Autumn morning — from 500px.com by David Dai

 

Desert Camel by Xiao Yang — from 500px.com

Discover by Reacto Carbon — from 500px.com

Discover by Reacto Carbon

 

Adobe’s Creative Cloud Express brings content editing to the masses — from protocol.com by Lizzy Lawrence
It’s competing directly with Canva, a template-builder for non-professionals.

Excerpt:

Historically, Adobe’s software was made for the pros. Applications like Photoshop, Illustrator and Premiere Pro all require a paid Creative Cloud subscription and a certain level of expertise. But with Monday’s launch of Creative Cloud Express, Adobe is targeting anyone who might find graphic design useful: small businesses, students and social media influencers.

Also see:

Also see:

Adobe Creative Cloud Express

 

Top 10 Healthcare Artificial Intelligence News Of 2021 — from medicalfuturist.com by Dr. Bertalan Meskó & Dr. Pranavsingh Dhunnoo

Excerpt:

As 2021 is about to wrap up, we are reflecting on some of the most important news revolving around artificial intelligence (A.I.) in healthcare. These range from the principles laying the groundwork for the safe and effective development of A.I.-powered medical devices to a sober look at the technology’s role in the pandemic. Without further ado, let’s take a look at the top 10 healthcare A.I. news of the year that was.

 

A handful of colleges are finally providing training in a way consumers want it: fast — from hechingerreport.org by Jon Marcus
‘Rapid reskilling’ seeks to speed up the frustratingly slow pace of switching careers

Excerpts:

Such so-called rapid reskilling remains surprisingly rare in public and nonprofit higher education, which generally has been slow to respond to the need for accelerated training among the nation’s many career-switchers.

While conventional education institutions have long offered what they call short-term training, what they often mean by that is “shorter than it takes to get a degree.” Such programs still typically follow academic semesters that start only in the fall or spring and meet for a few hours a week, stretching on for months or years.

“We have really picked up the pace,” said Urban. “That’s something that is very, very attractive to career-switchers. People want it faster and they want it cheaper and they want it more conveniently. And that’s not a mode of operation in which traditional colleges and universities have thrived.”

 

 

29 Big Ideas that will change our world in 2022 — from linkedin.com by LinkedIn News

Excerpts:

Students skipped out on college in droves during the pandemic: undergraduate enrollment has fallen 7.8% since the fall of 2019. To get students to return to school — or come at all — colleges will need to make their pandemic-era flexible options permanent and adopt new approaches to education.

With a demographic cliff coming in the middle of this decade as the number of high-school graduates falls off, providing something different is the only way all but the biggest brand names in higher education will survive. — Jeff Selingo, author of “Who Gets In and Why: A Year Inside College Admissions

 

Virtual law firms see 38% jump in recruitment — from personneltoday.com by Adam McCulloch

Excerpt:

In late 2020, 1,355 lawyers worked for such virtual firms, a number that has risen to 1,875 by autumn of 2021. In 2019, 1,272 worked for such firms.

Also see:

 

What an incredible picture!

 

The 35 Best Apple and Google Apps of 2021 — from wonderoftech.com by Carolyn Nicander Mohr

Excerpt:

As 2021 draws to a close, Apple and Google have been busy creating their lists of the best apps of the year. These lists may include apps you already have or are familiar with. You may also discover your new favorite must-have app you’ll be eager to share with your friends.

 

Bavarian Church — from 500px by Stefan Thaler

A beautiful picture of a church in Bavaria -- with wheat in the foreground and the sun and a rainbow in the background

 

ELC 070: Conversation Design for the Voice User Interface — from theelearningcoach.com (ELC) by Connie Malamed
A Conversation with Myra Roldan

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

Do you wonder what learning experience designers will be doing in the future? I think one area where we will need to upskill is in conversation design. Think of the possibilities that chatbots and voice interfaces will provide for accessing information for learning and for support in the flow of work. In this episode, I speak with Myra Roldan about conversation design for the voice user interface (VUI). We discuss what makes an effective conversation and the technologies for getting started with voice user interface design.

 

DeepMind Says Its New AI Has Almost the Reading Comprehension of a High Schooler — from futurism.com by Victor Tangermann
A provocative claim!

Excerpt:

Alphabet’s AI research company DeepMind has released the next generation of its language model, and it says that it has close to the reading comprehension of a high schooler — a startling claim.

It says the language model, called Gopher, was able to significantly improve its reading comprehension by ingesting massive repositories of texts online.

 

A Review of Online Learning in 2021 — from tonybates.ca by Dr. Tony Bates

Excerpt:

In terms of online learning, there has been considerable progress. We learned a lot about online learning during Covid-19, and while not all these lessons were good, the landscape of teaching and learning has altered, in general for the best. It’s these developments that I want to discuss in my review of the year.

I will draw heavily on my summary of research reports on Covid-19 and emergency remote/online learning.

 

The next age of the internet could suck power away from Big Tech while living on the same backbone as cryptocurrencies. Here’s what to know about Web3. — from businessinsider.com by Katie Canales

Excerpts (emphasis DSC):

  • Web3 is the next generation of the internet and will exist on the blockchain.
  • It will be decentralized, meaning it won’t be controlled entities like Facebook or Google.
  • Twitter, GameStop, Reddit, and VC firm a16z are all putting resources into building Web3.

One aspect of the metaverse is that users will hopefully be able to go virtually from platform to platform with one single account — just like we will in Web3. 

And NFTs, one-of-a-kind tokens representing your ownership of a virtual good, could be more easily bought and sold with cryptocurrencies within a space like Web3. 


From DSC:
How might “Web3” translate into the future of lifelong learning? Here’s one vision/possibility:

There could be several entities and services feeding one's cloud-based learner profile

Each person would have a learner profile/account that could seamlessly log into multiple education/training providers’ platforms and services. The results of that learning could be stored in one’s cloud-based learner profile. This type of next-generation learning platform would still need subject matter experts, instructional designers, programmers, and other team members. But the focus would be on building skills — skills that an artificial intelligence-backed interface would demonstrate are currently being requested by the modern workplace.  This constantly-being-updated list of skills could then link to the learning-related experiences and resources that people could choose from in order to develop those skills.

The following vision/graphic also comes to my mind:

Learning from the living class room


 

How Design Thinking Transforms Communities, One Project at a Time — from gettingsmart.com by Kyle Wagner and Maggie Favretti

Key Points

  • For many, entrenched in an outdated system, what if’s are the stuff of science fiction.
  • Too many structures hold this kind of innovation back — from standardized tests, to grades, to unwavering curriculum.
  • Design Thinking can transform communities.

#Whatif

What if every course began with a single Essential Question?

What if people were rewarded for having ideas and not ownership of them?

What if every student experienced success in solving a community problem?

What if school buildings were leveraged as community centers?

What if success in school was measured based on contribution to your community, rather than rote knowledge?

What if every learner could co-author their learning journey?


 
© 2025 | Daniel Christian