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Educators (plus many others): You will benefit greatly from building your PLN on Twitter! [Christian]

On 04/09/2019, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, adult learning, career development, colleges, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, faculty, heutagogy, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, informal learning, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, lifelong learning, microlearning, new media literacies, online learning, online media, participation, pedagogy, Personal Learning Networks (PLNs), platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, relationships, social learning / networks, social media, society, special needs, streams of content, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, tools, training / L&D, ubiquitous learning, universities, using teams, vendors, web-based collaboration, workplace, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I ran into the posting below on my Twitter feed. I especially want to share it with all of those students out there who are majoring in Education. You will find excellent opportunities to build your Personal Learning Network (PLN) on Twitter.

But this idea/concept/opportunity also applies to current teachers, professors, trainers, special educators, principals, superintendents, school board members, coaches, and many, many others.

You will not only learn a great deal by tapping into those streams of content, but you will be able to share your own expertise, insights, resources, reflections, etc. Don’t underestimate the networking and learning potential of Twitter. It’s one of the top learning tools in the world.

One last thought before you move onto the graphics below…K-12 educators are doing a super job of networking and sharing resources with each other. I hope that more faculty members who are working within higher education can learn from the examples being set forth by K-12 educators.

Also see:

What if a chemistry lab student could turn on the AR cloud to see how to use the equipment & how an experiment was supposed to be done? [Christian]

On 04/06/2019, in A/V -- audio/visual, assistive technologies, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, chemistry, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, faculty, higher education, hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, learning spaces, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, science, smart classrooms, society, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technology (general), tools, trends, universities, usability, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
First of all, an article:

The four definitive use cases for AR and VR in retail — from forbes.com by Nikki Baird

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

AR is the go-to engagement method of choice when it comes to product and category exploration. A label on a product on a shelf can only do so much to convey product and brand information, vs. AR, which can easily tap into a wealth of digital information online and bring it to life as an overlay on a product or on the label itself.

From DSC:
Applying this concept to the academic world…what might this mean for a student in a chemistry class who has a mobile device and/or a pair of smart goggles on and is working with an Erlenmeyer flask? A burette? A Bunsen burner?

Along these lines...what if all of those confused students — like *I* was struggling through chem lab — could see how an experiment was *supposed to be done!?*

That is, if there’s only 30 minutes of lab time left, the professor or TA could “flip a switch” to turn on the AR cloud within the laboratory space to allow those struggling students to see how to do their experiment.

I can’t tell you how many times I was just trying to get through the lab — not knowing what I was doing, and getting zero help from any professor or TA. I hardly learned a thing that stuck with me…except the names of a few devices and the abbreviations of a few chemicals. For the most part, it was a waste of money. How many students experience this as well and feel like I did?

Will the terms “blended learning” and/or “hybrid learning” take on whole new dimensions with the onset of AR, MR, and VR-related learning experiences?

#IntelligentTutoring #IntelligentSystems #LearningExperiences
#AR #VR #MR #XR #ARCloud #AssistiveTechnologies
#Chemistry #BlendedLearning #HybridLearning #DigitalLearning

Also see:

100 million people will shop with AR by 2020, market researcher says — from cnet.com by Shelby Brown
5G is the key to it all, according to Gartner.
.
Advertising Enters the Next Dimension — from medium.com by Tom Emrich
7 ways spatial computing is evolving advertising & marketing

“It is conceivable that we’re going to be moving into a world without screens, a world where [glasses are] your screen. You don’t need any more form factor than [that].”

(AT&T CEO)

Will we see more of this bringing F2F Ss together w/ remote Ss? Could this help lower the price of obtaining a degree? [Christian]

On 04/04/2019, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, adult learning, business side of he, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, cost of getting a degree, Daniel S. Christian, distance education, education, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, face-to-face, future, future of higher education, global / globalization, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, internet, IT in HE, law schools, learning, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning spaces, lifelong learning, MBA, more voice more choice more control, multimedia, New "Amazon.com" of Higher Education, online learning, platforms, smart classrooms, smart/connected TV, society, staying relevant, student-related, teaching & learning, teaching online, technologies for your home, telecommunications, television, tools, traditional / tradition, training / L&D, United States, universities, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, vision/possibilities, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
First a posting that got me to wondering about something that I’ve previously wondered about from time to time…

College of Business unveils classroom of the future — from biz.source.colostate.edu by Joe Giordano

Excerpt:

Equipped with a wall of 27 high-definition video screens as well as five high-end cameras, the newest classroom in Colorado State University’s College of Business is designed to connect on-campus and online students in a whole new way.

The College of Business unveiled on March 29 the “Room of the Future,” featuring Mosaic, an innovative technology – powered by mashme.io – that creates a blended classroom experience, connecting on-campus and online students in real time.

From DSC:
If the pedagogies could be worked out, this could be a very attractive model for many people in the future as it:

Provides convenience.
Offers more choice. More control. (Students could pick whether they want to attend the class virtually or in a physical classroom).

If the resulting increase in students could bring down the price of offering the course, will we see this model flourish in the near future?

For struggling colleges and universities, could this help increase the ROI of offering their classes on their physical campuses?

The technologies behind this are not cheap though…and that could be a show-stopper for this type of an experiment. But…thinking out loud again…what if there were a cheaper way to view a group of other people in your learning community? Perhaps there will be a solution using some form of Extended Reality (XR)…hmmm….

Also see:

mashme.io

Also see:

The growing marketplace for AI ethics [Forbes Insights with Intel AI]

On 04/01/2019, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, corporate / business world, ethics, Europe, Google, ideas, law schools, leadership, legislatures / government / legal, Microsoft, morals/values, pace of change, platforms, society, trends, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

The growing marketplace for AI ethics — from forbes.com by Forbes Insights with Intel AI

Excerpt:

As companies have raced to adopt artificial intelligence (AI) systems at scale, they have also sped through, and sometimes spun out, in the ethical obstacle course AI often presents.

AI-powered loan and credit approval processes have been marred by unforeseen bias. Same with recruiting tools. Smart speakers have secretly turned on and recorded thousands of minutes of audio of their owners.

Unfortunately, there’s no industry-standard, best-practices handbook on AI ethics for companies to follow*—at least not yet. Some large companies, including Microsoft and Google, are developing their own internal ethical frameworks.

A number of think tanks, research organizations, and advocacy groups, meanwhile, have been developing a wide variety of ethical frameworks and guidelines for AI.

*Insert DSC:
Read this as a very powerful, chaotic, massive WILD, WILD, WEST. Can law schools, legislatures, governments, businesses, and more keep up with this new pace of technological change?

Also see:

AI Is Good (Perhaps Too Good) at Predicting Who Will Die Prematurely — from livescience.com by Mindy Weisberger
5 European companies that are (really) advancing AI — from thenextweb.com by Ben Dickson

Video: Chatbots’ History and Future [Brookes]

On 04/01/2019, in bots, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, languages and translation, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, Natural Language Processing (NLP), tools, vendors, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, by Daniel Christian

Video: Chatbots’ History and Future — from which-50.com by Joseph Brookes

Excerpt:

What’s Next For Chatbots?
One area where chatbots will have an increasing impact in the future is language, according to Kraeutler. He argues the further integration of language services from the likes of Google will bring down processing times in multilingual scenarios.

“Having a chatbot where a consumer can very easily speak in their native tongue and use services like Google to provide real-time translation — and increasingly very accurate real-time translation. That allows the bot to respond to the consumer, again, very accurately, but also in their native tongue.”

That translation feature, Kraeutler says, will also be vital in assisted conversations — where bots assist human agents to provide next-best actions — allowing the two human parties to converse in near real time in their native languages.

From DSC:
This is much more than a Voice Response Unit (VRU) Phase II…the educational realm should watch what happens with chatbots…as they could assist with doing some heavy lifting in the learning world.

Bad bargain: Why we still ask kids to factor polynomials and how we fix it — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark

Excerpt:

OK, we cut a bad deal 20 years ago and it’s time to fix it.

Kids are still factoring polynomials and that’s just dumb. Requiring every student to pass a course on regurgitated symbol manipulation (Algebra 2) is torturous for many students and why some dropout. It’s an inequitable barrier to college and careers.

“The tragedy of high school math,” said venture investor and education advocate Ted Dintersmith (who has a Ph.D. in math modeling), “is that less than 20% of adults ever use algebra. No adult in America still does integrals and derivatives by hand – the calculus that blocks so many from career paths. It remains in the curriculum because it’s easy to test, not important to learn.”

Math educator Dan Meyer told the We’re Doing It All Wrong Podcast that algebra 2 is “arcane gibberish…not useful knowledge”…
…
Now, rather than the plug and crank of symbol manipulation, we should be teaching computational thinking. As mathematician Conrad Wolfram said, we should be teaching math as if computers existed.

Rather than a separate symbol language, Wolfram argues, math should be taught as computational thinking and integrated across the curriculum. That starts with problem finding–spotting big tough problems worth working on. Next comes understanding the problems and valuables associated–that’s algebraic reasoning. But rather than focusing on computation (including factoring those nasty polynomials), students should be building data sets and using computers to do what they’re good at–calculations.
…
To fix the problem, states that require Algebra 2 should swap it out for a course in coding and computational thinking. Colleges and college entrance exams should drop Algebra 2 requirements. They should start by asking young people about their contributions to solving big problems.

From DSC:
This posting reminded me that, just the other day, I took the picture below…it’s outside a local mall. The annotated picture below gives you some of my thoughts on this ridiculous setup.

Are some of our educational systems setup like this stop sign outside an abandoned, old store that's no longer being used?!

Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technologies Impacting Higher Ed in 2019 — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

Excerpt:

Artificial intelligence conversational interfaces. Gartner defines these as “a subset of conversational user interfaces (CUIs), in which user and machine interactions occur in the user’s spoken or written natural language.” The benefit for higher ed insitutions: “CUIs place responsibility on the machine interface to learn what the user wants, rather than the user having to learn the software, saving user time, increasing student satisfaction, and being available to use 24/7.”
Smart campus. This is “a physical or digital environment in which humans and technology-enabled systems interact to create more immersive and automated experiences for university stakeholders.” While smart campus initiatives are still in the early stages, there has been a rising interest across higher ed institutions, according to Gartner. “The smart campus will drive growth in markets like robotic process automation solutions and augmented and virtual reality in the higher education space. Campus efficiency will be enhanced and student learning will be enriched with the new capabilities they bring. It’s a win all-around, except for the data security implications that come with most technology initiatives today,” said Morgan.
…
Digital credentialing technologies. “Students, faculty and the higher education institutions they are a part of are starting to expect the ability to quickly and freely exchange credentials to enhance the verification and recruitment process,” noted Gartner. Technologies such as blockchain and data encryption are driving change in this area. “In many ways, credentials issued by an education institution are the only tangible evidence of higher education. They should be considered the currency of the education ecosystem,” said Morgan. “These technologies really enable universities to leverage technology to improve the student experience by giving them more control over their information. The only hurdle is a general lack of understanding of digital credentialing technologies and risk-averseness in the high-stakes nature of the higher education market.”

The Changing Landscape of Online Education, 2019 is now available — from qualitymatters.org

This report is the continuation of a multi-year study by QM and Eduventures to examine the changing landscape of online education, provide results to those who can use them and help those involved with online education place their institution within a broader context and possibly influence strategic decisions and organizational changes. Please complete the form on this page to gain access to the 2019 CHLOE 3 Report.

CHLOE 3 breaks new ground in identifying a number of different institutional approaches to online learning, as crystallized in the descriptions of five models (e.g. Enterprise Schools, Community Colleges). Major themes in CHLOE 3 include a more complete picture of the growth, prevalence, and scope of the Chief Online Officer position; the emergence of online committees and councils as a component of institutional shared governance; associations between online course structure, student engagement and outcomes; and the widespread neglect of coordinated blended learning.

Examples/excerpts:

The state of AI in the enterprise: 10 telling stats [Casey]

On 03/27/2019, in Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, business, career development, change, corporate / business world, disruption, game-changing environment, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, trends, vendors, workplace, by Daniel Christian

The state of AI in the enterprise: 10 telling stats — from enterprisersproject.com by Kevin Casey
How many of your peers already use AI? What are they spending? How’s the talent market? Let’s explore the data.

Excerpt:

80 percent of project management tasks done by AI by 2030: Gartner
There are other reminders that while AI may not necessarily put all of us out of our jobs, it will definitely change many jobs. Consider this new prediction from Gartner: 80 percent of project management tasks that would typically be handled by a person today will be eliminated by AI by 2030. This will span traditional PM functions such as data collection, tracking, and reporting, Gartner predicts.

Cognitive Collaboration: Transforming Workplaces & Changing the Way We Work [Cisco]

On 03/21/2019, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, change, collaboration, communications, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, data related items, digital audio, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, future, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, IT in HE, multimedia, Natural Language Processing (NLP), online learning, platforms, presentations, smart/connected TV, telecommunications, tools, United States, user experience (UX), vendors, videoconferencing, voice recognition / voice enabled interfaces, web-based collaboration, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Collaboration technology is fueling enterprise transformation – increasing agility, driving efficiency and improving productivity. Join Amy Chang at Enterprise Connect where she will share Cisco’s vision for the future of collaboration, the foundations we have in place and the amazing work we’re driving to win our customers’ hearts and minds. Cognitive collaboration – technology that weaves context and intelligence across applications, devices and workflows, connecting people with customers & colleagues, to deliver unprecedented experiences and transform how we work – is at the heart of our efforts. Join this session to see our technology in action and hear how our customers are using our portfolio of products today to transform the way they work.

Instructure: Plans to expand beyond Canvas LMS into machine learning and AI — from mfeldstein.com by Phill Hill

Excerpts:

On the same day as Instructure’s earnings call and release of FY2018 financial results, the company announced the acquisition of Portfolium for $43 million, a small startup focusing on “ePortfolio network, student-centered assessment, job matching capabilities, and academic and co-curricular pathways”.
…
Instructure now views itself as a company with a suite of products, and they are much more open to using corporate M&A to build this portfolio.
…

We already have analytical capabilities in our Canvas platform. I want to be really clear and delineate the difference between an analytics and reporting capability, and a machine learning and AI platform.
…
We have the most comprehensive database on the educational experience in the globe. So given that information that we have, no one else has those data assets at their fingertips to be able to develop those algorithms and predictive models.
…

What’s even more interesting and compelling is that we can take that information, correlate it across all sorts of universities, curricula, etc, and we can start making recommendations and suggestions to the student or instructor in how they can be more successful. Watch this video, read this passage, do problems 17-34 in this textbook, spend an extra two hours on this or that. When we drive student success, we impact things like retention, we impact the productivity of the teachers, and it’s a huge opportunity. That’s just one small example. Our DIG initiative, it is first and foremost a platform for ML and AI, and we will deliver and monetize it by offering different functional domains of predictive algorithms and insights. Maybe things like student success, retention, coaching and advising, career pathing, as well as a number of the other metrics that will help improve the value of an institution or connectivity across institutions.

Why AI is a threat to democracy — and what we can do to stop it [Webb & Hao]

On 03/08/2019, in 21st century, Amazon, analytics, Apple, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, Asia, bots, collaboration, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, computer science, corporate / business world, dangers of the status quo, data related items, emerging technologies, ethics, Facebook / Meta Platforms, future, game-changing environment, global / globalization, Google, higher education, intelligent systems, IT in HE, liberal arts, machine-to-machine communications, Microsoft, morals/values, platforms, political science, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, trends, UK, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Why AI is a threat to democracy — and what we can do to stop it — from technologyreview.com by Karen Hao and Amy Webb

Excerpt:

Universities must create space in their programs for hybrid degrees. They should incentivize CS students to study comparative literature, world religions, microeconomics, cultural anthropology and similar courses in other departments. They should champion dual degree programs in computer science and international relations, theology, political science, philosophy, public health, education and the like. Ethics should not be taught as a stand-alone class, something to simply check off a list. Schools must incentivize even tenured professors to weave complicated discussions of bias, risk, philosophy, religion, gender, and ethics in their courses.

One of my biggest recommendations is the formation of GAIA, what I call the Global Alliance on Intelligence Augmentation. At the moment people around the world have very different attitudes and approaches when it comes to data collection and sharing, what can and should be automated, and what a future with more generally intelligent systems might look like. So I think we should create some kind of central organization that can develop global norms and standards, some kind of guardrails to imbue not just American or Chinese ideals inside AI systems, but worldviews that are much more representative of everybody.

Most of all, we have to be willing to think about this much longer-term, not just five years from now. We need to stop saying, “Well, we can’t predict the future, so let’s not worry about it right now.” It’s true, we can’t predict the future. But we can certainly do a better job of planning for it.

From DSC:
Our family uses AT&T for our smartphones and for our Internet access. What I would really like from AT&T is to be able to speak into an app — either located on a smartphone or have their routers morph into Alexa-type of devices — to be able to speak to what I want my router to do:

“Turn off Internet access tonight from 9pm until 6am tomorrow morning.”
“Only allow Internet access for parents’ accounts.”
“Upgrade my bandwidth for the next 2 hours.”

Upon startup, the app would ask whether I wanted to setup any “admin” types of accounts…and, if so, would recognize that voice/those voices as having authority and control over the device.

Would you use this type of interface? I know I would!

P.S. I’d like to be able to speak to our
thermostat in that sort of way as well.

Microsoft built a chat bot to match patients to clinical trials [Bass]

On 03/02/2019, in 21st century, bots, computer science, health, Microsoft, nursing, programming, society, tools, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Microsoft built a chat bot to match patients to clinical trials — from fortune.com by Dina Bass

Excerpt:

A chat bot that began as a hackathon project at Microsoft’s lab in Israel makes it easier for sick patients to find clinical trials that could provide otherwise unavailable medicines and therapies.

The Clinical Trials Bot lets patients and doctors search for studies related to a disease and then answer a succession of text questions. The bot then suggests links to trials that best match the patients’ needs. Drugmakers can also use it to find test subjects.

Half of all clinical trials for new drugs and therapies never reach the number of patients needed to start, and many others are delayed for the same reason, Bitran said. Meanwhile patients, sometimes desperately sick, find it hard to comb through the roughly 50,000 trials worldwide and their arcane and lengthy criteria—typically 20 to 30 factors. Even doctors struggle to search quickly on behalf of patients, Bitran said.

“The 10+ best real-world examples of AR” [Marr] + Mondly (your own virtual language learning assistant)

On 03/01/2019, in 3D, A/V -- audio/visual, Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning / Deep Learning / Algorithms, attention, bots, digital learning, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, heutagogy, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning, learning ecosystem, multimedia, social learning / networks, social media, tools, ubiquitous learning, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

The 10+ best real-world examples of augmented reality — from forbes.com by Bernard Marr

Excerpt:

Augmented reality (AR) can add value, solve problems and enhance the user experience in nearly every industry. Businesses are catching on and increasing investments to drive the growth of augmented reality, which makes it a crucial part of the tech economy.

As referenced by Bernard in his above article:

From DSC:
Along these lines, I really appreciate the “translate” feature within Twitter. It helps open up whole new avenues of learning for me from people across the globe. A very cool, practical, positive, beneficial feature/tool!!!

Learning Ecosystems

The growing marketplace for AI ethics [Forbes Insights with Intel AI]

Video: Chatbots’ History and Future [Brookes]

Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technologies Impacting Higher Ed in 2019 [Kelly]

The state of AI in the enterprise: 10 telling stats [Casey]

AT&T, would you please implement this solution for us? [Christian]

Microsoft built a chat bot to match patients to clinical trials [Bass]

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