platforms

K-12 education in America: The quickly moving train that stops for no one! [Christian]

On 04/24/2020, in assessment, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, education, education reform, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, lifelong learning, love of learning, more voice more choice more control, motivation, neurodivergent/special needs, parents/guardians, participation, personalized/customized learning, platforms, policy, reinvent, society, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, surviving, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, traditional / tradition, trends, United States, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
NOTE: The K-12 education system that I’m talking about in this posting is the pre-COVID-19 education system.

What Cory Henwood describes here…

The paradigm of one -- as described by Cory Henwood

…is what I describe as the quickly moving K-12 education train that stops for no one!

K-12 education in America is a like a quickly moving train that stops for no one.

(image source)

This becomes especially troublesome for those on either side of the 80% bell curve. I know about this, as one of our daughters has been living through this phenomenon for years. We are seriously considering homeschooling for her as we want her learning experiences to be more positive ones for her. We want to provide more choice, more control for what she wants to learn about — and the pace at which she can go through those experiences. We want there to be more joy in her learning experiences. This will hopefully help her build more positive perspectives about learning in general.

This is not a mute issue…nor is this a topic that’s focused on just students with special needs. In fact, this topic is relevant to every single student in America — as everyone is now required to be lifelong learners these days. Grades need to diminish in importance. The enjoyment of learning needs to rise.

Note: There were some times in public and charter schools that provided courses and topics of great interest to her, and provided some great joy to her. Plus, there were some incredibly-dedicated teachers and staff that created a team around our daughter. I’m very grateful for them and for their efforts. But positive learning experiences were becoming too few and too far between. The train left the station *for everyone* at such-and-such a time, and stopped *for everyone* at such and such a time. The education system required that she and her classmates move at a certain (high) speed — regardless of their mastery of the content. Teachers know what I’m talking about here…big time.

We need to get to what Cory discusses about when he discusses competency-based education.

We need to get to what Cory discusses about competency-based education.

Plus, we need to get to a place where there is:

From DSC:
As if we needed more reason to do so…we need to be very careful what we do w/ emerging technologies from this time forth.

I found the above video at:

Monitoring Social Distancing using AI — from medium.com by Aqeel Anwar

Also see:

Machine learning could check if you’re social distancing properly at work –– from technologyreview.com by Karen Hao

4 items on Instructure’s to-do list after the sale of the Canvas LMS provider [Millward]

On 04/21/2020, in business, business side of he, Canvas - and other Instructure-related items, CMS/LMS, colleges, community colleges, higher education, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, platforms, teaching online, tools, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

4 items on Instructure’s to-do list after the sale of the Canvas LMS provider — from edsurge.com by Wade Tyler Millward

Excerpt:

Even without a pandemic, Instructure faced a transformative 2020. The learning management system provider—best known for its Canvas product popular among colleges—is officially under private equity ownership.

Virtual classroom engagement tactics for COVID-19 pandemic — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Bill Brandon

Excerpts:

In the two previous articles in this series (see “ICYMI” at the end of this article), I listed 10 resources for virtual classroom design and delivery, published in the past in Learning Solutions. In this article, I wrap up the series with an additional five that are more tactical in nature.
…
Tips for great delivery in the virtual classroom
Five Essential Skills for Virtual Classroom Facilitators: Cindy Huggett discusses “five key competencies” for virtual classroom delivery that she has identified in her research and through experience. Mastering these skills is essential to facilitating live virtual classroom sessions that are engaging, polished, and professional. Karen Hyder gives tips for “owning your message” through practice and preparation that will ensure authentic delivery.

Coursera Machine Learning Tool Matches On-Campus Courses w/ MOOC Resources [Kelly]

On 04/17/2020, in 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, curriculum, higher education, innovation, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, platforms, by Daniel Christian

Coursera Machine Learning Tool Matches On-Campus Courses with MOOC Resources — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

CourseMatch can “ingest” on-campus course catalogs in more than 100 languages and map them to the most relevant Coursera courses in any of the languages available on the platform.

From DSC:
Interesting.

DC: We need to be very careful w/ emerging techs during this time

On 04/13/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Asia, Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, Europe, health, ideas, law schools, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, policy, society, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, United States, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
As the ripples move outward from this time of the Coronavirus, we need to be very careful with #EmergingTechnologies. For example, where might the use of (police dept) drones equipped with #AI & #FacialRecognition flying overhead take us? What if you’re of the “wrong religion” in a country? Hmm…

Social Distancing Enforcement Drones Arrive in the U.S. — from nymag.com by Adam Raymond

Excerpts:

In late January, a viral video from China showed people who’d wandered outside in the early days of the coronavirus outbreak getting scolded by a disembodied voice from a drone flying overhead. Last month, similar campaigns began in France, where locals flouting travel restrictions were gently reminded to “respectez les distances de sécurité s’il vous plaît.”

Now, self-righteous flying robots have made their way to the U.S., with at least two American police departments deploying drones to tell people to disperse, go home, and stay there.

“These drones will be around the City with an automated message from the Mayor telling you to STOP gathering, disperse and go home,” the police department wrote on Facebook. “Summonses HAVE AND WILL CONTINUE to be issued to those found in violation. Fines are up to $1000. You have been advised.”

From DSC:
Let’s hope that Cisco Webex learns from Zoom, Blackboard Collaborate, and likely other products/vendors as well — in terms of providing easy-to-setup and use, seamless breakout rooms.

The breakout rooms in the Cisco Webex’ Training Center product are audio-only, which represents a major gap/disadvantage for numerous courses out there. (And, last I knew, there aren’t breakout rooms in the Cisco WebEx Meeting Center product.) The idea of community, presence, and collaboration is supported by providing audio and video. Video is critically important in certain courses.

Plus we are finding at WMU-Cooley that we need to create main rooms PLUS additional breakout rooms and assign students to each breakout room. But then, audio and video issues abound. Such a complex setup requires that the faculty member (i.e., the host) of such meetings needs to be pretty savvy in order to make things work well.

The transitions of going from the main meeting room to breakout rooms needs to be quick and easy. Bb Collaborate did a great job with this, and I hear Zoom does a good job with this as well. Cisco Webex does not.

Cisco — if you’re going to be in the world of higher ed and in the K-12 world, you need to fix this ASAP.

Flipping things around…Zoom, you had better learn from Cisco Webex if you want to play in the worlds of education as well. Your “Zoombombing” and security-related issues are not good.

New York City bans Zoom in schools, citing security concerns — from techcrunch.com by Zack Whittaker
San Diego ‘Zoombombing’ incident highlights need for schools to use safety controls — from sandiegouniontribune.com by Kristen Taketa
etc.
etc.

Also see:

Google bans Zoom software from employee laptops — from reuters.com

Joe Regalia: Putting together a list of the core categories for #legaltech

On 04/11/2020, in law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, telelegal, tools, by Daniel Christian

Some categories of #legaltech

Pandemic II: Justice system down [Furlong]

On 04/11/2020, in 21st century, Access to Justice (A2J), Canada, Cost of legal services - including access, law schools, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, platforms, policy, political science, productivity / tips and tricks, society, United States, by Daniel Christian

Pandemic II: Justice system down — from law21.ca by Jordan Furlong

Excerpt:

We need to recognize a couple of things about our justice system, in order to fully appreciate the fate that awaits it in the COVID-19 era and the tasks that now lie in front of us.

The first is that the system has nowhere near the capacity or resilience required to handle an emergency of this magnitude. Like our hospitals, which are about to be overrun with virus patients, our courts are perpetually underfunded, technologically handicapped, and already overloaded.

Case backlogs are common, hearings are routinely adjourned, and even straightforward cases stretch out over months and years. There is an entire body of constitutional law that addresses how long you can delay a person’s trial before their rights are violated, and it should tell us something that we don’t even find that remarkable anymore.

What this crisis has revealed is the central operating assumption of our justice institutions, which has now become our stumbling block: Everybody comes to the courthouse.
…
Richard Susskind has made many insightful observations over the course of his career, but I suspect one will outlast all the others: “We have to decide if court is a place or a service.” For hundreds of years — right up until last month, in fact — court has been a place. By the time this pandemic has truly run its course, court will be a service.

Reflections on “6 Steps to Prepare for an Online Fall Semester” [Villasenor]

On 04/11/2020, in 24x7x365 access, accreditation, adjunct faculty, business side of he, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, consortiums, content development, aggregation, repositories, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, disruption, education, education reform, education technology, elearning, funding / grants, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, instructional design, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, Michigan, new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, pace of change, parents/guardians, participation, pedagogy, platforms, reinvent, remote teaching and learning, smart classrooms, social learning / networks, society, staying relevant, strategy, student-related, surviving, teaching online, telepresence, television, traditional / tradition, TVs, United States, universities, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
On the positive side…

What I appreciate about John Villasenor‘s article is that it’s asking us to think about future scenarios in regards to higher education. Then, it’s proposing some potential action steps to take now to address those potential scenarios if they come to fruition. It isn’t looking at the hood when we’re traveling 180 mph. Rather, it’s looking out into the horizon to see what’s coming down the pike.

6 Steps to Prepare for an Online Fall Semester — from chronicle.com by John Villasenor

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Plan for a multiyear impact. If colleges are forced to maintain online-only instruction in the fall and to defer reopening their campuses to in-person instruction to January 2021, the impact will be felt for years. College leaders should start thinking now about how to manage and potentially adjust spring-2021 (and beyond) course offerings, course sequencing, and degree requirements to avoid saddling students with graduation delays and the accompanying direct and indirect financial costs. In addition, colleges should anticipate a smaller-than-normal entering first-year class in fall 2020 (and thus a larger-than-normal enrollment a year later) and devise strategies to help mitigate the resulting stresses on admission rates and classroom and dorm capacity for first-year students entering in fall 2021 and beyond.

If instruction remains online-only in the fall, colleges won’t be able to afford that sort of inefficiency. College departments should start now to identify opportunities for collaborations that would draw on the collective wisdom and labor of faculty members from multiple institutions who are teaching similar courses. This would lessen the burden of migrating teaching materials and techniques to an online format.

From DSC:
I’ve often wondered about the place of consortiums within higher ed…i.e., pooling resources. Will the impacts of the Coronavirus change this area of higher ed? Not sure. Perhaps.

On the negative side…

I take issue with some of John’s perspectives, which are so common amongst the writers and academics out there. For example:

Conversely, an entire generation of current college students is now learning that it can be pretty boring to be one of several hundred people simultaneously watching a Zoom lecture.

You know what? I did that very same thing — over and over again — at Northwestern University (NU), but in a face-to-face format. And quite frankly, it’s a better view on videoconferencing. It’s far more close up, more intimate online. I agree it’s a different experience. But our auditoriums were large and having 100-200+ students in a classroom was common. There was no interaction amongst the students. There were no breakout groups. The faculty members didn’t know most of our names and I highly doubt that the well-paid researchers at Northwestern — who were never taught how to teach in the first place nor did they or NU regard the practice of teaching and learning highly anyway — gave a rat’s ass about body language. Reading the confusion in the auditorium? Really? I highly doubt it. And those TA’s that we paid good money for? Most likely, they were never taught how to teach either. The well-paid researchers often offloaded much of the teaching responsibilities onto the teacher assistants’ backs.

Bottom line:
Face-to-face learning is getting waaaay more credit than it sometimes deserves — though sometimes it IS warranted. And online-based learning — especially when it’s done right — isn’t getting nearly enough credit.

Addendum: Another example of practicing futures thinking in higher ed:

Campuses Might Still Be Closed in the Fall. How Should Universities Prepare? — from diverseeducation.com by Sara Weissman

Achieving a quick “Pair & Share” method of teaching using the Cisco Webex Meeting Center [Christian]

On 04/07/2020, in active learning, adjunct faculty, adult learning, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, colleges, communications, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, engagement / engaging students, faculty/staff, ideas, innovation, instructional design, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, online learning, participation, pedagogy, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, social learning / networks, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telecommunications, tools, universities, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, webinars, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The “Pair & Share” method allows students to find a fellow student to talk about the question/topic at hand. Then, depending upon time and your learning objectives/lesson plans, some students can report back to the larger classroom about what they discussed. In the digital, synchronous realm, one can achieve this with private chat rooms — given that you’ve changed a setting to allow this to occur. Posting the pairings ahead of time should help establish a quick, smooth transition.

(The graphic below is for the Cisco Webex Meeting Center on a MacBook Pro).

Trial by video conference? Not yet, but coronavirus forces Bay Area courts to embrace more virtual proceedings [Egelko]

On 04/06/2020, in Access to Justice (A2J), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, law schools, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, multimedia, new business models, platforms, society, tools, United States, using teams, videoconferencing, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Trial by video conference? Not yet, but coronavirus forces Bay Area courts to embrace more virtual proceedings — from sfchronicle.com by Bob Egelko

Trial by court? Almost there.

Also see:

8 technologies you should be using in your depositions and trials in 2020 — from jdsupra.com
From virtual proceedings and paperless depositions to real-time technologies and mobile capabilities, technology has become an integral part of practicing law today.

Excerpt:

As legal technology continues to advance and evolve, trials and depositions bear little resemblance to the paper-centric proceedings they used to be in decades past. The days when litigation meant being buried in boxes and boxes of documents and exhibits are long gone.

From virtual proceedings and paperless depositions to real-time technologies and mobile capabilities, technology has become an integral part of practicing law today. If you want to get the most out of your next deposition or trial, you need to be familiar with the top technologies that are changing the game in 2020.

Royal Dutch Shell reskills workers in artificial intelligence as part of huge energy transition [Caminiti]

On 04/04/2020, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, change, collaboration, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, platforms, professional development, reinvent, staying relevant, surviving, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Royal Dutch Shell reskills workers in artificial intelligence as part of huge energy transition — from cnbc.com by Susan Caminiti

KEY POINTS

Royal Dutch Shell is collaborating with Udacity to digitally train its workers in artificial intelligence.
This began long before the coronavirus pandemic and the company continues to use this training method.
The digital workforce skilling platform may become the training method of choice for a growing number of companies who need to keep employees up to speed in the weeks and months ahead.

In fact, the remote nature of the classes, offered by Udacity, the digital learning and workforce skilling platform, may become the training method of choice not only for Shell but for a growing number of companies who need to keep employees up to speed in the weeks and months ahead. The ability to get their jobs done, away from the office, is key to keeping productivity on track during this uncertain time.

DC: Hmmm…regarding #telelegal, I keep wondering how it will be impacted by what’s occurring with #telemedicine …?

“The FCC has developed/approved a $200 million program to fund telehealth services and devices for medical providers…”https://t.co/J8U858rXYU #legal

— Daniel Christian (@dchristian5) April 3, 2020

FCC enacts $200M telehealth initiative to ease COVID-19 burden on hospitals — from techcrunch.com by Devin Coldewey

Excerpt:

The FCC has developed and approved a $200 million program to fund telehealth services and devices for medical providers, just a week or so after the funding was announced. Hospitals and other health centers will be able to apply for up to $1 million to cover the cost of new devices, services and personnel.

The unprecedented $2 trillion CARES Act includes heavy spending on all kinds of things, from direct payments to out-of-work citizens to bailouts for airlines and other big businesses. Among the many, many funding items was a $200 million earmarked for the FCC with which it was instructed to improve and subsidize telehealth services around the country.

Also see:

#telehealth | #telemedicine | #telelegal

Why education is a ‘wicked problem’ for learning engineers to solve [Koenig]

On 04/03/2020, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, cost of getting a degree, data related items, digital learning, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engineering, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, India, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, learner profiles, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, morals/values, more voice more choice more control, new business models, personalized/customized learning, platforms, science, social learning / networks, society, STEAM-related, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, TVs, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

Why education is a ‘wicked problem’ for learning engineers to solve — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

So, back to the wicked problem: How do we make education that’s both quality education and at the same time accessible and affordable?

“Now, we are building a new technology that we call Agent Smith. It’s another AI technology— and we’re very excited about it—that builds [a] Jill Watson for you. And Agent Smith can build a Jill Watson for you in less than 10 percent of the hours.”
…
So one question for online education is, can we build a new set of tools—and I think that’s where AI is going to go, that learning engineering is going to go—where AI is not helping individual humans as much as AI is helping human-human interaction.

Huge ethical issues and something that learning engineering has not yet started focusing on in a serious manner. We are still in a phase of, “Look ma, no hands, I can ride a bike without hands.”
…
Technology should not be left to technologists.

Learning Ecosystems

Virtual classroom engagement tactics for COVID-19 pandemic [Brandon]

DC: We need to be very careful w/ emerging techs during this time

Joe Regalia: Putting together a list of the core categories for #legaltech

Pandemic II: Justice system down [Furlong]

Trial by video conference? Not yet, but coronavirus forces Bay Area courts to embrace more virtual proceedings [Egelko]

I keep wondering how #telelegal will be impacted by what’s occurring with #telemedicine…? [Christian]

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