"Predicting the future is easy. It's trying to figure out what's going on now that's hard" (Dressler, 2005)
It has been a while since I last blogged (5 months)…but for a retired person, I have been pretty busy, teaching 6 courses over those five months…including four graduate courses during the fall. Not planning to do that again for a while! Fun engaging with Masters students at Northeastern and doctoral students at Creighton, but… Read more Lessons from Robot-Proof
I have just started a new section of Northeastern’s EDU-6323: Technology as a Medium for Learning. This is the accelerated 8-week version for summer, covering an array of digital technologies and their integration into K12, higher ed, or corporate training sessions. During the first week, the assigned readings included: Michael Wesch. (2009). From Knowledgable to… Read more Chatbots and the Human Element
Mary Meeker is out with her annual look at the “State of the Internet”…and as always, it is fascinating. Internet Trends 2017 Report from Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers Mary has been doing this since 2002, but I first became aware of the annual report back in 2011. I have since incorporated it into my… Read more Internet Trends
Adam Barger wrote a post this week in the Educause Review blog entitled, “Educational Technology Leadership and Practice in Higher Education: The Emergence of Threshold Concepts.” “Threshold” is an interesting term that grabs your attention! Merriam-Webster defines “threshold” as (a) the plank that lies under a door, (b) the place or point of an ending… Read more Inevitable Thresholds
Something I tweeted earlier this week…but it keeps circling around in my head: Anyone in faculty dev should read @hjarche post “the uncertain future of training” … very relevant to our field – https://t.co/ajK0KRUqPJ — Britt Watwood (@bwatwood) May 10, 2017 Harold noted in “the uncertain future of training” that training courses are artifacts of… Read more Futuremark
There has been a lot on the news lately about artificial intelligence and how it is impacting the future. Already there are advice posts regarding how AI can enhance education, such as “7 Ways Artificial Intelligence Will Change Higher Education” or “Could Online Tutors and Artificial Intelligence be the Future of Teaching?”. Yet, this morning… Read more Will AI Do Improv?
Dave Weinberger had a very interesting post on Backchannel last week that suggest AI now has knowledge we will never understand. Dave noted: “We are increasingly relying on machines that derive conclusions from models that they themselves created, models that are often beyond human comprehension, models that “think” about the world differently than we do.”… Read more Defining Online: Ask the Machines?
My good friend Enoch Hale asked me a question late last week that I have been contemplating ever since: “What are some good books to read regarding the future of Higher Education?” Good question…and at a deeper level, how do you differentiate between books that have the flawed (at least, I think flawed) assumption that… Read more The Future of Higher Education?
Jane Hart has opened up voting for the 2017 Top Tools used for learning. With the 11th Annual Learning Tools survey, Jane Hart will once again be compiling an overall Top 200 Tools for Learning 2017 as well as 3 sub-lists: Top 100 Tools for Personal & Professional Learning 2017 – ie. the tools used by individuals for… Read more Annual Reflection on My Tool Use
Someone who always gets me thinking is danah boyd. Her post “Toward Accountability: Data, Fairness, Algorithms, Consequences” is the latest to prod my brain! Her post raises the issue of how data collection and data manipulation are not neutral activities…that the decision to collect or not collect and the thought process behind the analysis of… Read more Value Added versus Liability Sponge