Digitally-based means of learning are going to skyrocket!!! Here’s why. [Christian]

On 03/18/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, active learning, analytics, assessment, assistive technologies, blended learning, collaboration, colleges, communications, communities of practice, community colleges, Daniel S. Christian, digital learning, distance education, education technology, emerging technologies, face-to-face, higher education, homeschooling/homeschoolers, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, ideas, innovation, interactivity, internet, IT in HE, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning spaces, mobile learning, mobile technologies, multimedia, Near Field Communication (NFC), new business models, online learning, online media, online tutoring, participation, platforms, productivity / tips and tricks, second screen apps, smart classrooms, student-related, teaching & learning, telecommunications, telepresence, television, tools, training / L&D, trends, TVs, universities, user experience (UX), using teams, vendors, videoconferencing, virtual tutoring, web-based collaboration, by Daniel Christian

Key point from DSC:
Digitally-based means of learning are going to skyrocket!!! Far more than what we’ve seen so far! There are several trends that are occurring to make this so.

As background here, some of the keywords and phrases that are relevant to this posting include:

Wireless content sharing
Wireless collaboration solutions
Active learning based classrooms
Conference rooms
Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
Enterprise wireless display solutions
Enterprise collaboration solutions
Cross platform support: iOS, Android, Windows
Personalized learning
Learning analytics

Some of the relevant products in this area include:

Bluescape
Mezzanine from Oblong Industries
Montage from DisplayNote Technologies
ThinkHub and ViewHub from T1V
Mersive Solstice
Crestron AirMedia
Barco Clickshare
Haworth Workware Wireless
Christi Brio
AMX enzo
NovoConnect from Vivitek
Arrive MediaPoint
Apple TV
Chromecast

From DSC:

First of all, consider the following products and the functionalities they offer.

People who are in the same physical space can collaborate with people from all over the world — no matter if they are at home, in another office, on the road, etc.

For several of these products, remote employees/consultants/trainers/learners can contribute content to the discussions, just like someone in the same physical location can.

ThinkHub-March2016

From DSC:

Many of these sorts of systems & software are aimed at helping people collaborate — again, regardless of where they are located. Remote learners/content contributors are working in tandem with a group of people in the same physical location. If this is true in business, why can’t it be true in the world of education?

So keep that in mind, as I’m now going to add on a few other thoughts and trends that build upon these sorts of digitally-based means of collaborating.

Q: Towards that end…ask yourself, what do the following trends and items have in common?

The desire to capture and analyze learner data to maximize learning
Colleges’ and universities’ need to increase productivity (which is also true in the corporate & K-12 worlds)
The trend towards implementing more active learning-based environments
The increasing use of leveraging students’ devices for their learning (i.e., the BYOD phenomenon)
The continued growth and increasing sophistication of algorithms

A: All of these things may cause digitally-based means of learning to skyrocket!!!

To wrap up this line of thought, below are some excerpts from recent articles that illustrate what I’m trying to get at here.

Embrace the Power of Data
A continuous improvement mindset is important. Back-end learning analytics, for example, can reveal where large numbers of students are struggling, and may provide insights into questions that require new feedback or content areas that need more development. Data can also highlight how students are interacting with the content and illuminate things that are working well—students’ lightbulb moments.

— Five Principles for Your Learning Design Toolkit
from edsurge.com by Amanda Newlin

Mitchell gave the example of flight simulators, which not only provide students with a way to engage in the activity that they want to learn, but also have data systems that monitor students’ learning over time, providing them with structured feedback at just the right moment. This sort of data-centric assessment of learning is happening in more and more disciplines — and that opens the door to more innovation, he argued.

…

A promising example, said Thille, is the use of educational technology to create personalized and adaptive instruction. As students interact with adaptive technology, the system collects large amounts of data, models those data, and then makes predictions about each student based on their interactions, she explained. Those predictions are then used for pedagogical decision-making — either feeding information back into the system to give the student a personalized learning path, or providing insights to faculty to help them give students individualized support.

…

“We need the models and the data to be open, transparent, peer-reviewable and subject to academic scrutiny.”

…

“We began to actually examine what we could do differently — based not upon hunches and traditions, but upon what the data told us the problems were for the students we enroll,” said Renick. “We made a commitment not to raise our graduation rate through getting better students, but through getting better — and that gain meant looking in the mirror and making some significant changes.”

…

A 21st-century learning culture starts with digital content. In 2010, Jackson State University was looking for ways that technology could better address the needs of today’s learner. “We put together what we call our cyberlearning ecosystem,” said Robert Blaine, dean of undergraduate studies and cyberlearning. “What that means is that we’re building a 21st-century learning culture for all of our students, writ large across campus.” At the core of that ecosystem is digital content, delivered via university-supplied iPads.

— 7 Things Higher Education Innovators Want You to Know
from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly

On Bennett’s wish list right now is an application that allows students to give feedback at specific points of the videos that they’re watching at home. This would help him pinpoint and fix any “problem” areas (e.g. insufficient instructions for difficult topics/tasks) and easily see where students are experiencing the most difficulties.

TechSmith’s now-retired “Ask3” video platform, for example, would have done the trick. It allowed users to watch a video and ask text-based questions at the point where playback was stopped. “I’d like to be able to look at my content and say, ‘Here’s a spot where there are a lot of questions and confusion,'” said Bennett, who also sees potential in an “I get it” button that would allow students to hit the button when everything clicks. “That would indicate the minimum viable video that I’d need to produce.” Learning Catalytics offers a similar product at a fee, Bennett said, “but I can’t charge my students $20 a year to use it.”

— 6 Flipped Learning Technologies To Watch in 2016
from thejournal.com by Bridget McCrea

All of these trends lend themselves to causing a major increase in the amount of learning that occurs via digitally-based means and methods.

17 predictions about the future of big data everyone should read [Marr]

On 03/16/2016, in 21st century, analytics, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, data related items, future, game-changing environment, generational differences, ideas, trends, workplace, by Daniel Christian

17 predictions about the future of big data everyone should read — from forbes.com by Bernard Marr

Excerpt:

Almost everyone can agree that big data has taken the business world by storm, but what’s next? Will data continue to grow? What technologies will develop around it? Or will big data become a relic as quickly as the next trend — cognitive technology? fast data? — appears on the horizon.

Let’s look at some of the predictions from the foremost experts in the field, and how likely they are to come to pass.

Machine learning is a top strategic trend for 2016.

More companies will appoint a chief data officer.

The data-as-a-service business model is on the horizon.

Algorithm markets will also emerge.

From DSC:
Hmm…I wonder how job seekers and job providers could benefit if IBM Watson were to team up with LinkedIn.com/Lynda.com? And/or for those freelancers who are seeking to work on new projects with those organizations who have projects to be completed…?

I’m thinking Artificial Intelligence (AI)-based job exchanges/marketplaces, with the engines constantly churning away through — and making sense of — enormous amounts of data in order to find people just the right job for them.

For example, someone in Texas wants to work part time in special education and their LinkedIn.com profile shows that they have x, y, and z as their credentials and that they have taken a, b, c, d, and e courses (which the person could also find on the “marketplace section” as having been necessary in that state). They are looking for 20 hours a week and, as they live in San Antonio, they need something in or near that city.

Would this collaboration bring something that other current job exchanges don’t? I’m not sure, as I don’t know how much data mining is occurring with them. But the scale of the two companies — along with the technologies and the strategies that they are pursuing — could present some interesting affordances.

+

This idea of the need for such a marketplace/mechanism takes on all the more importance if it’s true that we are living in a post-jobs economy and that getting new project-related work is key in putting bread and butter on the table.

Without having looked at this very much, it appears that LinkedIn.com has already been pursuing this type of goal/vision, as seen with the work they are doing involving The Economic Graph.

See:

The IT industry is launching new markets worth more than $2 trillion, IBM CEO says [Bort]

On 02/26/2016, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, data related items, health, IBM, internet, machine-to-machine communications, by Daniel Christian

The IT industry is launching new markets worth more than $2 trillion, IBM CEO says — from finance.yahoo.com by Julie Bort

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

She says IBM is on track to meet her promise to investors, made last year, of hitting $40 billion worth of revenue in a bunch of new and more profitable markets by 2018.

These include big data/analytics, cloud computing, security, social and mobile. The company has already hit $29 billion in these “strategic imperative” areas, and they are now 36% of IBM’s $82 billion of revenue, she said.

These new markets, which IBM calls “decision support” represent a $2 trillion market. Plus IBM sees a bunch of other growth markets.

1. Machine learning (which IBM calls ‘cognitive computing”) is at the heart of the $2 trillion market IBM sees developing by 2025. This is where smart computers that can learn, can understand all kinds of data (even audio, photos, videos), reason, talk, make decisions and learn.

Companies will use this to make all of their important decisions she believes. And it will be used to solve other problems like managing and curing illness. Watson is already being used by medical device manufacturer Medtronic to help patients predict dangerous low-blood sugar events up to two hours before they occur.

Decision support will create $2 trillion worth of IT spending beyond the $1 trillion companies already spend on software, services and hardware.

Finding our voice: Instructional Designers in higher education — from er.educause.edu by Sandra Miller and Gayle Stein

Key Takeaways

A New Jersey workshop on instructional design gave attendees the opportunity to learn about instructional designers’ roles at different institutions and brainstorm good ideas, tips and tricks, important contributions to the field, and how to overcome shared challenges.
Instructional technologists and video production coordinators also are involved in the instructional design process, helping faculty learn how to use instructional tools.
A major challenge for instructional designers is faculty resistance to new pedagogies and deliveries — not just to hybrid and online courses.
Institutional acknowledgement of skill acquisition in their professional development can lead faculty to place a higher value on technology integration in teaching and learning.

…

What Instructional Designers Do
Instructional designers take on a variety of roles. They can be course development focused or technology focused. They can be facilitators, mentors, trainers, collaborators, reviewers, and mediators, and more likely some combination of those. They often have different roles to fill in addition to instructional design: they may supervise computer labs, have responsibility for classroom technology, and/or oversee video production facilities.

The instructional designers who attended the NJEDge.Net Instructional Design Symposium are involved in:

Providing both pedagogical and technology training, sometimes simultaneously and sometimes separately
Moving courses between learning management systems
Creating new online courses or transitioning face-to-face courses to online formats
Producing video and other multimedia
Supporting a variety of software that faculty want to use to create their courses or
Training faculty to teach more effectively using technology
Supporting students using LMSs
Ensuring that courses meet federal requirements for accessibility
Lobbying for funding for faculty who are taking time to create online courses
Creating challenging assessments to minimize cheating

…

Instructional technologists and video production coordinators also are involved in the instructional design process. They help faculty learn how to use instructional tools such as lecture capture, synchronous meetings, asynchronous discussions, collaborative document writing, group work, clickers, learning management systems, video production, and video editing.

The instructional designers found that it made a difference in terms of trust and respect accorded them when they sat on the academic side of the house. (Nonetheless, the majority of instructional designers at the symposium report to the IT side and ultimately (usually) to the financial/administrative side, despite their preference for the academic side.)

A prediction from DSC:
Those institutions who develop and use internal teams of specialists will be the winners in the future.

Below are some of the forces that will reward those institutions who pursue such a strategy in order to design, create, and provide their offerings/services include:

The rise of personalized/adaptive learning (data mining, learning analytics are also included in this bullet point)
The increased use of artificial intelligence and the development of intelligent systems/assistants/tutoring
Higher ed’s need to scale and reduce the going rates/prices of obtaining degrees — yet maintaining quality
Rapid technological changes and an ever increasing amount to know as instructional technologists (this is also true with videographers, multimedia developers, copyright experts, and other members of the team)
New discoveries and advances w/in the various disciplines — which require faculty members’ focus to stay on top of their disciplines
The changing expectations of students, and how they prefer to learn
The rise of alternatives to institutions of traditional higher education who, from their very start, develop and use internal teams of specialists (all the more relevant if these alternative organizations obtain the financial backing of the Federal Government)

The trick is how such teams should actually operate so as not to become bottlenecks in keeping the curricula relevant and up-to-date. After all, it takes time and resources to effectively design, create, and deliver blended and/or online courses.

Without blended and/or online learning, obtaining data & using analytics in education only gets you so far. [Christian]

On 02/09/2016, in analytics, blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, elearning, face-to-face, higher education, hybrid learning, ideas, instructional design, IT in HE, learning spaces, MBA, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, online learning, smart classrooms, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Big data is a big theme these days — in a variety of industries. Higher ed is no exception, where several vendors continue to develop products that hope to harness the power of big data (and to hopefully apply the lessons learned in a variety of areas, including retention).

However as an Instructional Designer, when I think of capturing and using data in the context of higher education, I’m not thinking about institutional type of data mining and the corresponding dashboards that might be involved therein. I’m thinking of something far more granular — something that resembles a tool for an individual professor to use.

I’m thinking more about individual students and their learning. I’m thinking about this topic in terms of providing additional information for a faculty member to use to gauge the learning within his or her particular classes — and to be able to highlight issues for them to address.

So, for example, when I’m thinking about how a mathematics professor might obtain and use data, I’m thinking of things like:

How did each individual do on this particular math problem?
Who got it right? Who got it wrong?
What percentage of the class got it right? What percentage of the class got it wrong?
For those who got the problem wrong, where in the multi-step process did they go wrong?

So perhaps even if we’re only obtaining students’ final answers — whether that be via clickers, smartphones, laptops, and/or tablets — data is still being created. Data that can then be analyzed and used to steer the learning. This type of information can then help the mathematics professor follow up accordingly — either with some individuals or with the entire class if he/she saw many students struggling with a new concept.

Such data gathering can get even more granular if one is using elearning types of materials. Here, the developers can measure and track things like mouse clicks, paths taken, and more. So like the approaching Internet of Things, data can get produced on a massive scale.

But very few mathematics professors have the time to:

manually track X/Y/or Z per student
manually capture how an entire class just did on a math problem
manually document where each student who got a problem incorrect went wrong

So in the way that I’m thinking about this topic, this entire push/idea of using data and analytics in education requires things to happen digitally — where results can automatically be stored without requiring any manual efforts on the part of the professor.

The ramifications of this are enormous.

That is, the push to use analytics in education — at least at the personalized learning level that I’m thinking of — really represents and actually requires a push towards using blended and/or online-based learning. Using strictly 100% face-to-face based classrooms and environments — without any digital components involved — won’t cut it if we want to harness the power of analytics/data mining to improve student learning.

Though this may seem somewhat obvious, again, the ramifications are huge for how faculty members structure their courses and what tools/methods that they choose to utilize. But this goes way beyond the professor. It also has enormous implications for those departments and teams who are working on creating/revising learning spaces — especially in terms of the infrastructures such spaces offer and what tools might be available within them. It affects decision makers all the way up to the board-level as well (who may not be used to something other than a face-to-face setting…something they recall from their own college days).

What do you think? Are you and/or your institution using big data and analytics? If so, how?

Also see:

Big data and higher education: These apps change everything — from bigdatalandscape.com

Excerpt:

Big Data is going to college. The companies on this list have been developing innovative higher education analytics apps. Universities are realizing the importance of harnessing Big Data for the purposes of helping students to succeed, helping instructors to know what students still need to learn, analyzing efficiency in all areas, boosting enrollment, and more.

For example, CourseSmart embeds analytics directly into digital textbooks. These analytics provide an “engagement index score,” which measures how much students are interacting with their eTextbooks (viewing pages, highlighting, writing notes, etc.). Researchers have found that that the engagement index score helps instructors to accurately predict student outcomes more than traditional measurement methods, such as class participation.

In addition, there are dashboards that enable Big Data analytics and visualization for the purpose of monitoring higher education KPIs such as enrollment, accreditation, effectiveness, research, financial information, and metrics by class and by department. Read on to find out about the companies that are shaping Big Data analytics in higher education.

How five edtech start-ups are using big data to boost business education — from businessbecause.com by Seb Murray
MOOC platforms explore analytics with b-school partners

Excerpts:

“Data is an amazing resource for teachers, who glean detailed feedback on how learners are processing information,” says Julia Stiglitz, director of business development at Coursera, the online learning site with 17 million users.

Coursera, which works with the b-schools IE, Yale and Duke Fuqua, offers a dashboard that gives teachers insight into when students are most likely to stop watching a video, and the percentage who answer assessment questions correctly the first time around.
…
“By carefully assessing course data, from mouse clicks to time spent on tasks to evaluating how students respond to various assessments, researchers hope to shed light on how learners access information and master materials,” says Nancy Moss, edX’s director of communications.

New Media Consortium (NMC) & Educause Learning Initiative (ELI) release the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Ed Edition — from nmc.org

Excerpt:

The New Media Consortium (NMC) and EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative (ELI) are jointly releasing the NMC Horizon Report > 2016 Higher Education Edition at the 2016 ELI Annual Meeting. This 13^th edition describes annual findings from the NMC Horizon Project, an ongoing research project designed to identify and describe emerging technologies likely to have an impact on learning, teaching, and creative inquiry in higher education.

The report identifies six key trends, six significant challenges, and six important developments in educational technology across three adoption horizons spanning over the next one to five years, giving campus leaders, educational technologists, and faculty a valuable guide for strategic technology planning. The report provides higher education leaders with in-depth insight into how trends and challenges are accelerating and impeding the adoption of educational technology, along with their implications for policy, leadership, and practice.

Cognii launches virtual learning assistant for the education market [edtechreview.in]

On 02/01/2016, in 21st century, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, assessment, data related items, education, education technology, India, innovation, intelligent systems, intelligent tutoring, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning ecosystem, Learning from the Living [Class] Room, MOOCs -- Massive Open Online Courses, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, virtual tutoring, by Daniel Christian

Cognii launches virtual learning assistant for the education market — from edtechreview.in

Excerpt:

BOSTON, MA, January 27, 2016
Cognii, a leading provider of educational assessment technologies, today announces the launch of Virtual Learning Assistant (VLA), a next generation personalized adaptive learning platform for the Education and Training market. Cognii’s VLA uses Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing technologies to engage students in realtime adaptive tutoring conversations and provides instant formative assessment on their constructed response (short essay) answers with guidance towards conceptual mastery. It also provides rich learning analytics to the teachers based on students’ conceptual understanding or difficulties, for better instructional support.

From the Cognii website:

At Cognii, we’re developing leading edge assessment technology to evaluate essay-type answers for online learning platforms. Our exclusive natural language processing technology can also give customized feedback, not just a score, to engage students in an active learning process and improving their knowledge retention. We’re offering Cognii’s solution through an API for all online learning platforms, including LMS (Learning Management System), MOOCs (Massive Online Open Course), and more.

Addendum / a somewhat related posting:

IBM Helping to Build an AI-Powered Academic Adviser — from edtechmagazine.com by by D. Frank Smith
A powerful computing system at University of Michigan would be fed human interactions to enhance its conversational skills.

The coming AI health care boom

On 01/14/2016, in analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, computer science, data related items, emerging technologies, engineering, health, IBM, platforms, programming, robotics, UK, United States, vendors, by Daniel Christian

Paging Dr. Robot: The coming AI health care boom — from fastcompany.com by Sean Captain
Use of artificial intelligence in health care to grow tenfold in 5 years, say analysts—for everything from cancer diagnosis to diet tips.

Excerpt:

More than six billion dollars: That’s how much health care providers and consumers will be spending every year on artificial intelligence tools by 2021—a tenfold increase from today—according to a new report from research firm Frost & Sullivan. (Specifically, it will be a growth from $633.8 million in 2014 to $6,662.2 million in 2021.)
…
Computer-aided diagnosis can weigh more factors than a doctor could on their own, such as reviewing all of a patient’s history in an instant and weighing risk factors such as age, previous diseases, and residence (if it’s in a heavily polluted area) to come up with a short list of possible diagnoses, even a percent confidence rating that it’s disease X or syndrome Y. Much of this involves processing what’s called “unstructured data,” such as notes from previous exams, scan images, or photos. Taking a first pass on x-rays and other radiology scans is one of the big applications for AI that Frost & Sullivan expects.

Babylon, the U.K. digital doctor app, scores $25M to develop AI-driven health advice — from techcrunch.com by Steve O’Hear

Excerpt:

Hot on the heels of PushDoctor’s $8.2 million Series A, another U.K. startup playing in the digital health app space has picked up funding. Babylon Health, which like PushDoctor, lets you have video consultations with a doctor (and a lot more), has raised a $25 million Series A round led by Investment AB Kinnevik, the Swedish listed investment fund.

Under Armour and IBM to transform personal health and fitness, powered by IBM Watson — from ibm.com
New Cognitive Coaching System Will Apply Machine Learning to the World’s Largest Digital Health and Fitness Community

IBM Watson bets $1 billion on healthcare with Merge acquisition — from techrepublic.com by Conner Forrest
[Back in August 2015] IBM ponied up $1 billion for medical imaging company Merge Healthcare. Here’s what it means for the future of IBM’s cognitive computing system.

The emergence of precision algorithms in healthcare — from Gartner

Summary:

Recent announcements that several medical institutions intend to publish extensive portfolios of advanced algorithms via an open marketplace serve as an early indicator that interest in sharing clinical algorithms is increasing. We explore the impact of this trend and offer recommendations to HDOs.

Somewhat related postings:

7 Mind-Blowing Digital Health Tools That Could Disrupt Health Care in 2016 — from huffingtonpost.com
The algorithm will drive digital business in the next wave, says Gartner — from which-50.com by Andrew Birmingham

Houston, we have a problem here.

On 01/13/2016, in analytics, animation, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, career development, cloud-based computing / apps / other cloud-related, computer science, engineering, graphics, K-12 related, languages and translation, learning preferences, programming, student-related, youth, by Daniel Christian

From DSC:
Below are 2 articles that I ran across, almost back to back. Check them out and see if you, too, don’t see a major gap here. Though not really news, it doesn’t seem that we’re making much progress either.

The 25 Skills You Must Master to Land a New Job in 2016 (Infographic) — from inc.com by Jacquelyn Smith
If you know how to code or are fluent in another language, you’ll have a leg up on other candidates.

Excerpt:

To find out what it takes to successfully land a job, LinkedIn analyzed all of the hiring and recruiting activity that occurred on its site in 2015, and uncovered the 25 hottest skills in 14 different countries.

Now, check this next one out!

When it comes to jobs, Generation Z may not be the ‘tech’ generation after all — from by Conner Forrest
A new study by CompTIA found that many young people are simply uninterested in IT jobs. Here’s how that could impact the workforce.

Excerpt:

According to a new study by IT trade association CompTIA, a mere 13% of 13-17 year-olds surveyed said they want to pursue a career in IT. This is despite the fact that 70% of Generation Z respondents reporting that they love technology.

According to the CompTIA report, much of Generation Z’s disinterest in technological professions is mainly due to their lack of understanding about the field. This is especially true in school, with 38% of junior high and high school students saying their schools provide no information on IT jobs. According to Code.org, only 10% of high schools in the US offer computer science classes.

Also, the gender gap prevailed among Generation Z respondents with only 10% of girls saying they were interested in IT, compared to 23% of boys.

Houston, we have a problem!*
The demand isn’t being met — nor does it look like it will be met — with the appropriate supply.

* Though this is not a new problem,
it doesn’t seem that we’re making
much progress here.

What are the teaching & learning ramifications of these trends? >> M2M comms, IoT, & “Holograms are coming to a high street near you”

On 01/12/2016, in 21st century, 24x7x365 access, A/V -- audio/visual, active learning, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, Augmented Reality (AR), blended learning, Daniel S. Christian, data related items, digital learning, education technology, emerging technologies, experimentation, higher education, human-computer interaction (HCI), hybrid learning, IBM, ideas, innovation, intelligent systems, interactivity, internet, K-12 related, learner profiles, learning agents, learning ecosystem, learning hubs & pods & microschooling, learning preferences, learning spaces, machine-to-machine communications, more voice more choice more control, participation, passions, personalized/customized learning, platforms, smart classrooms, student-related, teaching & learning, technologies for your home, technology (general), trends, UK, usability, user experience (UX), using teams, Virtual Reality (VR) / worlds / learning, wearables, by Daniel Christian

Holograms are coming to a high street near you — from telegraph.co.uk by Rebecca Burn-Callander
Can you tell what’s real and what’s not?

Excerpt:

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

Some will be used to advertise, others will have the ability to interact with you, and show you information. In shops, when you find a shirt you like, the technology is now here to bring up a virtual clothes rail showing you that same shirt in a variety of colours, and even tell you which ones are in stock, all using the same jaw-dropping imaging we have previously only experienced wearing 3D glasses at the cinema.

Holograms, augmented reality – which superimposes technology over the real world – and virtual reality (VR), its totally immersive counterpart, are tipped to be the hot trends in retail next year. Pioneers of the technology are set to find increasingly entertaining, useful and commercially viable ways of using it to tempt people into bricks-and-mortar stores, and fight back against the rise of online shopping.

WaveOptics’ technology could bring physical objects, such as books, to life in new ways

Completely realistic holograms, that will be generated when you pass a sensor, are coming to the high street.

From DSC:
What might our learning spaces offer us in the not-too-distant future when:

Sensors are built into most of our wearable devices?
Our BYOD-based devices serve as beacons that use machine-to-machine communications?
When artificial intelligence (AI) gets integrated into our learning spaces?
When the Internet of Things (IoT) trend continues to pick up steam?

Below are a few thoughts/ideas on what might be possible.

A faculty member walks into a learning space, the sensors/beacons communicate with each other, and the sections of lights are turned down to certain levels while the main display is turned on and goes to a certain site (the latter part occurred because the beacons had already authenticated the professor and had logged him or her into the appropriate systems in the background). Personalized settings per faculty member.

A student walks over to Makerspace #1 and receives a hologram that relays some 30,000-foot level instructions on what the initial problem to be solved is about. This has been done using the student’s web-based learner profile — whereby the sensors/beacons communicate who the student is as well as some basic information about what that particular student is interested in. The problem presented takes these things into consideration. (Think IBM Watson, with the focus being able to be directed towards each student.) The student’s interest is piqued, the problem gets their attention, and the stage is set for longer lasting learning. Personalized experiences per student that tap into their passions and their curiosities.

The ramifications of the Internet of Things (IoT) will likely involve the classroom at some point. At least I hope they do. Granted, the security concerns are there, but the IoT wave likely won’t be stopped by security-related concerns. Vendors will find ways to address them, hackers will counter-punch, and the security-related wars will simply move/expand to new ground. But the wave won’t be stopped.

So when we talk about “classrooms of the future,” let’s think bigger than we have been thinking.

ThinkBiggerYet-DanielChristian-August282013

Also see:

What does the Internet of Things mean for meetings? — from meetingsnet.stfi.re by Betsy Bair

Excerpt:

The IoT has major implications for our everyday lives at home, as well as in medicine, retail, offices, factories, worksites, cities, or any structure or facility where people meet and interact.
…
The first application for meetings is the facility where you meet: doors, carpet, lighting, can all be connected to the Internet through sensors. You can begin to track where people are going, but it’s much more granular.
…
Potentially you can walk into a meeting space, it knows it’s you, it knows what you like, so your experience can be customized and personalized.
…
Right now beacons are fairly dumb, but Google and Apple are working on frameworks, building operating systems, that allow beacons to talk to each other.

Addendum on 1/14/16:

Huddle Space Products & Trends for 2016 — from avnetwork.com by Cindy Davis
Excerpt:
“The concept is that you should be able to walk into these rooms, and instead of being left with a black display, maybe a cable on the table, or maybe nothing, and not know what’s going on; what if when you walked into the room, the display was on, and it showed you what meeting room it was, who had the meeting room scheduled, and is it free, can just walk in and I use it, or maybe I am in the wrong room? Let’s put the relevant information up there, and let’s also put up the information on how to connect. Although there’s an HDMI cable at the table, here’s the wireless information to connect.

Wine and technology?! Check these technologies out!

On 01/11/2016, in 21st century, A/V -- audio/visual, analytics, Artificial Intelligence/Agents/LLMs/and Related, data related items, geography / geology, IBM, ideas, innovation, machine-to-machine communications, technology (general), user experience (UX), vendors, by Daniel Christian

How IBM is Bringing Watson to Wine — from fortune.com by Jonathan Vanian
IBM helped the E.&J. Gallo Winery build an irrigation system that taps Jeopardy-winning technology to more efficiently water grapevines.

Excerpt (emphasis DSC):

IBM’s Watson super computer is learning to become a master winemaker.

At a vast vineyard outside Modesto, Calif., E&J Gallo Winery is testing a new irrigation system developed with IBM to grow grapes using less water. The plan is to eventually apply the lessons learned to Watson so that IBM’s data crunching technology can help farmers around the world.

Cutting water use can save huge amounts of money in the agriculture industry. It can also play a big role in water conservation, especially during droughts like the one that has plagued California for several years.

JCB tasting salon: A revolutionary wine tasting experience — from ideum.com

Excerpt:

Ideum, in collaboration with JCB by Jean-Charles Boisset, introduces an innovative new way to experience the exclusive wines within the JCB Collection, using state-of-the-art Ideum multitouch tables that digitally identify the placement of wine glasses. The full wine-tasting experience takes a group of four visitors through a flight of five wines. As new wines are introduced to the touch table, the visitors share a cinematic presentation introducing each wine. As visitors continue to taste each wine, they can access personalized tasting notes and additional information. The interactive experience takes between 40 minutes and an hour to complete.

Top 10 skills in data science [Hayes]

On 01/08/2016, in analytics, career development, computer science, corporate / business world, corporate universities / corporate training, data related items, professional development, programming, student-related, by Daniel Christian

Top 10 skills in data science — from businessoverbroadway.com by Bob Hayes

Excerpt:

The practice of data science requires skills that fall into three general areas: business acumen, computer technology/programming and statistics/math. Depending on whom you ask, the specific set of top skills varies. Dave Holtz describes the data science skills you need to get a job as a data scientist (8 Skills You Need to Be a Data Scientist). Ferris Jumah, examining LinkedIn profiles with the title “Data Scientists,” identified 10 skills (The Data Science Skills Network). BurtchWorks offers their list of skills that are critical to success in data science (9 Must-Have Skills You Need to Become a Data Scientist). RJMetrics, using LinkedIn data, identified the top 20 data science skill (The State of Data Science). For these lists, top skills reflected the frequency with which data professionals list these skills on their social media profile or simply reflect what the author thinks is a good set of skills.

The tech that will change your life in 2016 — from wsj.com by Geoffrey A. Fowler and Joanna Stern
Gadgets, breakthroughs and ideas we think will define the state of the art in the year ahead

Excerpts:

Virtual Reality Gets Real
Wiser Messaging Apps
Safer, Smarter Drones
Happy New USB Port! (USB Type-C port)
Voice-Operated Everything
Chinese Phones Hit the U.S.
Cameras That See More
Streaming Channels Galore
Wireless Charging Everywhere
Independent Wearables
Cutting the Headphone Cord
A Useful Internet of Things

Technology trends 2016 — from thefuturesagency.com by Rudy de Waele

Excerpt:

It’s this time of the year again for everyone in the business to release their yearly predictions. In order to save you some time, we collected all the most important and relevant trends – from the sources that matter, in one post.

The trends have been collected by The Futures Agency partner, speaker and content curator, Rudy de Waele, and were originally published on the shift 2020 Brain Food blog and newsletter.

CES 2016: Smart homes, smart cars, virtual reality — from cnbc.com by Harriet Taylor

Excerpt:

Nevertheless, there are still some distinct themes this year: Products that highlight the so-called Internet of Things (IoT), the connected home, autos and virtual reality will all have a big presence.

From smart to intelligent: 2016 AV trends — from avnetwork.com by Jonathan Owens

Excerpts:

Sensors
Bring Your Own Identity
UCC Bridging and True Collaboration

Cloud, virtual reality among top tech trends for 2016 — from news.investors.com by Patrick Seitz

Excerpts:

Cloud computing
Voice user interfaces
Virtual reality
Autonomous Vehicles
Over-The-Top TV

Virtual reality, robot companions and wraparound smartphones: Top 5 tech trends due in 2016 — from scmp.com by Jack Liu

The headset cometh: A virtual reality content primer — from gigaom.com by Megan Logan

Excerpt:

When we talk about VR, we tend to talk in broad strokes. “Experiences,” we call them, as if that term is somehow covers and conveys the depth and disparity that exists between gaming, watching, and interacting with VR content. The reality of virtual reality, however, is not so easily categorized or described.

VR content is the big blanket term that clumsily and imprecisely covers large and vastly divergent portions of the content market as it stands. VR games, immersive video, and virtual cinema all fall under “VR content”, but they’re fundamentally different experiences, possibly appealing to very different portions of a potential mainstream VR market.

6 ways work will change in 2016 — from fastcompany.com by Jared Lindzon
Workplace trends for 2016 will be set in large part by what’s happening in the freelance world right now.

Excerpt:

Most major workplace trends don’t evolve overnight, and if you know where to look, you can already witness their approach.

Many of the trends that will come into focus in 2016 already exist today, but their significance is expected to grow and become mainstream in the year to come.

While such trends used to be set by the world’s largest companies, today many are championed by the smallest. Freelancers and independent employees need to stay ahead of future needs to ensure they are up to date with the most in-demand skills. Therefore, activity in the freelance market often serves as an early indication of the growing needs of traditional businesses.

At the same time, large organizations today are under greater threat of disruption, requiring early adoption and a heightened awareness of the surrounding business environment.

Here are some of the workplace trends that are expected to have far-reaching effects in 2016, from the boardrooms of Fortune 500 companies to the home offices, cafes, and coworking spaces of the freelance economy.

7 top tech trends impacting innovators in 2016 — from innovationexcellence.com by Chuck Brooks

Excerpts:

The Internet of Things
Data Science & Digital Transformation
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Augmented Reality technologies
Quantum and Super Computing
Smart Cities
3-D Printing
Cybersecurity

Related:

30 Hot Products At CES 2016
10 ways the Internet of Things could change the world in 2016 — from techradar.com by Jamie Carter
50 Predictions for the Internet of Things in 2016 — from iotcentral.io by David Oro
10 Web design trends you can expect to see in 2016 — from thenextweb.com by Amber Leigh Turner
HR Technology for 2016: 10 Big Disruptions on the Horizon — from bersin.com
Tech trends that will make waves in 2016 — from cbsnews.com by Brian Mastroianni
Big Data Analytics Predictions for 2016 — from data-informed.com by Scott Etkin

Addendum on 1/13/16:

The 10 Biggest Tech Trends for 2016 — from entrepreneur.com

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