SCORM still remains the standard for how we describe, package, and report on eLearning.
CMI5 can generate a statement on virtually any kind of learner experience as well as the traditional data elements such as score, time on task, quiz questions and student answers. In this sense, CMI5 supports both openness and structure.
With CMI5, you can place a learning activity in a repository, in GitHub, on a web server, in a Site44 drop box site, in SharePoint, in a distributed network, wherever….without restricting its ability to connect with a learning management system. CMI5 content does not need to be imported. A CMI5 package can contain as little as one XML file, which among other things, tells the LMS where to find the content.
What the metaverse will (and won’t) be, according to 28 experts
metaverse (hopefully) won’t be the virtual world of ‘Snow Crash,’ or ‘Ready Player One.’ It will likely be something more complex, diverse, and wild.
The metaverse concept clearly means very different things to different people. What exists right now is a series of embryonic digital spaces, such as Facebook’s Horizon, Epic Games’ Fortnite, Roblox‘s digital space for gaming and game creation, and the blockchain-based digital world Decentraland–all of which have clear borders, different rules and objectives, and differing rates of growth.
TIFFANY ROLFE
different layers of realities that we can all be experiencing, even in the same environment or physical space. We’re already doing that with our phones to a certain extent—passively in a physical environment while mentally in a digital one. But we’ll see more experiences beyond your phone, where our whole bodies are fully engaged, and that’s where the metaverse starts to get interesting—we genuinely begin to explore and live in these alternate realities simultaneously.
It will have legacy parts that look and feel like the web today, but it will have new nodes and capabilities that will look and feel like the Ready Player One Oasis (amazing gaming worlds), immersion leaking into our world (like my Magicverse concept), and every imaginable permutation of these. I feel that the Xverse will have gradients of sentience and autonomy, and we will have the emergence of synthetic life (things Sun and Thunder is working on) and a multitude of amazing worlds to explore. Building a world will become something everyone can do (like building a webpage or a blog) and people will be able to share richer parts of their external and inner lives at incredibly high-speed across the planet.
YAT SIU, COFOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE CHAIRMAN OF GAMING AND BLOCKCHAIN COMPANY ANIMOCA BRANDS
Reality will exist on a spectrum ranging from physical to virtual (VR), but a significant chunk of our time will be spent somewhere between those extremes, in some form of augmented reality (AR). Augmented reality will be a normal part of daily life. Virtual companions will provide information, commentary, updates and advice on matters relevant to you at that point in time, including your assets and activities, in both virtual and real spaces.
TIMONI WEST, VP OF AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY, UNITY:
I think we can all agree our initial dreams of a fully immersive, separate digital world is not only unrealistic, but maybe not what we actually want. So I’ve started defining the metaverse differently to capture the zeitgeist: we’re entering an era where every computer we interact with, big or small, is increasingly world-aware. They can recognize faces, voices, hands, relative and absolute position, velocity, and they can react to this data in a useful way. These contextually aware computers are the path to unlocking ambient computing: where computers fade from the foreground to the background of everyday, useful tools. The metaverse is less of a ‘thing’ and more of a computing era. Contextual computing enables a multitude of new types of interactions and apps: VR sculpting tools and social hangouts, self-driving cars, robotics, smart homes.
as carbon is to the organic world, AI will be both the matrix that provides the necessary structural support and the material from which digital representation will be made. Of all the ways in which AI will shape the form of the metaverse, perhaps most essential is the role it will play in the physical-digital interface. Translating human actions into digital input–language, eye movement, hand gestures, locomotion–these are all actions which AI companies and researchers have already made tremendous progress on.
Qualcomm views the metaverse as an ever-present spatial internet complete with personalized digital experiences that spans the physical and virtual worlds, where everything and everyone can communicate and interact seamlessly.
As an active researcher in the security and forensics of VR systems, should the metaverse come into existence, we should explore and hypothesize the ways it will be misused.
CHITRA RAGAVAN, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER AT BLOCKCHAIN DATA ANALYTICS COMPANY ELEMENTUS
I picture [the metaverse] almost like The Truman Show. Only, instead of walking into a television set, you walk into the internet and can explore any number of different realities
We imagine the metaverse as reality made better, a world infused with magic, stories, and functionality at the intersection of the digital and physical worlds.
CAROLINA ARGUELLES NAVAS, GLOBAL PRODUCT MARKETING, AUGMENTED REALITY, SNAP
Rather than building the “metaverse,” a separate and fully virtual reality that is disconnected from the physical world, we are focused on augmenting reality, not replacing it. We believe AR–or computing overlaid on the world around us–has a smoother path to mass adoption, but will also be better for the world than a fully virtual world.
URHO KONTTORI, COFOUNDER AND CTO OF AR/VR HEADSET MAKER VARJO
In the reality-based metaverse, we will be able to more effectively design products of the future, meet and collaborate with our colleagues far away, and experience any remote place in real-time.
ATHERINE ALLEN, CEO OF IMMERSIVE TECH RESEARCH CONSULTANCY LIMINA IMMERSIVE
I prefer to think of the metaverse as simply bringing our bodies into the internet.
The metaverse isn’t just VR! Those spaces will connect to AR glasses and to 2D spaces like Instagram. And most importantly, there will be a real sense of continuity where the things you buy are always available to you.
At its core will be a self-contained economy that allows individuals and businesses to create, own or invest in a range of activities and experiences.
NANDI NOBELL, SENIOR ASSOCIATE AT GLOBAL ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN FIRM CALLISONRTKL
the metaverse experience can be altered from the individual’s point of view and shaped or curated by any number of agents—whether human or A.I. In that sense, the metaverse does not have an objective look beyond its backend. In essence, the metaverse, together with our physical locations, forms a spatial continuum.
NICK CHERUKURI, CEO AND FOUNDER OF MIXED REALITY GLASSES MAKER THIRDEYE
The AR applications of the metaverse are limitless and it really can become the next great version of the internet.
SAM TABAR, CHIEF STRATEGY OFFICER, BITCOIN MINING COMPANY BIT DIGITAL
It seems fair to predict that the actual aesthetic of any given metaverse will be determined by user demand. If users want to exist in a gamified world populated by outrageous avatars and fantastic landscapes then the metaverse will respond to that demand. Like all things in this world the metaverse will be market driven
Part of the Debates in the Digital Humanities Series A book series from the University of Minnesota Press Matthew K. Gold and Lauren F. Klein, Series Editors
Defintion
Critical infrastructure studies has emerged as a framework for linking thought on the complex relations between society and its material structures across fields such as science and technology studies, design, ethnography, media infrastructure studies, feminist theory, critical race and ethnicity studies, postcolonial studies, environmental studies, animal studies, literary studies, the creative arts, and others (see the CIstudies.org Bibliography )
An informal consensus seems to have emerged that if students in the humanities are going to make use of quantitative methods, they should probably first learn to program. Introductions to this dimension of the field are organized around programming languages: The Programming Historian is built around an introduction to Python; Matthew Jockers’s Text Analysis with R is at its heart a tutorial in the R language; Taylor Arnold and Lauren Tilton’s Humanities Data in R begins with chapters on the language; Folgert Karsdorp’s Python Programming for the Humanities is a course in the language with examples from stylometry and information retrieval.[11] “On the basis of programming,” writes Moretti in “Literature, Measured,” a recent retrospective on the work of his Literary Lab, “much more becomes possible”
programming competence is not equivalent to competence in analytical methods. It might allow students to prepare data for some future analysis and to produce visual, tabular, numerical, or even interactive summaries; Humanities Data in R gives a fuller survey of the possibilities of exploratory data analysis than the other texts.[15]Yet students who have focused on programming will have to rely on their intuition when it comes to interpreting exploratory results. Intuition gives only a weak basis for arguing about whether apparent trends, groupings, or principles of variation are supported by the data.
From Humanities to Scholarship: Librarians, Labor, and the Digital
First hired as a “digital humanities librarian,” I saw my title changed within less than a year to “digital scholarship librarian,” with a subject specialty later appended (American History). Some three-plus years later at a different institution, I now find myself a digital-less “religion and theology librarian.” At the same time, in this position, my experience and expertise in digital humanities (or “digital scholarship”) are assumed, and any associated duties are already baked into the job description itself.
Jonathan Senchyne has written about the need to reimagine library and information science graduate education and develop its capacity to recognize, accommodate, and help train future library-based digital humanists in both computational research methods and discipline-focused humanities content (368–76). However, less attention has been paid to tracking where these digital humanities and digital scholarship librarians come from, the consequences and opportunities that arise from sourcing librarians from multiple professional and educational stations, and the more ontological issues associated with the nature of their labor—that is, what is understood as work for the digital humanist in the library and what librarians could be doing.
Makransky, G., & Lilleholt, L. (2018). A structural equation modeling investigation of the emotional value of immersive virtual reality in education. Educational Technology Research and Development, 66(5), 1141–1164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11423-018-9581-2
an affective path in which immersion predicted presence and positive emotions, and a cognitive path in which immersion fostered a positive cognitive value of the task in line with the control value theory of achievement emotions.
business analyses and reports (e.g., Belini et al.2016; Greenlight and Roadtovr 2016), predict that virtual reality (VR) could be the biggest future computing platform of all time.
better understanding of the utility and impact of VR when it is applied in an educational context.
several different VR systems exist, including cave automatic virtual envi-ronment (CAVE), head mounted displays (HMD) and desktop VR. CAVE is a projection-based VR system with display-screen faces surrounding the user (Cruz-Neira et al.1992). As the user moves around within the bounds of the CAVE, the correct perspective and stereo projections of the VE are displayed on the screens. The user wears 3D glasses insidethe CAVE to see 3D structures created by the CAVE, thus allowing for a very lifelikeexperience. HMD usually consist of a pair of head mounted goggles with two LCD screens portraying the VE by obtaining the user ́s head orientation and position from a tracking system (Sousa Santos et al. 2008). HMD may present the same image to both eyes (monoscopic), or two separate images (stereoscopic) making depth perception possible. Like the CAVE, HMD offers a very realistic and lifelike experience by allowing the user to be completely surrounded by the VE. As opposed to CAVE and HMD, desktop VR does not allow the user to be surrounded by the VE. Instead desktop VR enables the user to interact with a VE displayed on a computer monitor using keyboard, mouse, joystick or touch screen (Lee and Wong 2014; Lee et al. 2010).
the use of simulations results in at least as good or better cognitive outcomes and attitudes toward learning than do more traditional teaching methods (Bayraktar2000; Rutten et al. 2012; Smetana and Bell2012; Vogel et al.2006). However, a recent report concludes that there are still many questions that need to be answered regarding the value of simulations in education (Natioan Research Council2011). In the past, virtual learning simulations were primarily accessed through desktop VR. With the increased use of immersive VR it is now possible to obtain a much higher level of immersion in the virtual world, which enhances many virtual experiences (Blascovich and Bailenson2011).
an understanding of how to harness the emotional appeal of e-learning tools is a central issue for learning and instruction, since research shows that initial situ-ational interest can be a first step in promoting learning several educational theories that describe the affective, emotional, and motivational factors that play a role in multimedia learning which are relevant for understanding the role of immersion in VR learning environments.
the cognitive-affective theory of learning with media (Moreno and Mayer2007),
and
the integrated cognitive affective model of learning with multimedia (ICALM; Plass and Kaplan2016)
Presence, intrinsic motivation, enjoyment, and control and active learning are the affective factors used in this study. defintions
The sample consisted of 104 students (39 females and 65 males; average age=23.8 years) from a large European university.
immersive VR (Samsung Gear VR with Samsung Galaxy S6) and the desktop VR version of a virtual laboratory simulation (on a standard computer). The participants were randomly assigned to two groups: the first used the immersive VR followed by the desktop VR version, and the second used the two platforms in the opposite sequence.
The VR learning simulation used in this experiment was developed by the company Labster and designed to facilitate learning within the field of biology at a university level. The VR simulation was based on a realistic murder case in which the participants were required to investigate a crime scene, collect blood samples and perform DNA analysis in a high-tech laboratory in order to identify and implicate the murderer
we conclude that the emotional value of the immersive VR version of the learning simulation is significantly greater than the desktop VR version. This is a major empirical contribution of this study.
Cook, M., & Lischer-Katz, Z. (2021). Practical steps for an effective virtual reality course integration. College & Undergraduate Libraries, 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691316.2021.1923603
compelling precedents for the use of VR in the classroom, including from disciplines like architecture (Angulo 2M. COOK AND Z. LISCHER-KATZ 2013; Milovanovic et al.2017; Kuliga et al.2015), anthropology (Lischer- Katz, Cook, and Boulden2018), and medicine (Jang et al.2017; Bharathan et al.2013; Trelease and Rosset2008). Relatedly, several projects have also created immersive VR environments that replicate historical places, includ- ing the Virtual Harlem Project at the University of Arizona (Johnson et al. 2002; Park et al.2001); Rohwer Rising project by the Center for Advanced Spatial Technology at the University of Arkansas; the Virtual Blockson pro- ject at Temple University Libraries (Clark and Wermer-Colan2018); and a virtual reality experience of the May Massee Collection at Emporia State University (Lund and Scribner2019). These projects offer exciting examples of how VR has new storytelling potential that can enhance the impact of teaching for educators and librarians in both technical and humanistic fields of study.
Are you creating an online course, event or conference? If you’re not a programmer, and if you don’t have a lot of money to spend, this guide will get you started. Read it from top to bottom to get a step-by-step guide to what you can do to set up your course or event. Then check the links to find free or cheap and easy tools that will get the job done for you.
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more on online learning in this IMS blog https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=online+learning
UCLA Extension seeks XR (augmented and virtual reality) professionals to teach in a new online certificate program housed within the UCLA Extension Center for Immersive Media. This recruitment is for online instructors for remote and asynchronous instruction, three hours per week, for ten-week quarters.
The center is focused on enterprise applications, workforce training in XR, narrative structures for XR storytelling, and (UX) User Experience in XR. This XR program is focused on training individuals to become XR content developers. The emphasis of this certificate is not on advanced coding or hardware development. Areas of recruitment include:
XR Frameworks, an introduction to the XR business, user cases & goal/needs evaluation
XR Tools I, an introduction to a modeling software such as Blender
XR Tools II, prototyping tools with an emphasis on Unity
XR Narratives, the use of non-linear narrative structures in XR development
XR User Experience I, usability applications and studies bringing together previous class course work into VR and XR projects
XR User Experience II, advanced XR experience studies and applications
XR Product Pipeline & Project Management, Best practices including stages of production, critical paths, etc.
XR Capstone Project, creation of final portfolio piece UCLA Extension is the open-access, self-supporting continuing education division of UCLA. The Department of the Arts offers a wide variety of certificate programs and courses, including post-baccalaureate credit-bearing (400-level), continuing education (CEU) credit, and non-credit bearing general interest courses. Course disciplines in the Visual Arts span subject areas such as Design Communication Arts, User Experience, Photography, Studio Arts and Art History. Our courses and certificate programs offer students the opportunity to learn from highly qualified practitioners who are passionate about teaching. Applications to teach are accepted throughout the year in order to fill immediate program needs and to increase the depth of the instructor pool, but interviews will only be scheduled with qualified applicants who can fill anticipated openings. XR Instructor Qualified applicants possessing current industry knowledge and experience in the following topic area(s) are encouraged to apply: AR, VR, MR, XR, User Experience Design, Gaming, Immersive Interface Design, XR Research, Software (Unity, Blender), XR Hardware. Classes are currently online only. Two formats are available: asynchronous, or live Zoom lectures. Each course is 11 weeks, enrollment limited to 20 students. Instructor Duties: • Develop or update course syllabus to meet campus approval requirements, in consultation with the UCLA Extension Program Director and Program Manager. • Use subject-matter expertise to impart knowledge to students and leverage additional resources appropriately to enhance the curriculum (i.e. make arrangements for guest speakers, etc.) • Design interactive and motivational classroom activities to fully engage participants and to reinforce student learning. • Update materials periodically, and regularly monitor course evaluations in order to make adjustments and improvements to the curriculum. • Respond to student questions and learning needs in a timely manner. • Communicate with Program Director and Program Staff in a timely manner. • Complete required administrative tasks in a timely manner including: completing all new hire paperwork, submitting updated quarterly syllabus, posting bio and photo on the UCLA Extension website, accepting quarterly contract, submitting required textbook orders, and communicating classroom needs to the appropriate people. • Participate in required orientations and instructor training programs. • Employ culturally competent teaching methodologies in the classroom inclusive of both domestic and international student populations. • Stay current regarding the professional body of knowledge in the field • Respond to student inquiries about final grades and consult with Program Director as needed. • Maintain a record of final grades for up to 13 months following the last class session. Qualifications: • Creation of XR products, with portfolio examples and specific role(s) in producing • 3-5 years industry experience • Commitment to the highest level of academic standards and integrity. • Current knowledge of and demonstrated proficiency in subject area. • Highly effective oral and written communication skills, including the ability to convey conceptual and complex ideas and information. • Outstanding interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence. • Proficiency in or willingness to learn the use of instructional technology and online teaching tools. • College-level and/or continuing education teaching experience preferred. • Experience designing curriculum and measuring student performance preferred.
UCLA Extension is considered one of the top programs of its kind, offering to more than 35,000 students per year approximately 4,500 classes and non-degree certificate programs to meet the professional development, continuing education and personal enrichment needs of the full spectrum of nontraditional students as well as companies and organizations throughout and beyond the Los Angeles region.
Special Conditions of Employment
Instructors are hired on a quarterly contract basis.
Because Extension is a division of UCLA, all Extension degree-credit instructors and courses must be formally approved according to the regulations of the Academic Senate of the University of California. Eligibility to teach a course is contingent upon this formal academic approval. Once approved, teaching assignments are “by agreement.” The Instructor’s Contract outlines the deliverables for the course, the course schedule, and the compensation terms, subject to Extension policies and procedures. UCLA Extension makes no commitment to hire an instructor until it has sent and received a signed
Instructor Contract. Should the course section an instructor plans to teach be cancelled for any reason, the Instructor Contract, including rights to compensation for future section meetings, is voided.
In an effort to promote and maintain a healthy environment for our students, visitors and employees, UCLA is a smoke-free site. Smoking is prohibited within the boundaries of all UCLA owned, occupied, leased, and associated building and facilities. UCLA Extension is an Equal Opportunity Employer that values a diverse workforce.
To Apply:
Please follow the “apply now” link to submit the following:
Completed application form
Current CV
Link to portfolio or work samples if available
Cover letter”
Basic qualifications (required at time of application)
Creation of XR products, with portfolio examples and specific role(s) in producing
3-5 years industry experience
Commitment to the highest level of academic standards and integrity.
Current knowledge of and demonstrated proficiency in subject area.
Highly effective oral and written communication skills, including the ability to convey conceptual and complex ideas and information.
Outstanding interpersonal skills and high emotional intelligence.
Proficiency in or willingness to learn the use of instructional technology and online
teaching tools.
College-level and/or continuing education teaching experience preferred.
Experience designing curriculum and measuring student performance preferred.
Alexander, B. (2021), “Macroauthorities and Microliteracies: The New Terrain of Information Politics”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 29-37. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211003
Portelli, J.P. and Oladi, S. (2021), “Post-truth Society: Toward a Dialogical Understanding of Truth”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 11-28. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211002
Patrinos, H.A. (2021), “The Learning Challenge in the Twenty-first Century * “, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 39-53. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211004
Pauncefort, E. (2021), “Critical Literacy Is at the Heart of the Answer”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 73-94. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211006
Balser, W.F., Diasio, S. and Kendal, T. (2021), “Societal Reorientation via Programmable Trust: A Case for Piloting New Models of Open Governance in Education”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 95-110. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211007
This essay proposes the need to infuse open innovation (OI) and open source (OS) principles and technologies into schools as a means of tackling many of the most pervasive challenges in education, and by extension, society at large. It is argued that the principles of OI and OS, which are rooted in innovation management and software development, respectively, may be applied to the way we conceive of and approach organizational governance structures related to schooling, particularly in regard to harnessing innovation, updating management processes, and codifying new systems of trust. Whereas OI offers a novel approach to knowledge flow and the open exchange of ideas, communities rooted in OS principles breed tangible and generative effects through peer network democratization. These emergent, digitally defined networks have been proven to maximize innovation potential, expand collaboration, and enable the propagation of highly durable systems of trust and transparency, all catalytic and essential if we are to realize a future learning economy which favors equity, distributed systems, and common goods over profit, centralized decision-making, and proprietorship. It is within this framing that we articulate the core tenets of both OI and OS translationally as a means of stimulating thinking about how core principles of “openness” and the distributed technologies they enable may help to build common ground in an ever-evolving education and information ecosystem.
Sant, T. (2021), “How Can Wikipedia Save Us all?: Assuming Good Faith from all Points of View in the Age of Fake News and Post-truth”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 133-143. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211010
Fusari, M. (2021), “The Kony 2012 Campaign: A Milestone of Visual Storytelling for Social Engagement”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 155-173. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211012
Mallia, Ġorġ. (2021), “Post-truth Visuals, Untruth Visuals”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 175-187. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211013
Basu, D. and Gabbay, M. (2021), “Karl Marx and the Blockchain”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 225-241. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211016
Blockchain is often presented as a technological development; however, clearly it is not only that: the ‘Blockchain buzz’ exists in the context of current social and political developments. In this essay, we analyse blockchain technology and its social and political context from a perspective of Marxist economic theory. Since arguably the last great inflection point in society and technology was analysed by Marx in terms of labour and capital and since we seem to be experiencing a shift in the balance between these forces today, it makes sense to revisit the Marxist ideas and apply them to the current situation, to see how well they still apply and if necessary to update them for current events.
Ellul, J., Grech, A. and Pace, G.J. (2021), “Two Sides to Every Story. The Truth, Post-truth, and the Blockchain Truth”, Grech, A. (Ed.) Media, Technology and Education in a Post-Truth Society (Digital Activism and Society: Politics, Economy And Culture In Network Communication), Emerald Publishing Limited, Bingley, pp. 243-253. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-80043-906-120211017
One of the rallying cries of the blockchain community is that of immutability: the irreversibility of the past, the absolute truth which, once stored, remains there forever. The technology was designed with this foundational pillar in mind to ensure that changes to history are inordinately expensive and practically impossible to execute – and increasingly so, the further in the past the event which one intends to manipulate lies. This platonic view of absolute truth is in stark contrast with a world of manipulated truth, and it is not surprising that it is being revisited as a means of combating fake news. We argue that claims to the absolute nature of the blockchain are at best exaggerated, at worst misrepresented or even ‘fake news’. We discuss implicit centralised points of trust in blockchains, whether at a technological, social or governance level, and identify how these can be a threat to the ‘immutable truth’ stored within the blockchain itself. A global pandemic has unleashed an unprecedented wave of contradictory positions on anything from vaccines and face masks to ‘the new normal’. It is only natural that the pursuit of blockchain as a placebo for society’s ‘truth’ problems continues.
The survey from the College Innovation Network asked nearly 700 students enrolled at four higher ed institutions to answer questions about what online learning has been like for them during the 2020-21 academic year.
Narrow AI is what we see all around us in computers today — intelligent systems that have been taught or have learned how to carry out specific tasks without being explicitly programmed how to do so.
General AI
General AI is very different and is the type of adaptable intellect found in humans, a flexible form of intelligence capable of learning how to carry out vastly different tasks, anything from haircutting to building spreadsheets or reasoning about a wide variety of topics based on its accumulated experience.
What can Narrow AI do?
There are a vast number of emerging applications for narrow AI:
Interpreting video feeds from drones carrying out visual inspections of infrastructure such as oil pipelines.
Organizing personal and business calendars.
Responding to simple customer-service queries.
Coordinating with other intelligent systems to carry out tasks like booking a hotel at a suitable time and location.
Flagging inappropriate content online, detecting wear and tear in elevators from data gathered by IoT devices.
Generating a 3D model of the world from satellite imagery… the list goes on and on.
What can General AI do?
A survey conducted among four groups of experts in 2012/13 by AI researchers Vincent C Müller and philosopher Nick Bostrom reported a 50% chance that Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) would be developed between 2040 and 2050, rising to 90% by 2075.
What is machine learning?
What are neural networks?
What are other types of AI?
Another area of AI research is evolutionary computation.
What is fueling the resurgence in AI?
What are the elements of machine learning?
As mentioned, machine learning is a subset of AI and is generally split into two main categories: supervised and unsupervised learning.
Supervised learning
Unsupervised learning
Which are the leading firms in AI?
Which AI services are available?
All of the major cloud platforms — Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform — provide access to GPU arrays for training and running machine-learning models, with Google also gearing up to let users use its Tensor Processing Units — custom chips whose design is optimized for training and running machine-learning models.
Which countries are leading the way in AI?
It’d be a big mistake to think the US tech giants have the field of AI sewn up. Chinese firms Alibaba, Baidu, and Lenovo, invest heavily in AI in fields ranging from e-commerce to autonomous driving. As a country, China is pursuing a three-step plan to turn AI into a core industry for the country, one that will be worth 150 billion yuan ($22bn) by the end of 2020 to become the world’s leading AI power by 2030.
How can I get started with AI?
While you could buy a moderately powerful Nvidia GPU for your PC — somewhere around the Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 or faster — and start training a machine-learning model, probably the easiest way to experiment with AI-related services is via the cloud.
