Presentations: MOOC Research Initiative — from elearnspace.org by George Siemens
Excerpt:
This past week, in preparation for our upcoming MOOC research conference, I held two online presentations on a) MOOC Research Initiative (a review of literature, research themes) and b) Lessons MOOCs can learn from online education. Slides and recordings are below.
Smart Machines: IBM’S Watson and the era of cognitive computing — from cup.columbia.edu by John E. Kelly III, Director of IBM Research, and Steve Hamm, writer at IBM and former business and technology journalist
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
Computers today are brilliant idiots. They have tremendous capacities for storing information and performing numerical calculations-far superior to those of any human. Yet when it comes to another class of skills, the capacities for understanding, learning, adapting, and interacting, computers are woefully inferior to humans; there are many situations where computers can’t do a lot to help us.
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But the goal is not to replicate human brains or replace human thinking with machine thinking. Rather, in the era of cognitive systems, humans and machines will collaborate to produce better results, each bringing its own skills to the partnership. The machines will be more rational and analytic-and, of course, possess encyclopedic memories and tremendous computational abilities. People will provide judgment, intuition, empathy, a moral compass, and human creativity.
From DSC:
Consider what Watson “read in” to come up with some recommendations:
Addendum on 10/14/13 (emphasis DSC):
Watson is being used to assist with the treatment of cancer patients. According to an article from medicalnewstoday.com, Watson is “revolutionizing cancer care and research and speeding up progress for patients.”
In that same article, it mentions that, so far, Watson has ingested:
One of IBM’s General Managers who works with Watson said:
“breakthrough capabilities bring forward the first in a series of Watson-based technologies, which exemplifies the value of applying big data and analytics and cognitive computing to tackle the industry’s most pressing challenges.”
From DSC:
Match the needs of your institution with your donors’ passions!
In thinking about how to get the funding necessary to accomplish things, it seems to me that more people would give more of their resources if they knew what the specific needs were at a particular school, college, and/or university. This is where Web-based solutions could play a new, important role (and serve as another example of using technology strategically).
I was reminded of this possibility during a recent conversation with a faculty member from our Music Department. First, some background. My mother was/still is a piano teacher. My folks met due to music and my dad has sung throughout his lifetime. My siblings have each played 1 or more instruments. Music has been something that has been extremely positive for my folks’ marriage and was always heard throughout our home. (Not to mention that music can turn a bad day around for me.)
You can see where music was important to our family, to me…I have a passion for music. So when I heard of a need that our Music Department had, I was ready to get my wallet out on the spot.
I wonder how many more people would be struck like this if they only knew what the specific opportunities to contribute/make a difference were.
See below for some
related resources
on this topic.
Also see:
Addendum on 9/12/13:
From DSC:
IBM Watson continues to expand into different disciplines/areas, which currently include:
But Watson is also entering the marketing and education/research realms.
I see a Watson-type-of-tool as being a key ingredient for future MOOCs and the best chance for MOOCs to morph into something very powerful indeed — offloading the majority of the workload to computers/software/intelligent tutoring/learning agents, while at the same time allowing students to connect with each other and/or to Subject Matter Experts (SME’s) as appropriate.
The price of education could hopefully come way down — depending upon the costs involved with licensing Watson or a similar set of technologies — as IBM could spread out their costs to multiple institutions/organizations. This vision represents another important step towards the “Walmart of Education” that continues to develop before our eyes.
Taking this even one step further, I see this system being available to us on our mobile devices as well as in our living rooms — as the telephone, the television, and the computer continue to converge. Blended learning on steroids.
What would make this really powerful would be to provide:
Such an architecture could be applied towards lifelong learning opportunities — addressing what we now know as K-12, higher education, and corporate training/development.
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![The Living [Class] Room -- by Daniel Christian -- July 2012 -- a second device used in conjunction with a Smart/Connected TV](http://danielschristian.com/learning-ecosystems/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/The-Living-Class-Room-Daniel-S-Christian-July-2012.jpg)
Why I won’t try to publish as I move towards tenure — by Brad King
Excerpt (emphasis DSC):
A growing number of faculty, including myself, have begun to reject that road to tenure.
The reason: the academic publishing system is built around a 1-2 year publishing process that requires the best and brightest minds to turn over all of their intellectual property without any compensation for that work.
…
For years, academics had no other option. If they wanted to distribute their research, they had to go through the academic journal system. Thanks to the Internet, the Web, and the mobile Web, there are now have alternate ways to distribute their work.
The California Universities are encouraging faculty members to only publish in open-access journals, which make the dissemination of information the priority over the construction of lucrative business models.
Getting published in a prestigious scholarly journal is a big deal in academia because it’s one of the ways that universities decide who will be promoted and receive tenure.
But in this traditional publishing process, authors usually sign away exclusive first publishing rights to the journal. The journal makes its money by charging subscription fees to university libraries and others, and doesn’t allow the research to spread outside of its publication for a year or two.
The reason for this switch: faculty are tired of being held hostage by these journals that use the system of tenure as a way to hold academic hostage. Harvard University faculty have said that “major publishers had created an ‘untenable situation’ at the university by making scholarly interaction ‘fiscally unsustainable’ and ‘academically restrictive’, while drawing profits of 35% or more.”
Google Alerts essentials: Complete guide to using Google Alerts to monitor almost anything! — from digital.cjrooney.com by Chris Rooney
From DSC:
Google Alerts is a great tool that folks can use to pulse-check a topic — to keep something on your radar. It’s a nice example of a tool that can help you tap into the streams of content that are always flowing by.
Studying learning in the worldwide classroom: Research into edX’s first MOOC — from Research & Practice in Assessment (Volume Eight | Summer 2013) by Lori Breslow, David E. Pritchard, Jennifer DeBoer, Glenda S. Stump, Andrew D. Ho and Daniel T. Seaton — with thanks to Debbie Morison for pointing this out on her blog
Also see:
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Excerpt:
A group of ten young professionals from backgrounds of architecture, design and education collaborate together in preparation for a year-long research program investigating educational design.
This is the Mayfield Project.
From DSC:
Also, consider subscribing to their blog to keep up-to-date on their work.
Also see:
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Scientific articles accepted (personal checks, too) — from the nytimes.com by Gina Kolata
Excerpt:
The scientists who were recruited to appear at a conference called Entomology-2013 thought they had been selected to make a presentation to the leading professional association of scientists who study insects.
But they found out the hard way that they were wrong. The prestigious, academically sanctioned conference they had in mind has a slightly different name: Entomology 2013 (without the hyphen). The one they had signed up for featured speakers who were recruited by e-mail, not vetted by leading academics. Those who agreed to appear were later charged a hefty fee for the privilege, and pretty much anyone who paid got a spot on the podium that could be used to pad a résumé.
Excerpt of some recommendations/suggestions from Mr. Steve McMullen, Assistant Professor of Economics, Calvin College:
These two rules immediately rule out all the suspect journals and conferences, but they do so by granting power to the traditional gatekeepers. I recognize that if everyone behaves this way, it might be difficult for the open-access movement, which is sometimes laudable, to take off in our field.
Another observation: It is probably important for departments to have some statement written into their scholarship statements/guidelines that indicate the sort of journals that count and those that don’t, and a process for evaluating publication outlets.
From DSC:
My dad sent me this in an email — I’ll include it here as a graphic to insure that I get the layout correct:
Another excerpt from the email:
If you can raed this, you have a sgtrane mnid, too.
Can you raed this? Olny 55 plepoe out of 100 can. I cdnuolt blveiee that I cluod aulaclty uesdnatnrd what I was rdanieg. The phaonmneal pweor of the hmuan mnid, aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it dseno’t mtaetr in what oerdr the ltteres in a word are, the olny iproamtnt tihng is that the frsit and last ltteer be in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a taotl mses and you can still raed it whotuit a pboerlm. This is bcuseae the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the word as a wlohe. Azanmig huh? Yaeh and I awlyas tghuhot slpeling was ipmorantt!
From DSC:
What amazed me about this was in the meta cognitive processes of my mind I sensed my mind struggling to make sense of the first couple words…but then, as I moved forward, my mind went back and filled in the gaps and moved forward with understanding what the words were saying. Then it occurred to me how amazing the human mind is — glory to God! Humans can pick up patterns much quicker than computers and algorithms. Not that algorithms can’t be tweaked over time, but humans are key in getting them headed in the right direction in the first place!
P.S. I also saw this type of thing at Jimmy Johns; but that’s even one step further outside the academic realm than even an email from someone’s dad! But thanks Dad if you are reading this! I found it to be an amazing exercise. 🙂
Mobile connections to libraries — from PewInternet.org by Lee Rainie, Kathryn Zickuhr and Maeve Duggan
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Also see:
From DSC:
I’m also reminded of what I’d like to see in a digital textbook — a series of “layers” that people — with various roles and perspectives on the content — could use to comment on and annotate an article:
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