Educational Technology

August 31, 2019

Commentary: Time for public sector to embrace artificial intelligence

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

By Patrick A. McLaughlin and Tyler Richards
Tribune News Service

The National Institute for Standards and Technology just delivered a final plan to the White House for developing artificial intelligence standards for the private sector, in order to “maintain and strengthen America’s leadership in AI.” But the private sector seems to be developing standards just fine on its own. Where we really need to promote the use of AI (and establish AI standards) is actually within government, because in the few governmental bodies where AI has been adopted, the results have been remarkable.

https://www.cantonrep.com/opinion/20190818/commentary-time-for-public-sector-to-embrace-artificial-intelligence

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5 challenges for government adoption of AI

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:34 am

World Economic Forum

From transportation solutions to video-streaming applications, artificial intelligence (AI) permeates almost every aspect of our lives. This includes government, where AI is increasingly making an impact. Consider the two examples below:

  • Emma chatbot: US Citizenship and Immigration Services receives a considerable amount of service requests daily. In response, a chatbot named Emma was deployed to address immigration questions. Emma, which can operate in both English and Spanish, handles more than a million immigration queries a month.
  • Firebird framework: Co-developed by Georgia Tech and the Atlanta Fire Rescue Department, Firebird helps the City of Atlanta prioritize buildings for inspection according to the building’s risk of fire.

5 challenges for government adoption of AI

 

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‘This is going to be a big year’ Public schools increasingly enter virtual learning landscape

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:29 am

Mitchell Willetts, Enid News and Eagle

‘This is going to be a big year’ Public schools increasingly enter virtual learning landscape
Nancy Fain assists Hannah Killam during ePREP lab at Emerson Middle School Friday, August 16, 2019. The online learning program provides a blended classroom experience allowing students to take classes online at home and classes in a traditional setting. (Billy Hefton / Enid News & Eagle) Even as enrollment in virtual schools like Epic Charter Schools continues to grow, many Oklahoma public school districts have been slow to respond, hesitant to innovate. But now, in a sudden statewide shift, public school districts are aiming to make up for lost time and lost students by launching nontraditional programs of their own. “I would say this is going to be the big year,” said Monty Guthrie, deputy superintendent of finance and federal programs of the state Department of Education.

https://www.enidnews.com/news/local_news/this-is-going-to-be-a-big-year-public-schools/article_c9795ec1-1094-56f4-a7ec-3411f1d2d75a.html

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August 30, 2019

Autism in College

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:41 am

Top College Consultants
Spectrum teens graduating from high school have more educational options than ever before. We can help by assessing students’ college readiness, and finding the best-fit programs and supports. Below you will find an extensive list of “autism-friendly colleges,” including: Spectrum support programs in 4-year colleges; Colleges designed exclusively for students with learning differences or special needs (including autism); Support programs for students with learning differences that may not be specifically for students on the spectrum, but are considered autism-friendly; A small sample of non-degree programs for students with intellectual/developmental disabilities – there are many more listed at Think College.

https://www.topcollegeconsultants.com/autism-in-college/

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Online programs fueling boot camp sector’s growth in 2019

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

Hallie Busta, Education Dive

Growth in online programs is expected to drive gains in the boot camp sector this year, according to an annual survey from Course Report about the market for non-college boot camps. More than 23,000 graduates across 110 boot camp providers are expected for 2019, a figure that is up 50% year-over-year. Online programs are expected to grow at more than three times that pace to reach 5,519 graduates in 2019 across 14 providers. Course Report counts only full-time, synchronous programs toward its online tally. Boot camps are increasingly looking to companies and colleges as partners, with the latter often including credit-bearing options, Liz Eggleston, co-founder of Course Report, told Education Dive in an interview.

https://www.educationdive.com/news/online-programs-fueling-boot-camp-sectors-growth-in-2019/561123/

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How They (Online Graduate Programs) Get You

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

KATERINA MANOFF, the Atlantic

Eager to attract students to new online graduate programs, selective universities have adopted surprisingly aggressive telemarketing practices. Many online graduate programs from the nation’s top universities promise an experience that’s nearly indistinguishable from studying on campus. They offer live seminars taught by tenured professors, close collaboration with talented classmates, and degrees identical to those granted by traditional programs. But in one area, even the best online programs differ drastically from their in-person counterparts: the intensity of the recruitment. Prospective students—many of whom are busy professionals unfamiliar with online education and apt to rely on brand names as heuristics—must often navigate slick, insistent marketing operations run by for-profit third-party companies.
https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2019/08/online-graduate-programs-recruitment/596077/

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August 29, 2019

SREB Fact Book on Higher Education

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:42 am

The SREB Fact Book on Higher Education is one of the nation’s most comprehensive collections of comparative data on higher education. For decades, state leaders, policymakers, researchers and journalists have used the Fact Book to find accurate, comparable data and learn more about long-term trends. The 2019 Fact Book includes more than 100 tables on data such as the population and economy, enrollment, degrees, student tuition and financial aid, faculty and administrators, revenue and expenditures. In all but specialized data based on SREB’s regional survey, figures for each of the 50 states and District of Columbia are available.

https://www.sreb.org/fact-book-higher-education-0

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AI Is in Danger of Becoming Too Male—New Research

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

By Juan Mateos-Garcia and Joysy John, Singularity Hub

One way to minimize AI risks is to increase the diversity of the teams involved in their development. As research on collective decision-making and creativity suggests, groups that are more cognitively diverse tend to make better decisions. Unfortunately, this is a far cry from the situation in the community currently developing AI systems. And a lack of gender diversity is one important (although not the only) dimension of this. A review published by the AI Now Institute earlier this year showed that less than 20 percent of the researchers applying to prestigious AI conferences are women, and that only a quarter of undergraduates studying AI at Stanford and the University of California at Berkeley are female.

https://singularityhub.com/2019/08/16/ai-is-in-danger-of-becoming-too-male-new-research/

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Co-Exist With Robots: How to Compete With Technology in the Age of Automation

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:27 am

By Gwen Moran, Fortune
As technology, including robots, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and other forces change the nature of work, employees will need new skills to adapt to shifting roles. Research firm Gartner predicts that employees who regularly update their skill sets and invest in new training will be more valued than those with experience or tenure. But it’s not going to be easy. The World Economic Forum’s “Future of Jobs 2018” report estimates that, by 2022, more than half (54%) of employees will require significant skills updating or retraining. More than one-third (35%) will need about six months to get up to speed, while nearly one in five will require a year or more of additional training.

https://fortune.com/2019/08/18/job-replaced-by-automation-artificial-intelligence-ai/

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August 28, 2019

How E-learning Platforms are Becoming a Disruptor for Successful New-age Hiring

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:35 am

Arman Ahmed, Entrepreneur India
The fourth industrial revolution is upon us, it’s creating a technologically-driven world at a lightning-fast pace. The effects of this change are being felt strongly across industry verticals. Industry 4.0 technologies like Machine Learning & AI, Big Data, Data Science, Cloud, Internet of Things (IoT), and Robotics are creating new opportunities for businesses. To leverage the opportunity businesses are increasingly investing in identifying the right digital initiatives and enabling the workforce to implement the solutions. In the context of the changing digital economy, the demand for hands-on technical skills is on the rise. We are transitioning through the phase of industry-wide transformation and access to a skilled workforce is emerging as a major challenge for businesses.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/338265

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Berkeley County School District ‘weatherproofs’ its class time with virtual learning program

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

By Kaitlin Stansell, WCSC

The next time Berkeley County students miss school because of the weather, they may not have to attend class to make it up. The Berkeley County School district has been selected to pilot the state’s eLearning program. Instead of going to class on designated make-up days, students will be doing their assignments from home through virtual methods. Most students will be able to use their district-issued Chromebooks. On those days, teachers will communicate with students virtually or by phone if they have questions about the assignments.

https://www.live5news.com/2019/08/16/berkeley-county-school-district-weatherproofs-its-class-time-with-virtual-learning-program/

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A.I. Is Learning From Humans. Many Humans.

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:28 am

By 
Artificial intelligence is being taught by thousands of office workers around the world. Before an A.I. system can learn, someone has to label the data supplied to it. Humans, for example, must pinpoint the polyps. The work is vital to the creation of artificial intelligence like self-driving cars, surveillance systems and automated health care. It is not exactly futuristic work.  A.I. researchers hope they can build systems that can learn from smaller amounts of data. But for the foreseeable future, human labor is essential.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/16/technology/ai-humans.html

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August 27, 2019

How does Ethereum work, anyway?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:36 am

Preethi Kasireddy, Medium

Odds are you’ve heard about the Ethereum blockchain, whether or not you know what it is. It’s been in the news a lot lately, including the cover of some major magazines, but reading those articles can be like gibberish if you don’t have a foundation for what exactly Ethereum is. So what is it? In essence, a public database that keeps a permanent record of digital transactions. Importantly, this database doesn’t require any central authority to maintain and secure it. Instead it operates as a “trustless” transactional system — a framework in which individuals can make peer-to-peer transactions without needing to trust a third party OR one another. Still confused? That’s where this post comes in.

https://medium.com/@preethikasireddy/how-does-ethereum-work-anyway-22d1df506369

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New Provider Offers Low-Cost Online Courses. But Will the Credit Transfer?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:34 am

By Rebecca Koenig, EdSurge

Aaron Rasmussen, co-founder of MasterClass, this week announced the launch of Outlier, an online provider of university-level courses.  Although the Outlier topics are decidedly more staid, they may serve a higher purpose. That’s because Rasmussen thinks he can help students reduce the cost of earning degrees. Outlier joins the ranks of several other online course providers that market their a-la-carte classes (rather than complete degree programs) as more affordable options for earning college credit despite having no accreditation of their own. It’s largely left up to students to check and verify which institutions will accept which online classes for which degree requirements.

https://www.edsurge.com/news/2019-08-15-new-provider-offers-low-cost-online-courses-but-will-the-credit-transfer

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Using the Power and Promise of Edtech to Empower Adult Learners

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:29 am

Matthew Lynch, Tech Edvocate

Adult learners have specific needs that education technology may find challenging to meet. Adult learners are not a homogeneous group. Some study to complete their high school education, some want to prepare for college, others want to get a promotion or just get a job. And their levels of reading, writing and math differ widely. Also, their time for study is limited. A recent report funded by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Career, Technical and Adult Education lays out how technology could make an impact on adult learners. The report covers five areas of opportunity.

https://www.thetechedvocate.org/using-the-power-and-promise-of-edtech-to-empower-adult-learners/

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August 26, 2019

What’s worse than student loan debt? Owing money and earning no college degree.

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:42 am

Des Moines Register Editorial

The National Student Clearinghouse, which follows the status of undergraduates at institutions eligible for federal aid, gathers information about the so-called college “persistence” rate. This is the percentage of students who return to college at any institution for their second year.  According to the organization’s most recent report, of the 3.5 million students who enrolled in college for the first time in fall 2017, 74% returned to any U.S. school the following fall. That means more than 25% did not. Let those statistics sink in. One in four.

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/editorials/2019/08/14/many-freshman-college-students-do-not-return-school-second-year-editorial/1986500001/

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Alexa, time for class: How one university put an Echo Dot in every dorm room

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:34 am

Molly Price, San Francisco Chronicle

Now in its second year, the Alexa at SLU initiative is a fixture in the residence life culture. Each dorm room comes equipped with an SLU-emblazoned, second-gen Echo Dot and instructions on how to use it, what students can ask and what to do if there are technical issues. The network of 2,300 Echo Dots is powered by Amazon’s Alexa for Business platform. A private SLU skill built through Amazon Web Services is enabled on each Echo Dot. That skill can answer more than 135 questions about campus events, building hours, even nearby food options.

https://www.sfgate.com/cnet/article/Alexa-time-for-class-How-one-university-put-an-14300153.php

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More students turning to online courses for post-high school education

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

Chloe Bradford, CBS19

More students turning to online courses for post-high school education“It’s that ability to do class to do work at 3 o’clock in the morning in your pajamas because that’s the only time you’ve got,” TJC Director of Distant Education Ken Craver said. ““Mainly, you can explain it in one word: It’s flexibility. People that really gravitate to online learning are busy people.” There are classes that cater to your passion, whether it be nursing, education or paralegal studies. Research conducted by the Babson Survey Research Group states more than one-in-four students in the United States are enrolled in online learning. They also found the number of students studying on a campus has dropped by over 1 million between 2012 and 2016.

https://www.cbs19.tv/article/news/education/more-students-turning-to-online-courses-for-post-high-school-education/501-da93d72f-699d-435a-af84-918e5c21596f

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August 25, 2019

How a State Plans to Turn Coal Country Into Coding Country

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:40 am

Dana Goldstein, NY Times

The mandate is part of a wide-ranging package of new laws, passed by the State Legislature last year, that is intended to wean Wyoming off its heavy reliance on the oil, gas and coal industries, and stem the flow of young people leaving for better jobs. Both major political parties have embraced the effort, as have tech companies eager to promote a national vision of rural economic revival built on coding skills. There is little evidence that public school computer science lessons can drive economic change. But those who see them as fundamental to understanding today’s world say the grand promises from politicians do not matter. Nationwide, most students never have the opportunity to take a coding course. Now Wyoming’s 48 school districts have until the 2022-23 school year to begin teaching computer science at every grade level.

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Has Online Education Jumped The Shark?

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:34 am

John Byrne, Forbes

“When we started 2U, the market was in its infancy,” explained 2U CEO Christopher Paucet who co-founded the company in 2008. “The core thesis of the company was that online programs could drive a similar quality to campus programs and that the company’s scale and unique platform characteristics would build a competitive moat around the business over time. Today, the online education market is evolving. Secular forces are pushing more schools online. Indeed, it’s becoming obvious that all schools are going online. We’re calling it the mainstreaming of online education.”

https://www.forbes.com/sites/poetsandquants/2019/08/14/has-online-education-jumped-the-shark/#6b5ff5b172e1

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Uneven Standards Hamper Online Education the World Over

Filed under: Educational Technology — admin @ 12:30 am

By Dian Schaffhauser, Campus Technology
A new report has provided SWOT analyses of seven regions around the world related to digital and distance education. The bottom line: While online learning is on the rise everywhere, programs and courses show great unevenness because of a lack of standards. The project, led by the International Council for Open and Distance Education, was kicked off in 2016 when ICDE sought senior leaders from around the world to run task forces that would examine the quality of online learning in their regions. This was undertaken to help address the United Nations’ fourth “Sustainable Development Goal”: “Ensure inclusive and quality education for all and promote lifelong learning.”

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2019/08/14/uneven-standards-hamper-online-education-the-world-over.aspx

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