DreamBox Learning CEO to speak on adaptive learning at Arizona State University Education Innovation Summit – from

DreamBox Learning (http://www.dreambox.com), the leading adaptive learning company, today announced that its President and Chief Executive Officer, Jessie Woolley-Wilson, will speak at the Arizona State (ASU) Education Innovation Summit about the positive impact of intelligent adaptive technology in the classroom. The panel session — Is Farmville the Future of Learning?  Games, Social Platforms, Adaptive Technology – will be held on Wednesday, April 6 at 1:15 p.m. at SkySong, the ASU Innovation Center in Scottsdale. The full Education Innovation Summit runs from April 5-7.

“The ASU Education Innovation Summit provides a platform for education and technology trailblazers to come together in a think tank environment to share ideas about how to ensure that our kids, teachers and school administrators have the critical tools to achieve academic greatness,” said Jessie Woolley-Wilson, President and CEO of DreamBox Learning. “I’m very excited to join respected industry colleagues to discuss how intelligent adaptive learning technology, social platforms, and gaming principles are collectively having a transformative impact on our education system and future generations of learners.”

Ms. Woolley-Wilson will share insights on the evolving adaptive learning sector as well as showcase how DreamBox Learning’s intelligent adaptive learning platform is leading the transformation, helping kids at any skill level achieve math proficiency.

Zite.com -- your own personalized magazine

 

From DSC:
Interesting if this same concept could be applied towards developing a personalized digital textbook that a student could build over time…and be assessed up what they came up with. Also the student could take the personalized textbook with them. Cool.

 

Also see:

 

4/1/11 addendums:

From DSC:
In my mind, this area of intelligent systems and agents is one of the most important areas to watch in the years ahead.  Such efforts should help us develop sophisticated systems that can help deliver personalized, customized education at the K-12 and higher ed levels…and perhaps will be relevant in the L&D space as well.

The innovations that come from this area may make hybrid-based — as well as  100% online-based learning — incredibly powerful!

If someone can develop such systems and make them available at far cheaper prices than exist today, a quality “Walmart of Education” will truly have been built.


 IADIS International Conference: Intelligent Systems and Agents - in Rome, July 24-26, 2011

 

Per the Call for Papers section, the topics for this conference include, but are not limited to:

 

Area 1 – Intelligent Systems  

– Algorithms

– Artificial Intelligence

– Automation Systems and Control

– Bioinformatics

– Computational Intelligence

– Expert Systems

– Fuzzy Technologies and Systems

– Game and Decision Theories

– Intelligent Control Systems

– Intelligent Internet Systems

– Intelligent Software Systems

– Intelligent Systems

– Machine Learning

– Neural Networks

– Neurocomputers

– Optimization

– Parallel Computation

– Pattern Recognition

– Robotics and Autonomous Robots

– Signal Processing

– Systems Modelling

– Web Mining

 

 

 

 

Area 2 – Agents  

– Adaptive Agent Systems

– Agent Applications

– Agent Communication

– Agent Development

– Agent middleware

– Agent Models and Architectures

– Agent Ontologies

– Agent Oriented Systems and Engineering

– Agent Programming, Languages and Environments

– Agent Systems

– Agent Technologies

– Agent Theories

– Agent Trends

– Agents Analysis and Design

– Agents and Learning

– Agents and Ubiquitous Computing

– Agents in Networks

– Agents Protocols and Standards

– Artificial Systems

– Computational Complexity

– eCommerce and Agents

– Embodied Agents

– Mobile Agents

– Multi-Agent Systems

– Negotiation Strategies

– Performance Issues

– Security, Privacy and Trust

– Semantic Grids

– Simulation

– Web Agents

 

 

MBA Curriculum Changes: Wharton, Yale, and Stanford Lead the Pack — from knewton.com by Christina Yu

Excerpt (citing article from a  U.S. News article):

“Rather than consider pre-digested summaries of company situations, students tackle ‘raw cases’ packed with original data. Instead of being presented with an income statement, for example, they must mine the considerably bulkier annual filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission for data. The raw cases ‘push us to understand,’ says second-year Yale student Jason Hill. ‘They purposely put in more material than you could ever look at, but you have to learn where to look.’” (emphasis DSC)

From DSC:
I found this to be a good, interesting post. I just had a couple of thoughts that I wanted to throw out there re: it.

In looking at trends from an 80,000-foot level, I’d vote for MBA programs integrating much more of the tech-know-how — and/or appreciation of what technologies can bring to the table — as well as teaching grad students about some of the tools/technologies that are emerging these days (and I’d bet that the leaders/schools mentioned in this article are already doing this) .

I remember an instructor years ago — at SFSU’s MSP Program — saying that bots and agents will be the key to making decisions in the future, as there will be too much information for a person to sift through. The streams of content need to be tapped — but in efficient ways. So perhaps the logical step here is for MBA students to learn what bots/agents are, how to use them, and what their applications might be in making business/strategic decisions.

The most successful organizations of the future will be well-versed in technologies and what the applications/benefits of these technologies are. My bet? If you don’t have a technologist at the power table of your organization, the outlook doesn’t look very bright for your organization in terms of surviving and thriving in the future. Organizations will also need to be willing to take risks and move forward without having a full cost-benefit analysis done — as many times these don’t work well or are not even possible when implementing tech-based endeavors/visions.

Also relevant here:

 

The Connected Life at Home — from Cisco

The connected life at home -- from Cisco

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From DSC:

How will these types of technologies affect what we can do with K-12 education/higher education/workplace training and development? I’d say they will open up a world of new applications and opportunities for those who are ready to innovate; and these types of technologies will move the “Forthcoming Walmart of Education” along.

Above item from:

Tagged with:  

Elementary, my dear Watson: Jeopardy computer offers insight into human cognition — from Sentient Developments by George Dvorsky

Also see:

  1. Massive parallelism:
    Exploit massive parallelism in the consideration of multiple interpretations and hypotheses.
  2. Many experts:
    Facilitate the integration, application and con-textual evaluation of a wide range of loosely coupled probabilistic question and content analytics.
  3. Pervasive confidence estimation:
    No single component commits to an answer; all components produce features and associated confidences, scoring different question and contentinterpretations. An underlying confidence processing substratelearns how to stack and combine the scores.
  4. Integrate shallow and deep knowledge:
    Balance the use of strict semantics and shallow semantics, leveraging many loosely formed ontologies.

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IBM's Watson -- incredible AI!

Semantic technologies and learning — from Steve Wheeler

Excerpt:

The January special issue of Interactive Learning Environments is out right now. Our guest editors have done a great job drawing together 5 excellent papers under the banner of ‘Semantic Technologies for Multimedia Enhanced Learning Environments’ and for Learning with ‘e’s readers, here is the editorial in full, with excellent summaries of all the papers by our special issue editors Marco Bertini, Vladan Devedzic, Dragan Gasevic and Carlo Torniai…

This special issue solicited papers focused on the use of semantic technologies in multimedia-enhanced learning environments. In this call, we were especially interested in publishing research reports and lessons learned in the following research tasks:

  • Ontologies and semantic annotations for multimedia learning objects.
  • Collaborative tagging and folksonomies for multimedia learning objects.
  • Semantic social networking in multimedia-based learning environments.
  • Semantic technologies for enabling pedagogical theories in multimedia-enhanced learning environments.
  • Semantic-enhanced learning designs in multimedia-enhanced learning.
  • Semantic technologies for personalization and adaptation of multimedia-enhanced learning.
  • Semantic-rich service-oriented architectures for multimedia learning environments.
  • Semantic multimedia content for (collaborative) mobile learning.

IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies TLT is a scholarly archival journal published quarterly using a delayed open access publication model.

IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (TLT) is an archival journal published quarterly. TLT covers research on such topics as Innovative online learning systems, Intelligent tutors, Educational software applications and games, and Simulation systems for education and training.

The Web revolution, the popularity of on-line learning, and the broad availability of computers in schools, colleges, universities, workplaces and in other social settings has caused a qualitative change in the field of learning technologies. Both the variety and the complexity of e-learning tools have increased dramatically over the last 10 years. A number of new conferences emerged to provide a forum for researchers and practitioners in the field of learning technologies to discuss their work. Yet, there are very few journals, which embrace the field as a whole and provide a space to publish archival quality papers. The goal of IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies (TLT) is to bridge this gap.TLT covers all advances in learning technologies, including but not limited to the following topics:

  • Innovative online learning systems
  • Intelligent tutors
  • Educational software applications and games
  • Simulation systems for education and training
  • Collaborative learning tools
  • Devices and interfaces for learning
  • Interactive techniques for learning
  • Personalized and adaptive learning systems
  • Tools for formative and summative assessment
  • Ontologies for learning systems
  • Standards and web services that support learning
  • Authoring tools for learning materials
  • Computer support for peer tutoring
  • Learning via discovery, field, and lab work
  • Learning with mobile devices
  • Social learning techniques
  • Social networks and infrastructures for learning and knowledge sharing
  • Creation and management of learning objects

IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies
The IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies will publish archival research papers and critical survey papers. Topics within the scope include technology advances in online learning systems; intelligent tutors; educational software applications and games; simulation systems for education and training; collaborative learning tools, devices and interfaces for learning; interactive techniques for learning; tools for formative and summative assessment; ontologies for learning systems; standards and web services that support learning; authoring tools for learning materials; computer support for peer tutoring and learning via discovery or project work or field or lab work; and creation and management of learning objects. A paper must either describe original research or offer a critical review of the state of the art in a particular area. Papers concerned with evaluation of technology are only appropriate if the technology itself is novel or if significant technical insights are provided. In order to best serve the community, the TLT will be published online, using a delayed open-access policy under which paying subscribers and per-article purchasers have access to newly published content, and then 12 months after the publication of each issue, all readers will have access to the content, free of charge.

Commentary: Universities on the brink — from Forbes.com by Louis E. Lataif
The ever-increasing cost of education is not sustainable.

From DSC:
Regular readers of this Learning Ecosystems blog can point to numerous postings that illustrate that those of us in higher education are in a game-changing environment. Alternative methods of acquiring an education are springing up more frequently now — disruption is here. The status quo is a dangerous path to be on.

If…

  • learning engines hooked into web-based learner profiles occurs — ushering in an era of unprecedented customization/personalization of learning on demand…
  • web-based educations cost a small fraction of what you have to pay elsewhere…
  • the rates of tuition increases continue in colleges and universities across the land…
  • the Internet brings the level of disruption to higher education that it has brought to other industries…

…then what are our plans for remaining relevant and accessible? How are we planning to deal with these trends? What is our response(s)? What is our vision?

Behavior Learning Engine from netuitive.com
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Along these lines, check out:
‘Jeopardy’ champs take on IBM’s Watson

“This is huge; this isn’t just about answering questions,” says computational linguistics expert George Luger of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, who was not part of IBM’s team. “Everything before this was just a run-up to computers as true personal assistants.”


ALA 2011: Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop held at AAMAS 2011 — from Intelligent Systems

Adaptive and Learning Agents, particularly those in a multi-agent setting are becoming more and more prominent as the sheer size and complexity of many real world systems grows. How to adaptively control, coordinate and optimize such systems is an emerging multi-disciplinary research area at the intersection of Computer Science, Control theory, Economics, and Biology.

The Ultimate Study Guide: Wolfram Alpha Launches “Course Assistant” Apps — from ReadWriteWeb by Audrey Watters

The computational knowledge engine Wolfram|Alpha is launching the first three of a series of new “course assistant” apps today. These apps, available for iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, are designed to take advantage of the Wolfram|Alpha technology in the service of supporting some of the most popular courses in high school and college.

The idea is to be able to quickly access the pertinent capabilities of Wolfram|Alpha relevant for specific subject areas. Currently, these subject areas are Algebra, Calculus, and Music Theory. But the company says it plans to add apps for other subjects – “for every major course, from elementary school to graduate school,” – including those fields outside math and science.

From DSC:
Notice the term engine (in bold maroon above).
This is the type of sophisticated programming that will increasingly be baked into future learning products — as the software seeks to learn more about each learner while providing each learner with a more customized learning experience…pushing them, but aiming to encourage — not discourage — them. I can see an opt-in program where each of us can build a cloud/web-based learner profile — and allow such an engine to be “fed” that data.



Adaptive and Learning Agents Workshop 2011 [call for proposals]
The topics of interest include but are not limited to:

* Novel combinations of reinforcement and supervised learning approaches
* Integrated learning approaches that work with other agent reasoning modules like negotiation, trust models, coordination, etc.
* Supervised multi-agent learning
* Reinforcement learning (single and multi-agent)
* Planning (single and multi-agent)
* Reasoning (single and multi-agent)
* Distributed learning
* Adaptation and learning in dynamic environments
* Evolution of agents in complex environments
* Co-evolution of agents in a multi-agent setting
* Cooperative exploration and learning to cooperate and collaborate
* Learning trust and reputation
* Communication restrictions and their impact on multi-agent coordination
* Design of reward structure and fitness measures for coordination
* Scaling learning techniques to large systems of learning and adaptive agents
* Emergent behaviour in adaptive multi-agent systems
* Game theoretical analysis of adaptive multi-agent systems
* Neuro-control in multi-agent systems
* Bio-inspired multi-agent systems
* Applications of adaptive and learning agents and multi-agent systems to real world complex systems
* Learning of Co-ordination

The Pivot to Digital Learning: 40 Predictions — from Tom Vander Ark, Partner, Revolution Learning — via EdNet Insights

From DSC:
That posting includes predictions for changes that we’ll see in the next 1, 5 and 10 years…with some excerpts below:

3. Lingering budget woes will cause several districts and charter networks, particularly in California, to flip to a blended model, with a shift to online or computer-based instruction for a portion of the day to boost learning and operating productivity.

9. The instant feedback from content-embedded assessment, especially learning games, simulations, virtual environments, and MMOs (massively multiplayer online games), will be widely used in formal and informal learning and will build persistence and time on task.

10. Adaptive content will result in more time on task (in some cases, two times the productive learning time over the course of a year), and better targeted learning experiences will boost achievement, particularly among low-income and minority students.

11. Comprehensive learner profiles will gather keystroke data from learning platforms, content-embedded applications, as well as after-school, summer school, tutoring, and test prep providers. Students and families will manage privacy using Facebook-like profiles.

12. Most learning platforms will feature a smart recommendation engine, like iTunes Genius, that will build recommended learning playlists for students.

18. All U.S. students will have access to online courses for Advanced Placement, high-level STEM courses, and any foreign language (this should happen next year, but it will take us five years to get out of our own way).

23. Second-generation online learning will replace courseware with adaptive components in a digital content library (objects, lessons, units, and sequences).

27. Most high school students will do most of their learning online and will attend a blended school.

28. More than one-third of all learning professionals will be in roles that do not exist today; more than 10% will be in organizations that do not exist today.

29. The higher ed funding bubble will burst, and free and low-cost higher education alternatives will displace a significant portion of third tier higher education (emphasis DSC).

37. There will be several DIY High options—online high schools with an engaging and intuitive merit badge sequence that will allow students to take ownership of and direct their own learning. They will still benefit from adult assessment, guidance, and mentorship but in a more student-directed fashion.

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