Men who explained our world – Steve Matthews' book review | News & Star

John Gough was blinded before his third birthday as a result of smallpox. He was born in Kendal in 1757. 

Natural Awakenings by Ian Hodkinson

Remarkably he became a very capable mathematician and classicist and most remarkably he became one of Cumbria’s greatest naturalists.

He learnt by touch and through the observations of friends. He collected plants and animals and he experimented with growing plants in various locations. At a time when few people recorded the weather, he kept a meticulous record of the weather over several years...

This book makes a very important contribution to a part of the history of Cumbria which is largely forgotten.  
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Source: News & Star

Here are the benefits of taking online music lessons | Technology - IMC Grupo

Technology now allows an aspiring musician or beginner access to a wealth of resources on how to play an instrument. Online exercises, training modules, pre-recorded videos and Skype can let you hone your talent right in the comfort of your own home, continues IMC Grupo.

Benefits of Learning Music Online
Photo: IMC Grupo

Here are the benefits of taking online music lessons  

Convenience  
Want to learn to play piano online?, A few clicks and you’ll be getting started, which is a far cry to the lessons of yesteryear. Today, all you’ll need is a stable internet connection, your instrument and a laptop or smartphone to start. It’s convenient in a way that you won’t need to leave the comfort of your own home to learn an instrument.

More Choices
There are times when people won’t be able to find a professional teacher or someone who’s experienced enough to teach them about their instrument. Finding a good teacher can be a chore and can put a damper on your plans. 
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Source: IMC Grupo

Are Humans the Only Musical Species? | Science & Technology - The MIT Press Reader

Even those of us who can’t play a musical instrument or lack a sense of rhythm can perceive and enjoy music. Are we alone? reports Henkjan Honing, professor of Music Cognition at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands now.

After a decade of exciting new findings, it seems that Darwin was at least partly right.
Photo: MIT Press Reader

We are all born with a predisposition for music, one that develops spontaneously and is refined by listening to music. Think, for example, of relative pitch, recognizing a melody separately from the exact pitch or tempo at which it is sung, and beat perception, hearing regularity in a varying rhythm. 

Even human newborns turn out to be sensitive to intonation or melody, rhythm, and the dynamics of the noise in their surroundings. Everything suggests that human biology is primed for music at birth with respect to both the perception and enjoyment of listening.

As such, the human capacity for music appears to be special. But what makes it special, and is our musical predisposition unique, like our linguistic ability? Or is musicality something with a long evolutionary history that we share with other animals?

Charles Darwin assumed that all animals can detect and appreciate melody and rhythm simply because they have a nervous system comparable to that of humans. He therefore had no doubt that human musicality had a biological foundation and a long evolutionary history, an idea that inspired a new field of scientific study — biomusicology — and set me on the path to writing my book, “The Evolving Animal Orchestra.”...

This theory led me to visit the Primate Research Institute in Inuyama, Japan, where the primatologist Yuko Hattori was investigating the musicality of chimpanzees. Her initial findings suggested that chimpanzees do indeed have beat perception, thus allowing us to date the origins of human beat perception to the common ancestor of humans and chimpanzees, some five to ten million years ago. Last month, the study was published in the Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences and confirmed the GAE hypothesis.
Read more... 

Recommended Reading

The Evolving Animal Orchestra:
In Search of What Makes Us Musical

Source: The MIT Press Reader 

STEM class makes music by adding Art | Education - WSIL TV

Joe Rehana and Victoria Idoni, Authors at WSIL says, It's easy to imagine a high school art student bringing home a water color, or even ceramic art, but what about a musical instrument?

Monitor GFX
Photo: WSIL TV

Cobden High School created a new STEM program to do just that, but in a twist, they call it, “STEAM.”

"It's STEM guitar building. I like to refer to it as ‘STEAM’ guitar building because I'm an art teacher, and to me, there's nothing more artistic than building a guitar,” said Cobden Art instructor Jeremy Crawford, noting the addition of "A" to the traditional STEM acronym.

Nine high school seniors are enrolled in his Science-Technology-Engineering- ART-and Math class.

"Aside from the art aspect, it's definitely science, technology, engineering and math,” said Crawford. 

“I had to go back and learn some math to actually teach this too; so, they're learning all those skills, they're learning hands-on skills they might not get otherwise."...

The students choose their shapes and colors and then let the construction process begin.
"I really like purple, and I thought it probably would make a really cool after effect with the black with it."
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Source: WSIL TV

‘You still can!’: Music teacher champions adult students learning violin | Life - GazetteNET

It’s a common maxim that children gain considerable benefits from studying music by Steve Pfarrer, Daily Hampshire Gazette.
 

Violin teacher Lynn Newdome, right, leads students, from left, Jin Sun Park of Enfield, Connecticut, Ben Levy of Gill and Mandy Cohen of Hadley in a 17th century baroque piece, “Fantasia: Three Parts Upon a Ground,” by Henry Purcell, during an evening lesson at her Florence studio.
Photo: Kevin Gutting

Studies have shown that it stimulates the brain in many areas, leading to greater reasoning power, as one example, and that kids can develop discipline and good learning habits useful in other walks of life. Consider as well the dexterity and strength children can develop in their fingers from playing a musical instrument — and, of course, a love of music itself.

But is there any reason you can’t do that as an adult as well? Not at all, says Lynn Newdome, who teaches violin to a number of adult students.

“Whenever I hear someone say, ‘Oh, I wish I’d studied violin or some other instrument when I was younger,’ I say ‘You still can! Learning doesn’t stop when you’re an adult,’ ” says Newdome, a veteran violin performer and instructor who lives in Florence. “It’s a complete fallacy that only children can learn music.”

Newdome was making just that point during a recent evening at her home studio, where three of her adult students — Mandy Cohen, Ben Levy and Jin Sun Park — joined her for a combined lesson and performance...

Never too late
Newdome says the conventional wisdom is that children and teens make for better music students because, in a general sense, they’re more malleable: their brains are still developing and in theory can absorb more. Young students can also more easily be taught good habits, the thinking goes — proper posture and positioning of the hands and fingers for playing piano, for example — that become a critical foundation for progressing on an instrument.

But Newdome says adult students have other factors in their favor. For one, there’s an intellectual capacity for grasping abstract concepts that are beyond most children, such as applying music theory to their practicing rather that just doing repetitive exercises. Adults have also developed an appreciation and understanding for a range of music — knowing a lot “by ear” — that gives them a base for learning more, she says...

Never too late:
My musical life story

Newdome says one of her inspirations for teaching older students is the 1979 book “Never Too Late,” a memoir by the late educator and writer John Holt about how he learned to play cello beginning at age 40. In the book, Holt describes the challenges he faced studying music as an adult but also the joy he had in the process, and he makes the argument that “It is never too late” to learn something new, including music — even if you’re never going to be some kind of standout.

“That’s true,” says Newdome. “Age is no barrier to learning music.”
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Source: GazetteNET

Top 10 IT Issues, 2020: The Drive to Digital Transformation Begins | EDUCAUSE Review

The EDUCAUSE 2020 Top 10 IT Issues describe the start of the higher education drive to digital transformation, as colleges and universities work to simplify, sustain, and innovate.

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Colleges and universities today face numerous and varied challenges, as Susan Grajek and the 2019–2020 EDUCAUSE IT Issues Panel reports.

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Higher education leaders know that with so much at stake, perhaps even their own institution's survival, transformational change is needed. Leaders are hoping to serve different types of learners, offer more flexible credentials and learning opportunities, expand research efforts, and develop new partnerships with employers, industries, and local schools and communities. They are, in short, seeking to adapt and even radically alter their business models and the value delivered by their colleges and universities.

Technology has a significant role to play. In the past twenty years, digital technology has advanced rapidly enough to evolve from enabling back-office operations to expanding access to businesses and institutions, delivering new kinds of products and services, adapting offerings to specific needs and interests, and generally providing a competitive advantage to organizations that can use technology innovatively and well. This use of technology is being described as digital transformation (aka Dx). Higher education too is embarking on Dx, which EDUCAUSE defines as "a series of deep and coordinated culture, workforce, and technology shifts that enable new educational and operating models and transform an institution's operations, strategic directions, and value proposition."¹

The EDUCAUSE 2020 Top 10 IT Issues tell a story of how higher education is beginning its digital transformation journey. Colleges and universities are working to unmake old practices and structures that have become inefficient and are preparing to use technology and data to better understand and support students and to become more student-centric...

For higher education to meet these challenges, nothing less than transformative change will do. Dx is the mechanism for such change. The journey will be long and unpredictable. It begins with shoring up existing foundations via simplification and sustainability. It picks up speed with innovation. The integrative CIO will help ensure a smooth ride to the right destination. Thus the drive to digital transformation begins. 
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Source: EDUCAUSE Review

Reading Textbooks: The College Plague | Effective Teaching Strategies - Faculty Focus

First, let’s acknowledge this universal epidemic. College students despise reading textbooks and e-books that cover content with academic information by Dimple J. Martin, PhD, assistant professor of early childhood education and faculty professional development at Miles College.

Reading Textbooks: The College Plague
Photo: Faculty Focus

Fortunately, I discovered a cure for the reading plague that only requires five teaspoons of ingestion: 1) survey 2) question 3) read 4) retrieve and 5) review. In my class, I have found the SQ3R Method to be a step-by-step approach to learning and studying from textbooks. 

Although it took my students time and practice to master this method, it has been valuable in regards to preparing students for more content-driven class discussions, increased retention and understanding of information, strategic study skills, and test preparation.

At the beginning of each semester, I introduce to my students the SQ3R Method—it was originally devised to read college textbooks in a systematic approach. Students need to understand that this approach is completely different from casual reading; instead, it is a strategy for productive academic reading. In my attempt to get students to be more intentional and actively engaged, I began to embed the SQ3R Method into my instruction...

From my students’ feedback, I can conclude that the SQ3R Strategy has been effective in my classes. In order to generate its effectiveness, I had to guide my students through consistent rehearsals which required repetition. This allowed information to convert from short-term memory to long-term memory. However, to my chagrin, I was surprised that students did not transfer the use of the SQ3R Strategy to other classes.  
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Source: Faculty Focus

48 hours left on early-bird pricing to TC Sessions: Robotics + AI 2020 | TechCrunch

Just two days stand between you and serious savings on tickets to TC Sessions: Robotics + AI 2020, according to Emma Comeau, U.S. Director of Events.

This annual day-long event draws the most innovative and visionary technologists, researchers and investors from two game-changing industries — last year we hosted 1,500 attendees. Make a smart investment.  
Buy an early-bird ticket before prices go up on January 31 and save $150.

Looking for exposure? We have two fantastic ways to put your early-stage startup in front of a highly influential group of VCs and technologists. Check this out...

TC Sessions: Robotics + AI 2020 takes place on March 3, but early-bird tickets disappear in just two days. Remember the deadline: January 31. Get the most out of your startup dollars — buy a ticket now and save $150.
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Source: TechCrunch

Deep neural networks are coming to your phone | Machine learning & AI - Tech Xplore

Laura Castañón, Northeastern University summarizes, How does a self-driving car tell a person apart from a traffic cone? How does Spotify choose songs for my "Discover Weekly" playlist? Why is Gmail's spam filter so effective? 

Yanzhi Wang, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering, has devised a way to run deep neural networks on mobile devices like the average cell phone.
Photo: Ruby Wallau/Northeastern University

The answer is a type of artificial intelligence known as deep neural networks. These networks are very good at recognizing and classifying data, but they tend to take a lot of computing power and memory to run—too much to work quickly on something like your average smartphone.

Now researchers at Northeastern have demonstrated a way to run deep neural networks on a smartphone or similar system. Using their method, the networks can execute tasks up to 56 times faster than demonstrated in previous work, without losing accuracy. They will be presenting their work at a conference on artificial intelligence next month in New York.

"It is difficult for people to achieve the real-time execution of neural networks on a smartphone or these kinds of mobile devices," says Yanzhi Wang, an assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at Northeastern. "But we can make most deep learning applications work in real-time."...

Wang and his colleagues have devised a way to both reduce the size of the neural network model and automatically generate code to run it more efficiently. This work could allow deep neural networks to be implemented in off-the-shelf devices that may not have consistent internet access. And that has uses far beyond hands-free communication with your phone.
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Additional resources 
PCONV: The Missing but Desirable Sparsity in DNN Weight Pruning for Real-time Execution on Mobile Devices. arXiv:1909.05073v3 [cs.LG]:  
arxiv.org/abs/1909.05073

Source: Tech Xplore

The Role of AI and Machine Learning in Cybersecurity | Artificial Intelligence - Analytics Insight

AI and machine learning are the kind of buzzwords that generate a lot of interest; hence, they get thrown around all the time. 

AI

But what do they actually mean? And are they as instrumental to the future of cybersecurity as many believe?...

Conclusion  
 ...AI and machine learning have changed the world of cybersecurity forever. As time goes on, they will keep getting more and more refined. It’s a matter of question when it will reach the point of becoming your cybersecurity watchdog, tailored to your needs.
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Source: Analytics Insight