technology (general)

The Digital Divide 2.0: Navigating Digital Equity and Health Equity in Education — from edsurge.com by Mordecai I. Brownlee

Excerpt:

Luckily, we don’t have to do this work alone. Mainstream awareness of the access gap is growing, which has encouraged corporations like AT&T and Comcast and organizations like United Way to respond by creating employee and community campaigns to bring forth solutions.

Such awareness has also inspired a surge in federal, state and local governments discussing solutions and infrastructure upgrades. For example, nationally, the Affordable Connectivity Program is an FCC benefit program aimed at providing affordable broadband access for work, school, health care and more. It is important to note that participants must meet the Federal Poverty Guidelines eligibility standards to receive such benefits.

Also relevant/see:

Can Colleges Reach Beyond Campus to Foster ‘Digital Equity’ in Communities? — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

So his organization is working with the city of Orangeburg and Claflin University to extend the university’s broadband out into the surrounding community at affordable rates. And because research from McKinsey suggests that more than 80 percent of HBCUs are located in “broadband deserts,” it’s a strategy that may work elsewhere in the country, too.

“That makes HBCUs and other minority-serving institutions, and universities more broadly, really interesting and powerful partners in bridging the digital divide,” Ben-Avie said.

Innova: A Revolution in Education? — from gettingsmart.com by Chris Terrill

Key Points

Innova Schools is designed to rapidly cut through the vast inequities that exist and be a lever for change in Latin America.
Innova has the potential to revolutionize education around the globe.

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

The initial school start-up was funded by Carlos Rodriguez Pastor, a Peruvian businessman. He saw an opportunity to provide high-quality schools in areas where the government struggled to supply essential education services (Peru and Colombia consistently rank near the bottom on the global education survey). He enlisted the famed US design firm IDEO to develop a comprehensive program that would eventually be utilized in multiple countries.

From DSC:
Stop the presses. I love that idea of using IDEO to be involved here. It seems like that is a positive step towards implementing Design Thinking within our learning ecosystems.

In the original model, the founders designed a rigorous, engaging, personalized curriculum, with a heavy emphasis on Project-Based Learning. I wanted to know if and how that is actualized, and how that is enacted across multiple countries in schools thousands of miles apart.

Finally, IDEO’s work included a design for the physical structure of schools to be quickly and economically replicated at each location; how was that design working? The vision for Innova may be one of the most ambitious educational undertakings today. What lessons can I, as an individual educational leader, and we, as a global education community, learn from their work?

The Maker Space and the Gaming Lab demonstrate clearly how digital competency is a central element of their curriculum. I saw highly engaging lessons that were perfectly synced with classroom projects, pursuing a bigger goal of equipping Colombian students to fill the digital labor gap.

The Future Today Institute’s 15th Anniversary Tech Trends Report

Excerpt:

Future Today Institute’s 2022 Tech and Science Trends Report is now available. Downloaded more than 1 million times each year, FTI’s annual Tech Trends Report is a must-read for every industry. Learn the key trends impacting finance, insurance, transportation, healthcare, sports, logistics, telecom, work, government and policy, security, privacy, education, agriculture, entertainment, music, CPG, hospitality and dining, ESGs, climate, space and more. Discover critical insights. See what strategic action you can take on the futures, today.

7 Technologies that are Changing Healthcare — from digitalsalutem.com by João Bocas

In this article we are going to talk about the seven technologies that are changing healthcare:

Artificial Intelligence
Blockchain
Virtual Reality
Robots
Mapping technologies
Big Data
Neurotechnology

This startup 3D prints tiny homes from recyclable plastics — from interestingengineering.com by Nergis Firtina; with thanks to Laura Goodrich for this resource

Satellite Billboards Are a Dystopian Future We Don’t Need — from gizmodo.com by George Dvorsky; with thanks to Laura Goodrich for this resource
Brightly lit ads in orbit are technologically and economically viable, say Russian scientists. But can we not?

South Korea to Provide Blockchain-based Digital Identities to Citizens by 2024 — from blockchain.news by Annie Li; with thanks to Laura Goodrich for this resource

Excerpt:

South Korea plans to provide digital identities encrypted by blockchain with smartphones to citizens in 2024 to facilitate its economic development., Bloomberg reported Monday.

The South Korean government stated that with the expansion of the digital economy, the ID embedded in the smartphone is an indispensable emerging technology to support the development of data.

From DSC:
Interesting to see blockchain show up in the first item above on healthcare and also on this item coming out of South Korea for digital identities.

The Bruce Willis Deepfake Is Everyone’s Problem — from wired.com by Will Bedingfield; with thanks to Stephen Downes for this resource
There’s a fight brewing over how Hollywood stars can protect their identities. But it’s not just actors who should be paying attention.

Excerpts:

Yet the question of “who owns Bruce Willis,” as Levy put it, isn’t only a concern for the Hollywood star and his representatives. It concerns actors unions across the world, fighting against contracts that exploit their members’ naivety about AI. And, for some experts, it’s a question that implicates everyone, portending a wilder, dystopian future—one in which identities are bought, sold, and seized.

“This is relevant not just to AI contracts [for synthetic performances], but any contract involving rights to one’s likeness and voice,” says Danielle S. Van Lier, assistant general counsel, intellectual property and contracts at SAG-AFTRA. “We have been seeing contracts that now include ‘simulation rights’ to performers’ images, voices, and performances. These contract terms are buried deep in the boilerplate of performance agreements in traditional media.”

Addendum on 10/26/22:

Blockchain and the Future of Medical Technology: Trends in Medicine — from intelligenthq.com

2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Hybrid Learning [educause.edu]

On 10/18/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, accessibility / UDL, adjunct faculty, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), blended learning, business side of he, change, changing business models, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, credentialing, economics, education technology, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, hybrid learning, instructional design, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, more voice more choice more control, new business models, online learning, pace of change, political science, professional development, reinvent, society, strategy, student-related, teaching & learning, technology (general), traditional / tradition, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

2022 EDUCAUSE Horizon Action Plan: Hybrid Learning — from library.educause.edu

Excerpts:

Building on the trends, technologies, and practices described in the 2022 Horizon Report: Teaching and Learning Edition, the panel crafted its vision of the future along with practical action items the teaching and learning community can employ to make this future a reality. Any stakeholder in higher education who teaches in or supports hybrid learning modalities will find this report helpful in preparing for the future of hybrid learning. The future we want is within reach, but only if we work together.

Asked to describe the goals and elements of hybrid learning that they would like to see 10 years from now, panelists collaboratively constructed their preferred future for institutions, students, instructors, and staff.

Institutions

Higher education is available on demand.
Learning is not measured by seat time.
Collaboration across institutions facilitates advancement.
College and university campuses are not the sole locations for learning spaces.

Students, Instructors, and Staff

Everything is hybrid.
Student equity is centered in all modalities.
Professional development is ongoing, integrated, and valued.

What might the ramifications be for text-to-everything? [Christian]

On 10/11/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assistive technologies, Bias | Diversity Equity & Inclusion (DE&I), cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital textbooks, digital video, distance education, drama/theater, e-books, e-publishing related items (EPUB and more), education, education technology, elearning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, faculty, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, languages and translation, law schools, learner profiles, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, legal technologies, media/film, Metaverse, microlearning, Mixed Reality (MR), more voice more choice more control, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, online media, online tutoring, platforms, podcasting, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, publishing, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, story, storytelling, streams of content, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, transmedia, trends, United States, universities, usability, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, wearables, web-based collaboration, Web3, webinars, workplace, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:

We can now type in text to get graphics and artwork.
We can now type in text to get videos.
There are several tools to give us transcripts of what was said during a presentation.
We can search videos for spoken words and/or for words listed within slides within a presentation.

Allie Miller’s posting on LinkedIn (see below) pointed these things out as well — along with several other things.

This raises some ideas/questions for me:

What might the ramifications be in our learning ecosystems for these types of functionalities? What affordances are forthcoming? For example, a teacher, professor, or trainer could quickly produce several types of media from the same presentation.
What’s said in a videoconference or a webinar can already be captured, translated, and transcribed.
Or what’s said in a virtual courtroom, or in a telehealth-based appointment. Or perhaps, what we currently think of as a smart/connected TV will give us these functionalities as well.
How might this type of thing impact storytelling?
Will this help someone who prefers to soak in information via the spoken word, or via a podcast, or via a video?
What does this mean for Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and/or Virtual Reality (VR) types of devices?
Will this kind of thing be standard in the next version of the Internet (Web3)?
Will this help people with special needs — and way beyond accessibility-related needs?
Will data be next (instead of typing in text)?

Hmmm….interesting times ahead.

2022 Students and Technology Report: Rebalancing the Student Experience — from library.educause.edu by Jenay Robert

Excerpt:

In this report, we describe the findings of the survey in four key areas:

Educational technology impacts student wellness.
Physical campus spaces continue to play an important role in students’ access to education.
The online versus face-to-face dichotomy is being disrupted.
Device access is not a simple issue when examined through an equity lens.
Assistive technology can help all students.
Students are whole people with complex learning needs and goals.

Tearing the ‘paper ceiling’: McKinsey supports effort driving upward mobility for millions of workers [mckinsey.com]

On 10/09/2022, in Alternatives, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, skills, society, technology (general), trends, United States, vendors, Web3, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Tearing the ‘paper ceiling’: McKinsey supports effort driving upward mobility for millions of workers — from mckinsey.com

Excerpt:

September 23, 2022There’s a hidden talent pool that most employers overlook—the more than 70 million workers in the US who are STARs, or workers ‘skilled through alternative routes.’ Whether through community college, workforce training, bootcamp or certificate programs, military service, or on-the-job learning, STARs have the skills for higher-wage jobs but often find themselves blocked from consideration.

This week, nonprofit Opportunity@Work and the Ad Council have launched a nationwide campaign to ‘Tear the Paper Ceiling’ and encourage employers to change hiring practices. McKinsey is providing pro bono support to the effort through data and analytics tools that enable recruiters to recognize STARs and their skills.

“While companies scramble to find talent amid a perceived skills gap, many of their job postings have needlessly excluded half of the workers in the country who have the skills for higher-wage work,” says Byron Auguste, founder of Opportunity@Work and a former senior partner at McKinsey. “Companies like the ones we’re proud to call partners in this effort—and those we hope will join—can lead the way by tapping into skilled talent from a far wider range of backgrounds.”

There are lots of reasons why someone might not begin or complete a degree that have nothing to do with their intrinsic abilities or potential. We know there are better ways to screen for talent and now we have the research and tools to back that up.

Carolyn Pierce, McKinsey partner

Also from McKinsey, see:

Latest McKinsey tech outlook identifies 14 key trends for business leaders

Excerpt:

October 4, 2022 The McKinsey Technology Council—a global group of over 100 scientists, entrepreneurs, researchers, and business leaders—has published its second annual Technology Trends Outlook. By assessing metrics of innovation, interest, investment, and adoption, the council has prioritized and synthesized 40 technologies into 14 leading trends.

Following on from last year, applied AI once again earned the highest score for innovation in the report. Sustainability, meanwhile, emerged as a major catalyst for tech around the world, with clean energy and sustainable consumption drawing the highest investment from private-equity and venture-capital firms. And five new trends were added to this year’s edition: industrializing machine learning, Web3, immersive-reality technologies, the future of mobility, and the future of space.

In this post, McKinsey senior partner Lareina Yee, expert partner Roger Roberts, and McKinsey Global Institute partner Michael Chui share their thoughts about what the findings may mean for leaders over the next few years.

Radar Trends to Watch: October 2022 — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides
Developments in Machine Learning, Metaverse, Web3, and More

Excerpt:

September was a busy month. In addition to continued fascination over art generation with DALL-E and friends, and the questions they pose for intellectual property, we see interesting things happening with machine learning for low-powered processors: using attention, mechanisms, along with a new microcontroller that can run for a week on a single AA battery. In other parts of the technical universe, “platform engineering” has been proposed as an alternative to both DevOps and SRE. We’ve seen demonstrations of SQL injection-like attacks against GPT-3; and companies including Starbucks, Chipotle, and Universal Studios are offering NFT-based loyalty programs. (In addition to a Chipotle’s steak grilling demo in the Metaverse.)

Also relevant/see:

General AI News — from essentials.news

21st-Century Skills That Every Learner Needs [studycorgi.com]

On 10/04/2022, in 21st century, Blockchain, bots, collaboration, communications, copyright/ownership/NFTs, creativity, innovation, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, new media literacies, pace of change, skills, technology (general), by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
The Ultimate List of 21-Century Skills – 2022 that’s on that page lists fifty skills. Whew! That’s a lot of skills. I doubt anyone will have them all. But the posting/infographic has a lot of fodder for further reflection and growth.

Megatrends | September 25, 2022 — by Michael Moe, Tim Juang, Owen Ritz, & Kit Royce

“The trend is your friend.” – Martin Zweig

“Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.” – Bill Clinton

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.” – Coco Chanel

“I don’t set the trends. I just find out what they are and exploit them.” – Dick Clark

Megatrends are powerful technological, economic, and social forces that develop from a groundswell (early adoption), move into the mainstream (mass market), and disrupt the status quo (mature market), driving change, productivity, and ultimately growth opportunities for companies, industries, and entire economies.

.

The metaverse is not a vertical trend; it’s a horizontal trend that will impact sectors ranging from healthcare, education, socialization, entertainment, commerce, and more.

Radar Trends to Watch: September 2022 [Loukides]

On 09/06/2022, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, biology, Blockchain, bots, Google, internet, machine-to-machine communications, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, privacy, programming, robotics, science, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, trends, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Radar Trends to Watch: September 2022 Developments in AI, Privacy, Biology, and More — from oreilly.com by Mike Loukides

Excerpt:

It’s hardly news to talk about the AI developments of the last month. DALL-E is increasingly popular, and being used in production. Google has built a robot that incorporates a large language model so that it can respond to verbal requests. And we’ve seen a plausible argument that natural language models can be made to reflect human values, without raising the question of consciousness or sentience.

For the first time in a long time we’re talking about the Internet of Things. We’ve got a lot of robots, and Chicago is attempting to make a “smart city” that doesn’t facilitate surveillance. We’re also seeing a lot in biology. Can we make a real neural network from cultured neurons? The big question for biologists is how long it will take for any of their research to make it out of the lab.

McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2022

On 08/25/2022, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), bots, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, emerging technologies, experimentation, Mixed Reality (MR), technology (general), tools, trends, United States, Web3, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

McKinsey Technology Trends Outlook 2022

Excerpt:

Which technology trends matter most for companies in 2022? New analysis by the McKinsey Technology Council highlights the development, possible uses, and industry effects of advanced technologies.

The Metaverse Is Not a Place: It’s a communications medium. [O’Reilly]

On 08/10/2022, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, cryptocurrencies, distance education, drama/theater, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, immersion, innovation, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, Metaverse, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, remote teaching and learning, social learning / networks, social media, society, technologies for your home, technology (general), telecommunications, telelegal, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, telepresence, tools, training / L&D, trends, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, Virtual courts and law firms, virtual field trips, virtual K-12 schools, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, wearables, web-based collaboration, Web3, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

The Metaverse Is Not a Place — from oreilly.com by Tim O’Reilly
It’s a communications medium.

Excerpt:

Foundations of the metaverse
You can continue this exercise by thinking about the metaverse as the combination of multiple technology trend vectors progressing at different speeds and coming from different directions, and pushing the overall vector forward (or backward) accordingly. No new technology is the product of a single vector.

So rather than settling on just “the metaverse is a communications medium,” think about the various technology vectors besides real-time communications that are coming together in the current moment. What news from the future might we be looking for?

Virtual Reality/Augmented Reality…
Social media…
Gaming…
AI…
Cryptocurrencies and “Web3”…
Identity…

#metaverse #AI #communications #gaming #socialmedia #cryptocurrencies #Web3 #identity #bots #XR #VR #emergingtechnologies

Women in Tech: A Complete Guide [Niles]

On 08/03/2022, in 21st century, career development, corporate / business world, engineering, entrepreneurship, mathematics, MBA, science, skills, society, sociology, STEAM-related, technology (general), United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Women in Tech: A Complete Guide — from techguide.org by Vasilia Niles

Excerpt:

This guide is all about how to get more women in tech. First, we will examine why the gender gap in tech fields exists and what we can do about it. And then, we will take a look at the best way to find opportunities for women interested in science, technology, and engineering — including scholarships, internships, and employment opportunities all geared toward the most cutting edge fields.

Closing the gap in tech is important for many reasons. Firstly, women make up 40 percent of the US workforce. With the tech industry being the fastest growing sector and others rapidly shrinking, there will be a disparity between supply and demand for employees if this continues. This is already the case in some tech sectors like cybersecurity.

Secondly, women-led companies and companies with more female employees historically outperform by 3x ones that are male dominant. In fact, in companies where 50 percent or more of executives are women, there are reported higher job satisfaction, better work culture, equal and higher pay, and less female employee turnover.

Learning Ecosystems

21st-Century Skills That Every Learner Needs [studycorgi.com]

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