Artificial Intelligence Eliciting Social Change in Thailand | Technology - OpenGov Asia

Domestic violence has been an issue of pressing concern to the Thai government and while they have been making progress, group data scientists might just have found a way to make the situation drastically better. As machines are incapable of judging, they find people are more willing to talk about sensitive issues with machines.

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With people more willing to talk about sensitive issues with machines instead of other people, AI becomes an ideal alternative, as OpenGov Asia reports.
 

A group of tech experts are developing a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) chatbot to help victims of domestic violence more easily access the justice system and counselling programmes as the problem balloons in Thailand. 

Studies have shows that people live in fear of judgement and may be more embarrassed to relay the whole truth about the sensitive and often, humiliating, experience. Victims in this highly distressed state often experience many complex emotions. Some fear the pity that falls upon them when they relay their experiences and others do not understand why the person that they are relaying their experience to, does not show any pity or any emotion for that matter. 

This is where the AI machines are brought into the picture when it comes to domestic violence. People understand that they are speaking to just a machine. Perhaps they know that the machine has near human intelligence, but being just a machine, they know that it is not capable of showing any emotion and is therefore, incapable of judging them. Due to this, they are able to talk more frankly and honestly of their experiences. They are able to get into the details of the attack and even talk freely about the way they feel about it. 

The AI machine, being developed by a group of tech experts from Telenor Asia including Winn Voravuthikunchai, is aimed at promoting and introducing the use of robots for carrying out social change. "This game-changing initiative is a big step for Thai social projects in adopting state-of-the-art technology to solve social problems effectively," said Mr Winn. 
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Source: OpenGov Asia

Amp Up Your Career With a New E-Learning Portfolio | Insights - ATD

Ashley Chiasson, instructional designer and consultant insist, "Here’s a bold statement: Being an instructional designer or e-learning developer is pretty much an industry-related crime."

Photo: ATD

At least it is if you want to position yourself well within your organization or within your industry market. There are a lot of developers out there competing for the roles you might hope to have (now or in the future). So it’s important to get your work out there, but you need to do so strategically.

An e-learning portfolio is essentially a container meant to house all of your most representative (or best) work. It should provide a visual guide related to what you can do within the industry and technologies that you work within. Additionally, your portfolio should be a representation of the work you would like to continue doing.

Having worked for organizations where there are many internal applicants, many of whom have checked the “more time at organization X” than I, having a portfolio available when I walked into interviews was critical. It gave me a leg up during the interview process, and likely made me a more desirable applicant than those who didn’t come as prepared.

There are many reasons people cite for why they don’t have a portfolio. My response to those reasons: “Thank you for your excuses. Now, suck it up and get it done!” Sure, there are non-disclosure agreements and controlled goods, but at the end of the day, it comes down to making things happen. You are your own destiny, and that phrase holds weight when it comes to building your portfolio. Just get it done.
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Source: ATD

Fordham University Launches Two New Online Graduate Degrees | eLearningInside News

Cait Etherington, writer and education/training consultant inform, "U.S.-based edtech company, 2U, partners with colleges and universities to build flexible and adaptable online courses."

On July 19th, 2U announced a new partnership with New York’s Fordham University. 2U will work with Fordham University to deliver two new online graduate degree programs. Law@Fordham will launch a Master of Studies in Law in Compliance, and Business@Fordham will launch a suite of specialized management and finance degrees.

The 2U-Fordham Partnership In a press release issued on July 19th, Fordham University Interim Provost Jonathan Crystal expressed enthusiasm for the new partnership and specifically, the partnership’s potential to extend Fordham University’s graduate-level education to a broader spectrum of students. “Fordham is pleased to be able to deliver its programs in compliance and business to professionals around the world via 2U,” says Provost Crystal, “We look forward to delivering top-notch academic programming to a broader, more diverse body of students via 2U’s online platform.”

Andrew Hermalyn, who serves as 2UGrad President, is also confident that the new partnership will help Fordham University realize its goal of reaching a broader demographic of students: “Based in the epicenter of U.S. business and commerce, Fordham Law and the Gabelli School of Business have unparalleled access and connections to leaders in these fields. Partnering with Fordham means we can extend this quality educational experience to students globally.”...

Last week, eLearning Inside News reported on MITx’s “hybrid” master’s program, which combines a year of online learning with one semester of on-campus education.
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Source: eLearningInside News

New study shines light on the racial ‘anger bias’ of educators | ThinkProgress

"New study shines light on the racial ‘anger bias’ of educators" notes Sam Fulwood, columnist for ThinkProgress.
 

Prospective teachers are more likely to perceive the faces of black adults as being angry compared to the faces of white adults, a new study finds.
Photo: ThinkProgress

Stories about black school children being more harshly treated or punished than white children has become an old and disturbing media staple, one that waxes and wanes with the frequency of its retelling, frequently featuring lurid and shocking details. But despite the popularity of this news trope, most reported accounts typically fail to offer much in the way of credible justification for why teachers might behave in such a racially-prejudiced way toward their students.

Now, in an effort to make sense of the incomprehensible, a recent study conducted by team of education researchers at several major U.S. universities offers an illuminating theory: many teachers harbor implicit biases against the black faces of their students.

According to a preliminary study published earlier this month in the journal Contemporary Education Psychology, prospective teachers are more likely to perceive the faces of black adults as being angry compared to the faces of white adults, even in instances where neither group is emotionally expressive. Similarly, the researchers found that the teachers-in-training viewed the behavior of black children as more hostile than similar behavior of white children.  

This study adds to the scholarly heft of previous scholarly work, as well as countless anecdotes which suggest that white teachers and administrators discipline black students more harshly than white students. While such findings — and media accounts they generate — are disturbing to the point of alarm, they nevertheless contain a logic that is hard to deny. What’s more, these new findings help to explain> the persistence of discrimination that follows black children> into adulthood, as their lives move from classrooms to workplaces and other realities of American society...

Amy Halberstadt, a psychology professor at North Carolina State University and lead author of the Contemporary Education Psychology paper on the study, said in an interview with Science Daily that it’s well known black students are more likely to be suspended, expelled and disciplined than white students due to a disconnect between white teachers and black students.
Read more..

Source: ThinkProgress

Harry Potter Will Help Kids Learn to Code With U.K. Startup Kano | Technology - Bloomberg

Nate Lanxon, editor and tech correspondent for Bloomberg, observes, "Harry Potter never learned computer code, but a London-based startup plans to help Muggle children do so with the famous wizard’s help." 

Kano’s Harry Potter coding kit will and introduce children to programming languages such as JavaScript.
Photo: Kano

Aspiring young developers will be able to use a new coding kit developed by Kano, which includes a physical magic wand that responds to movement in the hand, to learn how to recreate some of the magic spells seen in the popular movies, such as Wingardium Leviosa and Stupefy.

When it’s released in October through a partnership with Warner Bros., Kano’s Harry Potter coding kit will cost $99 and introduce children to programming languages such as JavaScript, which has real-world uses in modern web design and software development. Kano, founded in 2013,  makes do-it-yourself computer-building kits for kids – or anyone –  and has its own online platform where people can create games.

Alex Klein, co-founder and chief executive officer of Kano, said the magic wand kit was conceived after executives at Walmart Inc., which sells the startup’s products in the U.S., were intrigued by the company’s movement sensor products...

...Lego Boost was created by the Danish brick-building company’s new CEO, Niels B. Christiansen, in part to give kids access to a new way to learn computer programming, but also to help reverse a slump in sales. 
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Source: Bloomberg 

LinkedIn e-learning platform available free through libraries | Online Learning - Education Dive

A $2 million deal with Ohio public libraries, which officials say is the first of its kind, allows patrons to access 12,000 courses, including pathways to job skills, continues Education Dive.
 

Photo: Education Dive

Dive brief:

• The Ohio library system has reached a $2 million agreement with LinkedIn to use its online learning platform Lynda.com to provide library cardholders with access to Lynda’s more than 12,000 courses, according to the Dayton Daily News.
• The agreement involves a partnership among The Ohio Library Council, the Ohio Public Library Information Network and LinkedIn, which will provide access to the courses. Classes range from simple minute-long tutorials to sophisticated learning paths with a series of courses that can provide high-level job skills.
• Ohio library officials said this was the first agreement of its kind nationally, and is designed to improve economic opportunity for the state’s workforce and add a useful service for library patrons.

Dive Insight: 
Lynda's 12,000 courses range from gardening and understanding iPhone features, to technical material about supply chain operations and project management and instruction on dozens of computer software applications and programming languages.

The company says 40% of the nation’s colleges use its platform along with 31 state governments, all branches of the military and many corporations. It is often used by institutions for training staff, along with offering courses for the general public. The firm reports that it adds 60 courses per month.

Late last year some universities expressed concern about rate hikes by the company, which was acquired for $1.5 billion in 2015 by LinkedIn following LinkedIn's acquisition by Microsoft for more than $26 billion. Critics suggested the corporate changes may have resulted in the higher rates.
Read more... 

Source: Education Dive

The Best Learning Blends Online and Instructor-Led Courses | Gallup

Story Highlights

• All companies have to focus on development to compete for top talent
• Blended learning techniques are best for adult learners
• Learners retain more when they immediately apply what they've learned

Jennifer Robison contributed to this article.

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Learn why a blend of course delivery modes makes for the most effective learning, summarizes Adam Hickman, Learning Design Consultant at Gallup and Shane McFeely, Global Practice Researcher at Gallup.

 
Professional development is a critical concern for managers, L&D pros, HR leaders -- anybody in charge of leading or managing other professionals.

Companies invest a lot in their educational programs: well over a $1,000 per worker each year, on average. For that kind of money, a business needs to see and feel a substantial return on its investment.

That's why Gallup continuously evaluates the best way to teach and train adult workers.

With the explosion of online learning platforms and courses, the question of mode 
effectiveness becomes paramount.

Is learning more effective in live, instructor-led courses or online modules?
There are two schools of thought on that, and research is pointing to an answer: both are best, blended together in a program that reinforces learning.

But efficacy depends to some extent on learner preferences and needs, too.

Different Attributes
Perhaps the biggest advantage of instructor-led courses is that they engage learners in the material.

• When a learner has trouble grasping a concept, a course leader can answer questions.
• When learners do not see the relevance of the course content to their jobs, course leaders can help make those connections immediately.
• And when learners want more information because they're excited about the subject matter, course leaders can encourage their discovery process and dive deeper.

Digital learning has other, but equally useful, qualities.

• The on-demand nature of these learning platforms ensures workers can schedule learning around their calendar and workspace -- a big plus for remote workers or employees who work in offices far away from HQ.
• Digital learning can also be scaled to reach a large number of workers and is not limited to physical classroom spaces.
• And because digital learning is delivered over time, this mode of learning has the benefit of more natural opportunities for practice and reinforcement.

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Source: Gallup

Philosopher of The Month: Maurice Merleau-Ponty [slideshow] | OUPblog

Panumas King, marketing executive for philosophy at Oxford University Press reports, "This July, the OUP Philosophy team honors Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-61) as their Philosopher of the Month."  

Photo: The Card Player (5th version) (ca.1894-1895) by Paul Cezanne, oil on canvas, Musée d’Orsay. Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons.

Merleau-Ponty was a French phenomenologist and together with Sartre founded the existential philosophy. His work draws on the empirical psychology, the early phenomenology of Husserl, Saussure’s structuralism as well as Heidegger’s ontology.

His most famous work Phénoménologie de la Perception (1945, Phenomenology of Perception) established Merleau-Ponty as the philosopher of the body. The body is the centre of perceptions and medium of consciousness.  By this, he emphasized the way in which our experience does not form a shut-off private domain, but a way of being-in-the world in which the lived body and the perceptible world coexist internally...

Merleau-Ponty also has profound influence in the field of aesthetics and art theory.  His philosophy of painting rests on the three essays: ‘Cézanne’s Doubt’, ‘Indirect Language and the Voices of Silence’ and ‘Eye and Mind’.
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Source: OUPblog (blog)

Beware the cult of tech education | Opinion - The Australian Financial Review

We should resist the urge to hero worship leaders of any one profession over another, any one skill over another, as The Australian Financial Review reports.

Google found the best new ideas came from B teams comprised of employees who don't always have to be the smartest in the room.
Photo: techno

In a speech this month dedicated to the critical importance of science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) education in driving Australia's future economy, Federal Education Minister Simon Birmingham invoked the works of Sir Francis Bacon and Alvin Toffler as inspiration.

He topped it with a timely reference to the Thai cave rescue and how the "feats of science, technology and engineering made such a rescue possible".

Birmingham's audience was the Australian Science Teachers Federation, so he may have been preaching to the converted.

Faddish obsession

But I'm sure many knew that Sir Francis, a true enlightenment-era genius, was as gifted in philosophy and law as he was in science; that Toffler, the author of the 1970 best seller Future Shock, was a writer not a scientist; and the Thai cave rescue success had as much to do with the physical skill and resilience of the divers as it did engineering.

And this is the problem with politicians' new-found obsession with STEM education: it comes across as too simplistic and at times, faddish.

There is no argument that Australia needs more and appropriately qualified science and maths teachers and that STEM skills are vital for the new world of work and in solving the myriad wicked problems in an ever more complex and connected world.
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Source: The Australian Financial Review

What are you reading? – 19 July 2018 | Books - Times Higher Education (THE)

A weekly look over the shoulders of our scholar-reviewers by Contributors.

Photo: iStock

Bruce Macfarlane, professor of higher education, University of Bristol, is reading Abraham Flexner’s Universities: American, English, German (Routledge, 1994)...

Carina Buckley, instructional design manager, Solent University, is reading Patricia Cornwell’s Depraved Heart (HarperCollins, 2015)...  

Karen McAulay, performing arts librarian and postdoctoral researcher, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, is reading James Raven’s What is the History of the Book? (Polity Press, 2018)... “
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Source: Times Higher Education (THE)