Techno-News Blog

By Riia O’Donnell, HR Dive

The ELEVATE Act (Economic Ladders to End Volatility and Advance Training to Employment) would fund subsidies to public and private efforts that incentivize employers to hire and retain workers, particularly those who face barriers to employment, like prior criminal records, long-term unemployment, displacement and homelessness. According to a summary text, ELEVATE would provide funding to programs, including a new Social Security Act jobs program that would pay for workers to receive six months of wages and benefits for public, private, non-profit or social enterprise sector jobs. The act would subsidize the costs of training, job searches and services, child care and transportation costs directly related to employment. It would also include federal self-employment funds to help workers start their own business and relocation assistance to move to another market, “to promote entrepreneurship and worker mobility,” according to the legislators.

https://www.hrdive.com/news/dems-propose-bill-to-subsidize-training-programs/546459/

Ray Schroeder, Inside Higher Ed

A centuries-old challenge for teachers has been how to adapt learning materials and presentations to meet the varied backgrounds and abilities of students. Emerging technologies, Ray Schroeder writes, can help meet students where they are and customize learning for them. We are on the cusp of a new era in which learning is personalized to the needs and interests of the students. With the advent of the lifelong, 60-year learner, we will see more heutagogical approaches to meet the expectations of the self-determined adult learner.

https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/how-artificial-intelligence-can-help-achieve-promise

by Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

A 2015 study found that the typical American student is required to take 112 standardized tests between pre-kindergarten and 12th grade. Meanwhile, students in most countries that outperform the United States on international exams are tested just three times during their school careers. Critics of standardized testing argue that the tests put too much pressure on students and take the joy out of both teaching and learning. Plus, the value of all this testing is questionable. Studies have found that many standardized tests are low quality or redundant (high school students may take an AP, end-of-course, and final exam for the same course). So how can we measure student learning without resorting to high pressure testing? Some point to personalized learning as the solution.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/should-personalized-learning-replace-testing/

Knowledge@Wharton

As a group, they are “sober, industrious and driven by money,” reports the Wall Street Journal, but also “socially awkward and timid about taking the reins.” They are risk-averse and more diverse, says Inc. magazine. Forbes says they “want to work on their own and be judged on their own merits rather than those of their team.” Generation Z is arriving, and they are different than previous generations – or at least that’s how this young cohort is being portrayed as it begins to enter the workforce. After the traditionalists, baby boomers, Generation X and Generation Y/millennials, we have Generation Z – that group born after 1995 now starting to graduate college.

http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/article/make-room-generation-z-workplace/

By Byju Raveendran, ETech
Our education system still faces core issues like lack of access to quality teachers, one-size-fits-all approach and rote memorization. Integrate tech with education to create adaptable workforce Overall, in the coming years, some jobs will disappear, others will grow and jobs that don’t even exist today will become commonplace. What is certain is that the future workforce will need to align its skillset to keep pace. And it is only through right education that we can create an adaptable young workforce to drive the Indian economy to new heights. The need is to create lifelong and active learners.

https://tech.economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/internet/integrate-tech-with-education-to-create-adaptable-workforce/67634283

By Jordan Friedman, US News

https://www.usnews.com/higher-education/online-education/articles/2019-01-22/what-to-know-about-admissions-test-requirements-for-online-degree-programs

Connie Chen, New Haven Register
Learning a new topic, whether for a career move or an academic test, is no small feat.  The free and popular Coursera class “Learning How to Learn” makes the process easier and teaches students about the science of learning.  By understanding the underpinnings of how your brain works, processes information, and builds memory, you can successfully learn any subject you want. If you want to learn it, chances are you can find it online. Taken by more than 1.8 million students from 200 countries, one of the most popular online classes doesn’t teach skills like how to program and analyze data with Python or the basics of intellectual property law and policy. This 2018 best-selling class is offered by McMaster University and UC San Diego and taught by Dr. Barbara Oakley, an engineering professor at Oakland University, and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski, the computational neurobiology director at The Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

https://www.nhregister.com/technology/businessinsider/article/Coursera-offers-a-free-online-class-called-13552172.php

Hallie Busta, Education Dive
State funding for higher education rose modestly between the 2017 and 2018 fiscal years, but the gain was the smallest in the last five years and was concentrated in three states: California, Florida and Georgia. Overall state fiscal support increased 1.6% from 2017 to 2018, following a 4.2% gain from 2016 to 2017 and annual increases of 2.4%, 5% and 5.9% in three years prior, according to the annual Grapevine report from the Center for the Study of Education Policy at Illinois State University and the State Higher Education Executive Officers. Overall, state funding is up 20.7% from 2013. While three states saw big jumps from 2017 to 2018, funding rose just 0.2% across the remaining 47 states. In more than two-thirds of states, funding fell at rates between 0.1% and 14.6%. Ten states doled out less funding in 2018 than in 2013, led by Oklahoma (20.6% less), West Virginia (14.5%) and Alaska (12.2%).

https://www.educationdive.com/news/state-support-for-higher-ed-slowed-in-2018/546484/

Emily Alford, ClickZ

Chatbots have been a pretty big industry buzzword for a few years now. To recap, a chatbot is any computer program that can carry on conversation with humans in a natural, fluid way. In this article, we’ll take an in-depth look at why marketers use chatbots, what they can be used for, and most importantly, four tips for how to make them part of your marketing strategy.

https://www.clickz.com/chatbots-part-of-your-marketing-strategy/224275/

Adam McCann, Wallet Hub

For a growing number of Americans, a good education is the ticket to a better future. College opens doors to more career opportunities, higher earnings and new social connections, among other benefits. But how much schooling one receives also matters to some extent. Generally, the higher the level of education one completes, the higher their income potential and the lower their chances of unemployment become. In this study, WalletHub examined the key factors of a well-educated population: educational attainment, school quality and achievement gaps between genders and races. We compared all 50 states across 20 total metrics grouped into two categories. The data set ranges from share of adults aged 25 and older with at least a high school diploma to average university quality to gender gap in educational attainment.

https://wallethub.com/edu/most-educated-states/31075/

By Leelian Kong, Study International
Online courses are often linked to the digitally-savvy – and by extension, the young. While schools and even nurseries are jumping on the IT-literacy bandwagon, companies and retirement communities have been slower on the uptake. Universities are increasingly taking their lecture rooms online, from lecture capture to offering fully-online degrees, but most target school-leavers. But this idea – that edtech is reserved for the young – ignores the untapped potential for educating and upskilling a larger pool of students: working professionals and senior citizens.

https://www.studyinternational.com/news/online-courses-working-adults-senior-retirees/

By Charlie Osborne, ZDnet

It seems the enterprise is taking a serious interest in how the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) can provide a return on investment (ROI), as the number of companies implementing these technologies has grown by 270 percent in the past four years. On Monday, Gartner said that AI adoption has tripled in the last year alone, with an estimated 37 percent of firms now implementing AI in some form. According to the research agency’s 2019 CIO Survey, AI is being used in a variety of applications.

https://www.zdnet.com/article/enterprise-adoption-of-ai-has-grown-270-percent-over-the-past-four-years/

BY BOB KUSTRA, Idaho Statesman

The debate over whether the hard skills of the STEM disciplines or the soft skills of the liberal arts best prepare Americans for the workforce of tomorrow is not over, but it’s clear that more and more employers are seeking workers with skills in communication, critical thinking, mental agility, curiosity and cultural competence, to name just a few often attributed to a major in the liberal arts. In fact, LinkedIn’s official blog reported that liberal arts grads entering the tech workforce outnumbered technical grads from 2010 to 2013. An even more realistic approach to educating for tomorrow’s workforce recognizes that it is not an either/or proposition. Graduates with balanced strengths in both the soft and hard skills will be the most attractive to employers. Robot-Ready: Human+ Skills for the Future of Work, a recent report by the Strada Institute for the Future of Work, calls for “both” and suggests the time has come for a modern-day Rosetta stone to translate and decode what skills employers seek for their workforce.

https://www.idahostatesman.com/opinion/article224782520.html

By Steve Lohr, The New York Times

Hal Abelson, a renowned computer scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was working the classroom, coffee cup in hand, pacing back and forth. The subject was artificial intelligence, and his students last week were mainly senior policymakers from countries in the 36-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.  The goal was to give the policymakers from countries like France, Japan and Sweden a sense of the technology’s strengths and weaknesses, emphasizing the crucial role of human choices. The class was part of a three-day gathering at M.I.T., including expert panels, debate and discussion, as the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development seeks to agree on recommendations for artificial intelligence policy by this summer.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/20/technology/artificial-intelligence-policy-world.html

Sam Shead, Forbes

Facebook is backing an AI ethics institute at the Technical University of Munich with $7.5 million. The TUM Institute for Ethics in Artificial Intelligence, which was announced on Sunday, will aim to explore fundamental issues affecting the use and impact of AI, Facebook said. AI is poised to have a profound impact on areas like climate change and healthcare but it has its risks. “We will explore the ethical issues of AI and develop ethical guidelines for the responsible use of the technology in society and the economy.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/samshead/2019/01/20/facebook-backs-university-ai-ethics-institute-with-7-5-million/#5bffced71508

By Cait Etherington, eLearning Inside

When you’re teaching in a traditional classroom, there is one thing that is usually obvious: When students are bored, lost, or distracted, they let you know. While most educators don’t love teaching to a sea of slouched bodies and yawning faces, these bodily signs offer important cues to help educators increase student engagement. But how do educators gauge engagement online? In the past, it was assumed that engagement detection was something beyond the scope of online education. Now advancements in computer vision have reached a point where it is possible to detect emotions in photographs and video footage. These advancements could transform engagement detection and online learning, but some people continue to wonder if the use of computer vision in educational settings is even ethical.

https://news.elearninginside.com/computer-vision-for-classroom-engagement-detection-is-it-ethical/

by Megan Weiser, RiverBender

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville School of Engineering’s Mingshao Zhang, PhD, assistant professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering, continues his development of a remote educational robotic system that is easy-to-use and low cost for the benefit of learners worldwide. “A telepresence robot allows people to participate in video conferences on a moveable platform from a remote location,” Zhang explained. “Such systems, which were originally designed to promote social interaction between people, have become popular in various applications. But, few studies have examined telepresence robots in the classroom. My research seeks to better identify the possible effects such approaches have on student learning and perceptions of instructor credibility.”

https://www.riverbender.com/articles/details/siues-zhang-advances-development-of-remote-robotic-teaching-platform-33158.cfm

Kaveh Waddell, Axios
A new breed of intelligent video surveillance is being installed in schools around the country — tech that follows people around campus and detects unusual behaviors. Why it matters: This new phase in campus surveillance responds to high-profile school shootings like the one in Parkland, Florida, last February. School administrators are now reaching for security tech that keeps a constant, increasingly sophisticated eye on halls and classrooms. One drawback: a major blow to student privacy.

https://www.axios.com/ai-video-surveillance-schools-a5845755-9c68-480a-a4d6-5e075a4d17b4.html

Elisabeth Brier, Forbes

Artificial Intelligence has supplanted blockchain and cryptocurrency as the startup industry tech workers are most interested in joining, according to a new report from AngelList, a U.S.-based platform that connects startups with investors. Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence was the top industry coveted in 2018 by the 8 million job seekers registered on the platform’s job board, AngelList Talent, the company announced Thursday.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/elisabethbrier/2019/01/17/ai-crushes-crypto-as-top-job-for-tech-workers-angellist-reports/#94908f844e90

By Natalie Schwartz, Education Dive
Colleges are using student data to craft custom text messages and other prompts to boost retention, but experts warn they can backfire. Nudges, when done right, are proving up to that task. Nudging is a concept that has gained traction in higher ed ever since the 2008 release of the book “Nudge: Improving Decisions About Health, Wealth, and Happiness” brought the subject to the public’s attention. Put simply, nudges are interventions that steer someone toward a better decision without taking away their choice. In higher ed, they take the form of messages delivered through texts, emails or the learning management system that warn a student if they’ve fallen off track, alert them to important deadlines and make them aware of campus resources. Student data comes into play by helping colleges figure out who needs what kind of information most.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/giving-a-nudge-how-digital-alerts-can-keep-students-on-track/545993/