AI Plus VR at Purdue University Global — from er.educause.edu by Abbey Elliott, Michele McMahon, Jerrica Sheridan, and Gregory Dobbin
Adding artificial intelligence to virtual reality provides nursing students with realistic, immersive learning experiences that prepare them to treat patients from diverse backgrounds.
Excerpt:
Adding artificial intelligence (AI) to immersive VR simulations can deepen the learning by enabling patient interactions that reflect a variety of patient demographics and circumstances, adjusting patient responses based on students’ questions and actions. In this way, the immersive learning activities become richer, with the goal of providing unique experiences that can help students make a successful transition from student to provider in the workforce. The use of AI and immersive learning techniques augments learning experiences and reinforces concepts presented in both didactic and clinical courses and coursework. The urgency of the pandemic prompted the development of a vision of such learning that would be sustainable beyond the pandemic as a tool for education on a relevant and scalable platform.
Speaking of emerging technologies and education/learning, also see:
Slido Lesson Plan — from techlearning.com by Stephanie Smith Budhai, Ph.D.
This Slido Lesson Plan is designed to help educators implement the digital tool into their instruction
Excerpt:
Slido is an exciting online engagement edtech tool that can be used to connect all students with academic content while getting them involved in the lesson.
While Slido is often used to incorporate polling into virtual workshops and presentations, there are a wide range of student engagement features within the Slido platform that can be used by teachers during lessons.
Also see:
Will Learning Move into the Metaverse? — from learningsolutionsmag.com by Pamela Hogle
Excerpt:
In its 2022 Tech Trends report, the Future Today Institute predicts that, “The future of work will become more digitally immersive as companies deploy virtual meeting platforms, digital experiences, and mixed reality worlds.”
Learning leaders are likely to spearhead the integration of their organizations’ workers into a metaverse, whether by providing training in using the tools that make a metaverse possible or through developing training and performance support resources that learners will use in an immersive environment.
Advantages of moving some workplace collaboration and learning into a metaverse include ease of scaling and globalization. The Tech Trends report mentions personalization at scale and easy multilingual translation as advantages of “synthetic media”—algorithmically generated digital content, which could proliferate in metaverses.
Also see:
Also from learningsolutionsmag.com, see:
Manage Diverse Learning Ecosystems with Federated Governance
Excerpt:
So, over time, the L&D departments eventually go back to calling their own shots.
What does this mean for the learning ecosystem? If each L&D team chooses its own learning platforms, maintenance and support will be a nightmare. Each L&D department may be happy with the autonomy but learners have no patience for navigating multiple LMSs or going to several systems to get their training records.
Creating common infrastructure among dispersed groups
Here you have the problem: How can groups that have no accountability to each other share a common infrastructure?
UX, Accessibility, & More: ID Links 5/24/22 — from christytuckerlearning.com by Christy Tucker
Excerpt:
As I read online, I bookmark resources I find interesting and useful. I share these links periodically here on my blog. This post includes links on UX, accessibility, branching scenarios, Twine, instructional design blogs, free/freemium tools, and systems thinking.
Also from Christy Tucker, see:
Christy is back with yet another informative post on instructional design hourly rates and salary! If you are new to the industry or starting to explore freelancing, this can be helpful. https://t.co/UIPp9eU4KC via @christyatucker
— Taruna Goel (@write2tg) May 31, 2022
Ransomware is already out of control. AI-powered ransomware could be ‘terrifying.’ — from protocol.com by Kyle Alspach
Hiring AI experts to automate ransomware could be the next step for well-endowed ransomware groups that are seeking to scale up their attacks.
Excerpt:
In the perpetual battle between cybercriminals and defenders, the latter have always had one largely unchallenged advantage: The use of AI and machine learning allows them to automate a lot of what they do, especially around detecting and responding to attacks. This leg-up hasn’t been nearly enough to keep ransomware at bay, but it has still been far more than what cybercriminals have ever been able to muster in terms of AI and automation.
That’s because deploying AI-powered ransomware would require AI expertise. And the ransomware gangs don’t have it. At least not yet.
But given the wealth accumulated by a number of ransomware gangs in recent years, it may not be long before attackers do bring aboard AI experts of their own, prominent cybersecurity authority Mikko Hyppönen said.
Also re: AI, see:
Nuance partners with The Academy to launch The AI Collaborative — from artificialintelligence-news.com by Ryan Daws
Excerpt:
Nuance has partnered with The Health Management Academy (The Academy) to launch The AI Collaborative, an industry group focused on advancing healthcare using artificial intelligence and machine learning.
Nuance became a household name for creating the speech engine recognition engine behind Siri. In recent years, the company has put a strong focus on AI solutions for healthcare and is now a full-service partner of 77 percent of US hospitals and is trusted by over 500,000 physicians daily.
Inflection AI, led by LinkedIn and DeepMind co-founders, raises $225M to transform computer-human interactions — from techcrunch.com by Kyle Wiggers
Excerpts:
Inflection AI, the machine learning startup headed by LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman and founding DeepMind member Mustafa Suleyman, has secured $225 million in equity financing, according to a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
…
“[Programming languages, mice, and other interfaces] are ways we simplify our ideas and reduce their complexity and in some ways their creativity and their uniqueness in order to get a machine to do something,” Suleyman told the publication. “It feels like we’re on the cusp of being able to generate language to pretty much human-level performance. It opens up a whole new suite of things that we can do in the product space.”
Google teases new AR glasses at #GoogleIO2022 pic.twitter.com/Ui5gAm2hAE
— The Verge (@verge) May 11, 2022
From DSC:
I love the parts about seeing instant language translations — including sign language! Very cool indeed!
(With thanks to Ori Inbar out on Twitter for this resource.)
Also see:
Technology for HyFlex Classrooms: Major Considerations — from hyflexlearning.org by Brian Beatty
Excerpts:
This post describes four aspects of classroom technology that are very important to address when developing a HyFlex approach that can be effective at scale.
…
The classroom technology needs can be organized into four areas:
Also re: hyflex teaching — where some students are physically present and some are coming into the class remotely– see:
Part I – Motivating Learners by Building Efficacy (Confidence) through Scaffolding and Support— from hyflexlearning.org by Jeanne Samuel
Excerpts:
HyFlex delivery may be new to many learners. Therefore, it is important to provide them with the supports they need to be successful. Regardless of the delivery mode, learners are motivated by success and by instructor presence. In part one of this topic post, we will write about how instructor support and feedback (a form of guidance) can motivate learners and build learner confidence.
PART II- Feedback for Improving Student Success and Satisfaction — from hyflexlearning.org by Jeanne Samuel
Excerpt:
In part 1 of this post, we focused on how feedback and support promote learner confidence. Learner confidence can lead to improved learner retention, progression, and success regardless of the class delivery mode. In part 2, we focus on feedback strategies.
K-12 education in America is like quickly moving trains that stop for no one.
From DSC:
A family member struggles with spelling — big time. This causes her major amounts of anxiety in school.
Another family member had some learning disabilities and reflects back on school with some bad memories.
Another family member struggles with social graces and learns at a much different pace than her peers — the move to her education being (predominantly) done via homeschooling has helped significantly.
A friend of mine has Dyslexia. He recently said that school was hell for him.
Another person I know doesn’t understand his daughter’s learning disabilities — at all. He’s asking a fish to climb the tree and yells at his daughter when she doesn’t produce like the other kids do. Her school is for college-bound learners, and there’s always pressure to maintain the school’s “blue-ribbon” status (i.e., sorry if you don’t fit in…but please board the train anyway, as it’s about to depart).
These people and stories about their educations got me to reflect on all the people who went through the school systems in the United States (over the last few decades) that didn’t work well for them. In fact, not only did the systems not work well for them, they were the sources of a great deal of pain, anxiety, depression, anger, frustration, and embarrassment. Instead of being a place of wonder or joy, school was a painful, constant struggle to get through.
For those who can keep up or even excel at the pace that the trains travel at, school isn’t that much of a problem. There are likely different levels of engagement involved here, but school is manageable and it doesn’t cause nearly the stress for someone who struggles with it.
For those with learning disabilities, I’d like to apologize to you on behalf of all the people who legislated or created rigid, one-size-fits-all school systems that didn’t understand and/or meet your needs. (Why we allow legislators — who aren’t the ones on the front lines — to control so much of what happens in our school systems is beyond me.) I’d like to apologize on behalf of all of the teachers, administrators, and staff who just accept the systems as they are.
Please help us reinvent our school systems. Help us develop the future of education. Help us develop a more personalized, customized approach. For those who are working to provide that, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
To everyone working within Pre-K through 12th grade, help us offer: More voice. More choice. More control. The status quo has to go. School should not be a constant source of pain and anxiety.
EDUCAUSE QuickPoll Results: Learning Spaces Transformation — from er.educause.edu by Jenay Robert
Excerpts:
With an eye toward the future, IT units can help institutions create inclusive, flexible spaces that support a variety of learning activities and modalities. Appropriate technology infrastructure, strategic support from institutional leaders, and financial resources are among the most essential elements for transforming learning spaces.
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Figure 1. Types of Learning Spaces Being Transformed
