trends

Stepping Back from the Cliff: Facing New Realities of Changing Student Demographics — from evoLLLution.com by Jim Shaeffer
Most universities that plan to stick to the status quo and serve exclusively traditional learners are facing a cliff. CE divisions can help their institutions avoid a potential drop, but only if they’re empowered.

Excerpt:

Demographics of students enrolling at colleges and universities are evolving. And students’ expectations are evolving as well. As the numbers of 18-22 year olds fresh out of high school drop, the recruitment of non-traditional students is becoming more important than ever. In this interview, James Shaeffer discusses the role continuing education (CE) departments can play as drivers of innovation and reflects on how CE leaders can help their main campus colleagues embrace transformational change.

Addendum on 1/4/20:

Higher ed enrollment reaches 10-year low, new data shows — from educationdive.com by Hallie Busta; with thanks to Roy Schroeder for his post on LinkedIn on this

Trends to Watch in 2020

On 12/27/2019, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, emerging technologies, entrepreneurship, ethics, future, health, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, internet, law schools, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, Natural Language Processing (NLP), pace of change, platforms, professional development, programming, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, training / L&D, trends, UK, United States, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

7 Artificial Intelligence Trends to Watch in 2020 — from interestingengineering.com by Christopher McFadden

Excerpts:

Per this article, the following trends were listed:

Computer Graphics will greatly benefit from AI
Deepfakes will only get better, er, worse
Predictive text should get better and better
Ethics will become more important as time goes by
Quantum computing will supercharge AI
Facial recognition will appear in more places
AI will help in the optimization of production pipelines

Also, this article listed several more trends:

According to sources like The Next Web, some of the main AI trends for 2020 include:

The use of AI to make healthcare more accurate and less costly
Greater attention paid to explainability and trust
AI becoming less data-hungry
Improved accuracy and efficiency of neural networks
Automated AI development
Expanded use of AI in manufacturing
Geopolitical implications for the uses of AI

Artificial Intelligence offers great potential and great risks for humans in the future. While still in its infancy, it is already being employed in some interesting ways.

According to sources like Forbes, some of the next “big things” in technology include, but are not limited to:

Blockchain
Blockchain As A Service
AI-Led Automation
Machine Learning
Enterprise Content Management
AI For The Back Office
Quantum Computing AI Applications
Mainstreamed IoT

Also see:

Artificial intelligence predictions for 2020: 16 experts have their say — from verdict.co.uk by Ellen Daniel

Excerpts:

Organisations will build in processes and policies to prevent and address potential biases in AI
Deepfakes will become a serious threat to corporations
Candidate (and employee) care in the world of artificial intelligence
AI will augment humans, not replace them
Greater demand for AI understanding
Ramp up in autonomous vehicles
To fully take advantage of AI technologies, you’ll need to retrain your entire organisation
Voice technologies will infiltrate the office
IT will run itself while data acquires its own DNA
The ethics of AI
Health data and AI
AI to become an intrinsic part of robotic process automation (RPA)
BERT will open up a whole new world of deep learning use cases

The hottest trend in the industry right now is in Natural Language Processing (NLP). Over the past year, a new method called BERT (Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers) has been developed for designing neural networks that work with text. Now, we suddenly have models that will understand the semantic meaning of what’s in text, going beyond the basics. This creates a lot more opportunity for deep learning to be used more widely.

Don’t trust AI until we build systems that earn trust [Marcus]

On 12/21/2019, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, emerging technologies, engineering, ethics, innovation, law schools, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, mathematics, morals/values, platforms, society, technology (general), the downsides of how people use tech, trends, United States, by Daniel Christian

Don’t trust AI until we build systems that earn trust — from economist.com
Progress in artificial intelligence belies a lack of transparency that is vital for its adoption, says Gary Marcus, coauthor of “Rebooting AI”

Excerpts:

Mr Marcus argues that it would be foolish of society to put too much stock in today’s AI techniques since they are so prone to failures and lack the transparency that researchers need to understand how algorithms reached their conclusions.
…
As part of The Economist’s Open Future initiative, we asked Mr Marcus about why AI can’t do more, how to regulate it and what teenagers should study to remain relevant in the workplace of the future.

Trustworthy AI has to start with good engineering practices, mandated by laws and industry standards, both of which are currently largely absent. Too much of AI thus far has consisted of short-term solutions, code that gets a system to work immediately, without a critical layer of engineering guarantees that are often taken for granted in other field. The kinds of stress tests that are standard in the development of an automobile (such as crash tests and climate challenges), for example, are rarely seen in AI. AI could learn a lot from how other engineers do business.

The assumption in AI has generally been that if it works often enough to be useful, then that’s good enough, but that casual attitude is not appropriate when the stakes are high. It’s fine if autotagging people in photos turns out to be only 90 percent reliable—if it is just about personal photos that people are posting to Instagram—but it better be much more reliable when the police start using it to find suspects in surveillance photos.

Some of the emerging trends 2020 will bring in educational technology [Borkowski]

On 12/21/2019, in active learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, CMS/LMS, content development, aggregation, repositories, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, global / globalization, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, interactivity, interface design, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, more voice more choice more control, neurodivergent/special needs, online learning, personalized/customized learning, platforms, STEAM-related, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, trends, by Daniel Christian

Below are some thoughts from Michal Borkowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Brainly, regarding some emerging edtech-related trends for 2020.

2020 is coming at us fast, and it’s bringing a haul of exciting EdTech trends along with it. A new decade means new learning opportunities created to cater to the individual rather than a collective hive. There are more than one or two ways of learning — by not embracing all of the ways to teach, we risk leaving students behind in subjects they may need extra help in.

Michal Borkowski, CEO and Co-Founder of Brainly– the world’s largest online learning platform with 150 million monthly users in 35 countries– has his finger on the pulse of global education trends. He was selected to speak at Disrupt Berlin, the world’s leading authority in debuting revolutionary startups and technologies, this year and has some insightful predictions on the emerging trends 2020 will bring in EdTech.

Customized learning via AI
AI systems with customizable settings will allow students to learn based on their personal strengths and weaknesses. This stylized learning takes into account that not every student absorbs information in the same way. In turn, it helps teachers understand what each individual student needs, spend more time teaching new material, and receive higher classroom results.
Responsible technological integration
Students today are more fluent in technology than older generations. Integrating tech through digital resources, textbooks, game-style lessons, and interactive learning are efficient ways to captivate students and teach them responsible usage of technology.
Expansive peer-to-peer learning
Allowing students access to a platform where they can view different student’s educational interpretations, and one specific perspective may help information click, is invaluable. These learning platforms break down barriers, encourage active learning anywhere, and cultivate a sense of community between students all over the world.
From STEM to STEAM
Science, technology, engineering, and math curriculums have been the major educational focus of the decade, but 2020 will see more integration of classical liberal arts into educational modules, turning STEM into STEAM. Incorporating the arts into a tech-based curriculum enables students to create important connections to the world and allows them to have a well-rounded education.
Options in learning environments
Who says learning has to take place in a classroom? Advancements in EdTech has provided new and exciting avenues where educators can experiment. Grade and high school level teachers are experimenting with webinars, online tutorials, and other forms of tech-based instruction to connect to students in environments where they are more inclined to learn.

2020 is the year that education forms itself around each student’s individual needs rather than leaving kids behind who don’t benefit from traditional instruction.

The 10 vital skills you will need for the future of work [Marr]

On 12/17/2019, in 21st century, active learning, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Blockchain, career development, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, competency-based learning/education, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, curriculum, emerging technologies, engineering, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, heutagogy, higher education, ideas, leadership, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, lifelong learning, organizational change, pace of change, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, trends, universities, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

The 10 vital skills you will need for the future of work — from Bernard Marr

Excerpt:

Active learning with a growth mindset
Anyone in the future of work needs to actively learn and grow. A person with a growth mindset understands that their abilities and intelligence can be developed and they know their effort to build skills will result in higher achievement. They will, therefore, take on challenges, learn from mistakes and actively seek new knowledge.

Start by adopting a commitment to lifelong learning so you can acquire the skills you will need to succeed in the future workplace.

FuturePod gathers voices from the international field of Futures and Foresight. Through a series of podcast interviews, the founders of the field and emerging leaders share their stories, tools and experiences. The Futures and Foresight community comprises a remarkable and diverse group of individuals who span, academic, commercial and social interests.

AI and smart campuses are among higher ed tech to watch in 2020 — from edtechmagazine.com by Adam Stone
Early adopters tap emerging tools to achieve cost savings and improve learning outcomes.

Excerpt:

In parallel with the rise of municipal smart cities, higher education continues to push toward the smart campus, a vision of a digitally interconnected learning space in which data and devices combine to enhance the student experience. Colleges need to get smart to stay competitive.

Below is an excerpt from Deloitte’s report — Smart campus: The next-generation connected campus — which the above article links to.

Innovations used in smart banking, smart retail, smart digital workplaces, and smart venues like hospitals and stadiums could be extended to higher education campuses. These smart environments are enabling an easy and seamless experience by leveraging the most advanced and next-generation technologies available to them. And more importantly, they continually
modernize and adjust their practices to meet the needs of their constituents. To stay sustainable and relevant, institutions should employ technology and analytics-based insights to enhance the well-being of the communities in which they are rooted.

The Rise of Do-It-Yourself Education [Schroeder]

On 12/08/2019, in adult learning, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, heutagogy, higher education, learning, learning ecosystem, lifelong learning, microlearning, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, online media, training / L&D, trends, United States, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The Rise of Do-It-Yourself Education — from insidehighered.com by Ray Schroeder
Do it yourself is more than just a trend for crafts and home improvements — it is an ethos that has reached higher education.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

More than 50 percent of the DIY-ers are between 24 and 44 years of age, and the numbers are growing. This trend is immutable now; it is continuing to grow in numbers and expand into new fields every year.
…
The pervasive DIY mind-set has spilled over into independent learning online, as Dian Schaffhauser writes:

A do-it-yourself mindset is changing the face of education worldwide, according to new survey results. Learners are “patching together” their education from a “menu of options,” including self-teaching, short courses and bootcamps, and they believe that self-service instruction will become even more prevalent for lifelong learning. In the United States specifically, 84 percent of people said learning would become even more self-service the older they get.

Heutagogy is the study and practice of self-determined learning.

As enrollments decline nationally, so many individual universities continue to experience declines year after year. Is it not worth considering these broad societal changes that are moving students toward skilling and upskilling via DIY, rather than marketing the same degrees in the same structure that is producing losses year after year? Who is leading this initiative at your university?

Top artificial intelligence predictions for 2020 from IDC and Forrester [Press]

On 12/06/2019, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, emerging technologies, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, trends, United States, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Top artificial intelligence predictions for 2020 from IDC and Forrester — from forbes.com by Gil Press

Excerpts:

IDC and Forrester issued recently their predictions for artificial intelligence (AI) in 2020 and beyond. While external “market events” may make companies cautious about AI, says Forrester, “courageous ones” will continue to invest and expand the initial “timid” steps they took in 2019.

According to Forrester’s various surveys,

· 53% of global data and analytics decision makers say they have implemented, are in the process of implementing, or are expanding or upgrading their implementation of some form of artificial intelligence.

· 29% of global developers (manager level or higher) have worked on AI/machine learning (ML) software in the past year.

Technology is increasingly being used to provide legal services, which demands a new breed of innovative lawyer for the 21st century. Law schools are launching specialist LL.M.s in response, giving students computing skills — from llm-guide.com by Seb Murray

Excerpts:

Junior lawyers at Big Law firms have long been expected to work grueling hours on manual and repetitive tasks like reviewing documents and doing due diligence. Increasingly, such work is being undertaken by machines – which can be faster, cheaper and more accurately than humans. This is the world of legal technology – the use of technology to provide legal services.

The top law schools recognize the need to train not just excellent lawyers but tech-savvy ones too, who understand the application of technology and its impact on the legal market. They are creating specialist courses for those who want to be more involved with the technology used to deliver legal advice.

“Technology is changing the way we live, work and interact,” says Alejandro Touriño, co-director of the course. “This new reality demands a new breed of lawyers who can adapt to the emerging paradigm. An innovative lawyer in the 21st century needs not only to be excellent in law, but also in the sector where their clients operate and the technologies they deal with.”

The rapid growth in Legal Tech LL.M. offerings reflects a need in the professional world. Indeed, law firms know they need to become digital businesses in order to attract and retain clients and prospective employees.

From DSC:
In case it’s helpful or interesting, a person interested in a legal career needs to first get a Juris Doctor (J.D.) Degree, then pass the Bar. At that point, if they want to expand their knowledge in a certain area or areas, they can move on to getting an LL.M. Degree if they choose to.

As in the world of higher ed and also in the corporate training area, I have it that the legal field will need to move more towards the use of teams of specialists. There will be several members of the team NOT having law degrees. For example, technologists, programmers, user experience designers, etc. should be teaming up with lawyers more and more these days.

‘Academic capitalism’ is reshaping faculty life. What does that mean? [Koenig]

On 11/29/2019, in adjunct faculty, business side of he, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, faculty, future of higher education, higher education, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, technology (general), trends, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

‘Academic capitalism’ is reshaping faculty life. What does that mean? — from edsurge.com by Rebecca Koenig

Excerpt:

Professors have long savored their position outside of commercial systems. But these days, there’s plenty of signs of capitalism within the academy—scholars seek support from funders in hopes that the findings will lead to commercial applications, departments market their courses to students as pathways to lucrative careers and universities replace tenure-track positions with adjunct jobs to cut costs.

Last week on the latest installment of EdSurge Live, our monthly online discussion forum, we dug into the topic, often referred to as “academic capitalism.”

Meet the new era of IoT tracking technologies [Tarasevich]

On 11/23/2019, in machine-to-machine communications, Near Field Communication (NFC), technology (general), tools, trends, by Daniel Christian

Meet the new era of IoT tracking technologies — from medium.com by Vasil Tarasevich

Excerpt:

IoT or Internet of things has empowered a massive change in how machines can communicate with each other and opened room for surreal technology. Today, we have billions of interconnected devices, digital machines, people, objects and even animals provided with unique identifier capable of transferring data over a scalable network without any human intervention.

This has brought a radical change in how this exceptional technology can be applied to tracking and tagging objects and how these data can be perceived to know their locations and even improve their existing routes. Whether we consider the old RFID tags or the latest NFC, we live in an era where obtaining information is never a hassle.

Top IoT tracking Technologies
While there are a lot of emerging IoT tracking technologies like BLE, Zigbee, RFID, LTE Advanced, GPS, LiFi, LPWAN, and NFC, we have enlisted the top 3 tracking technologies.

In Search of a Conversational Bot: Voice Computing Evolves [Pamela Hogle]

On 11/18/2019, in Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, corporate universities / corporate training, emerging technologies, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Natural Language Processing (NLP), platforms, tools, training / L&D, trends, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, workplace, by Daniel Christian

In Search of a Conversational Bot: Voice Computing Evolves — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Pamela Hogle

Excerpts:

Voice computing is rapidly changing the way people interact with technology, which will have dramatic impact on how learners expect to interact with eLearning technology.

Using conversational AI in an eLearning context, where learners are focused on a single topic or narrow range of content, could become feasible before developers achieve the goal of an AI that excels at general conversation.

FTI 2020 Trend Report for Entertainment, Media, & Technology [FTI]

On 11/13/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Amazon, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Asia, Augmented Reality (AR), Australia, Blockchain, bots, business, Canada, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, communications, computer science, content development, aggregation, repositories, convergence, corporate / business world, creativity, digital audio, digital photography, digital video, drama/theater, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, engineering, entrepreneurship, Europe, experimentation, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, global / globalization, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), IBM, ideas, immersion, India, innovation, intelligent systems, interactivity, internet, law schools, leadership, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, media/film, Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), Near Field Communication (NFC), parents/guardians, photography, platforms, policy, privacy, programming, psychology, publishing, robotics, smart/connected TV, social learning / networks, social media, society, strategy, streams of content, technology (general), telecommunications, television, tools, trends, United States, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, wearables, workplace, XR - extended reality, youth, by Daniel Christian

FTI 2020 Trend Report for Entertainment, Media, & Technology — from futuretodayinstitute.com

Our 3rd annual industry report on emerging entertainment, media and technology trends is now available.

157 trends
28 optimistic, pragmatic and catastrophic scenarios
10 non-technical primers and glossaries
Overview of what events to anticipate in 2020
Actionable insights to use within your organization

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Synthetic media offers new opportunities and challenges.
Authenticating content is becoming more difficult.
Regulation is coming.
We’ve entered the post-fixed screen era.
Voice Search Optimization (VSO) is the new Search Engine Optimization (SEO).
Digital subscription models aren’t working.
Advancements in AI will mean greater efficiencies.

Welcome to the future! The future of work is… — from gettingsmart.com

Excerpt:

The future of work is here, and with it, new challenges — so what does this mean for teaching and learning? It means more contribution and young people learning how to make a difference. In our exploration of the #futureofwork, sponsored by eduInnovation and powered by Getting Smart, we dive into what’s happening, what’s coming and how schools might prepare.

Learning Ecosystems

FuturePod gathers voices from the international field of Futures and Foresight.

The Rise of Do-It-Yourself Education [Schroeder]

…a new breed of innovative lawyer is needed for the 21st century.

‘Academic capitalism’ is reshaping faculty life. What does that mean? [Koenig]

Meet the new era of IoT tracking technologies [Tarasevich]

Categories

Tags