Learning Ecosystems

MOOC Enrollment Explodes in 2020 — from campustechnology.com by Dian Schaffhauser

Excerpt:

According to a new report by Class Central, a company that tracks massive open online courses, of all learners who have registered for MOOCs throughout their history, a third did so last year. Coursera, the largest MOOC operator, added nearly four times the number of new registered users, exploding from 8 million in 2019 to 31 million in 2020 — a rise of 387 percent. Dhawal Shah, founder of Class Central, estimated that Coursera’s total number of users is currently 76 million.

Whereas topics in technology, business and career development dominated pre-COVID-19, during the pandemic learners focused on wider interests: Art and design, self-improvement, the humanities, communication skills, health & medicine and foreign languages surfaced in the top 10 subjects.

Also see:

How Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther inspired this Black engineer [Zelik]

On 01/19/2021, in career development, change, computer science, engineering, programming, society, sociology, workplace, by Daniel Christian

How Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther inspired this Black engineer — from fastcompany.com by Karl Zelik
The best superheroes are those that inspire real people to make the world a better place.

Excerpt:

On Twitter, Black in Engineering was launched in the week leading up to Boseman’s passing in August 2020, and Black in Computing was launched two months earlier. The same cathartic experience of seeing Wakandan scientists and engineers on the big screen is how I felt reading all the posts tagged #BiERollCall—Black engineers and scientists across STEM disciplines introduced themselves and their work, their passions, and their expertise.

[Photo: VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images]

Exciting new tools for [web] designers, January 2021 [Cousins]

On 01/19/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, animation, creativity, design, digital storytelling, graphics, IT in HE, social media, tools, usability, vendors, visualizing information, web design and production, by Daniel Christian

Exciting new tools for designers, January 2021 — from by Carrie Cousins

Excerpt:

The new year is often packed with resolutions. Make the most of those goals and resolve to design better, faster, and more efficiently with some of these new tools and resources.

Here’s what new for designers this month.

DC: Thank you LORD for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!!!

On 01/18/2021, in Daniel S. Christian, education, ethics, faith, hearts -- matters of the heart, relationships, society, sociology, United States, by Daniel Christian

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

Excerpt:

[Dr.] King was the chief spokesperson for nonviolent activism in the Civil Rights Movement, which successfully protested racial discrimination in federal and state law. The campaign for a federal holiday in King’s honor began soon after his assassination in 1968. President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law in 1983, and it was first observed three years later. At first, some states resisted observing the holiday as such, giving it alternative names or combining it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.

The top content management systems (such as WordPress, Joomla, Squarespace, etc.)

On 01/18/2021, in blogs / blogging / vlogging, CMS/LMS, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, education technology, IT in HE, K-12 related, teachers, tools, web design and production, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

The top content management systems — from w3techs.com

Excerpt:

38% of the websites use none of the content management systems that we monitor.
WordPress is used by 39.7% of all the websites, that is a content management system market share of 64.1%.

From DSC:
Though I love WordPress and it continues to do well market share-wise…for people who want to get into blogging and/or who want to get their voice out there, I’m disappointed that WordPress has gone the way of web design and production (i.e., into major complexities). WordPress needs a WordPress-Lite version or an easier-to-use interface/theme/template section for beginners (or something along those lines).

Creative problem solvers needed!

On 01/18/2021, in future, game-changing environment, geography / geology, global / globalization, health, project-based learning, real-world assignments, research, science, STEAM-related, student-related, by Daniel Christian

2020 ties for hottest year on record, says NASA and NOAA — from bigthink.com by Kevin Dickinson
In a joint briefing at the 101st American Meteorological Society Annual Meeting, NASA and NOAA revealed 2020’s scorching climate data.

Excerpts:

2020 is tied with 2016 for being globally the hottest year on record.
The year’s hotspot included the Arctic, which is warming at three times the global mean.
The United States endured a record-breaking year for billion-dollar natural disasters.

OpenAI’s text-to-image engine, DALL-E, is a powerful visual idea generator [Grossman]

On 01/18/2021, in 21st century, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, creativity, Daniel S. Christian, future, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, journalism, marketing/social marketing, multimedia, music, visualizing information, by Daniel Christian

OpenAI’s text-to-image engine, DALL-E, is a powerful visual idea generator — from venturebeat.com by Gary Grossman; with thanks to Tim Holt for sharing this resource

Excerpt:

OpenAI chose the name DALL-E as a hat tip to the artist Salvador Dalí and Pixar’s WALL-E. It produces pastiche images that reflect both Dalí’s surrealism that merges dream and fantasy with the everyday rational world, as well as inspiration from NASA paintings from the 1950s and 1960s and those for Disneyland Tomorrowland by Disney Imagineers.

From DSC:
I’m not a big fan of having AI create the music that I listen to, or the artwork that I take in. But I do think there’s potential here in giving creative artists some new fodder for thought! Perhaps marketers and/or journalists could also get their creative juices going from this type of service/offering.

Speaking of art, here are a couple of other postings that caught my eye recently:

This Elaborately Armored Samurai Was Folded From A Single Sheet of Paper — from thisiscolossal.com by Grace Ebert

Also see:

Fabric Portraits by Benjamin Shine — from theawesomer.com

Microsoft Education offers a free tutoring service to help students with their math problems [educatorstechnology.com]

On 01/18/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, education, education technology, entrepreneurship, future, game-changing environment, homeschooling/homeschoolers, ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent tutoring, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, mathematics, Microsoft, online learning, online tutoring, parents/guardians, personalized/customized learning, platforms, remote teaching and learning, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual K-12 schools, virtual tutoring, vision/possibilities, youth, by Daniel Christian

Microsoft Education offers a free tutoring service to help students with their math problems — from educatorstechnology.com

Excerpt:

In today’s post I want to bring to your attention this interesting math resource from Microsoft Education called Tutoring Experts. As its name indicates, Tutoring Experts allows students to seek help with their math problems from tutors that are available 24/7.

Also see:

From DSC:
One wonders if there aren’t some opportunities here for more online-based tutoring services. Perhaps graduates from schools of education will move more towards this type of thing…

Perhaps the online-based materials in the future will have a question mark “?” icon that instantly connects to that service’s teachers, professors, trainers, pastors, and/or other SMEs. Or perhaps this type of thing is already there…I’m not sure.

“Best Online Educational Games for High School Students”+ “Learning Apps For Kids To Explore in 2021” [edtechreview.in’s Khan & Gupta]

On 01/15/2021, in 24x7x365 access, art, assistive technologies, attention, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, collaboration, culture, digital learning, drama/theater, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, elearning, engagement / engaging students, Google, homeschooling/homeschoolers, India, innovation, instructional design, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, mathematics, motivation, neurodivergent/special needs, programming, reading, real-world assignments, science, STEAM-related, student teaching/teacher education, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, tools, vendors, web-based collaboration, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

Best Online Educational Games for High School Students — from edtechreview.in by Saniya Khan

Excerpt:

…the introduction of educational games to kids helps increase their motivation and engagement, enhance visual skills, improve students’ interaction and collaboration abilities with their peers, and apply gaming values in a real-world situation; most importantly, it improves learning.

Learning Apps For Kids To Explore in 2021 — from edtechreview.in by Priyanka Gupta

Excerpt:

Living in a digital era and in times when technology has kept education going, let’s look at some promising learning apps for kids to explore in 2021.

A Record Year Amid a Pandemic: US Edtech Raises $2.2 Billion in 2020 [Wan]

On 01/14/2021, in Alternatives, career development, corporate / business world, digital learning, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, funding / grants, higher education, innovation, K-12 related, marketplaces, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, programming, social learning / networks, by Daniel Christian

A Record Year Amid a Pandemic: US Edtech Raises $2.2 Billion in 2020 — from edsurge.com by Tony Wan

Excerpts:

In 2020, U.S. education technology startups raised over $2.2 billion in venture and private equity capital across 130 deals, according to the EdSurge edtech funding database. That’s a nearly 30 percent increase from the $1.7 billion invested in 2019, which was spread across 105 deals.

Predictions and trends for Bio and Digital Healthcare in 2021

On 01/14/2021, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, engineering, health, innovation, telemedicine / telehealth / virtual health, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

It’s Time to Heal: 16 Trends Driving the Future of Bio and Healthcare — from a16z.com by Vineeta Agarwala, Jorge Conde, Vijay Pande, and Julie Yoo
It’s Time to Heal is a special package about engineering the future of bio and healthcare. See more at:

Also see:

5 Predictions for Digital Healthcare in 2021 — from wearable-technologies.com by Cathy Russey

Excerpts:

Remote patient care and telemedicine
Virtual Reality
Wearables
Artificial Intelligence
Advancements in Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Digital Trends Top Tech of CES 2021 Awards — from digitaltrends.com

Excerpt:

CES 2021 proved that the technology industry is uniquely suited to carry on in an all-digital environment. These are the companies that invented half the tools, after all. Press conferences went off without a hitch, companies shipped us prototypes to play with, and Digital Trends’ unique CES Experience Center made it possible to virtually come together as an editorial team and share our impressions with you, even from afar.

Oh, and the gadgets. Companies rose to the occasion with the usual spate of outrageous concepts, COVID-fighting devices to meet the moment, and new technologies we’ve been waiting ages for. So naturally, we had to pick the best of the best. Here they are.

6 Key Themes Driving Headlines At CES 2021 — from forbes.com by Daniel Newman

2021 Trend: Pandemic Tech — from web-strategist.com by Jeremiah Owyang

CES 2021: Home health havens — from intelligence.wundermanthompson.com by Emma Chiu

Addendums on 1/18/21:

Lessons For Legal: 2021 CES — from legaltechmonisotr.com by Stephen Embry
11 of the Most Memorable Quotes From CES 2021 — from interestingengineering.com by Donovan Alexander
From mobility to laptops, CES gave us a lot of insights into the future of technology.
Robotics trends at #CES2021 — from robohub.org by Daniel Carrillo-Zapata

Apple launches major new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative projects to challenge systemic racism, advance racial equity nationwide

On 01/14/2021, in Apple, colleges, funding / grants, Michigan, sociology, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Apple launches major new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative projects to challenge systemic racism, advance racial equity nationwide — from apple.com
Commitments build on Apple’s $100 million pledge and include a first-of-its-kind education hub for HBCUs and an Apple Developer Academy in Detroit

Also see:

Apple reveals how it will spend the $100 million it pledged in June toward racial equity — from fortune.com by Michal Lev-Ram

Excerpt:

On Wednesday morning [1/13/21], the iPhone maker said it would invest in a series of programs: a learning hub for historically Black colleges and universities (both online and brick-and-mortar, in Atlanta), an Apple Developer Academy to teach coding skills in Detroit, and a $10 million check toward venture capital funding for entrepreneurs of color.

3 Main Changes to Help Fill College Classrooms [Diana]

On 01/13/2021, in business side of he, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, funding / grants, higher education, law schools, leadership, new business models, parents/guardians, strategy, student-related, United States, universities, by Daniel Christian

3 Main Changes to Help Fill College Classrooms — from fierceeducation.com by Alison Diana

Excerpt:

Reducing Tuition:
Southern New Hampshire University last month announced it will cut the cost of its Fall 2021 campus-based programs to $15,000 or $10,000 per year and use “an increased focus on experiential and project-based learning; a new and more transparent financial aid process, shifting from merit-based to need-based financial aid awards to level the playing field for all students.”

This marks more than a 50% reduction of its fees, according to SNHU. The university also plans to increase its on-site campus enrollment to 4,500 students from 3,000, although it did not say how or if it expects to adapt faculty or administrative staffing.

SNHU is not alone in addressing tuition to encourage people to attend their schools.

Will more walls of the future be like one of those billboards (that presents two or three different images) and could change surfaces? [Christian]

On 01/13/2021, in A/V -- audio/visual, art, Augmented Reality (AR), Daniel S. Christian, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, entrepreneurship, experimentation, future, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, interaction design, interactivity, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, media/film, mirroring and/or multiple devices, Mixed Reality (MR), multi-touch, multimedia, usability, user experience (UX), user interface design, vendors, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, vision/possibilities, visualizing information, wearables, workplace, XR - extended reality, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
I was thinking about projecting images, animation, videos, etc. from a device onto a wall for all in the room to see.

Will more walls of the future be like one of those billboards (that presents two or three different images) and could change surfaces?

One side of the surface would be more traditional (i.e., a sheet wall type of surface). The other side of the surface would be designed to be excellent for projecting images onto it and/or for use by Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), and/or Virtual Reality (VR).

Along these lines, here’s another item related to Human-Computer Interaction (HCI):

Mercedes-Benz debuts dashboard that’s one giant touchscreen — from futurism.com

Learning Ecosystems

MOOC Enrollment Explodes in 2020 [Schaffhauser]

How Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther inspired this Black engineer [Zelik]

[Photo: VALERIE MACON/AFP via Getty Images]

DC: Thank you LORD for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!!!

The top trends and themes of the 2021 Consumers Electronics Show (CES)

Apple launches major new Racial Equity and Justice Initiative projects to challenge systemic racism, advance racial equity nationwide

Will more walls of the future be like one of those billboards (that presents two or three different images) and could change surfaces? [Christian]

Greetings!

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