Online Courses Find A New Audience With Continuing Medical Education — from edsurge.com by Sydney Johnson

Excerpt:

Applications are surging for New York University’s School of Medicine after the university announced last year that its medical program would be tuition-free for all students.

But NYU isn’t the only school trying to offer free medical training. Dozens of colleges and universities are taking courses in healthcare and medicine online—and making them free or low-cost—with massive online course platforms.

Coursera, a company that hosts massive online courses and degrees, is the latest entrant among a growing number of online education providers that are entering the medical space.

[On 1/17/19], the Mountain View, Calif.-based company announced it will be adding an entire healthcare vertical with 100 new courses and 30 new “Specializations,” or what the company calls its paid bundles of courses that students can earn a certificate for.

It is also announcing two new online degrees: a Master of Public Health from the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and Master of Public Health from Imperial College London.

Interesting thoughts on what an alternative syllabus could look like

On 01/11/2019, in ideas, instructional design, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, microlearning, pedagogy, physics, teaching & learning, teaching online, usability, user experience (UX), by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The article below relays some interesting thoughts on what an alternative syllabus could look like. It kind of reminds me of a digital playlist…

Looking For Syllabus 2.0 — from usv.com by Dani Grant

Excerpt:

There have been several attempts already to curate online resources for learning new topics. Usually they take the form of a list of links. The problem with the list of links approach is that they are static and they are inefficient. You don’t need to read a whole link to get the main point, you want to curate little bits and pieces of open resources: 30 seconds of this podcast, a minute and a half from this youtube video, just these 4 paragraphs from this article.

The thing that is closest to a modern internet syllabi is Susan Fowler’s guide for learning physics (it’s really amazing, go check it out). What if you could have that type of curated guide for many topics that gets updated by the community over time, with inline discussion with other learners?

I think Syllabus 2.0 could look something like this:

…

We’ve created a sample syllabus for this last topic so you can see what we envision in action. It curates 8 hours of podcasts, talks and blog posts into a 30 minute guide.

DC: Is this type of functionality another piece of a next generation, powerful, global learning platform!?!?!

On 01/09/2019, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, disruption, distance education, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, languages and translation, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, Microsoft, neurodivergent/special needs, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, second screen apps, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, training / L&D, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Presentation Translator for PowerPoint — from Microsoft (emphasis below from DSC:)

Presentation Translator breaks down the language barrier by allowing users to offer live, subtitled presentations straight from PowerPoint. As you speak, the add-in powered by the Microsoft Translator live feature, allows you to display subtitles directly on your PowerPoint presentation in any one of more than 60 supported text languages. This feature can also be used for audiences who are deaf or hard of hearing.

Additionally, up to 100 audience members in the room can follow along with the presentation in their own language, including the speaker’s language, on their phone, tablet or computer.

From DSC:
Up to 100 audience members in the room can follow along with the presentation in their own language! Wow!

Are you thinking what I’m thinking?! If this could also address learners and/or employees outside the room as well, this could be an incredibly powerful piece of a next generation, global learning platform!

Automatic translation with subtitles — per the learner’s or employee’s primary language setting as established in their cloud-based learner profile. Though this posting is not about blockchain, the idea of a cloud-based learner profile reminds me of the following graphic I created in January 2017.

A couple of relevant quotes here:

A number of players and factors are changing the field. Georgia Institute of Technology calls it “at-scale” learning; others call it the “mega-university” — whatever you call it, this is the advent of the very large, 100,000-plus-student-scale online provider. Coursera, edX, Udacity and FutureLearn (U.K.) are among the largest providers. But individual universities such as Southern New Hampshire, Arizona State and Georgia Tech are approaching the “at-scale” mark as well. One could say that’s evidence of success in online learning. And without question it is.

But, with highly reputable programs at this scale and tuition rates at half or below the going rate for regional and state universities, the impact is rippling through higher ed. Georgia Tech’s top 10-ranked computer science master’s with a total expense of less than $10,000 has drawn more than 10,000 qualified majors. That has an impact on the enrollment at scores of online computer science master’s programs offered elsewhere. The overall online enrollment is up, but it is disproportionately centered in affordable scaled programs, draining students from the more expensive, smaller programs at individual universities. The dominoes fall as more and more high-quality at-scale programs proliferate.

— Ray Schroeder

Education goes omnichannel. In today’s connected world, consumers expect to have anything they want available at their fingertips, and education is no different. Workers expect to be able to learn on-demand, getting the skills and knowledge they need in that moment, to be able to apply it as soon as possible. Moving fluidly between working and learning, without having to take time off to go to – or back to – school will become non-negotiable.

Anant Agarwal

From DSC:
Is there major change/disruption ahead? Could be…for many, it can’t come soon enough.

Ten HR trends in the age of artificial intelligence [Meister]

On 01/09/2019, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, career development, change, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education, education technology, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, ethics, future, game-changing environment, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, morals/values, Natural Language Processing (NLP), personalized/customized learning, platforms, professional development, reinvent, staying relevant, surviving, tools, training / L&D, trends, vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Ten HR trends in the age of artificial intelligence — from fortune.com by Jeanne Meister
The future of HR is both digital and human as HR leaders focus on optimizing the combination of human and automated work. This is driving a new HR priority: requiring leaders and teams to develop fluency in artificial intelligence while they re-imagine HR to be more personal, human, and intuitive.

Excerpt from 21 More Jobs Of the Future (emphasis DSC):

Voice UX Designer: This role will leverage voice as a platform to deliver an “optimal” dialect and sound that is pleasing to each of the seven billion humans on the planet. The Voice UX Designer will do this by creating a set of AI tools and algorithms to help individuals find their “perfect voice” assistant.

Head of Business Behavior: The head of business behavior will analyze employee behavioral data such as performance data along with data gathered through personal, environmental and spatial sensors to create strategies to improve employee experience, cross company collaboration, productivity and employee well-being.

The question for HR leaders is: What are new job roles in HR that are on the horizon as A.I. becomes integrated into the workplace?

Chief Ethical and Humane Use Officer: This job role is already being filled by Salesforce announcing its first Chief Ethical and Humane Officer this month. This new role will focus on developing strategies to use technology in an ethical and humane way. As practical uses of AI have exploded in recent years, we look for more companies to establish new jobs focusing on ethical uses of AI to ensure AI’s trustworthiness, while also helping to diffuse fears about it.

A.I. Trainer: This role allows the existing knowledge you have about a job to be ready for A.I. to use. Creating knowledge for an A.I. supported workplace requires individuals to tag or “annotate” discrete knowledge nuggets so the correct data is served up in a conversational interface. This role is increasingly important as the role of a recruiter is augmented by AI.

Also see:

Experts Weigh in on Merits of AI in Education — from by Dian Schaffhauser
Excerpt:
Will artificial intelligence make most people better off over the next decade, or will it redefine what free will means or what a human being is? A new report by the Pew Research Center has weighed in on the topic by conferring with some 979 experts, who have, in summary, predicted that networked AI “will amplify human effectiveness but also threaten human autonomy, agency and capabilities.”
…
These same experts also weighed in on the expected changes in formal and informal education systems. Many mentioned seeing “more options for affordable adaptive and individualized learning solutions,” such as the use of AI assistants to enhance learning activities and their effectiveness.

Google says there will be 1 billion devices with Assistant by the end of the month — from marketwatch.com by Emily Bary

How to teach a good first day of class — from chronicle.com by James Lang
Four Key Principles | Before the First Day | The First Day of Class | After the First Day | Resources

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Do not begin the first day of the semester by immediately handing out the syllabus. Instead, spark their curiosity about the content first, and then demonstrate — with a review of the syllabus — how the course content can help satisfy that curiosity.

From DSC:
I think what’s also implied here is putting one’s case forward about how the content is ***relevant*** today.

Also this is a good practice to do as well, but for the end of the term/semester/quarter/whatever:

As we careen toward the end of the semester, take a moment to reflect: What was the best new thing you tried this semester? Mine was recording and posting to the LMS five-minute video overviews for each week–casual, just me and the laptop camera–on Sunday evenings. #teaching

— James M. Lang (@LangOnCourse) December 10, 2018

The skills companies need most in 2019 – and how to learn them — from linkedin.com by Paul Petrone

Excerpt:

To find out, we used exclusive LinkedIn data to determine the skills companies need most in 2019. These are the skills your boss and your boss’s boss find most valuable, but have a hard time finding – and the skills that’ll most help you better serve your clients and customers.

So consider this post your guide to the skills most worth learning in 2019.

The best part? We’ve unlocked LinkedIn Learning courses for all of January that teach these skills, so for a limited time you can learn them all for free.

Also see:

This is how you’ll look for a job in 2019 — from fastcompany.com by Lydia Dishman
Some brand new strategies and time-tested traditions dictate the way job seekers will conduct the hunt in 2019.

How long before this type of thing is standard in smart classrooms & learning hubs? [Christian]

On 12/20/2018, in A/V -- audio/visual, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, education technology, emerging technologies, face-to-face, faculty, future, future of higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), personalized/customized learning, platforms, smart classrooms, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, universities, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
When a professor walks into the room, the mobile device that the professor is carrying notifies the system to automatically establish his or her preferred settings for the room — and/or voice recognition allows a voice-based interface to adjust the room’s settings:

The lights dim to 50%
The projector comes on
The screen comes down
The audio is turned up to his/her liking
The LMS is logged into with his/her login info and launches the class that he/she is teaching at that time of day
The temperature is checked and adjusted if too high or low
Etc.

Learning Ecosystems

DC: What will Human Computer Interaction (HCI) look like when we have ~1GBps average download speeds?

Massive Online Courses Find A New Audience With Continuing Medical Education [Johnson]

Interesting thoughts on what an alternative syllabus could look like

The skills companies need most in 2019 – and how to learn them [Petrone]

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