https://www.insidehighered.com/digital-learning/blogs/online-trending-now/badging-blockchain-documenting-skills-learned
LinkedIn’s 2020 list of skills in most demand includes these soft skills at the very top:
- Creativity
- Persuasion
- Collaboration
- Adaptability
And these hard skills at the very top:
- Blockchain
- Cloud computing
- Analytical reasoning
- Artificial intelligence
Further steps have been taken independently by universities that are utilizing blockchain technology to disseminate transcripts containing rich detail and documentation not available in the traditional paper document.
+++++++++++++++
more on blockchain in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=blockchain
more on microcredentialing in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=microcredential
AI progress depends on us using less data, not more
A minimal-data practice will enable several AI-driven industries — including cyber security, which is my own area of focus — to become more efficient, accessible, independent, and disruptive.
1. AI has a compute addiction. The growing fear is that new advancements in experimental AI research, which frequently require formidable datasets supported by an appropriate compute infrastructure, might be stemmed due to compute and memory constraints, not to mention the financial and environmental costs of higher compute needs.
MIT researchers estimated that “three years of algorithmic improvement is equivalent to a 10 times increase in computing power.”
2. Big data can mean more spurious noise.
++++++++++++++
more on infodemic in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=infodemic
HOW ORACLE SELLS REPRESSION IN CHINA
https://theintercept.com/2021/02/18/oracle-china-police-surveillance/
++++++++++++
more on Promethean and student data privacy
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=promethean
A look at trends in college consolidation since 2016
https://www.highereddive.com/news/how-many-colleges-and-universities-have-closed-since-2016/539379/
Our goal was not to create a death watch but rather to give our readers a tool to show the scope of that activity and any patterns within it. To make those trends easier to detect, we updated our tracker with a map showing closings and significant consolidations by state.
https://www.verizon.com/about/news/verizon-unity-partner-5g-mec-gaming-enterprise
- Verizon and Unity partner to enable new digital experiences ranging from entertainment applications to enterprise toolkits using 5G, mobile edge compute (MEC) and real-time 3D technology.
- 5G Ultra Wideband and MEC will be a game changer for real-time 3D entertainment content by offering faster speeds, higher bandwidth and ultra low-latency for industries like gaming, retail, sports and more.
- The companies will also explore how 5G and MEC can enhance real-time 3D enterprise experiences, transforming the way businesses design, build and operate in a real-time economy.
++++++++++
A new book by an MIT professor is full of surprising truths about how the brain works.
Posted by EdSurge HigherEd on Thursday, December 24, 2020
https://www.edsurge.com/news/2020-12-22-forgetting-is-a-feature-not-a-bug-how-the-brain-grasps-new-concepts
a new book called “Grasp: The Science Transforming How We Learn.”
“Our approach to teaching is based on the assumption that the teacher has a pen and the student’s brain is a sheet of paper. That’s actually wrong,”
Forgetting is a key strength of the brain, even though it has to be fought against by teachers, he says. My note: why is this a revelation? My psychology professor in the 80s was drilling in us: one, who does not forget, does not remember.
professors need to space out lessons and reteach important material at intervals, he adds, to get past the tendency to forget. My note: that also has been discussed extensively in the past two decades: e.g. the chunk theory, microlearning etc: https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=chunk+theory
++++++++++++++++
more on the brain and education in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=brain
Assessment Is an Enormous Waste of Time
https://www.chronicle.com/article/assessment-is-an-enormous-waste-of-time/
The assessment industry is not known for self-critical reflection. Assessors insist that faculty provide evidence that their teaching is effective, but they are dismissive of evidence that their own work is ineffective. They demand data, but they are indifferent to the quality of those data. So it’s not a surprise that the assessment project is built on an unexamined assumption: that learning, especially higher-order learning such as critical thinking, is central to the college experience.
the Lumina Foundation’s Degree Qualifications Profile “provides a qualitative set of important learning outcomes, not quantitative measures such as numbers of credits and grade-point averages, as the basis for awarding degrees.”
article in Change, Daniel Sullivan, president emeritus of St. Lawrence University and a senior fellow at the Association of American Colleges & Universities, and Kate McConnell, assistant vice president for research and assessment at the association, describe a project that looked at nearly 3,000 pieces of student work from 14 institutions. They used the critical-thinking and written-communication Value rubrics designed by the AAC&U to score the work. They discovered that most college-student work falls in the middle of the rubric’s four-point scale measuring skill attainment.
Richard Arum and Josipa Roska’s 2011 book, Academically Adrift, used data from the Collegiate Learning Assessment to show that a large percentage of students don’t improve their critical thinking or writing. A 2017 study by The Wall Street Journal used data from the CLA at dozens of public colleges and concluded that the evidence for learning between the first and senior years was so scant that they called it “discouraging.”
not suggesting that college is a waste of time or that there is no value in a college education. But before we spend scarce resources and time trying to assess and enhance student learning, shouldn’t we maybe check to be sure that learning is what actually happens in college?
+++++++++++++++
more on assessment in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=assessment
and critical thinking
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=critical+thinking
The Chinese Communist Party on the American Campus
https://www.state.gov/the-chinese-communist-party-on-the-american-campus/
State Department, Michael Pompeo
++++++++++++++++
Pompeo Criticizes Colleges Over China Ties
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2020/12/10/pompeo-criticizes-colleges-over-china-ties