Archive of ‘instructional technology’ category

access to Meta’s internal research

More than 300 scientists have told Mark Zuckerberg they want access to Meta’s internal research on child and teen mental health because it doesn’t meet scientific standards

https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-meta-open-letter-kids-mental-health-300-scientists-2021-12

The letter concludes by asking Meta to create an independent oversight trust that would monitor and study adolescent and child mental health.

Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri is due to testify before Congress about children’s safety on the platform Tuesday.

Forrester survey of 4,602 Americans aged 12 to 17, published last month, found that 63% of respondents used TikTok on a weekly basis compared with 57% for Instagram. It also found 72% of respondents used YouTube weekly. It did not mention Facebook.

Microcredentials skills gap and accessible education

Micro-credentials: The solution to the skills gap and accessible education

By reformatting existing programs into micro-credentials and certificates, you can market these new programs to employers and bring new learners through your doors.

At the end of 2020, 80% of U.S. employers said they had more difficulty filling job openings due to skills gaps compared to the year before — and the skills gap isn’t going away anytime soon.

In fact, a recent Gartner survey found that 58% of employees need new skills to successfully do their work.

To start offering micro-credential programs:

  • Identify gaps: You don’t have to start from scratch to create a micro-credentialing program. Instead, take a proactive approach by comparing the skills offered in your existing courses with the abilities and expertise employers are searching for in their job postings and identify any gaps that micro-credentials can fill for organizations. You can then align the skills offered in your current course offerings with organizations’ needs.
  • Create stackable degree programs: You can also make your micro-credentials stackable and build them into a larger qualification (e.g., offer them as degree credits) to entice employees to further their education at your university. This elevates the overall value for learners who may want a degree down the line.

immersive for autistic students

Newbutt, N., Schmidt, M. M., Riva, G., & Schmidt, C. (2020). The possibility and importance of immersive technologies during COVID-19 for autistic people. Journal of Enabling Technologies, 14(3), 187–199. https://doi.org/10.1108/JET-07-2020-0028
#lowend #mmersive approach for students with #autism
The authors also pursue low-end vs hi-end approach in the adoption of immersive technologies:
here my annotations in hypothes.is
https://hyp.is/go?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.emerald.com%2Finsight%2Fcontent%2Fdoi%2F10.1108%2FJET-07-2020-0028%2Ffull%2Fhtml&group=__world__
or if you don’t use it, link to the article
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JET-07-2020-0028/full/html
it also follows the same venue of mindful use of immersive, which Gill, Mark C and i tried to pursue several years ago
As described and developed by Riva and Wiederhold (2020) we suggest that the use of a low-cost spherical, video-based virtual reality mindfulness intervention could reduce the psychological burden of COVID-19 for autistic people, alongside a developed package of at-home educational and support materials to empower families/caregivers delivered via an online eLearning platform to support effective implementation.

AI tutors

Viewpoint: Can AI tutors help students learn?

the Kyowon Group, an education company in Korea, recently developed a life-like tutor using artificial intelligence for the very first time in the Korean education industry.

Kyowon created its AI tutors for two-way communication–teacher to student and student to teacher–by exchanging questions and answers between the two about the lesson plan as if they were having an interactive conversation.  These AI tutors were able to provide real time feedback related to the learning progress and were also able to identify, manage, and customize interactions with students through learning habits management.  In addition, to help motivate student learning, the AI Tutors captured students’ emotions through analysis of their strengths and challenges.

While AI is being used in various industries, including education, the technology comes under scrutiny as many ask the question if they can trust AI and its legitimacy?

Although there are some meaningful use cases for deepfake, such as using technology to bring historical figures of the past to life, deepfake technology is mostly exploited. However, the good news is that groups are working to detect and minimize the damage caused by deepfake videos and other AI technology abuses, including credible standards organizations who are working to ensure trust in AI.

For education, the best and only way AI tutors will be adopted and accepted
can only be done with innovative real-time AI conversational technology that must include accurate lip and mouth synchronization in addition to video synthesis technology. Using real models, not fake computer-generated ones, is critical as well.

Playful Pedagogy Spring 2022

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more on playful pedagogy in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=playful+pedagogy

Coursera and the higher education

Coursera and the uncertain future of higher education

Coursera is blurring the lines between itself and institutions. The implications for the future of college education are profound.

https://fortune-com.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/fortune.com/2021/10/25/coursera-uncertain-future-of-higher-education/amp/

The future of higher education is being led by a publicly traded company in California that is growing like gangbusters. Its online platform has a portfolio of thousands of courses from the world’s leading universities, corporations, and nonprofits.

Coursera, which since the spring has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange, is valued at 7 billion dollars and seems to be making all the right moves.

While college and university enrollments have been declining during the pandemic, Coursera’s enrollment rose from 53 million to 78 million students this spring—an increase greater than total U.S. higher education enrollment.

Coursera is only the tip of the iceberg of an explosion of non-collegiate higher education providers. They range from libraries and museums to media companies and software makers, not to mention a burgeoning number of online providers just like Coursera. Microsoft and Google are both offering more than 75 certificate programs.

As our society becomes more fragmented and divided, we have reason to worry that higher education’s transformation will further fragment us. 

Equally important, we need to reintroduce a common curriculum to strengthen social bonds. General education should focus on the shared human experience—linking our past with our present and future, our heritage with the realities that will confront us today and tomorrow.

In the new Coursera world that will be increasingly corporatized, we need to ensure that we don’t lose our core values, our ethics, and our ability to tell fact from fiction.

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more on Coursera in this blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=coursera

Meta and 5G

NuEyes Becomes a Channel Partner With T-Mobile, Bringing the Metaverse Closer Than Ever Before

https://www.newswire.com/news/nueyes-becomes-a-channel-partner-with-t-mobile-bringing-the-metaverse-21557049

With the combination of T-Mobile’s nationwide 5G network – the largest, fastest, and most reliable – for wireless connectivity and NuEyes line of connected Augmented Reality Smart Glasses, for the first time, consumers can be connected to the metaverse no matter where they are.

 

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