Stanford Hosts AI Camp for High School Girls

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

A summer program at Stanford University introduced high school girls to artificial intelligence this summer. Among the activities they learned more about were flying drones, how autonomous cars work, diving robots and machine learning for healthcare. The two-week AI program was developed last year by Olga Russakovsky, a Stanford postdoctoral researcher, and Fei-Fei Li, associate professor of computer science and director of Stanford’s AI Lab. They were motivated by a “desperate” need to bring more women into the field. As Li told the girls during their first day, as explained in a blog entry, AI could in the future become the “Terminator next door,” or follow a more humane direction, based on the people behind the scenes doing the research and development work. The students were introduced to the concepts of design thinking, inductive reasoning, the growth mindset and time management.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/16/stanford-hosts-ai-camp-for-girls.aspx

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17301

With High-Quality Lessons and Social Supports, Even Weak Teachers Do Better

By Dian Schaffhauser, THE Journal

A new study from 100Kin10 and the University of Chicago has found that giving middle school math teachers access to high-quality lesson plans and support can “significantly” impact student performance and teacher effectiveness. 100Kin10 is an organization focused on building up the number of American K-12 teachers who can teach science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) subjects to 100,000 by the year 2021. The non-profit worked with U Chicago’s Urban Education Lab, which researches ways to help the educational outcomes for disadvantaged children growing up in urban neighborhoods. This particular study evaluated what impact there was by providing teachers with real-world lessons from Mathalicious and access to other teachers through Edmodo. Mathalicious is a company that develops standards-based lessons that explore the math of life — sports, shopping, game creation. The Edmodo interactions among teachers went by the name, “Project Groundswell.”

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/08/with-high-quality-lessons-and-social-supports-even-weak-teachers-do-better.aspx

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17291

Vermont Schools Have More Computers Than Kids

By Richard Chang, Campus Technology

The number of laptops, tablets and other electronic devices now outnumber the number of K–12 students in Vermont, according to a new Agency of Education (AOE) technology survey. Vermont schools own about 85,000 devices for student use, up from about 45,000 in the same survey just two years ago, according to the Burlington Free Press. The state has about 77,000 students in kindergarten through high school, according to an online enrollment report for the most recent school year.

https://thejournal.com/articles/2016/08/16/vermont-schools-have-more-computers-than-kids.aspx

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17271

From Dreams to Realities: AR/VR/MR in Education: A Q&A with Daniel Christian

By Mary Grush, Campus Technology

“Actually, I think we aren’t that far from being able to deliver on the powerful visions of teaching faculty.’ — Daniel Christian. The marketplace for augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality technologies may be heating up. Daniel Christian, a senior instructional designer at Calvin College observes that significant R&D investments, product development, and more powerful enabling technologies are setting the stage for new AR/VR/MR initiatives in higher education.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/16/ar-vr-mr-in-education.aspx

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17261

Crowdsourcing for Massive Engagement

by David Raths, Campus Technology

The London School of Economics and Political Science was not quick to join the MOOC movement. Its faculty and administrators were concerned about the high attrition rates commonly found in massive open online courses. “We observed a persistence about the pedagogies being deployed that didn’t do a lot to arrest those problems,” said Darren Moon, a senior learning technologist at LSE. But in 2014, Moon and his colleagues found an opportunity to build a large online community that would avoid that very high attrition rate. Together with the school’s Institute of Public Affairs, they developed Constitution UK, an effort to crowdsource a model written constitution for the United Kingdom. Participation and engagement in the project actually increased as it progressed, which may provide some lessons for other large, open education offerings.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/17/crowdsourcing-for-massive-engagement.aspx

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17246

Meet Google Duo, a simple 1-to-1 video calling app for everyone

by Google

Video calling is the next best thing to being with someone in person, but too often it can be a frustrating or complicated experience. You shouldn’t have to worry about whether your call will connect, or if your friend is using the same type of device as you are. It’s no wonder that nearly half of us never make video calls on mobile*.  Today, we’re releasing Google Duo — a simple 1-to-1 video calling app available for Android and iOS. Duo takes the complexity out of video calling, so that you can be together in the moment wherever you are.

https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2016/08/meet-google-duo-simple-1-to-1-video.html

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17231

U of Michigan AI Studies Receives $22 Million from Toyota

By Sri Ravipati, Campus Technology

Artificial intelligence (AI), robotics and autonomous piloting at the University of Michigan (U-M) are receiving a financial push to accelerate research. The Toyota Research Institute (TRI), Toyota’s R&D organization, is committing $22 million over the next four years for research collaborations with U-M faculty and students. TRI CEO Gill Pratt made the announcement last week in an address to the university’s faculty. “Toyota has long enjoyed an excellent working relationship with the University of Michigan, and we are excited to expand our collective efforts to address complex mobility challenges through artificial intelligence,” Pratt said. U-M will use the $22 million commitment to conduct research in the areas of enhanced driving safety, partner robotics and indoor mobility, autonomous driving and student learning and diversity.

https://campustechnology.com/articles/2016/08/15/u-of-michigan-ai-studies-receives-22-million-from-toyota.aspx

Share on Facebook

from Educational Technology http://people.uis.edu/rschr1/et/?p=17216