Techno-News Blog

by the Economist

The result is a program that is not just superhuman, but crushingly so. Skill at Go (and chess, and many other games) can be quantified with something called an Elo rating, which gives the probability, based on past performance, that one player will beat another. After 40 days of training AlphaGo Zero had an Elo rating of more than 5,000—putting it as far ahead of Mr Ke as Mr Ke is of a keen amateur, and suggesting that it is, in practice, impossible for Mr Ke, or any other human being, ever to defeat it. Advances in AI often trigger worries about human obsolescence. DeepMind hopes such machines will end up as assistants to biological brains, rather than replacements for them, in the way that other technologies from search engines to paper have done. Watching a machine invent new ways to tackle a problem can, after all, help push people down new and productive paths. One of the benefits of AlphaGo, says Mr Silver, is that, in a game full of history and tradition, it has encouraged human players to question the old wisdom, and to experiment.

https://www.economist.com/news/science-and-technology/21730391-learning-play-go-only-start-latest-ai-can-work-things-out-without

By Shayan Ushani, Bryant Archway
Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple and speaker at Bryant University in the Spring of 2017, has launched his latest venture – Woz U. Wozniak was always into learning and tinkering perhaps more so than his former business partner Steve Jobs. Now he wants to give back. Wozniak said, “People often are afraid to choose a technology-based career because they think they can’t do it. I know they can, and I want to show them how.” This is just one of many ventures that aims at solving the shift in demand for specialized skills in the labor market as well as innovating the education marketspace.

http://bryantarchway.com/woz-u-and-the-future-of-learning/

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal
Binge-watching leads to poorer sleep, less family time in front of the TV and even less enjoyment of the content. But at the same time could it also generate better learning outcomes and higher completion rates? That’s the question toyed with in “Binge Consumption of Online Content,” a research project that took place at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School of Business.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/10/10/the-impact-of-binging-on-education-content.aspx

By Adam Stone, Campus Technology

Can participation in the arts really bolster scientific learning? Can dance, in particular, spark STEM success? A recent paper from North Carolina State University suggests this might just be the case. The authors conducted interviews and focus groups with students who took part in on-campus dance companies as undergraduates. Fifteen of the 25 subjects were STEM majors, studying in field such as applied mathematics, engineering and chemistry.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/10/17/can-the-performing-arts-boost-student-outcomes-in-stem-disciplines.aspx

BY BLAKE ZALCBERG, eSchool News
As the office has evolved to allow a more creative and collaborative workplace, many educators have taken note, bringing those same features to classrooms. There was a time when American schools, like American offices, were drab and stuffy places. But things are changing.  As the office has evolved to allow a more creative and collaborative workplace, many educators have taken note, bringing those same features to classrooms, school libraries, lunchrooms and other common areas. Today’s schools, are now being equipped with outlets from the floors to the walls allowing students to easily plug in and charge laptop computers, phones and other devices wherever they work. They have furniture designed for the way students sit and stand. And they have collaborative spaces designed to allow them to work together in small groups and in teams.

https://www.eschoolnews.com/2017/10/17/modern-school-like-workplace/

by Doug Lederman, Inside Higher Ed

The Education Department’s National Center for Education Statistics has unwraped a revision of the IPEDS database that will expand the government’s tools for measuring postsecondary outcomes, especially for the students who, for lack of a better term, are frequently called “nontraditional” (even though they now outnumber the “traditional” 18- to 22-year-olds). While the changes are partial and leave many policy makers wanting more — most of which cannot be accomplished unless and until the federal government ends its ban on collecting student-level data — they are widely seen as a vast improvement. “This is a step in the right direction, and it’s a big step forward for community colleges, particularly,” said Andrew Nichols, director of higher education research and data analytics at the Education Trust, which advocates for low-income and minority students.

https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2017/10/12/new-federal-higher-ed-outcome-measures-count-part-time-adult-students

by Kara Coleman, Opelika-Auburn News

Auburn University says it has saved students nearly $1 million since 2014, crediting a focus on going digital textbooks. “We’ve actually saved students $941,000, just in three years,” said Russell Weldon, assistant director in charge of course materials at the university’s bookstore. “On average so far, we’ve saved students 45 percent overall, for everything they’re buying through the All Access program. So we’re literally cutting the cost of materials in half.” Three years ago, Auburn began implementing All Access as a trial in its freshman orientation course. All Access is a program that works with textbook companies to make course materials available digitally to students at roughly half the cost of a hard copy of a textbook. The program also helps the university save money, as it is a big cost to the school when the textbooks stocked at the campus bookstore don’t sell, Weldon said.

http://www.oanow.com/news/auburn/digital-textbooks-equal-cost-savings-for-auburn-students/article_1e5ea449-63be-55ac-b937-6d6be6e37263.html

by Newswire

Online learning is now a core form of delivery for Canadian universities and colleges, according to a report released today at the World Conference on Online Learning in Toronto. This survey of online learning, the first covering all Canadian public post-secondary institutions, was conducted by a small group of independent Canadian researchers, under the leadership of Dr. Tony Bates, a visiting professor at Ryerson University and a Research Associate at Contact North, Ontario.   Online enrollments have expanded at a rate of 10%-15% per annum over the last five years; online learning now constitutes between 12%-16% of all post-secondary teaching for credit,

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/3523443

by Calvin Hennick, edTech Magazine

A big part of offering up science, technology and math (STEM) opportunities for students of all abilities is differentiating instruction for each students’ needs. “Anything can be adapted for students with disabilities,” says A. Harry Moore School Technology Coordinator Stephanie Talalai in an EdTech article. “It’s just a matter of what accommodation you are going to give them.” One great way to provide accommodations for all students is through the use of mobile apps. For the “M” of STEM in particular, several mobile apps let teachers help students access high-interest, leveled math content.

https://edtechmagazine.com/k12/article/2017/10/5-apps-help-all-students-math

by Nicci Fagan, edTech Magazine
To keep networks safe, higher education leaders need to ensure security measures are easy to navigate. The Department of Homeland Security recently released its themes for October, from basic online safety to cybersecurity careers. Each week, DHS and its partners will release resources relating to each theme that IT staff can incorporate into cybersecurity education and training.

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2017/10/best-practices-cybersecurity-are-simple-and-keep-users-mind

by Meghan Bogardus Cortez, edtech Magazine
Meghan is an associate editor with EdTech: Focus on Higher Education. She enjoys coffee, cats and science fiction TV. In the summer of 2016, nothing was quite as buzzy as the smartphone game, “Pokémon Go.” Thanks to its augmented reality (AR) format — which blends real-world interactivity with an immersive video game world — the game spiked in popularity among K–12 and college students. It also introduced the concept of AR into the education sector. By 2018, the AR device market is expected to reach about $660 million, a new infographic from the New Jersey Institute of Technology reports. While AR is still up and coming, several mobile apps have emerged to let students (both at the K–12 and higher ed level) engage with interactive books about space and human anatomy charts.

https://edtechmagazine.com/higher/article/2017/10/how-will-ar-transform-education-infographic-0

by Futurism

With advances in computing power – including machine learning, neural networks, natural language processing, genetic algorithms and computational creativity – just to name a few – it increasingly seems likely that artificial intelligence is evolving from simple to self-aware machines.  Here is a look at where AI is now, and the prospect of what it will become.

https://futurism.com/images/types-of-ai-from-reactive-to-self-aware-infographic/

by Todd R. Weiss, IT Pro Windows

Google has unveiled an AI experiment that’s designed to expand and promote the understanding of artificial intelligence and machine learning by allowing anyone to try their own online AI experiences.  Called “Teachable Machine,” the project is a simple experiment that lets online participants teach a machine using their computer’s camera right within a web browser, with no laborious hand coding required, wrote Barron Webster, a designer and machine learning enthusiast in Google’s Creative Lab, in a recent post on The Google Official Blog. From helping you find your favorite dog photos, to helping farmers in Japan sort cucumbers, machine learning is changing the way people use code to solve problems,” wrote Webster.

http://windowsitpro.com/machine-learning/google-unveils-teachable-machine-showcase-ai-users

by Tom Lindsay, Forbes

A number of MOOCs have taken on the challenge to increase course completion, crafting innovations that are now yielding completion rates that are up to five times the average. They have accomplished this through seeking to ameliorate the “loneliness”—that is, the social isolation—of the long-distance learner. This advance is especially encouraging, given the speed with which MOOCs are multiplying: According to one survey, roughly 2,000 new MOOCs have taken flight since the beginning of the year.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/tomlindsay/2017/10/11/moocs-reborn-online-educations-student-friendly-makeover-promises-better-results/#4cb83b5949ce

By Dian Schaffhauser10/12/17
When the New York Times Magazine launched its free virtual reality app, “The Displaced,” which could be viewed on a smartphone inserted into a low-cost cardboard headset, it opened possibilities for educators on bringing immersive experiences to their students. Less than a year later Digital Promise Global teamed up with Oculus VR for Good, a unit within Facebook’s VR headset division, to provide 360-degree production equipment to American high schools for helping students produce their own videos on topics that mattered to them.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2017/10/12/online-guide-helps-students-learn-how-to-create-immersive-media.aspx

By Joshua Bolkan, Campus Technology
Taking just one more course per term can increase persistence toward graduation for some students, according to a new report from Civitas Learning. Based on data from 60 institutions and nearly 1.4 million students, the report found that, particularly for part-time and nontraditional students, “even small shifts in course load can have a profound impact on success rates.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/10/12/report-taking-1-more-course-improves-student-persistence.aspx

By Rhea Kelly, Campus Technology
Judging by the outlook of faculty in colleges and universities today, the future is bright for technology in higher education. A full 98 percent of faculty members who took Campus Technology’s second annual Teaching With Technology Survey believe technology will play a positive role in education going forward. That’s a step up from 97 percent who answered the same in 2016. What technologies do faculty think will be important in education over the next decade? The most popular answer to that question by far was virtual/augmented/mixed reality, garnering 81 percent of responses (it topped the list last year as well). Mobile devices and apps, 3D modeling/scanning/printing, adaptive/personalized learning and video/streaming all rounded out the top five.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2017/10/11/faculty-predict-virtual-augmented-mixed-reality-will-be-key-to-ed-tech-in-10-years.aspx

By Mike Averill, Tulsa World

The skills gap refers to the skills required by employers and the training held by the workforce or the number of jobs requiring skills that the workforce does not have.  There are more than 60,000 unfilled jobs in the state, of which nearly 18,000 are deemed critical to growing the economy. In August there were 81,476 unemployed, or about 4.5 percent of the state’s 1.8 million-person workforce. “We have people who have skills who aren’t working and we have jobs that are available but the people who have skills don’t have the right skills for the jobs,” said Shelley Cadamy, executive director of Workforce Tulsa.

http://www.tulsaworld.com/business/the-gap-between-what-employers-need-and-the-skills-of/article_8142a964-7e45-546c-b641-502a607bb5b0.html

by Matthew Lynch, tech Edvocate
For most teachers, classroom management is one of the biggest challenges. Managing twenty-six young people with a variety of interests, skill levels, and behaviors is no easy task. Luckily, edtech can help. Use these five classroom management apps, tools, and resources to minimize classroom management issues and maximize instructional time.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/5-must-classroom-management-apps-tools-resources/

by Matthew Lynch, tech Edvocate

Problem Based Learning (PBL) can radically change student learning. Rather than stuff students full of facts or material to memorize, problem based learning encourages students to solve problems independently (or in groups) to find solutions. Additionally, problem based learning is student-centered, which is where all of education is headed. Therefore, teachers must make efforts to provide students with problem based learning activities. To grow your collection of PBL resources, here are seven must-have apps and tools.

http://www.thetechedvocate.org/7-must-problem-based-learning-apps-tools-resources/

By Henry Kronk, eLearning Inside

ELearning is clearly here to stay. As early as 2013, The Wall Street Journal found that, of people seeking higher education in the U.S., only 29% were traditional college students, e.g. 18-22-year-old high school graduates. A much bigger percentage was made up by people over 25 with a full time job and/or a family. In some cases, these lifelong learners will be able to attend class in person, but for most, online courses and other eLearning programs are far more accessible, less expensive, and easier to fit into a demanding schedule.

https://news.elearninginside.com/why-is-live-interactive-video-streaming-so-rare-among-moocs-and-lmss/