21st century

“5 Ways Teachers Can Use NotebookLM Today” [Burns} + other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 12/29/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, adjunct faculty, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Australia, change, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, colleges, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate universities / corporate training, digital audio, digital learning, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, Google, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, liberal arts, library / librarians, lifelong learning, Open AI, personalized/customized learning, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, skills, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, the downsides of how people use tech, tools, training / L&D, United States, universities, vendors, vision/possibilities, by Daniel Christian

How AI Is Changing Education: The Year’s Top 5 Stories — from edweek.org by Alyson Klein

Ever since a new revolutionary version of chat ChatGPT became operable in late 2022, educators have faced several complex challenges as they learn how to navigate artificial intelligence systems.
…
Education Week produced a significant amount of coverage in 2024 exploring these and other critical questions involving the understanding and use of AI.

Here are the five most popular stories that Education Week published in 2024 about AI in schools.

What’s next with AI in higher education? — from msn.com by Science X Staff

Dr. Lodge said there are five key areas the higher education sector needs to address to adapt to the use of AI:

1. Teach ‘people’ skills as well as tech skills
2. Help all students use new tech
3. Prepare students for the jobs of the future
4. Learn to make sense of complex information
5. Universities to lead the tech change

5 Ways Teachers Can Use NotebookLM Today — from classtechtips.com by Dr. Monica Burns

This is wild.

Hume AI just announced a new AI voice model.

It’s like ChatGPT Advanced Voice Mode, Elevenlabs Voice Design, and Google NotebookLM in one.

t can create a voice with a whole personality from a description or 5 second clip. And more.

8 wild examples: pic.twitter.com/XOA779jSiE

— Min Choi (@minchoi) December 23, 2024

AI in 2024: Insights From our 5 Million Readers — from linkedin.com by Generative AI

Checking the Pulse: The Impact of AI on Everyday Lives
So, what exactly did our users have to say about how AI transformed their lives this year?
.

Top 2024 Developments in AI

Video Generation…
AI Employees…
Open Source Advancements…

Getting ready for 2025: your AI team members (Gift lesson 3/3) — from flexos.com by Daan van Rossum

And that’s why today, I’ll tell you exactly which AI tools I’ve recommended for the top 5 use cases to almost 200 business leaders who took the Lead with AI course.

1. Email Management: Simplifying Communication with AI

Microsoft Copilot for Outlook. …
Gemini AI for Gmail. …
Grammarly. …

2. Meeting Management: Maximize Your Time

Otter.ai. …
Copilot for Microsoft Teams. …
Other AI Meeting Assistants. Zoom AI Companion, Granola, and Fathom

3. Research: Streamlining Information Gathering

ChatGPT. …
Perplexity. …
Consensus. …

…plus several more items and tools that were mentioned by Daan.

Build-your-own media literacy calendar — Introducing the 2025 Calendar from Wonder Media [Sue Ellen Christian & Students]

On 12/29/2024, in 21st century, adjunct faculty, adult learning, business, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, curriculum, digital audio, digital learning, digital storytelling, digital video, education, education technology, educational games / serious games, experimentation, faculty/staff, global / globalization, graphics, higher education, ideas, internet, journalism, K-12 related, liberal arts, library / librarians, media/film, Michigan, multimedia, music, new media literacies, online media, parents/guardians, platforms, podcasting, political science, reading, skills, social learning / networks, social media, society, sociology, story, student-related, teachers, technologies for your home, TVs, United States, universities, vendors, writing, youth, by Daniel Christian

Introducing the 2025 Wonder Media Calendar for tweens, teens, and their families/households. Designed by Sue Ellen Christian and her students in her Global Media Literacy class (in the fall 2024 semester at Western Michigan University), the calendar’s purpose is to help people create a new year filled with skills and smart decisions about their media use. This calendar is part of the ongoing Wonder Media Library.com project that includes videos, lesson plans, games, songs and more. The website is funded by a generous grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in partnership with Western Michigan University and the Library of Michigan.

Tech Trends 2025 [Deloitte Insights]

On 12/21/2024, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, IT in HE, society, technology (general), trends, United States, by Daniel Christian

Tech Trends 2025 — from deloitte.com by Deloitte Insights
In Deloitte’s 16th annual Tech Trends report, AI is the common thread of nearly every trend. Moving forward, it will be part of the substructure of everything we do.

We propose that the future of technology isn’t so much about more AI as it is about ubiquitous AI. We expect that, going forward, AI will become so fundamentally woven into the fabric of our lives that it’s everywhere, and so foundational that we stop noticing it.

AI will eventually follow a similar path, becoming so ubiquitous that it will be a part of the unseen substructure of everything we do, and we eventually won’t even know it’s there. It will quietly hum along in the background, optimizing traffic in our cities, personalizing our health care, and creating adaptative and accessible learning paths in education. We won’t “use” AI. We’ll just experience a world where things work smarter, faster, and more intuitively—like magic, but grounded in algorithms. We expect that it will provide a foundation for business and personal growth while also adapting and sustaining itself over time.

Nowhere is this AI-infused future more evident than in this year’s Tech Trends report, which each year explores emerging trends across the six macro forces of information technology (figure 1). Half of the trends that we’ve chronicled are elevating forces—interaction, information, and computation—that underpin innovation and growth. The other half—the grounding forces of the business of technology, cyber and trust, and core modernization—help enterprises seamlessly operate while they grow.

“An AI tutor for every student” + numerous other items re: AI in our learning ecosystems

On 12/21/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, education, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, faculty/staff, future, future of higher education, game-changing environment, generational differences, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, leadership, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, liberal arts, lifelong learning, Open AI, personalized/customized learning, strategy, student-related, teachers, teaching & learning, teaching online, tools, training / L&D, United States, vendors, virtual tutoring, youth, by Daniel Christian

60 Minutes Overtime
Sal Khan wants an AI tutor for every student: here’s how it’s working at an Indiana high school — from cbsnews.com by Anderson Cooper, Aliza Chasan, Denise Schrier Cetta, and Katie Brennan

“I mean, that’s what I’ll always want for my own children and, frankly, for anyone’s children,” Khan said. “And the hope here is that we can use artificial intelligence and other technologies to amplify what a teacher can do so they can spend more time standing next to a student, figuring them out, having a person-to-person connection.”
…
“After a week you start to realize, like, how you can use it,” Brockman said. “That’s been one of the really important things about working with Sal and his team, to really figure out what’s the right way to sort of bring this to parents and to teachers and to classrooms and to do that in a way…so that the students really learn and aren’t just, you know, asking for the answers and that the parents can have oversight and the teachers can be involved in that process.”

Nectir lets teachers tailor AI chatbots to provide their students with 24/7 educational support — from techcrunch.com by Lauren Forristal

More than 100 colleges and high schools are turning to a new AI tool called Nectir, allowing teachers to create a personalized learning partner that’s trained on their syllabi, textbooks, and assignments to help students with anything from questions related to their coursework to essay writing assistance and even future career guidance.
…
With Nectir, teachers can create an AI assistant tailored to their specific needs, whether for a single class, a department, or the entire campus. There are various personalization options available, enabling teachers to establish clear boundaries for the AI’s interactions, such as programming the assistant to assist only with certain subjects or responding in a way that aligns with their teaching style.

“It’ll really be that customized learning partner. Every single conversation that a student has with any of their assistants will then be fed into that student profile for them to be able to see based on what the AI thinks, what should I be doing next, not only in my educational journey, but in my career journey,” Ghai said.

How Will AI Influence Higher Ed in 2025? — from insidehighered.com by Kathryn Palmer
No one knows for sure, but Inside Higher Ed asked seven experts for their predictions.

As the technology continues to evolve at a rapid pace, no one knows for sure how AI will influence higher education in 2025. But several experts offered Inside Higher Ed their predictions—and some guidance—for how colleges and universities will have to navigate AI’s potential in the new year.

How A.I. Can Revive a Love of Learning — from nytimes.com by Anant Agarwal
Modern technology offers new possibilities for transforming teaching.

In the short term, A.I. will help teachers create lesson plans, find illustrative examples and generate quizzes tailored to each student. Customized problem sets will serve as tools to combat cheating while A.I. provides instant feedback.
…
In the longer term, it’s possible to imagine a world where A.I. can ingest rich learner data and create personalized learning paths for students, all within a curriculum established by the teacher. Teachers can continue to be deeply involved in fostering student discussions, guiding group projects and engaging their students, while A.I. handles grading and uses the Socratic method to help students discover answers on their own. Teachers provide encouragement and one-on-one support when needed, using their newfound availability to give students some extra care.

Let’s be clear: A.I. will never replace the human touch that is so vital to education. No algorithm can replicate the empathy, creativity and passion a teacher brings to the classroom. But A.I. can certainly amplify those qualities. It can be our co-pilot, our chief of staff helping us extend our reach and improve our effectiveness.

Dancing with the Devil We Know: OpenAI and the Future of Education — from nickpotkalitsky.substack.com by Nick Potkalitsky
Analyzing OpenAI’s Student Writing Guide and Latest AI Tools

Today, I want to reflect on two recent OpenAI developments that highlight this evolution: their belated publication of advice for students on integrating AI into writing workflows, and last week’s launch of the full GPTo1 Pro version. When OpenAI released their student writing guide, there were plenty of snarky comments about how this guidance arrives almost a year after they thoroughly disrupted the educational landscape. Fair enough – I took my own side swipes initially. But let’s look at what they’re actually advising, because the details matter more than the timing.

Tutor CoPilot: A Human-AI Approach for Scaling Real-Time Expertise — from studentsupportaccelerator.org by Rose E.Wang, Ana T. Ribeiro, Carly D. Robinson, Susanna Loeb, and Dora Demszky

Pandemic, Politics, Pre-K & More: 12 Charts That Defined Education in 2024 — from the74million.org
From the spread of AI to the limits of federal COVID aid, these research findings captured the world of education this year.

Tutoring programs exploded in the last five years as states and school districts searched for ways to counter plummeting achievement during COVID. But the cost of providing supplemental instruction to tens of millions of students can be eye-watering, even as the results seem to taper off as programs serve more students.

That’s where artificial intelligence could prove a decisive advantage. A report circulated in October by the National Student Support Accelerator found that an AI-powered tutoring assistant significantly improved the performance of hundreds of tutors by prompting them with new ways to explain concepts to students. With the help of the tool, dubbed Tutor CoPilot, students assigned to the weakest tutors began posting academic results nearly equal to those assigned to the strongest. And the cost to run the program was just $20 per pupil.

On Capacity, Sustainability, And Attention — from marcwatkins.substack.com by Marc Watkins

Faculty must have the time and support necessary to come to terms with this new technology and that requires us to change how we view professional development in higher education and K-12. We cannot treat generative AI as a one-off problem that can be solved by a workshop, an invited talk, or a course policy discussion. Generative AI in education has to be viewed as a continuum. Faculty need a myriad of support options each semester:

Course buyouts
Fellowships
Learning communities
Reading groups
AI Institutes and workshops
Funding to explore the scholarship of teaching and learning around generative AI

New in 2025 and What Edleaders Should Do About It — from gettingsmart.com by Tom Vander Ark and Mason Pashia

Key Points

Education leaders should focus on integrating AI literacy, civic education, and work-based learning to equip students for future challenges and opportunities.
Building social capital and personalized learning environments will be crucial for student success in a world increasingly influenced by AI and decentralized power structures.

1-800-CHAT-GPT—12 Days of OpenAI: Day 10

Per The Rundown: OpenAI just launched a surprising new way to access ChatGPT — through an old-school 1-800 number & also rolled out a new WhatsApp integration for global users during Day 10 of the company’s livestream event.

How Agentic AI is Revolutionizing Customer Service — from customerthink.com by Devashish Mamgain

Agentic AI represents a significant evolution in artificial intelligence, offering enhanced autonomy and decision-making capabilities beyond traditional AI systems. Unlike conventional AI, which requires human instructions, agentic AI can independently perform complex tasks, adapt to changing environments, and pursue goals with minimal human intervention.

This makes it a powerful tool across various industries, especially in the customer service function. To understand it better, let’s compare AI Agents with non-AI agents.
…
Characteristics of Agentic AI

- Autonomy: Achieves complex objectives without requiring human collaboration.
- Language Comprehension: Understands nuanced human speech and text effectively.
- Rationality: Makes informed, contextual decisions using advanced reasoning engines.
- Adaptation: Adjusts plans and goals in dynamic situations.
- Workflow Optimization: Streamlines and organizes business workflows with minimal oversight.

Clio: A system for privacy-preserving insights into real-world AI use — from anthropic.com

How, then, can we research and observe how our systems are used while rigorously maintaining user privacy?

Claude insights and observations, or “Clio,” is our attempt to answer this question. Clio is an automated analysis tool that enables privacy-preserving analysis of real-world language model use. It gives us insights into the day-to-day uses of claude.ai in a way that’s analogous to tools like Google Trends. It’s also already helping us improve our safety measures. In this post—which accompanies a full research paper—we describe Clio and some of its initial results.

Evolving tools redefine AI video — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
Google’s Veo 2, Kling 1.6, Pika 2.0 & more

AI video continues to surpass expectations
The AI video generation space has evolved dramatically in recent weeks, with several major players introducing groundbreaking tools.

Here’s a comprehensive look at the current landscape:

Veo 2…
Pika 2.0…
Runway’s Gen-3…
Luma AI Dream Machine…
Hailuo’s MiniMax…
OpenAI’s Sora…
Hunyuan Video by Tencent…

There are several other video models and platforms, including …

“The Potential of GenAI to Promote Access to Justice” [Sprague] + “The legal tech trends that defined 2024” [ Black] + numerous other items re: legaltech

On 12/17/2024, in 21st century, Access to Justice (A2J), Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Canada, change, law schools, Legal operations, legal reform, legal technologies, legislatures / government / legal, parents/guardians, podcasting, society, United States, youth, by Daniel Christian

The legal tech trends that defined 2024 — from abajournal.com by Nicole Black

The year 2024 was one of change. In the midst of a largely unpopular back-to-office push, technological innovation and development occurred at a rapid clip. Legal professionals approached technology with a newfound curiosity and appreciation gained as a result of pandemic-era remote work experimentation. The increasing demand for generative artificial intelligence tools fueled heavy investments in the legal technology industry.

Simultaneously, law firm technology adoption was supported by a flurry of guidance released by ethics committees across the country. As technology upended traditional ways of working, some state bars reconsidered bar exam requirements and others experimented with loosening licensing regulations.

No matter where you looked, change was occurring at a breakneck pace as technology’s impact on the practice of law became inescapable. Through it all, a few key trends emerged that offer clues on where we’re headed in the coming year.

Meanwhile, some states, including Oregon, Washington and Nevada, explored allowing unlicensed professionals to practice law in limited areas, such as family law and small claims. These efforts seek to improve access to justice, representing a revised perspective on long-standing rules about who can —and cannot—deliver legal services.

What to Expect in 2025: AI Legal Tech and Regulation (65 Expert Predictions) — from natlawreview.com by Oliver Roberts

As 2024 comes to a close, it’s time to look ahead to how AI will shape the law and legal practice in 2025. Over the past year, we’ve witnessed growing adoption of AI across the legal sector, substantial investments in legal AI startups, and a rise in state-level AI regulations. While the future of 2025 remains uncertain, industry leaders are already sharing their insights.

Along with 2025 predictions from The National Law Review’s Editor-in-Chief Oliver Roberts, this article presents 65 expert predictions on AI and the law in 2025 from federal judges, startup founders, CEOs, and leaders of AI practice groups at global law firms.

The Potential of GenAI to Promote Access to Justice — from law.com by Joanne Sprague
GenAI-assisted legal support is not a substitute for lawyers, but may help legal aid professionals serve more clients efficiently and effectively.

Generative AI (GenAI) has been heralded as a transformative force, poised to revolutionize everything from medicine to education to law. While GenAI won’t perform surgery or earn diplomas, it holds the promise of enabling lawyers to get due process for more of their clients or even empowering individuals to represent themselves in court. The harsh reality is that low-income individuals do not receive sufficient legal help for 92% of their civil legal problems, and legal aid organizations must turn away one of every two requests they get, according to the 2022 Justice Gap Report. GenAI-assisted legal support is not a substitute for lawyers, but may help legal aid professionals serve more clients efficiently and effectively.

If implemented equitably, GenAI could democratize legal knowledge and empower individuals to navigate the complexities of the justice system more easily.

In her new book “Law Democratized,” Renee Knake Jefferson says that GenAI “has the potential to become the single most important tool in solving the legal justice crisis … if harnessed to do so ethically.” With GenAI, we can envision a possible future of informed self-representation and legal decision-making regardless of ability to pay.

Experimenting in the sandbox — from nationalmagazine.ca by Julie Sobowale
Ontario Bar Association launches AI platform for lawyers to learn tech

The Ontario Bar Association has launched a new, free interactive learning platform for lawyers looking to learn about generative AI.
…
The new learning platform, created to clarify some of that and help lawyers navigate this technology, is part of OBA’s Real Intelligence on AI project. It is being spearheaded by Colin Lachance, the association’s innovator-in-residence.

Users can ask questions to LawQI, an AI assistant specializing in Canadian law, and work through learning modules about prompt engineering, different generative AI tools and best practices. The portal is free for OBA members and Ontario law students.

“Lawyers need to know how AI works,” says Lachance, principal at PGYA Consulting and former president and CEO of the Canadian Legal Information Institute (CanLII).

“I wanted to create an environment where lawyers can experiment. By using the technology, you learn how to use it.”

The Innovation Strategist: Nicole Black — from substack.com by Tom Martin and Nicole Black
Where I interview Nicole Black about how she merged her legal expertise with her passion for technology to become a leading voice in legal innovation

Excerpt from Key Takeaways:

Her role as employee #1 at MyCase in 2012 allowed her to combine her legal expertise with her passion for technology, leading to her current position as Principal Legal Insight Strategist at Affinipay
She believes generative AI will fundamentally transform the legal profession, potentially more significantly than previous technological innovations like PCs and the internet
Her advice for new lawyers includes actively experimenting with AI tools like ChatGPT and preparing for significant changes in legal education and entry-level legal work

Legal Liabilities of AI for Attorneys and Small Firms — from ethicalailawinstitute.org by Trent Kubasiak

Many small firms and solo attorneys could be in for a nasty shock when it comes to the use of AI. A detailed report from NYU’s Journal of Legislation and Public Policy is shedding light on the potential legal liabilities of using generative AI. Co-authored by EqualAI CEO Miriam Vogel, former Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, and others, the report underscores a widespread misconception—that liability for AI-related outcomes rests solely with the developers of these technologies.

For attorneys and small business owners, this misconception can be dangerous. As Vogel explains, “There are so many laws on the books that people need to know are applicable.” From lending and housing regulations to employment law, the use of AI—even indirectly—can expose firms to significant risks.

Challenges And Opportunities Of Digital Transformation In US Law Firms — from forbes.com by Chad Sands

So, what is driving the transformation?

Some adoption of new “legal tech” is literally being forced by legacy software companies who are shutting down older, server-based technology platforms. But most law firms are now increasingly becoming more proactive in planning and executing their digital transformation strategies on their own.

This is no longer a choice or matter of “Why should we?”

It’s a question of “When will we?”

There are several factors driving this shift, one being client expectations.

Fresh Voices On Legal Tech with Ilona Logvinova — from legaltalknetwork.com by Dennis Kennedy, Tom Mighell, and Ilona Logvinova

The world of AI and legal tech is evolving ever more rapidly, and it is all too common for lawyers to feel intimidated at the thought of keeping up with the constant barrage of change. How should lawyers maintain their tech competence? Dennis and Tom talk with Ilona Logvinova about her work in tech and AI innovations for lawyers. She shares her career journey and offers perspectives on leveraging technology to create new and better opportunities for attorneys to thrive in their work.

AI Insights for Legal: Ten Key Takeaways from Summit AI New York — from techlawcrossroads.com by Stephen Embry

Despite the shortcomings, it still was a good Conference. (i.e., the Summit AI New York). I learned some things and confirmed that many of the AI related issues being faced by legal are also being faced by many other businesses. What were my top ten takeaways? Here they are in no particular order:

“What Is Agentic AI?” [Nvidia’s Pounds] + other items re: AI in general

On 12/09/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, Adobe, analytics, art, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, bots, business, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, communications, communities of practice, content development, aggregation, repositories, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, creativity, data related items, design, digital audio, digital learning, digital photography, digital storytelling, digital video, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, Google, graphics, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, IT in HE, K-12 related, learning, learning ecosystem, legislatures / government / legal, marketing/social marketing, media/film, Microsoft, multimedia, music, Natural Language Processing (NLP), new media literacies, NVIDIA, online media, Open AI, platforms, podcasting, presentations, productivity / tips and tricks, professional development, programming, skills, social media, strategy, student-related, technologies for your home, technology (general), tools, United States, vendors, videoconferencing, workplace, by Daniel Christian

Where to start with AI agents: An introduction for COOs — from fortune.com by Ganesh Ayyar

Picture your enterprise as a living ecosystem, where surging market demand instantly informs staffing decisions, where a new vendor’s onboarding optimizes your emissions metrics, where rising customer engagement reveals product opportunities. Now imagine if your systems could see these connections too! This is the promise of AI agents — an intelligent network that thinks, learns, and works across your entire enterprise.

Today, organizations operate in artificial silos. Tomorrow, they could be fluid and responsive. The transformation has already begun. The question is: will your company lead it?

The journey to agent-enabled operations starts with clarity on business objectives. Leaders should begin by mapping their business’s critical processes. The most pressing opportunities often lie where cross-functional handoffs create friction or where high-value activities are slowed by system fragmentation. These pain points become the natural starting points for your agent deployment strategy.

Create podcasts in minutes — from elevenlabs.io by Eleven Labs
Now anyone can be a podcast producer

Top AI tools for business — from theneuron.ai

This week in AI: 3D from images, video tools, and more — from heatherbcooper.substack.com by Heather Cooper
From 3D worlds to consistent characters, explore this week’s AI trends

Another busy AI news week, so I organized it into categories:

Image to 3D
AI Video
AI Image Models & Tools
AI Assistants / LLMs
AI Creative Workflow: Luma AI Boards

Want to speak Italian? Microsoft AI can make it sound like you do. — this is a gifted article from The Washington Post;
A new AI-powered interpreter is expected to simulate speakers’ voices in different languages during Microsoft Teams meetings.

Artificial intelligence has already proved that it can sound like a human, impersonate individuals and even produce recordings of someone speaking different languages. Now, a new feature from Microsoft will allow video meeting attendees to hear speakers “talk” in a different language with help from AI.

What Is Agentic AI? — from blogs.nvidia.com by Erik Pounds
Agentic AI uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems.

The next frontier of artificial intelligence is agentic AI, which uses sophisticated reasoning and iterative planning to autonomously solve complex, multi-step problems. And it’s set to enhance productivity and operations across industries.

Agentic AI systems ingest vast amounts of data from multiple sources to independently analyze challenges, develop strategies and execute tasks like supply chain optimization, cybersecurity vulnerability analysis and helping doctors with time-consuming tasks.

Reflections on “US College Closures Are Expected to Soar, Fed Research Says” [Bloomberg.com]

On 12/07/2024, in 21st century, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, business side of he, change, changing business models, colleges, community colleges, cost of getting a degree, dangers of the status quo, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, economics, faculty/staff, game-changing environment, higher education, ideas, law schools, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, legislatures / government / legal, liberal arts, new business models, parents/guardians, policy, reinvent, society, staying relevant, student-related, surviving, United States, universities, vendors, by Daniel Christian

US College Closures Are Expected to Soar, Fed Research Says — from bloomberg.com

Fed research created predictive model of college stress
Worst-case scenario forecasts 80 additional closures

The number of colleges that close each year is poised to significantly increase as schools contend with a slowdown in prospective students.

That’s the finding of a new working paper published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, where researchers created predictive models of schools’ financial distress using metrics like enrollment and staffing patterns, sources of revenue and liquidity data. They overlayed those models with simulations to estimate the likely increase of future closures.

Excerpt from the working paper:

We document a high degree of missing data among colleges that eventually close and show that this is a key impediment to identifying at risk institutions. We then show that modern machine learning techniques, combined with richer data, are far more effective at predicting college closures than linear probability models, and considerably more effective than existing accountability metrics. Our preferred model, which combines an off-the-shelf machine learning algorithm with the richest set of explanatory variables, can significantly improve predictive accuracy even for institutions with complete data, but is particularly helpful for predicting instances of financial distress for institutions with spotty data.

From DSC:
Questions that come to my mind here include:

Shouldn’t the public — especially those relevant parents and students — be made more aware of these types of papers and reports?
.
How would any of us like finishing up 1-3 years of school and then being told that our colleges or universities were closing, effective immediately? (This has happened many times already.) and with the demographic cliff starting to hit higher education, this will happen even more now.
.
Adding insult to injury…when we transfer to different institutions, we’re told that many of our prior credits don’t transfer — thus adding a significant amount to the overall cost of obtaining our degrees.
.
Would we not be absolutely furious to discover such communications from our prior — and new — colleges and universities?
.
Will all of these types of closures move more people to this vision here?

Relevant excerpts from Ray Schroeder’s recent articles out at insidehighered.com:

Winds of Change in Higher Ed to Become a Hurricane in 2025

A number of factors are converging to create a huge storm. Generative AI advances, massive federal policy shifts, broad societal and economic changes, and the demographic cliff combine to create uncertainty today and change tomorrow.

Higher Education in 2025: AGI Agents to Displace People

The anticipated enrollment cliff, reductions in federal and state funding, increased inflation, and dwindling public support for tuition increases will combine to put even greater pressure on university budgets.

On the positive side of things, the completion rates have been getting better:

National college completion rate ticks up to 61.1% — from highereddive.com by Natalie Schwartz
Those who started at two-year public colleges helped drive the overall increase in students completing a credential.

Dive Brief:

Completion rates ticked up to 61.1% for students who entered college in fall 2018, a 0.5 percentage-point increase compared to the previous cohort, according to data released Wednesday by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.
The increase marks the highest six-year completion rate since 2007 when the clearinghouse began tracking the data. The growth was driven by fewer students stopping out of college, as well as completion gains among students who started at public two-year colleges.
“Higher completion rates are welcome news for colleges and universities still struggling to regain enrollment levels from before the pandemic,” Doug Shapiro, the research center’s executive director, said in a statement dated Wednesday.

Addendum:

Attention Please: Professors Struggle With Student Disengagement — from edsurge.com

The stakes are huge, because the concern is that maybe the social contract between students and professors is kind of breaking down. Do students believe that all this college lecturing is worth hearing? Or, will this moment force a change in the way college teaching is done?

How AI is transforming learning for dyslexic students — from eschoolnews.com by Samay Bhojwani, University of Nebraska–Lincoln
As schools continue to adopt AI-driven tools, educators can close the accessibility gap and help dyslexic students thrive

Many traditional methods lack customization and don’t empower students to fully engage with content on their terms. Every dyslexic student experiences challenges differently, so a more personalized approach is essential for fostering comprehension, engagement, and academic growth.
…
Artificial intelligence is increasingly recognized for its potential to transform educational accessibility. By analyzing individual learning patterns, AI-powered tools can tailor content to meet each student’s specific needs. For dyslexic students, this can mean summarizing complex texts, providing auditory support, or even visually structuring information in ways that aid comprehension.

NotebookLM How-to Guide 2024 — from ai-supremacy.com by Michael Spencer and Alex McFarland
With Audio Version | A popular guide reloaded.

In this guide, I’ll show you:

How to use the new advanced audio customization features
Two specific workflows for synthesizing information (research papers and YouTube videos)
Pro tips for maximizing results with any type of content
Common pitfalls to avoid (learned these the hard way)

The State of Instructional Design 2024: A Field on the Brink of Disruption? — from drphilippahardman.substack.com by Dr. Philippa Hardman
My hot takes from a global survey I ran with Synthesia

As I mentioned on LinkedIn, earlier this week Synthesia published the results of a global survey that we ran together the state of instructional design in 2024.

Boundless Socratic Learning: Google DeepMind’s Vision for AI That Learns Without Limits — from by Giorgio Fazio

Google DeepMind researchers have unveiled a groundbreaking framework called Boundless Socratic Learning (BSL), a paradigm shift in artificial intelligence aimed at enabling systems to self-improve through structured language-based interactions. This approach could mark a pivotal step toward the elusive goal of artificial superintelligence (ASI), where AI systems drive their own development with minimal human input.

The promise of Boundless Socratic Learning lies in its ability to catalyze a shift from human-supervised AI to systems that evolve and improve autonomously. While significant challenges remain, the introduction of this framework represents a step toward the long-term goal of open-ended intelligence, where AI is not just a tool but a partner in discovery.

5 courses to take when starting out a career in Agentic AI — from techloy.com by David Adubiina
This will help you join the early train of experts who are using AI agents to solve real world problems.

This surge in demand is creating new opportunities for professionals equipped with the right skills. If you’re considering a career in this innovative field, the following five courses will provide a solid foundation when starting a career in Agentic AI.

DC: This is a great posting! “AI Tutors: Hype or Hope for Education?” [Bailey & Warner]

On 12/04/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, content development, aggregation, repositories, education, education reform, education technology, emerging technologies, engagement / engaging students, experimentation, future, game-changing environment, Google, human-computer interaction (HCI), innovation, instructional design, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learning, learning agents, learning ecosystem, Learning Experience Design, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning preferences, mathematics, multimedia, new media literacies, Open AI, personalized/customized learning, relationships, science, skills, student-related, teachers, the downsides of how people use tech, United States, vendors, vision/possibilities, writing, by Daniel Christian

AI Tutors: Hype or Hope for Education? — from educationnext.org by John Bailey and John Warner
In a new book, Sal Khan touts the potential of artificial intelligence to address lagging student achievement. Our authors weigh in.

In Salman Khan’s new book, Brave New Words: How AI Will Revolutionize Education (and Why That’s a Good Thing) (Viking, 2024), the Khan Academy founder predicts that AI will transform education by providing every student with a virtual personalized tutor at an affordable cost. Is Khan right? Is radically improved achievement for all students within reach at last? If so, what sorts of changes should we expect to see, and when? If not, what will hold back the AI revolution that Khan foresees? John Bailey, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, endorses Khan’s vision and explains the profound impact that AI technology is already making in education. John Warner, a columnist for the Chicago Tribune and former editor for McSweeney’s Internet Tendency, makes the case that all the hype about AI tutoring is, as Macbeth quips, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

Adapting to the future | Educause

Institutions are balancing capacity issues and rapid technological advancements—including artificial intelligence—while addressing a loss of trust in higher education.

To adapt to the future, technology and data leaders must work strategically to restore trust, prepare for policy updates, and plan for online education growth.

2024-11-22: The Race to the TopDario Amodei on AGI, Risks, and the Future of Anthropic — from emergentbehavior.co by Prakash (Ate-a-Pi)

Risks on the Horizon: ASL Levels
The two key risks Dario is concerned about are:

a) cyber, bio, radiological, nuclear (CBRN)
b) model autonomy

These risks are captured in Anthropic’s framework for understanding AI Safety Levels (ASL):

1. ASL-1: Narrow-task AI like Deep Blue (no autonomy, minimal risk).
2. ASL-2: Current systems like ChatGPT/Claude, which lack autonomy and don’t pose significant risks beyond information already accessible via search engines.
3. ASL-3: Agents arriving soon (potentially next year) that can meaningfully assist non-state actors in dangerous activities like cyber or CBRN (chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear) attacks. Security and filtering are critical at this stage to prevent misuse.
4. ASL-4: AI smart enough to evade detection, deceive testers, and assist state actors with dangerous projects. AI will be strong enough that you would want to use the model to do anything dangerous. Mechanistic interpretability becomes crucial for verifying AI behavior.
5. ASL-5: AGI surpassing human intelligence in all domains, posing unprecedented challenges.

Anthropic’s if/then framework ensures proactive responses: if a model demonstrates danger, the team clamps down hard, enforcing strict controls.

Should You Still Learn to Code in an A.I. World? — from nytimes.com by
Coding boot camps once looked like the golden ticket to an economically secure future. But as that promise fades, what should you do? Keep learning, until further notice.

Compared with five years ago, the number of active job postings for software developers has dropped 56 percent, according to data compiled by CompTIA. For inexperienced developers, the plunge is an even worse 67 percent.
“I would say this is the worst environment for entry-level jobs in tech, period, that I’ve seen in 25 years,” said Venky Ganesan, a partner at the venture capital firm Menlo Ventures.

For years, the career advice from everyone who mattered — the Apple chief executive Tim Cook, your mother — was “learn to code.” It felt like an immutable equation: Coding skills + hard work = job.

Now the math doesn’t look so simple.

Also see:

AI builds apps in 2 mins flat — where the Neuron mentions this excerpt about Lovable:

There’s a new coding startup in town, and it just MIGHT have everybody else shaking in their boots (we’ll qualify that in a sec, don’t worry).

It’s called Lovable, the “world’s first AI fullstack engineer.”
…
Lovable does all of that by itself. Tell it what you want to build in plain English, and it creates everything you need. Want users to be able to log in? One click. Need to store data? One click. Want to accept payments? You get the idea.

Early users are backing up these claims. One person even launched a startup that made Product Hunt’s top 10 using just Lovable.

As for us, we made a Wordle clone in 2 minutes with one prompt. Only edit needed? More words in the dictionary. It’s like, really easy y’all.

When to chat with AI (and when to let it work) — from aiwithallie.beehiiv.com by Allie K. Miller

Re: some ideas on how to use Notebook LM:

Turn your company’s annual report into an engaging podcast
Create an interactive FAQ for your product manual
Generate a timeline of your industry’s history from multiple sources
Produce a study guide for your online course content
Develop a Q&A system for your company’s knowledge base
Synthesize research papers into digestible summaries
Create an executive content briefing from multiple competitor blog posts
Generate a podcast discussing the key points of a long-form research paper

Introducing conversation practice: AI-powered simulations to build soft skills — from codesignal.com by Albert Sahakyan

From DSC:
I have to admit I’m a bit suspicious here, as the “conversation practice” product seems a bit too scripted at times, but I post it because the idea of using AI to practice soft skills development makes a great deal of sense:

This is mind-blowing!

NVIDIA has introduced Edify 3D, a 3D AI generator that lets us create high-quality 3D scenes using just a simple prompt. And all the assets are fully editable!

This is going to revolutionise the way we create!

5 Examples: pic.twitter.com/5yWlvL1cWD

— el.cine (@EHuanglu) November 24, 2024

Reflections on “Introducing Copilot Actions, new agents, and tools to empower IT teams” [Spataro]

On 11/21/2024, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, business, Daniel S. Christian, human-computer interaction (HCI), ideas, innovation, Microsoft, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, tools, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Introducing Copilot Actions, new agents, and tools to empower IT teams — from microsoft.com by Jared Spataro

[On November 19th] at Microsoft Ignite 2024, we’re accelerating our ambition to empower every employee with Copilot as a personal assistant and to transform every business process with agents built in Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Announcements include:

Copilot Actions in Microsoft 365 Copilot to help you automate everyday repetitive tasks.
New agents in Microsoft 365 to unlock SharePoint knowledge, provide real-time language interpretation in Microsoft Teams meetings, and automate employee self-service.
The Copilot Control System to help IT professionals confidently manage Copilot and agents securely.

These announcements build on our wave 2 momentum, including the new autonomous agent capabilities that we announced in October 2024.

Per the Rundown AI:

By integrating AI agents directly into Microsoft’s billion-plus users’ daily workflows, this release could normalize agentic AI faster than any previous rollout. Just as users now reach for specific apps or plugins to solve particular problems, specialized agents could soon become the natural first stop for getting work done.

Along these lines, also see:

AI agents — what they are, and how they’ll change the way we work — from news.microsoft.com by Susanna Ray

An agent takes the power of generative AI a step further, because instead of just assisting you, agents can work alongside you or even on your behalf. Agents can do a range of things, from responding to questions to more complicated or multistep assignments. What sets them apart from a personal assistant is that they can be tailored to have a particular expertise.

For example, you could create an agent to know everything about your company’s product catalog so it can draft detailed responses to customer questions or automatically compile product details for an upcoming presentation.

Microsoft pitches AI ‘agents’ that can perform tasks on their own at Ignite 2024 — from techxplore.com
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella told customers at a conference in Chicago on Tuesday that the company is teaching a new set of artificial intelligence tools how to “act on our behalf across our work and life.”

From DSC:
I am not trying to push all things AI. There are serious concerns that I and others have with agents and other AI-based technologies especially:

When competitive juices get going and such forces throw people and companies into a sort of an AI arms race, and
When many people haven’t yet obtained the wisdom of reflecting on things like “just because we CAN build this doesn’t mean we SHOULD build it”, or
When governments seek to be the leader of AI due to military applications (and yes, I’m looking at the U.S. Federal Government especially here)
Etc, etc.

But there are also areas where I’m more hopeful and positive about AI-related technologies — such as providing personalized learning and productivity tools (like those from Microsoft above).

VR training aims to help doctors avoid bias — from inavateonthenet.net

A new virtual reality training programme aims to tackle biases in healthcare settings, aimed at improving recognition, understanding, and addressing implicit bias towards black mothers.

Participants in the program at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign underwent a series of three modules, with the first module focusing on implicit bias and how it can negatively affect a patient at a doctor’s appointment.

Learning Ecosystems

VR training aims to help doctors avoid bias [inavateonthenet.net]

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