lifelong learning

What are the ramifications for higher education re: the massive changes beginning to take place due to AI, automation, & robotics?

On 04/13/2017, in 21st century, accreditation, adult learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, legislatures / government / legal, lifelong learning, Michigan, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, pace of change, passions, reinvent, robotics, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, the downsides of how people use tech, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vision/possibilities, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The recent pieces below made me once again reflect on the massive changes that are quickly approaching — and in some cases are already here — for a variety of nations throughout the world.

They caused me to reflect on:

What the potential ramifications for higher education might be regarding these changes that are just starting to take place in the workplace due to artificial intelligence (i.e., the increasing use of algorithms, machine learning, and deep learning, etc.), automation, & robotics?
The need for people to reinvent themselves quickly throughout their careers (if we can still call them careers)
How should we, as a nation, prepare for these massive changes so that there isn’t civil unrest due to soaring inequality and unemployment?

As found in the April 9th, 2017 edition of our local newspaper here:

When even our local newspaper is picking up on this trend, you know it is real and has some significance to it.

Then, as I was listening to the radio a day or two after seeing the above article, I heard of another related piece on NPR. NPR is having a journalist travel across the country, trying to identify “robot-safe” jobs. Here’s the feature on this from MarketPlace.org

What changes do institutions of traditional higher education
immediately need to begin planning for? Initiating?

What changes should be planned for and begin to be initiated
in the way(s) that we accredit new programs?

Keywords/ideas that come to my mind:

Change — to society, to people, to higher ed, to the workplace
Pace of technological change — no longer linear, but exponential
Career development
Staying relevant — as institutions, as individuals in the workplace
Reinventing ourselves over time — and having to do so quickly
Adapting, being nimble, willing to innovate — as institutions, as individuals
Game-changing environment
Lifelong learning — higher ed needs to put more emphasis on microlearning, heutagogy, and delivering constant/up-to-date streams of content and learning experiences. This could happen via the addition/use of smaller learning hubs, some even makeshift learning hubs that are taking place at locations that these institutions don’t even own…like your local Starbucks.
If we don’t get this right, there could be major civil unrest as inequality and unemployment soar
Traditional institutions of higher education have not been nearly as responsive to change as they have needed to be; this opens the door to alternatives. There’s a limited (and closing) window of time left to become more nimble and responsive before these alternatives majorly disrupt the current world of higher education.

Addendum from the corporate world (emphasis DSC):

From The Impact 2017 Conference:

The Role of HR in the Future of Work – A Town Hall

Josh Bersin, Principal and Founder, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP
Nicola Vogel, Global Senior HR Director, Danfoss
Frank Møllerop, Chief Executive Officer, Questback
David Mallon, Head of Research, Bersin by Deloitte, Deloitte Consulting LLP

Massive changes spurred by new technologies such as artificial intelligence, mobile platforms, sensors and social collaboration have revolutionized the way we live, work and communicate – and the pace is only accelerating. Robots and cognitive technologies are making steady advances, particularly in jobs and tasks that follow set, standardized rules and logic. This reinforces a critical challenge for business and HR leaders—namely, the need to design, source, and manage the future of work.

In this Town Hall, we will discuss the role HR can play in leading the digital transformation that is shaping the future of work in organizations worldwide. We will explore the changes we see taking place in three areas:

Digital workforce: How can organizations drive new management practices, a culture of innovation and sharing, and a set of talent practices that facilitate a new network-based organization?
Digital workplace: How can organizations design a working environment that enables productivity; uses modern communication tools (such as Slack, Workplace by Facebook, Microsoft Teams, and many others); and promotes engagement, wellness, and a sense of purpose?
Digital HR: How can organizations change the HR function itself to operate in a digital way, use digital tools and apps to deliver solutions, and continuously experiment and innovate?

Will higher ed learn from the world of retail, before the “Next Amazon.com of Higher Education” hits the scene?

On 04/07/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Amazon, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, business side of he, change, changing business models, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, ideas, intelligent systems, leadership, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, society, staying relevant, surviving, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Retailers cut tens of thousands of jobs. Again. — from money.cnn.com by Paul R. La Monica
The dramatic reshaping of the American retail industry has, unfortunately, led to massive job losses in the sector.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

The federal government said Friday that retailers shed nearly 30,000 jobs in March. That follows a more than 30,000 decline in the number of retail jobs in the previous month.

So-called general merchandise stores are hurting the most.

That part of the sector, which includes struggling companies like Macy’s, Sears, and J.C. Penney, lost 35,000 jobs last month. Nearly 90,000 jobs have been eliminated since last October.
…
“There is no question that the Amazon effect is overwhelming,” said Scott Clemons, chief investment strategist of private banking for BBH. “There has been a shift in the way we buy things as opposed to a shift in the amount of money spent.”

To that end, Amazon just announced plans to hire 30,000 part-time workers.

From DSC:
One of the reasons that I’m posting this item is for those who say disruption isn’t real…it’s only a buzz word…

A second reason that I’m posting this item is because those of us working within higher education should take note of the changes in the world of retail and learn the lesson now before the “Next Amazon.com of Higher Education*” comes on the scene. Though this organization has yet to materialize, the pieces of its foundation are beginning to come together — such as the ingredients, trends, and developments that I’ve been tracking in my “Learning from the Living [Class] Room” vision.

This new organization will be highly disruptive to institutions of traditional higher education.

If you were in an influential position at Macy’s, Sears, and/or at J.C. Penney today, and you could travel back in time…what would you do?

We in higher education have the luxury of learning from what’s been happening in the retail business. Let’s be sure to learn our lesson.

* Effective today, what I used to call the “Forthcoming Walmart of Education“ — which has already been occurring to some degree with things such as MOOCs and collaborations/partnerships such as Georgia Institute of Technology, Udacity, and AT&T — I now call the “Next Amazon.com of Higher Education.”

Cost. Convenience. Selection. Offering a service on-demand (i.e., being quick, responsive, and available 24×7). <– These all are powerful forces.

P.S. Some will say you can’t possibly compare the worlds of retail and higher education — and that may be true as of 2017. However, if:

the costs of higher education keep going up and we continue to turn a deaf ear to the struggling families/students/adult learners/etc. out there
alternatives to traditional higher education continue to come on the landscape
the Federal Government continues to be more open to financially supporting such alternatives
technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning continue to get better and more powerful — to the point that they can effectively deliver a personalized education (one that is likely to be fully online and that utilizes a team of specialists to create and deliver the learning experiences)
people lose their jobs to artificial intelligence, robotics, and automation and need to quickly reinvent themselves

…I can assure you that people will find other ways to make ends meet. The Next Amazon.com of Education will be just what they are looking for.

Reflections on “The Hidden Costs of Active Learning” [Mennella]

On 04/05/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adjunct faculty, Amazon, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education technology, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, online learning, pedagogy, platforms, society, strategy, universities, using teams, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

The Hidden Costs of Active Learning — from by Thomas Mennella
Flipped and active learning truly are a better way for students to learn, but they also may be a fast track to instructor burnout.

Excerpt:

The time has come for us to have a discussion about the hidden cost of active learning in higher education. Soon, gone will be the days of instructors arriving to a lecture hall, delivering a 75-minute speech and leaving. Gone will be the days of midterms and finals being the sole forms of assessing student learning. For me, these days have already passed, and good riddance. These are largely ineffective teaching and learning strategies. Today’s college classroom is becoming dynamic, active and student-centered. Additionally, the learning never stops because the dialogue between student and instructor persists endlessly over the internet. Trust me when I say that this can be exhausting. With constant ‘touch-points,’ ‘personalized learning opportunities’ and the like, the notion of a college instructor having 12 contact hours per week that even remotely total 12 hours is beyond unreasonable.

We need to reevaluate how we measure, assign and compensate faculty teaching loads within an active learning framework. We need to recognize that instructors teaching in these innovative ways are doing more, and spending more hours, than their more traditional colleagues. And we must accept that a failure to recognize and remedy these ‘new normals’ risks burning out a generation of dedicated and passionate instructors. Flipped learning works and active learning works, but they’re very challenging ways to teach. I still say I will never teach another way again … I’m just not sure for how much longer that can be.

From DSC:
The above article prompted me to revisit the question of how we might move towards using more team-based approaches…? Thomas Mennella seems to be doing an incredible job — but grading 344 assignments each week or 3,784 assignments this semester is most definitely a recipe for burnout.

Then, pondering this situation, an article came to my mind that discusses Thomas Frey’s prediction that the largest internet-based company of 2030 will be focused on education.

I wondered…who will be the Amazon.com of the future of education?

Such an organization will likely utilize a team-based approach to create and deliver excellent learning experiences — and will also likely leverage the power of artificial intelligence/machine learning/deep learning as a piece of their strategy.

The disruption of digital learning: Ten things we have learned — from joshbersin.com

Excerpt:

Over the last few months I’ve had a series of meetings with Chief Learning Officers, talent management leaders, and vendors of next generation learning tools. My goal has been simple: try to make sense of the new corporate learning landscape, which for want of a better word, we can now call “Digital Learning.” In this article I’d like to share ten things to think about, with the goal of helping L&D professionals, HR leaders, and business leaders understand how the world of corporate learning has changed.

Digital Learning does not mean learning on your phone, it means “bringing learning to where employees are.”

It is a “way of learning” not a “type of learning.”

The traditional LMS is no longer the center of corporate learning, and it’s starting to go away.

What Josh calls a Distributed Learning Platform, I call a Learning Ecosystem:

Also see:

Watch Out, Corporate Learning: Here Comes Disruption — from forbes.com by Josh Bersin
Excerpt:
The corporate training market, which is over $130 billion in size, is about to be disrupted. Companies are starting to move away from their Learning Management Systems (LMS), buy all sorts of new tools for digital learning, and rebuild a whole new infrastructure to help employees learn. And the impact of GSuite, Microsoft Teams, Slack, and Workplace by Facebook could be enormous.
…
We are living longer, jobs are changing faster than ever, and automation is impinging on our work lives more every day. If we can’t look things up, learn quickly, and find a way to develop new skills at work, most of us would prefer to change jobs, rather than stay in a company that doesn’t let us reinvent ourselves over time.

The Blockchain Revolution and Higher Education — from er.educause.edu by Don Tapscott and Alex Tapscott
The blockchain provides a rich, secure, and transparent platform on which to create a global network for higher learning. This Internet of value can help to reinvent higher education in a way the Internet of information alone could not.

Excerpt:

What will be the most important technology to change higher education? In our view, it’s not big data, the social web, MOOCs, virtual reality, or even artificial intelligence. We see these as components of something new, all enabled and transformed by an emerging technology called the blockchain.

OK, it’s not the most sonorous word ever, sounding more like a college football strategy than a transformative technology. Yet, sonorous or not, the blockchain represents nothing less than the second generation of the Internet, and it holds the potential to disrupt money, business, government, and yes, higher education.

The opportunities for innovators in higher education fall into four categories:

Identity and Student Records: How we identify students; protect their privacy; measure, record, and credential their accomplishments; and keep these records secure
New Pedagogy: How we customize teaching to each student and create new models of learning
Costs (Student Debt): How we value and fund education and reward students for the quality of their work
The Meta-University: How we design entirely new models of higher education so that former MIT President Chuck Vest’s dream can become a reality¹

The blockchain may help us change the relationships among colleges and universities and, in turn, their relationship to society.

Let us explain.

What if there was an Internet of value — a global, distributed, highly secure platform, ledger, or database where we could store and exchange things of value and where we could trust each other without powerful intermediaries? That is the blockchain.

From DSC:
The quote…

In 2006, MIT President Emeritus Vest offered a tantalizing vision of what he called the meta-university. In the open-access movement, he saw “a transcendent, accessible, empowering, dynamic, communally constructed framework of open materials and platforms on which much of higher education worldwide can be constructed or enhanced.”

…made me wonder if this is where a vision that I’m tracking called Learning from the Living [Class] Room is heading. Also, along these lines, futurist Thomas Frey believes

“I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider. (source)

Blockchain could be a key piece of this vision.

Blockchain: Letting students own their credentials — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser
Very soon this nascent technology could securely enable registrars to help students verify credentials without the hassle of ordering copies of transcripts.

Excerpt:

While truth may seem evasive on many fronts, a joint academic and industry effort is underway to codify it for credentialing. At the core of the effort is blockchain, a trust technology developed for bitcoin and used in solving other forms of validation between individuals and organizations. Still in its nascent stage, the technology could, within just a year or two, provide the core services that would enable schools to stop acting as if they own proof of learning and help students verify their credentials as needed — without waiting on a records office to do it for them.

From DSC:
This article reminded me of two of the slides from my NGLS 2017 presentation back from February:

Also see:

VR, AR, & MR: A free PowerPoint from me to you [Christian]

On 03/17/2017, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, attention, Augmented Reality (AR), Daniel S. Christian, design, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, interactivity, K-12 related, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), mobile technologies, multimedia, platforms, play, student-related, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As I was putting together a PowerPoint slideshow for our Teaching & Learning Digital Studio, I figured I might as well make it available for others to see and use as well. So here it is as a PowerPoint slideshow (.ppsx file). Alternatively, if this works better for you on that end, here’s a PDF file of that information.

Daniel Christian: My PowerPoint slideshow (.ppsx file) on Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, & Mixed Reality

A smorgasboard of ideas to put on your organization’s radar! [Christian]

On 03/15/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, Amazon, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), Blockchain, bots, business side of he, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communications, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, credentialing, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, immersion, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, machine-to-machine communications, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), online learning, online tutoring, pace of change, personalized/customized learning, platforms, reinvent, robotics, RSS, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, strategy, streams of content, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, trends, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
At the Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference, held recently in San Diego, CA, I moderated a panel discussion re: AR, VR, and MR. I started off our panel discussion with some introductory ideas and remarks — meant to make sure that numerous ideas were on the radars at attendees’ organizations. Then Vinay and Carrie did a super job of addressing several topics and questions (Mary was unable to make it that day, as she got stuck in the UK due to transportation-related issues).

That said, I didn’t get a chance to finish the second part of the presentation which I’ve listed below in both 4:3 and 16:9 formats. So I made a recording of these ideas, and I’m relaying it to you in the hopes that it can help you and your organization.

Presentations/recordings:

Audio/video recording (187 MB MP4 file)

Again, I hope you find this information helpful.

Thanks,
Daniel

Will #blockchain technologies create a situation where colleges/U’s are only 1 source of credentials for a learner’s cloud-based, lifelong learning profile? [Christian]

On 03/04/2017, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, emerging technologies, experimentation, higher education, ideas, innovation, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, Microsoft, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, universities, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
At the recent Next Generation Learning Spaces Conference, in my introductory piece for our panel discussion, I relayed several ideas/areas that should be on our institutions’ radars. That is, at least someone at each of our institutions of higher education should be aware of these things and be pulse-checking them as time goes by.

One of these ideas/areas involved the use of blockchain technologies:

If #blockchain technologies are successful within the financial/banking world, then it’s highly likely that other use cases will be developed as well (i.e., the trust in blockchain-enabled applications will be there already).

Along those lines, if that occurs, then colleges and universities are likely to become only 1 of the feeds into someone’s cloud-based, lifelong learning profile. I’ve listed several more sources of credentials below:

Given the trend towards more competency-based education (CBE) and the increased experimentation with badges, blockchain could increasingly move onto the scene.

In fact, I could see a day when an individual learner will be able to establish who can and can’t access their learner profile, and who can and can’t feed information and updates into it.

Artificial intelligence and big data also come to mind here…and I put Microsoft on my radar a while back in this regard; as Microsoft (via LinkedIn and Lynda.com) could easily create online-based marketplaces matching employers with employees/freelancers.

Along these lines, see:

The Mainstreaming of Alternative Credentials in Postsecondary Education — from by Deborah Keyek-Franssen
Excerpt:
- The Context of Alternative Credentials
  The past few years have seen a proliferation of new learning credentials ranging from badges and bootcamp certifications to micro-degrees and MOOC certificates. Although alternative credentials have been part of the fabric of postsecondary education and professional development for decades—think prior learning assessments like Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate exams, or industry certifications—postsecondary institutions are increasingly unbundling their degrees and validating smaller chunks of skills and learning to provide workplace value to traditional and non-traditional students alike.Many are experimenting with alternative credentials to counter the typical binary nature of a degree. Certifications of learning or skills are conferred after the completion of a course or a few short courses in a related field. Students do not have to wait until all requirements for a degree are met before receiving a certificate of learning, but instead can receive one after a much shorter period of study. “Stackable” credentials are combined to be the equivalent of an undergraduate or graduate certificate (a micro-degree), or even a degree.
- The National Discussion of Alternative Credentials
  Discussions of alternative credentials are often responses to a persistent and growing critique of traditional higher educational institutions’ ability to meet workforce needs, especially because the cost to students for a four-year degree has grown dramatically over the past several decades. The increasing attention paid to alternative credentials brings to the fore questions such as what constitutes a postsecondary education, what role universities in particular should play vis-à-vis workforce development, and how we can assess learning and mastery.

Addendums added on 3/4/17, that show that this topic isn’t just for higher education, but could involve K-12 as well:

Reflections on “HarvardX rolls out new adaptive learning feature in online course” [Lestch]

On 02/22/2017, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, attention, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, distance education, education, education reform, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, online learning, online tutoring, passions, pedagogy, personalized/customized learning, platforms, teachers, teaching & learning, training / L&D, United States, by Daniel Christian

HarvardX rolls out new adaptive learning feature in online course — from edscoop.com by Corinne Lestch
Students in MOOC adaptive learning experiment scored nearly 20 percent better than students using more traditional learning approaches.

Excerpt:

Online courses at Harvard University are adapting on the fly to students’ needs.

Officials at the Cambridge, Massachusetts, institution announced a new adaptive learning technology that was recently rolled out in a HarvardX online course. The feature offers tailored course material that directly correlates with student performance while the student is taking the class, as well as tailored assessment algorithms.

HarvardX is an independent university initiative that was launched in parallel with edX, the online learning platform that was created by Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Both HarvardX and edX run massive open online courses. The new feature has never before been used in a HarvardX course, and has only been deployed in a small number of edX courses, according to officials.

From DSC:
Given the growth of AI, this is certainly radar worthy — something that’s definitely worth pulse-checking to see where opportunities exist to leverage these types of technologies. What we now know of as adaptive learning will likely take an enormous step forward in the next decade.

IBM’s assertion rings in my mind:

I’m cautiously hopeful that these types of technologies can extend beyond K-12 and help us deal with the current need to be lifelong learners, and the need to constantly reinvent ourselves — while providing us with more choice, more control over our learning. I’m hopeful that learners will be able to pursue their passions, and enlist the help of other learners and/or the (human) subject matter experts as needed.

I don’t see these types of technologies replacing any teachers, professors, or trainers. That said, these types of technologies should be able to help do some of the heavy teaching and learning lifting in order to help someone learn about a new topic.

Again, this is one piece of the Learning from the Living [Class] Room that we see developing.

Networks for Lifelong Learning: A Tale of Two Students [November]

On 02/10/2017, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, faculty/staff, heutagogy, higher education, ideas, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, multimedia, pedagogy, social learning / networks, social media, streams of content, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, universities, by Daniel Christian

Networks for Lifelong Learning: A Tale of Two Students — from novemberlearning.com by Alan November

Excerpts:

Where to begin in leading this shift? There are many possible first steps. This article focuses on two broad areas of digital design that can provide the foundation for an empowered culture of learning:

Multimedia content
Online communities of social interaction with classmates and professors

I have experienced this transformative shift of expanding the boundaries of learning with my own college-age children. My daughter, Jessica, graduated from university in 2010 and my son, Dan, will graduate in 2017. They both will earn equivalent grades at two different but highly competitive universities. How they studied, how they were supported in their learning, and how they interacted with classmates and professors represent two different worlds. Both of my children are convinced that Dan, the younger sibling, will be much better prepared for the world of work because of this transformation.

…

Here are five guidelines for leaders who are planning to maximize the investment in network technologies to improve teaching and learning:

Provide all students with immediate access to subject content in all formats (full text, video, audio)
Support a community of learners who can continuously help one another
Provide educators with insights into how students are thinking in online communities
Encourage educators to teach students to “learn how to learn”
Allow students to continue to tap their campus networks as a lifelong resource

Alexa got 4,000 new skills in just the last quarter! | DC: What are the teaching & learning ramifications of this?

On 02/03/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, career development, change, communications, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, informal learning, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, lifelong learning, microlearning, platforms, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, trends, user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

Excerpt from Amazon fumbles earnings amidst high expectations (emphasis DSC):

Aside from AWS, Amazon Alexa-enabled devices were the top-selling products across all categories on Amazon.com throughout the holiday season and the company is reporting that Echo family sales are up over 9x compared to last season. Amazon aims to brand Alexa as a platform, something that has helped the product to gain capabilities faster than its competition. Developers and corporates released 4,000 new skills for the voice assistant in just the last quarter.

Alexa got 4,000 new skills in just the last quarter!

From DSC:
What are the teaching & learning ramifications of this?

By the way, I’m not saying for professors, teachers, & trainers to run for the hills (i.e., that they’ll be replaced by AI-based tools). But rather, I would like to suggest that we not only put this type of thing on our radars, but we should begin to actively experiment with such technologies to see if they might be able to help us do some heavy lifting for students learning about new topics.

Equipping people to stay ahead of technological change. “The classic model of education…is breaking down.” [The Economist]

On 01/13/2017, in 21st century, accreditation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, economics, education, education reform, Europe, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, IBM, ideas, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, pace of change, professional development, real-world assignments, reinvent, robotics, society, sociology, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, technology (general), traditional / tradition, training / L&D, UK, United States, universities, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Equipping people to stay ahead of technological change — from economist.com by
It is easy to say that people need to keep learning throughout their careers. The practicalities are daunting.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

WHEN education fails to keep pace with technology, the result is inequality. Without the skills to stay useful as innovations arrive, workers suffer—and if enough of them fall behind, society starts to fall apart. That fundamental insight seized reformers in the Industrial Revolution, heralding state-funded universal schooling. Later, automation in factories and offices called forth a surge in college graduates. The combination of education and innovation, spread over decades, led to a remarkable flowering of prosperity.

Today robotics and artificial intelligence call for another education revolution. This time, however, working lives are so lengthy and so fast-changing that simply cramming more schooling in at the start is not enough. People must also be able to acquire new skills throughout their careers.

Unfortunately, as our special report in this issue sets out, the lifelong learning that exists today mainly benefits high achievers—and is therefore more likely to exacerbate inequality than diminish it. If 21st-century economies are not to create a massive underclass, policymakers urgently need to work out how to help all their citizens learn while they earn. So far, their ambition has fallen pitifully short.
…
At the same time on-the-job training is shrinking. In America and Britain it has fallen by roughly half in the past two decades. Self-employment is spreading, leaving more people to take responsibility for their own skills. Taking time out later in life to pursue a formal qualification is an option, but it costs money and most colleges are geared towards youngsters.

The classic model of education—a burst at the start and top-ups through company training—is breaking down. One reason is the need for new, and constantly updated, skills.

Lifelong learning is becoming an economic imperative — from economist.com
Technological change demands stronger and more continuous connections between education and employment, says Andrew Palmer. The faint outlines of such a system are now emerging

Excerpt:

A college degree at the start of a working career does not answer the need for the continuous acquisition of new skills, especially as career spans are lengthening. Vocational training is good at giving people job-specific skills, but those, too, will need to be updated over and over again during a career lasting decades. “Germany is often lauded for its apprenticeships, but the economy has failed to adapt to the knowledge economy,” says Andreas Schleicher, head of the education directorate of the OECD, a club of mostly rich countries. “Vocational training has a role, but training someone early to do one thing all their lives is not the answer to lifelong learning.”
…
To remain competitive, and to give low- and high-skilled workers alike the best chance of success, economies need to offer training and career-focused education throughout people’s working lives. This special report will chart some of the efforts being made to connect education and employment in new ways, both by smoothing entry into the labour force and by enabling people to learn new skills throughout their careers. Many of these initiatives are still embryonic, but they offer a glimpse into the future and a guide to the problems raised by lifelong reskilling.

Individuals, too, increasingly seem to accept the need for continuous rebooting.

From DSC:
First, some items regarding the enormous emphasis being put towards the use of robotics and automation:

$18.867 billion paid to acquire 50 robotics companies in 2016 — from robohub.org by Frank Tobe
Excerpt:
2016 was a banner year for acquisitions of companies involved in robotics and automation: 50 sold; 11 for amounts over $500 million; five were over a billion. 30 of the 50 companies disclosed transaction amounts which totaled up to a colossal $18.867 billion!
.
2017: The year people are forced to learn new skills… or join the Lost Generation — from enterpriseirregulars.com by Phil Fersht
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Let’s cut to the chase – there have never been times as uncertain as these in the world of business. There is no written rule-book to follow when it comes to career survival. The “Future of Work” is about making ourselves employable in a workforce where the priority of business leaders is to invest in automation and digital technology, more than training and developing their own workforces. As our soon-to-be-released State of Operations and Outsourcing 2017 study, conducted in conjunction with KPMG across 454 major enterprise buyers globally, shows a dramatic shift in priorities from senior managers (SVPs and above), where 43% are earmarking significant investment in robotic automation of processes, compared with only 28% placing a similar emphasis on training and change management. In fact, the same number of senior managers are as focused on cognitive computing as their own people… yes, folks, this is the singularity of enterprise operations, where cognitive computing now equals employees’ brains when it comes to investment!
…
My deep-seated fear for today’s workforce is that we’re in danger of becoming this “Lost Generation” of workers if we persist in relying on what we already know, versus avoiding learning new skills that business leaders now need. We have to become students again, put our egos aside, and broaden our capabilities to avoid the quicksand of legacy executives no longer worth employing.

Below are some other resources along these lines:

Our Automated Future — from newyorker.com by Elizabeth Kolbert
How long will it be before you lose your job to a robot?
Artificial Intelligence: Silicon Valley’s Next Frontier – from toptechnews.com by Ethan Baron
The Great A.I. Awakening – from the nytimes.com by Gideon Lewis-Kraus
2017 will be big year for AI thanks to tech giants — from cio.com by Matt Kapko
The Robotic Grocery Store of the Future Is Here — from technologyreview.com by Jamie Condliffe
IBM & Rice University Partner to Build a Robot for the Elderly — from finance.yahoo.com
If a Robot is Going to Take My Job, Should it Pay My Taxes? – from datafloq.com
The White House is prepping for an AI-powered future — from wired.com by April Glaser
Artificial intelligence could cost millions of jobs. The White House says we need more of it. — from gazette.com by The Washington Post
Retail inventory robots could replace the need for store employees — from interestingengineering.com by Trevor English
Apple supplier Foxconn replaces 60,000 humans with robots in China — from marketwatch.com
There are now 260,000 robots working in U.S. factories — from marketwatch.com by Jennifer Booton
Robots expected to run half of Japan by 2035 — from engadget.com by Andrew Tarantola
and many, many more…

From DSC:
Given that these trends continue (i.e., to outsource work to software and to robots), what will the ramifications be for:

Society at large? Will enough people have enough income to purchase the products/services made by the robots and the software?
Will there be major civil unrest / instability? Will crime rates shoot through the roof as peoples’ desperation and frustration escalate?
How we should change our curricula within K-12?
How should we change our curricular within higher education?
How should corporate training & development departments/groups respond to these trends?
Is there some new criteria that we need to use (or increase the usage of) in selecting C-level executives?

People don’t want to hear about it. But if the only thing that the C-level suites out there care about is maximizing profits and minimizing costs — REGARDLESS of what happens to humankind — then we are likely going to be creating a very dangerous future. Capitalism will have gone awry. (By the way, the C-level suite is probably making their decisions based upon how their performance is judged by Wall Street and by shareholders. So I can’t really put all the blame on them. Perhaps the enemy is ourselves…?)

Bottom line: We need to be careful which technologies we implement — and how they are implemented. We need to create a dream in our futures, not a nightmare. We need people at the helms who care about their fellow humankind, and who use the power of these technologies responsibly.

Don’t discount the game-changing power of the morphing “TV” when coupled with AI, NLP, and blockchain-based technologies! [Christian]

On 01/03/2017, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, adult learning, Amazon, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, Blockchain, Bring your own device (BYOD), career development, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, communications, communities of practice, competency-based learning/education, computer science, convergence, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, disruption, distance education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, emerging technologies, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, play, professional development, reinvent, second screen apps, smart classrooms, staying relevant, streams of content, student-related, surviving, technologies for your home, technology (general), telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, TVs, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual field trips, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:

Don’t discount the game-changing power of the morphing “TV” when coupled with artificial intelligence (AI), natural language processing (NLP), and blockchain-based technologies!

When I saw the article below, I couldn’t help but wonder what (we currently know of as) “TVs” will morph into and what functionalities they will be able to provide to us in the not-too-distant future…?

For example, the article mentions that Seiki, Westinghouse, and Element will be offering TVs that can not only access Alexa — a personal assistant from Amazon which uses artificial intelligence — but will also be able to provide access to over 7,000 apps and games via the Amazon Fire TV Store.

Some of the questions that come to my mind:

Why can’t there be more educationally-related games and apps available on this type of platform?
Why can’t the results of the assessments taken on these apps get fed into cloud-based learner profiles that capture one’s lifelong learning? (#blockchain)
When will potential employers start asking for access to such web-based learner profiles?
Will tvOS and similar operating systems expand to provide blockchain-based technologies as well as the types of functionality we get from our current set of CMSs/LMSs?
Will this type of setup become a major outlet for competency-based education as well as for corporate training-related programs?
Will augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) capabilities come with our near future “TVs”?
Will virtual tutoring be one of the available apps/channels?
Will the microphone and the wide angle, HD camera on the “TV” be able to be disconnected from the Internet for security reasons? (i.e., to be sure no hacker is eavesdropping in on their private lives)

Forget a streaming stick: These 4K TVs come with Amazon Fire TV inside — from techradar.com by Nick Pino

Excerpt:

The TVs will not only have access to Alexa via a microphone-equipped remote but, more importantly, will have access to the over 7,000 apps and games available on the Amazon Fire TV Store – a huge boon considering that most of these Smart TVs usually include, at max, a few dozen apps.

The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV

Addendums

A top futurist predicts the largest internet company of 2030 will be an online school — from businessinsider.com by Chris Weller

“I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider.

.

Once thought to be a fad, MOOCs showed staying power in 2016 — from educationdive.com
Dive Brief:
- EdSurge profiles the growth of massive online open courses in 2016, which attracted more than 58 million students in over 700 colleges and universities last year.
- The top three MOOC providers — Coursera, Udacity and EdX — collectively grossed more than $100 million last year, as much of the content provided on these platforms shifted from free to paywall guarded materials.
- Many MOOCs have moved to offering credentialing programs or nanodegree offerings to increase their value in industrial marketplaces.

Learning Ecosystems

Categories

Tags