From DSC:
After reading the following item from Jeremy Caplan’s most recent e-newsletter entitled, “Tiny Stuff I Love“…
Alfred = Saves me time on copying and pasting
If you copy and paste stuff frequently, get a clipboard manager. I use Alfred throughout every workday. It keeps the last 100+ things I’ve copied in a neat list so I can paste anything I’ve used recently into a browser, document, or wherever else.
This is super-handy when I’m copying and pasting things repeatedly from one place to another. Sometimes I’m moving a bunch of stuff from a document into an email. Or putting several links or notes into a Zoom chat window.
Lots of tools do something similar. I also like the Copied App, $8 on the Mac App store. It has a companion iPhone app.
…I instantly thought of how useful this type of tool would be for teachers, professors, and perhaps trainers as well — especially when grading!
From this page (emphasis DSC):
What Does a Clipboard Manager Do?
The default clipboard in Windows works well, but it’s quite basic. The biggest limitation is that it can only hold one item at a time. If you copy a piece of text, forget to use it, then copy an image later, the text will be gone. Another hassle is that you can’t view what you’ve copied without pasting it.
For anyone who copies and pastes all the time, these are big problems. Thankfully, this is where clipboard managers come in. They greatly expand the functionality of your clipboard by remembering dozens of entries, allowing you to pin frequently used snippets for easy access, and much more.
Readers of this blog might also be interested in some of the other tools that Jeremy mentions, including:
Why local news outlets may be among this pandemic’s victims — from medium.com by Sue Ellen Christian
The healthy functioning of our communities depends on the survival of our local news systems. Here’s how to start resuscitating close-to-home journalism, now.
Excerpt:
Just as we thought it couldn’t get worse for the survival of local news outlets, it has. Covid-19 is attacking what was left of the advertising base for local news outlets. Local retailers are the foundational advertisers for online news outlets. With shelter-in-place orders enacted throughout the country, retailers are struggling to pay the rent; low on their priorities for financial solvency is buying ads in a local newspaper, online news outlet, local television news show or community magazine.
Furthermore, those same retailers, such as book stores and restaurants, where single-sale print copies of local magazines and newspapers are often available, aren’t open, further hurting the already meager revenue streams of local news providers.
New York has the Times. Los Angeles has its Times. The nation’s capital has the Post. We in smaller and mid-size communities not only deserve our close-to-home updates and information, our local democracies rely on it.
…
Daily digital and print news outlets in particular offer citizens a public service: News about the schools our children attend, how our taxes are spent, what is happening in court systems and park districts and local elections. They fight for public documents to be released and public meetings to remain open — to be sure, all vital parts to democracy. But these outlets also offer our communities a reflection of ourselves.
Join the fight against COVID-19 misinformation — from newslit.org
Excerpt:
This rich collection of guides and resources can help you make a real difference in the battle against dangerous COVID-19 misinformation; it can also inspire and empower your students to enlist in that fight. Doing so [is] one of the most powerful actions we can all take.
Also see:
Gartner: 10 ways technology will change what it means to be human — from campustechnology.com by Rhea Kelly
Excerpts:
Gartner’s top 10 strategic predictions for technology are:
Facial recognition, location tracking and big data will allow organizations to monitor individual behavior and link that behavior to other digital actions, Gartner said, noting that “The Internet of Things (IoT) – where physical things are directed to do a certain thing based on a set of observed operating parameters relative to a desired set of operating parameters — is now being extended to people, known as the Internet of Behavior (IoB).”
From DSC:
That last quote about the “Internet of Behavior (IoB)” should disturb us. I don’t want that kind of world for the next generation.
Everyday Media Literacy — from routledge.com by Sue Ellen Christian
An Analog Guide for Your Digital Life, 1st Edition
Description:
In this graphic guide to media literacy, award-winning educator Sue Ellen Christian offers students an accessible, informed and lively look at how they can consume and create media intentionally and critically.
The straight-talking textbook offers timely examples and relevant activities to equip students with the skills and knowledge they need to assess all media, including news and information. Through discussion prompts, writing exercises, key terms, online links and even origami, readers are provided with a framework from which to critically consume and create media in their everyday lives. Chapters examine news literacy, online activism, digital inequality, privacy, social media and identity, global media corporations and beyond, giving readers a nuanced understanding of the key concepts and concerns at the core of media literacy.
Concise, creative and curated, this book highlights the cultural, political and economic dynamics of media in our contemporary society, and how consumers can mindfully navigate their daily media use. Everyday Media Literacy is perfect for students (and educators) of media literacy, journalism, education and media effects looking to build their understanding in an engaging way.
Research Posters Are a Staple of Academic Conferences. Could a New Design Speed Discovery? — from edsurge.com by Jeff Young
Excerpts:
Scholars around the world share their latest research findings with a decidedly low-tech ritual: printing a 48-inch by 36-inch poster densely packed with charts, graphs and blocks of text describing their research hypothesis, methods and findings. Then they stand with the poster in an exhibit hall for an hour, surrounded by rows of other researchers presenting similar posters, while hundreds of colleagues from around the world walk by trying to skim the displays.
…
Not only does the exercise deflate the morale of the scholars sharing posters, the ritual is incredibly inefficient at communicating science, Morrison argues.
…
Morrison says he has a solution: A better design for those posters, plus a dash of tech.
To make up for all the nuance and detail lost in this approach, the template includes a QR code that viewers can scan to get to the full research paper.
From DSC:
Wouldn’t this be great if more journal articles would do the same thing? That is, give us the key findings, conclusions (with some backbone to them), and recommendations right away! Abstracts don’t go far enough, and often scholars/specialists are talking amongst themselves…not to the world. They could have a far greater reach/impact with this kind of approach.
(The QR code doesn’t make as much sense if one is already reading the full journal article…but the other items make a great deal of sense!)
American students have changed their majors — from bloomberg.com by Justin Fox
Health professions are in, education and the humanities are out. Here are some reasons for the shift.
What Blockchain Could Mean for the Future of Journalism — from mediablog.prnewswire.com by Julian Dossett
Excerpt:
The digital era has utterly changed the way readers interact with the news.
Traditional news outlets struggle to remain relevant as the media sector’s influence is refocused online.
Journalism in the U.S. faces a number of challenges that blockchain technology has the potential to address and possibly solve — if the technology actually can achieve what it promises.
2018 itself has seen journalism move into uncharted waters as the industry comes up against issues, stemming from the continued digital migration of news organizations.
Because blockchain functions as a platform to facilitate peer-to-peer transactions, there are a few news organizations that believe blockchain technology finally will enable micropayments to be widely adopted in the U.S.
Social media as a learning tool: Five suggested sses for the classroom — from frontierinternet.com; with thanks to Laura Tscholl, Communications Specialist | The Gateway for this resource
How AI could help solve some of society’s toughest problems — from MIT Tech Review by Charlotte Jee
Machine learning and game theory help Carnegie Mellon assistant professor Fei Fang predict attacks and protect people.
Excerpt:
At MIT Technology Review’s EmTech conference, Fang outlined recent work across academia that applies AI to protect critical national infrastructure, reduce homelessness, and even prevent suicides.
Google Cloud’s new AI chief is on a task force for AI military uses and believes we could monitor ‘pretty much the whole world’ with drones — from businessinsider.in by Greg Sandoval
How AI can be a force for good — from science.sciencemag.org
Excerpt:
The AI revolution is equally significant, and humanity must not make the same mistake again. It is imperative to address new questions about the nature of post-AI societies and the values that should underpin the design, regulation, and use of AI in these societies. This is why initiatives like the abovementioned AI4People and IEEE projects, the European Union (EU) strategy for AI, the EU Declaration of Cooperation on Artificial Intelligence, and the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society are so important (see the supplementary materials for suggested further reading). A coordinated effort by civil society, politics, business, and academia will help to identify and pursue the best strategies to make AI a force for good and unlock its potential to foster human flourishing while respecting human dignity.
Ethical regulation of the design and use of AI is a complex but necessary task. The alternative may lead to devaluation of individual rights and social values, rejection of AI-based innovation, and ultimately a missed opportunity to use AI to improve individual wellbeing and social welfare.
Robot wars — from ethicaljournalismnetwork.org by James Ball
How artificial intelligence will define the future of news
Excerpt:
There are two paths ahead in the future of journalism, and both of them are shaped by artificial intelligence.
The first is a future in which newsrooms and their reporters are robust: Thanks to the use of artificial intelligence, high-quality reporting has been enhanced. Not only do AI scripts manage the writing of simple day-to-day articles such as companies’ quarterly earnings updates, they also monitor and track masses of data for outliers, flagging these to human reporters to investigate.
Beyond business journalism, comprehensive sports stats AIs keep key figures in the hands of sports journalists, letting them focus on the games and the stories around them. The automated future has worked.
The alternative is very different. In this world, AI reporters have replaced their human counterparts and left accountability journalism hollowed out. Facing financial pressure, news organizations embraced AI to handle much of their day-to-day reporting, first for their financial and sports sections, then bringing in more advanced scripts capable of reshaping wire copy to suit their outlet’s political agenda. A few banner hires remain, but there is virtually no career path for those who would hope to replace them ? and stories that can’t be tackled by AI are generally missed.
Who’s to blame when a machine botches your surgery? — from qz.com by Robert Hart
Excerpt:
That’s all great, but even if an AI is amazing, it will still fail sometimes. When the mistake is caused by a machine or an algorithm instead of a human, who is to blame?
This is not an abstract discussion. Defining both ethical and legal responsibility in the world of medical care is vital for building patients’ trust in the profession and its standards. It’s also essential in determining how to compensate individuals who fall victim to medical errors, and ensuring high-quality care. “Liability is supposed to discourage people from doing things they shouldn’t do,” says Michael Froomkin, a law professor at the University of Miami.
Alibaba looks to arm hotels, cities with its AI technology — from zdnet.com by Eileen Yu
Chinese internet giant is touting the use of artificial intelligence technology to arm drivers with real-time data on road conditions as well as robots in the hospitality sector, where they can deliver meals and laundry to guests.
Excerpt:
Alibaba A.I. Labs’ general manager Chen Lijuan said the new robots aimed to “bridge the gap” between guest needs and their expected response time. Describing the robot as the next evolution towards smart hotels, Chen said it tapped AI technology to address painpoints in the hospitality sector, such as improving service efficiencies.
Alibaba is hoping the robot can ease hotels’ dependence on human labour by fulfilling a range of tasks, including delivering meals and taking the laundry to guests.
Accenture Introduces Ella and Ethan, AI Bots to Improve a Patient’s Health and Care Using the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform — from marketwatch.com
Excerpt:
Accenture has enhanced the Accenture Intelligent Patient Platform with the addition of Ella and Ethan, two interactive virtual-assistant bots that use artificial intelligence (AI) to constantly learn and make intelligent recommendations for interactions between life sciences companies, patients, health care providers (HCPs) and caregivers. Designed to help improve a patient’s health and overall experience, the bots are part of Accenture’s Salesforce Fullforce Solutions powered by Salesforce Health Cloud and Einstein AI, as well as Amazon’s Alexa.
German firm’s 7 commandments for ethical AI — from france24.com
Excerpt:
FRANKFURT AM MAIN (AFP) –
German business software giant SAP published Tuesday an ethics code to govern its research into artificial intelligence (AI), aiming to prevent the technology infringing on people’s rights, displacing workers or inheriting biases from its human designers.
Just released from the Future Today Institute:
The 2019 Journalism, Media and Tech Trends Report
Launched at the Online News Association conference in Austin, Texas, the Future Today Institute’s new industry report for the future of journalism, media and technology follows the same approach as our popular annual mega trends report, now in its 11th year with more than 7.5 million cumulative views.
Key findings:
In addition to the 108 trends identified, the report also includes several guides for journalists, including a Blockchain Primer, an AI Primer, a mixed reality explainer, hacker terms and lingo, and a guide to policy changes on the horizon.
The report also includes guidance on how everyone working within journalism and media can take action on tech trends and how to evaluate a trend’s impact on their local marketplaces.
Download and read the full report here. | View it on Slideshare.
