vendors

2U, Inc. and edX to Join Together in Industry-Redefining Combination

On 07/01/2021, in 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, career development, change, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, CMS/LMS, collaboration, colleges, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, digital learning, education technology, faculty/staff, future of higher education, game-changing environment, global / globalization, higher education, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, new business models, online learning, online media, platforms, United States, universities, vendors, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

2U, Inc. and edX to Join Together in Industry-Redefining Combination — from transformingdigitaleducation.com

2U to acquire substantially all edX assets, including edX brand, website, and marketplace
Together, 2U and edX will reach over 50 million learners, serve more than 230 partners, and offer over 3,500 digital programs on the world’s most comprehensive free-to-degree online education marketplace
Proceeds of the transaction will go to a nonprofit led by Harvard and MIT focused on transforming educational outcomes, tackling learning inequities

Other items related to this:

Is the edX Acquisition a Big Deal? — from eliterate.us by Michael Feldstein
2U to acquire edX for $800M — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
2U Buys edX for $800M, In Surprise End to Nonprofit MOOC Provider Started by MIT and Harvard — from edsurge.com by Jeffrey R. Young

Global EdTech Funding 2021 – Half Year Update — from holoniq.com
A record half year in EdTech funding with 568 rounds raising $10B of investment as, ready or not, the world turns to technology to support learning and education delivery.

Some great resources re: “The 60-Year Curriculum”

On 06/28/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, adult learning, Alternatives, business side of he, career development, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, experimentation, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, ideas, K-12 related, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, liberal arts, lifelong learning, love of learning, marketplaces, online learning, organizational change, pace of change, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, teaching & learning, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, trends, United States, universities, vendors, vocational / trades, workplace, by Daniel Christian

A LIFETIME OF LEARNING — from continuum.uw.edu

Excerpts:

The 60-year curriculum is the modern approach to a lifetime of learning. Getting a degree, getting a job and never setting foot in a classroom again are not today’s reality.

A discussion paper from the McKinsey Global Institute predicts that in the next 10 to 15 years, the need for new tech skills will accelerate. We will also need people who will develop, innovate and adapt those technologies. The paper asserts that, right now, 80% of the workforce doesn’t have the skills for most of the jobs that will be available in the next five to 10 years.

From DSC:
It would be good to integrate more vocational types of pathways/items in here as well.

10 Best Accessibility Tools For Designers [Hongkiat Lim]

On 06/28/2021, in accessibility / UDL, assistive technologies, design, instructional design, interface design, neurodivergent/special needs, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, vendors, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

10 Best Accessibility Tools For Designers — from hongkiat.com by Hongkiat Lim

Excerpt:

Today is the world of inclusive technology – websites, apps, and tech gadgets that are made for people with different kinds of abilities and inabilities. So when you’re designing a website, you include features that make your design accessible to as many people as possible. And this is where accessibility tools come into play.

Instead of creating everything from scratch, here’s a list of cool accessibility tools for designers. From creating color combinations according to WCAG standards to adding different reading modes to your website, these tools are a must-haves for every designer. Take a look at the list to know about each tool in detail.

Best YouTube Sites and Channels for Education — from techlearning.com by Diana Restifo
Take advantage of the fantastic free educational videos YouTube provides.

Excerpt:

How to Watch YouTube Videos Safely

Coursera: The ‘Amazon’ Of Online Education May Grow By Magnitudes — from seekingalpha.com

Summary

Increasing student dissatisfaction and declining enrollment suggest that many people are rethinking traditional methods of higher education.
The historical value of universities is becoming defunct as the internet allows a more efficient, less expensive, and more accessible vector of transmitting knowledge.
Innovative platforms like Coursera offer students a huge “marketplace” of high-quality courses far less expensive than those in traditional universities.
Given Coursera’s minimal barriers to growth and its massive total addressable market, I would not be surprised to see its annual revenue rise by 10X or more within years.
COUR may be one of the few recent IPOs which is actually trading below its fundamental fair value – subject to the assumption that online education will eventually supersede traditional models.

40 Ideas For Using FlipGrid In The Classroom — from teachthought.com

Nvidia’s AI LaunchPad: A comprehensive AI platform in the cloud

On 06/23/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, changing business models, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, corporate / business world, emerging technologies, innovation, IT in HE, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Nvidia builds AI LaunchPad in the cloud with Equinix — from fierceelectronics.com by Dan O’Shea

Excerpt:

If we fail to evolve to a point where almost everyone in the world relies on AI in some fashion, it won’t be for Nvidia’s lack of commitment to that vision. The company continues to hammer away at the notion of democratizing AI so that a broader array of businesses can leverage the technology.

Its newest offering, announced today, is a comprehensive AI platform made available for easy consumption through hybrid cloud providers. This platform, AI LaunchPad, initially will be available through Nvidia cloud partner Equinix. Nvidia explained that as AI proliferates through enterprises and their applications, companies will need to access application resources that might be distributed across public and private clouds. AI LaunchPad via Platform Equinix will allow them to access those resources in minutes for an hourly fee and deploy them to distributed locations…

Optimizing High-Quality Digital Learning Experiences A Playbook for Faculty — from onlinelearningconsortium.org

Excerpts:

This playbook is a collaboration between the Online Learning Consortium (OLC), the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU), and the Every Learner Everywhere Digital Learning Network. This playbook is designed to serve as a concise guide to address faculty needs for online course design, teaching, and continuous improvement.
…
One strategy that can enhance teaching presence in an online course is to provide audio and video content that can be developed with relative ease using multimedia applications. Creating micro-lectures along with other multimedia is a great option for designing online course content.
…
Creating your own closed-caption video content, along with video transcripts, is a practical option for communicating course concepts to students. You might also consider providing supplementary written materials or curating content from other sources to help students master course concepts.

60 Cool Home Offices and Workstations

On 06/19/2021, in computer science, creativity, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, engineering, programming, technologies for your home, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

60 Cool Home Offices and Workstations Setup, Vol. 4 — fromhongkiat.com

Some solid tools for working with multimedia on the Mac [Christian]

On 06/19/2021, in Adobe, Apple, blogs / blogging / vlogging, colleges, communications, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, distance education, education technology, elearning, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty/staff, higher education, ideas, instructional design, IT in HE, K-12 related, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, media/film, microlearning, multimedia, new media literacies, online learning, online media, photography, podcasting, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, tools, transmedia, vendors, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I put together a short listing of some solid tools for working with multimedia on the Mac. There are many more out there, but these should do the job(s) for you…especially Telestream’s ScreenFlow.

From DSC:
You might be interested in reviewing one or more of the items out at Faculty Focus Live Podcasts.

Some example podcasts:

Episode 11: Assessing Online Student Learning: How You Can Gauge Activities and Writing Through Online Assessment
Episode 9: Live with Wendy Trevor: Overcoming Student Distaste for Collaborative Group Work Online
Episode 8: Establishing and Revisiting Our Teaching Philosophies and Teaching Personas
Episode 7: Finding the Missing Piece: How to Help Your Students Who Are Struggling with Online Learning

Reflections on “The Future of Social Media: Re-Humanisation and Regulation” [Leonhard]

On 06/16/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, ethics, Europe, faculty/staff, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, instructional design, K-12 related, law schools, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, morals/values, online media, pace of change, platforms, policy, presentations, social learning / networks, social media, society, teachers, the downsides of how people use tech, training / L&D, trends, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

The Future of Social Media: Re-Humanisation and Regulation — by Gerd Leonhard

How could social media become ‘human’ again? How can we stop the disinformation, dehumanisation and dataism that has resulted from social media’s algorithmic obsessions? I foresee that the EXTERNALTIES i.e. the consequences of unmitigated growth of exponential digital technologies will become just as big as the consequences of climate change. In fact, today, the social media industry already has quite a few parallels to the oil, gas and coal business: while private make huge profits from extracting the ‘oil’ (i.e. user data), the external damage is left to society and governments to fix. This needs to change! In this keynote I make some precise suggestions as to how that could happen.

Some snapshots/excerpts:

From DSC:
Gerd brings up some solid points here. His presentation and perspectives are not only worth checking out, but they’re worth some time for us to seriously reflect on what he’s saying.

What kind of future do we want?

And for you professors, teachers, instructional designers, trainers, and presenters out there, check out *how* he delivers the content. It’s well done and very engaging.

The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work—Are We Ready? — from Microsoft

“Over the past year, no area has undergone more rapid transformation than the way we work. Employee expectations are changing, and we will need to define productivity much more broadly — inclusive of collaboration, learning, and wellbeing to drive career advancement for every worker, including frontline and knowledge workers, as well as for new graduates and those who are in the workforce today. All this needs to be done with flexibility in when, where, and how people work.”

Satya Nadella, CEO at Microsoft

Also see:

What executives are saying about the future of hybrid work — from mckinsey.com by Andrea Alexander, Rich Cracknell, Aaron De Smet, Meredith Langstaff, Mihir Mysore, and Dan Ravid.
What’s next for consumers, workers, and companies in the post-COVID-19 recovery — from mckinsey.com by Susan Lund, Anu Madgavkar, Jan Mischke, and Jaana Remes
For mothers in the workplace, a year (and counting) like no other — from mckinsey.com by Jess Huang, Alexis Krivkovich, Ishanaa Rambachan, and Lareina Yee

Museum of Other Realities XR3 Exhibition: A Clear Vision For VR Film Festivals [Baker]

On 06/11/2021, in immersion, innovation, media/film, platforms, reinvent, user experience (UX), vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

Museum of Other Realities XR3 Exhibition: A Clear Vision For VR Film Festivals — from uploadvr.com by Harry Baker

Excerpt:

This week, the Museum of Other Realities launched its XR3 exhibition — a joint project between Cannes XR, the NewImages Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival. Not only does the exhibition feature some fantastic immersive VR content, but it presents it in a way that feels fresh, appropriate and the right direction for VR film festivals.

However, it feels like the Museum of Other Realities (MOR) has properly cracked the code with its XR3 exhibition this year. It’s a joint exhibition staged by the virtual museum and three organizations — Cannes XR, NewImages and Tribeca — and it results in something that feels like a true vision and creative blueprint for the future of immersive festivals.

Learning Ecosystems

2U, Inc. and edX to Join Together in Industry-Redefining Combination

10 Best Accessibility Tools For Designers [Hongkiat Lim]

Coursera: The ‘Amazon’ Of Online Education May Grow By Magnitudes [seekingalpha.com]

60 Cool Home Offices and Workstations

You might be interested in reviewing one or more of the items out at Faculty Focus Live Podcasts.

The Next Great Disruption Is Hybrid Work—Are We Ready? [Microsoft] + 3 items from McKinsey.com

Museum of Other Realities XR3 Exhibition: A Clear Vision For VR Film Festivals [Baker]

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