Jeff Piontek is an author, keynote speaker and teacher (most importantly). He has worked with many at-risk school districts nationally and is a thought leader in on-line and blended learning.
Infogr.am is an online tool for creating interactive charts, graphs, and interactive infographic posters. There are four basic chart types that you can create on Infogr.am; bar, pie, line, and matrix. Each chart type can be edited to use any spreadsheet information that you want to upload to your Infogr.am account. The information in that spreadsheet will be displayed in your customized chart. When you place your cursor over your completed chart the spreadsheet information will appear in small pop-up window. Infogr.am infographics can include videos and maps along with pictures and text. Your Infogr.am projects can be embedded into your blog, website, or wiki.
Easel.ly provides a canvas on which you can build your own infographic by dragging and dropping pre-made design elements. You can use a blank canvas or build upon one of Easel.ly’s themes. If Easel.ly doesn’t have enough pre-made elements for you, you can upload your own graphics to include in your infographic. Your completed infographic can be exported and saved as PNG, JPG, PDG, and SVG files.
Piktochart provides seven free infographic templates. Each template can be customized by changing the colors, fonts, icons, and charts on each template. If you need more space on the template, you can add more fields at the bottom of the templates. If you need less space, you can remove fields from the templates.
EWC Presenter is a new tool from Easy Web Content (a website creation and hosting service). EWC Presenter makes it easy to create slideshows, banner graphics, and interactive infographics. The slideshow creator and banner graphic creator don’t stand-out from other tools like them. The EWC Presenter’s infographic animation option is worth noting. EWC Presenter’s infographic tool allows you to animate elements within your infographic. And as was featured in a post early this month, EWC Presenter infographics support audio files.
Canva is a service that makes it easy to create beautiful slides, flyers, posters, infographics, and photo collages. Creating these graphics on Canva is a drag-and-drop process. Start by selecting a template then dragging and dropping into place background designs, pictures, clip art, and text boxes. Canva offers a huge library of clip art and photographs to use in your designs. You can also upload your own images to use in your graphics. Your completed Canva projects can be downloaded as PDF and PNG files. You can also simply link to your online graphic.
It is officially Mathematics Awareness Month, the perfect time to highlight what is making math more accessible and more real for students. 3D printers are definitely evolving into a essential tool for mastering mathematics in the 21st Century. In honor of the month, we are taking the opportunity to find out why.
When I think of 3D printers, I am instantly taken back to the days of George Jetson, imagine pressing a button and opening a magic door to exactly what I had asked for. Honestly, the 3D printing technology seems frighteningly close to that futuristic memory, but, the truth is, there is HUGE potential for 3D printing to impact math education in a variety of ways.
The Process. The idea of how 3D printing works is a math lesson in itself. Being a total novice in this department I calledCasey Hopkins, Founder of Elevation Lab. Hopkins uses a 3D printer to build product prototypes and was able to help me visualize the process – think of a tube of toothpaste or a hot glue gun, building layer upon layer until the desired object is created. Not to oversimplify, but in attempt to gain a very basic understanding of what is happening within these machines, he explained the process so that I could brainstorm classroom connections. It really breaks down to:
The individual gives the machine a detailed set of instructions through the use of computer software (often including algebraic equations as instructions).
The printer uses these instructions to create layers that build upon one another to construct the final project (think of building a ball by carefully stacking cut out circles of different shapes).
In order to build more complex items, the software provides more complex instructions (and therefore more complex math to review with students).
The Mathematics. As you might have guessed, the math teacher in me can’t help but immediately think about how I would use this idea in the classroom, and the truth is there are a number of ways that a 3D printer can advance students conceptual understanding of fundamental and complex mathematics:
Functions – A 3D printer really is a perfect example of an input/output. Why not use the idea to help students understand the role of a function in mathematics?
Algebraic Equations – We can take the idea of a function one step further and look into exactly what equations are used in the computer software that builds instructions for these printers. If we want the printer to build a circle, what sorts of equations might we use in our instructions?
Recursive Formulas – This type of formula uses the preceding term to define the next term of the sequence. They may use the same formula but because they start with a different input, they result in different patterns.
(x,y,z) Coordinates – The final printed product is made up of a network of these coordinates that help to create the structure of the object.
Intersecting a plane with solid objects – When you intersect a plane with a cube, what do you get? Now think instead of building that cube out of a series of squares. Why not use the process of 3D printing to expand on this idea, better yet let the students research 3D printing and explain the process to you.
Mathematical Modeling. As I continued to research this idea, I wondered how else these printers would impact the classroom. For my continued education, I called our friend Dr. Matthew Peterson at MIND Research Institute. MIND Research is actively working on building 3D manipulatives that work with their Spatial Temporal (ST) Math software, helping “make math come to life even more so than with the software alone.”
MIND Research is currently piloting a program now that provides teachers with the software for a variety of manipulatives that are embedded into the ST Math program. Dr. Peterson explains that he has been looking at how to do manipulatives for a long time, “it adds a lot of flexibility and instant access into the physical world from a digital content.” MIND continues to research when and how to incorporate manipulates effectively to bridge between the physical and virtual world.
3D printing provides a more efficient model for a variety of classroom manipulatives. Most importantly, you can print out exactly each student needs. Gone are the days of purchasing full class sets and shipping them from around the world. If you have 30 kids that each need a hands on experience for different concepts, then you can easily personalize the learning experience for everyone of them. If you lose one piece, you won’t have to get a whole new set, you can instantly print just what you need. New technologies will allow you to recycle within the 3D printing machine, helping cut down on waste.
As the world around us continues to change, we need to look at how we introduce kids to new technologies and innovation. The 3D printer and other tools like it are creating more and more teachable moments for us and our students. Lets make sure we utilize these opportunities to help prepare students for careers of the future.
You think you know how to Google? You don’t know how to Google.
Even the most seasoned Googler might not know every tip and trick available with just a few extra keystrokes in the search bar. Consider this your instructions manual for the world’s most popular search engine.
Define A Word
The Scenario: You’re playing Scrabble and some dumb-dumb says, “Hey, ‘panacea’ isn’t a word!”
The Solution: Just type “define:” followed by the word you want and Google will take you straight to the definition. Use the time you save to make smarter friends.
Search For Words In Exact Order
The Scenario: You want to find out the origin of a quote, but Google keeps giving results that are nowhere close.
The Solution: Put your search phrase inside quotation marks.
Search For Related Words
The Scenario: You want to search for “alternative energy.” But you know that phrase has a number of synonyms, like “renewable energy,” and you want to search for all of them.
The Solution: Put the worm-like tilde (~) in front of the search term for which you would like related results.
Exclude Certain Words
The Scenario: You want bread recipes that don’t list “yeast” as an ingredient.
The Solution: After you enter your desired search terms, add a minus sign (-) followed by the words you want excluded.
Search Within A Range Of Prices
The Scenario: You want to research digital cameras that fall within a certain price range.
The Solution: First type in your term. Then separate the lowest and highest prices you’re willing to pay with two periods (..). This trick also works for dates, if you’re, say, looking for a news article published during a certain time.
Search Within A Website
The Scenario: You read an interesting article about Nelson Mandela on The Huffington Post, but you don’t have the link and you can’t remember the article’s name or its author.
The Solution: Type “site:” followed by the URL of the website you’d like to search. Then add your search terms.
Fill In The Blanks
The Scenario: You once heard that mixing Pop Rocks with _________ would result in _______, but you can’t remember what either of those two blanks are.
The Solution: Enter your search terms using asterisks as stand-ins for the unknowns. Google will fill in the blanks with possibilities.
Search By File Type
The Scenario: You have to do a PowerPoint presentation on 1920s slang, either because you’re still in college or you live in Brooklyn, and you want to see how others have done it.
The Solution: Search by file type to find other PowerPoints. Enter your search terms followed by “filetype:PPT.”
Set A Timer
The Scenario: Your brain is fried and you want to take a break on YouTube. You also want to make sure you don’t get sucked down the rabbit hole.
The Solution: Type “set timer for” into the search bar and a Google timer will appear as the first result. Enter the time you want in hours, minutes or seconds and start the timer. Google will start beeping at you when your time runs out.
Do Math
The Scenario: You’re terrible at math. Like, really bad at it. Or you’re pretty good at math but have a really complicated problem to solve.
The Solution: To the chagrin of your math teacher, you can type in an equation and Google will give you the answer on its calculator. That’s right, Mr. Campisano: I didn’t need Algebra II after all.
Convert Currency
The Scenario: You’re planning a trip to Thailand but have zero idea how far your American dollars will get you.
The Solution: Type in the name of the currency you currently own, add “to” and then type in the name of the currency you need to get.
Find A GIF
The Scenario: You know the exact GIF you need to send to your friend. But how do you find it?
The Solution: Go to Google Images. Click “Search tools” and then “Type.” Then check off “Animated.” Prepare to impress.
Search By Title
The Scenario: You want to search for a photo of the sexiest man alive when he was in his prime. To be specific, you want to find Joe Biden’s yearbook photo.
The Solution: Type “intitle:” then the term you want. This will ensure the specified term is in the title of all the webpages in your results.
Make Google Flip Out
The Scenario: You want to freak out a friend.
The Solution: Type “do a barrel roll” and hit enter.
From Foursquare spin-offs to whistle-powered selfies, we covered a lot of ground with new Android apps in May. So by way of a quick recap, here’s our pick of the newbies from the past month.
Sunrise
Sunrise finally opened its uber-popular calendar app to Android users this month, as well as a version for desktop Web browsers.
Sunrise for Android offers a clean, simple design and useful hooks into third-party services such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Foursquare. It currently supports Google and iCloud calendars, though Exchange support will be added in the future.
PingTune lets you share songs with friends, serving as a place to chat and keep tabs on all the SoundCloud and YouTube music you share in a single place.
It’s similar to something like Snapchat or WhatsApp – PingTune wants to be the go-to music-messaging platform.
The service was first launched earlier this year and is based on Summly’s technology, a company Yahoo acquired last year. It’s available in four editions: the US, UK, Canada and ‘rest of the world’.
Founded by early Microsoft and LinkedIn employees, Addappt’s main thrust is this: Taking the pain out of updating your address book by syncing up with your contacts so you always have the most up-to-date details to hand.
Addappt finally arrived on Android in May, letting friends maintain their own data in each others’ address books. Once you connect, whenever one of your buddies updates their own information, Addappt automatically updates with their new details in your address book.
Cooliris, a service that pulls photos from multiple social networks into a single repository, finally arrived on Android this month, almost two years after hitting iOS.
In a nutshell, Cooliris hooks up with 15 services, including Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Dropbox, and Flickr, serving as a unified gallery to share content with friends and browse photos.
When you launch the app, you position the source text in the middle of the box, select your language combination (Chinese>English or Japanese>English), and you’re good to go. Reverse translations (e.g. English to Chinese) will be rolled out to the Android incarnation at some point, and we’re told that more languages will be added further down the line too.
The design may leave a lot to be desired, but the idea is a sound one – and it wouldn’t be at all surprising if such a feature was incorporated directly into Android in the future. The app’s core raison d’être is to make it as easy as possible to translate text into your preferred language without closing the active application – this could be an email, mobile website, document, or any third-party app that lets you copy and paste text.
You select the text you wish to convert, copy it to your clipboard, and then tap the floating Inapp Translator bubble to read the translation, which comes courtesy of Microsoft Translator.
Combining a top-down isometric design, stunning color palette and alluring soundtrack, you’re tasked with guiding a silent princess called Ida through a series of tricky puzzles.
You’ll either love or hate Secret, but it has garnered a lot of attention since launching for iOS in the US, before arriving internationally in April. And now it’s on Android too.
Secret has skyrocketed since launch, as members of the technology industry post gossip – the truth of which is by no means guaranteed – about startups in Silicon Valley and beyond. There are no names on Secret, making it difficult for anyone to guess who has posted the most recent rumors.
The oft-requested friend-only timeline option is available in the Android version too, though not the iOS incarnation.
While many apps have been challenging Skype’s throne in recent times, Ringo launched this month with a fresh take on what a mobile calling app can look like.
Interestingly, Ringo doesn’t require an internet connection to make calls – it routes them in the same way a regular carrier does, so “calls are not affected by fluctuations in internet connectivity that often lead to audio delays, loss of quality and dropped calls,” the company says.
Roomer lets you buy and sell your unwanted non-refundable hotel reservations.
The first iteration of the mobile app, which launched this month, only lets travelers search and book discounted hotel rooms, rather than selling non-refundable hotel rooms. So you’ll need to use the Web version if you’re trying to shift an unwanted reservation.
Formerly iOS and Web only, BillGuard sells itself as the world’s first ‘people-powered antivirus system for bills’. Once you’ve connected all your bank cards and credit cards, its predictive algorithms alert you when there’s unexpected charges such as hidden fees, billing errors, scams and fraud on your credit card bills.
It also serves up warnings when a similar dubious charge has been flagged by other users, or receives a complaint elsewhere on the Web. The ‘BillGuard brain’ becomes more accurate over time, and it’s a shame it’s restricted to the US and Canada.
However, it’s not about timing your egg-boiling efforts. No. It bypasses seconds, minutes, and even hours to let you add future (or past) events and give you an at-a-glance view of what’s on the horizon.
BreakFree gives feedback on how exactly you use your phone, through tracking things like how often you unlock your screen, how long you spend on calls, and which apps demand your attention most.
This surprise ending is just awesome. These applicants applied for a job with the title “Director of Operations”. They sat down for interviews and were shocked to discover the job required more than 135 hours per week, no breaks, no holidays off, and no pay!
Basically, the interviewer described the world’s toughest job. One applicant asked, “Is that even legal?” Another said, “Nobody is going to do that for free!”
All the applicants were stunned when they were told by the interviewer that billions of people already hold the position.
I wanted to take this time to say “Thank you mom”, (Dorothy and Dad) of course for all you have done for us.
Read more at http://www.reshareworthy.com/worlds-toughest-job-interviews/#cdFBq6GCiRvWDcKh.99
Do we know where to find the most credible information in an age of digital literacy? Shutterstock
Being literate used to be about knowing how to read. In the 21st century it also means knowing how to negotiate through the torrent of information coming at you from all directions. Information Fatigue Syndrome, or “Infoglut” is a defining issue of modern life. For students particularly, it is getting harder to find useful, quality information.
Information literacy to digital literacy
Educators have been teaching information literacy skills to students for many decades: learning to read, how to use libraries etc. Now with the increasing amount of information on the internet, it is more important than ever for higher education to teach students to apply these metacognitive skills — searching, retrieving, authenticating, critically evaluating and attributing material — to the online environment.
Academia has long discouraged students from using general search engines like Google and crowd-sourced information resources like Wikipedia for their assignments. It’s no big surprise, though, that students continue to access these resources. That may not be such a bad thing.
The crowd-sourcing review practices of Wikipedia, though criticised for favouring rapid turnaround over reliability, are forcing educators to reconsider the value and credibility of digital resources, or at least to rethink their attitude towards them. As scandalous as it might sound to old-school academics, Wikipedia is arguably subject to more rigorous review practices than are many scholarly publications.
Any interested party can contribute to a Wikipedia page. This community of gatekeepers, which is not unlike a community of scholars united by a common interest, assures quality of content. The influence of a minority of rogues is unlikely to taint the overall quality for long.
Who determines the value of knowledge?
The traditional academic attitude to crowd-sourced content raises serious questions about who determines the value of knowledge. Why should a journal article reviewed by a relatively small, self-selected group of academics be regarded as more valuable than an article in Wikipedia, which has been peer-reviewed by possibly thousands of interested readers?
The value of online information will undoubtedly differ in certain disciplines. A medical student is unlikely to rely on content generated from a search engine. I, for one, certainly hope that individuals in the medical profession draw on information from scholarly publications and not the top Google entry, which could be a popular blog or tabloid newspaper.
But for highly technical, fast-moving fields, such as information technology (IT), the lagbetween journal article submission and publication invariably means that this information is outdated before it is released.
A student writing about emerging technologies, for example, needs access to, and institutional permission to use, information that is available via online newspapers, blogs, RSS feeds, wikis and social media sites. Digital literacy skills can help them sift the wheat from the chaff.
A threat to the gatekeepers
Unfortunately, these new forms of knowledge construction represent a potential threat to the authority of academic gatekeepers. Unsurprisingly, these educators shun Wikipedia and insist on the use of peer-reviewed sources alone.
This archaic practice continues despite demands from employers for graduates who can critically judge the validity and reliability of online information.
Higher education institutions need to equip students with digital literacy skills. Otherwise, new modalities of education, such as Massive Open Online Courses or MOOCs, are likely to become increasingly popular, threatening traditional models over time. While disciplines that rely heavily on practical instruction, such as medicine, will retain their value, highly technical and fast-moving fields such as IT may be at risk.
How then can formal institutions remain relevant in the digital age with the proliferation of MOOCs?
Keeping formal institutions relevant
Students want an easy and reliable way to quickly validate online information. Unfortunately, many are not comfortable using materials outside those that are institutionally provided. As educators, we need to find ways to teach students how to cut through the noise and find quality information.
This raises questions about what an education that incorporates the development of digital literacy skills would actually look like.
The annotated bibliography is certainly not a novel idea. For countless years it has allowed students to demonstrate how they account for the currency, relevance and authority of information. If this task has worked so successfully for printed texts, surely it can be adapted for the digital environment.
The incredibly popular image-sharing platform Pinterest may be unintentionally fostering the development of these skills. Users are seduced by the aesthetically pleasing pictorial representation of ideas. Without even realising it, they are selecting, analysing and prioritising content for their own digital collections.
These are just some of the tools that could be used to explore how students determine the relevance and credibility of web-based content. However, despite Infoglut, digital curation tools remain a largely untapped resource in the higher education sector. As educators, we ignore these new tools at our peril.
1. The extreme joy of successfully burning a new CD with no errors.
2. The pain of buying the wrong CDs to burn. (CD-R vs. CD-RW… I WILL NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN.)
3. The feeling of playing that new CD for the first time in your car or CD player.
4. Realizing half of your burned CD was just fillers and you only made the CD for like two songs.
5. The annoyance of finally getting sick of that burned CD.
6. The joy of finding that burned CD two years later and jamming out to the memories of it.
7. The frustration of having someone write a passive-aggressive away message about you.
8. The rage of being blocked by one of your friends on AIM after an ~ online ~ fight.
9. The disappointment of downloading something on Kazaa and it being a fake song.
10. The disappointment of downloading a song period. HOURS.
11. The pure bliss that followed when that song was finally completed.
12. The soothing nature of Casey Kasem’s voice on Sunday mornings.
13. The joy of finding the Xanga, LiveJournal, or Dead Journal of someone you went to high school with and reading it for hours.
14. The amazement of Hit Clips technology.
15. The delight of staying home and catching a good episode of Sally, Maury, Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake, Jerry, or Leeza.
16. Good, genuinely trashy morning talk shows in general.
17. The anxiety of the black light test on Room Raiders.
18. The cultural impact of New York from VH1 reality shows.
19. The cultural impact of VH1 reality shows in general.
20. The brilliant weirdness of the facts on the Next bus.
MTV
21. Lizzie McGuire’s important hair + style influence.
22. The controversy about T.A.T.U.
23. The cultural impact of Mya.
24. The anxiousness while waiting for someone to leave a message on your answering machine.
25. Jealousy over anyone who was on Say What Karaoke. YOU COULD DO BETTER.
MTV
26. The satisfaction of getting a video game to work by blowing into the cartridge.
27. The satisfaction of remodeling your AIM profile.
28. The weirdness of SmarterChild.
29. True fear of Unsolved Mysteries.
30. True fear of Robert Stacks’ voice.
31. The frustration of opening a new CD because all of those goddamn stickers.
32. The anticipation of getting a disposable camera developed.
33. The annoyance of half of those pictures turning out overexposed/blurry.
34. The fun of sharing doubles with your friends.
35. The intense competition between Britney and Christina.
36. The even more intense competition between Backstreet and NSYNC.
37. What it meant to be a Backstreet Boys fan vs. an NSYNC fan.
Chris Hondros / Getty Images
38. The impact of “Lady Marmalade.”
39. The impact of Ja Rule.
40. The impact of Ashanti.
41. The impact of them both together.
42. The devastation when Nick and Jessica broke up.
43. The frustration of fitting a CD player in your pocket.
44. The feeling that Facebook was exclusive.
45. The feeling that MySpace was cool.
46. The thrill of catching the TV Guide Channel just as it was starting over.
47. The thrill of using AIM at school.
49. The amusement of opening a new CD and seeing what the design on the physical CD was like.
50. The horrific feeling of accidentally IMing someone random on your buddy list.
51. The struggle of playing Gameboy in the dark.
52. The significance of Freddie Prinze Jr.
53. The feeling of being someone’s No. 1 on their top 8.
54. The feeling of seeing yourself in someone’s top 8 that you weren’t really THAT good of friends with.
55. The anger of using Encarta and not finding what you needed.
56. The frustration of a movie you wanted to see not being at Blockbuster.
57. The pain of going to places using printed out MapQuest directions and then getting lost and being completely screwed.
“Artificial Intelligence (AI) already plays a role in grading essays, largely at the level of discerning infractions of grammar and punctuation. This opens up a potential partnership between AI and teachers: we let AI do the dirty work (find all those annoying run-ons and fragments) while we humans read for meaning and ideas. But what if AI could read for content? What if it could mimic us so well that it could pass the Turing Test, so that students couldn’t tell whether they were receiving feedback from a machine or a human?”
For decades, science fiction authors, futurists, and movie makers alike have been predicting the amazing (and sometimes catastrophic) changes that will arise with the advent of widespread artificial intelligence. So far, AI hasn’t made any such crazy waves, and in many ways has quietly become ubiquitous in numerous aspects of our daily lives. From the intelligent sensors that help us take perfect pictures, to the automatic parking features in cars, to the sometimes frustrating personal assistants in smartphones, artificial intelligence of one kind of another is all around us, all the time.
While we’ve yet to create self-aware robots like those that pepper popular movies like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Star Wars, we have made smart and often significant use of AI technology in a wide range of applications that, while not as mind-blowing as androids, still change our day-to-day lives. One place where artificial intelligence is poised to make big changes (and in some cases already is) is in education. While we may not see humanoid robots acting as teachers within the next decade, there are many projects already in the works that use computer intelligence to help students and teachers get more out of the educational experience.
Here are just a few of the ways those tools, and those that will follow them, will shape and define the educational experience of the future.
Artificial intelligence can automate basic activities in education, like grading. In college, grading homework and tests for large lecture courses can be tedious work, even when TAs split it between them. Even in lower grades, teachers often find that grading takes up a significant amount of time, time that could be used to interact with students, prepare for class, or work on professional development. While AI may not ever be able to truly replace human grading, it’s getting pretty close. It’s now possible for teachers to automate grading for nearly all kinds of multiple choice and fill-in-the-blank testing and automated grading of student writing may not be far behind. Today, essay-grading software is still in its infancy and not quite up to par, yet it can (and will) improve over the coming years, allowing teachers to focus more on in-class activities and student interaction than grading.
Educational software can be adapted to student needs. From kindergarten to graduate school, one of the key ways artificial intelligence will impact education is through the application of greater levels of individualized learning. Some of this is already happening through growing numbers of adaptive learning programs, games, and software. These systems respond to the needs of the student, putting greater emphasis on certain topics, repeating things that students haven’t mastered, and generally helping students to work at their own pace, whatever that may be. This kind of custom tailored education could be a machine-assisted solution to helping students at different levels work together in one classroom, with teachers facilitating the learning and offering help and support when needed. Adaptive learning has already had a huge impact on education across the nation (especially through programs like Khan Academy), and as AI advances in the coming decades adaptive programs like these will likely only improve and expand.
It can point out places where courses need to improve. Teachers may not always be aware of gaps in their lectures and educational materials that can leave students confused about certain concepts. Artificial intelligence offers a way to solve that problem. Coursera, a massive open online course provider, is already putting this into practice. When a large number of students are found to submit the wrong answer to a homework assignment, the system alerts the teacher and gives future students a customized message that offers hints to the correct answer. This type of system helps to fill in the gaps in explanation that can occur in courses, and helps to ensure that all students are building the same conceptual foundation. Rather than waiting to hear back from the professor, students get immediate feedback that helps them to understand a concept and remember how to do it correctly the next time around.
Students could get additional support from AI tutors. While there are obviously things that human tutors can offer that machines can’t, at least not yet, the future could see more students being tutored by tutors that only exist in zeros and ones. Some tutoring programs based on artificial intelligence already exist and can help students through basic mathematics, writing, and other subjects. These programs can teach students fundamentals, but so far aren’t ideal for helping students learn high-order thinking and creativity, something that real-world teachers are still required to facilitate. Yet that shouldn’t rule out the possibility of AI tutors being able to do these things in the future. With the rapid pace of technological advancement that has marked the past few decades, advanced tutoring systems may not be a pipe dream.
AI-driven programs can give students and educators helpful feedback. AI can not only help teachers and students to craft courses that are customized to their needs, but it can also provide feedback to both about the success of the course as a whole. Some schools, especially those with online offerings, are using AI systems to monitor student progress and to alert professors when there might be an issue with student performance. These kinds of AI systems allow students to get the support they need and for professors to find areas where they can improve instruction for students who may struggle with the subject matter. AI programs at these schools aren’t just offering advice on individual courses, however. Some are working to develop systems that can help students to choose majors based on areas where they succeed and struggle. While students don’t have to take the advice, it could mark a brave new world of college major selection for future students.
It is altering how we find and interact with information. We rarely even notice the AI systems that affect the information we see and find on a daily basis. Google adapts results to users based on location, Amazon makes recommendations based on previous purchases, Siri adapts to your needs and commands, and nearly all web ads are geared toward your interests and shopping preferences. These kinds of intelligent systems play a big role in how we interact with information in our personal and professional lives, and could just change how we find and use information in schools and academia as well. Over the past few decades, AI-based systems have already radically changed how we interact with information and with newer, more integrated technology, students in the future may have vastly different experiences doing research and looking up facts than the students of today.
It could change the role of teachers. There will always be a role for teachers in education, but what that role is and what it entails may change due to new technology in the form of intelligent computing systems. As we’ve already discussed, AI can take over tasks like grading, can help students improve learning, and may even be a substitute for real-world tutoring. Yet AI could be adapted to many other aspects of teaching as well. AI systems could be programmed to provide expertise, serving as a place for students to ask questions and find information or could even potentially take the place of teachers for very basic course materials. In most cases, however, AI will shift the the role of the teacher to that of facilitator. Teachers will supplement AI lessons, assist students who are struggling, and provide human interaction and hands-on experiences for students. In many ways, technology is already driving some of these changes in the classroom, especially in schools that are online or embrace the flipped classroom model.
AI can make trial-and-error learning less intimidating. Trial and error is a critical part of learning, but for many students, the idea of failing, or even not knowing the answer, is paralyzing. Some simply don’t like being put on the spot in front of their peers or authority figures like a teacher. An intelligent computer system, designed to help students to learn, is a much less daunting way to deal with trial and error. Artificial intelligence could offer students a way to experiment and learn in a relatively judgment-free environment, especially when AI tutors can offer solutions for improvement. In fact, AI is the perfect format for supporting this kind of learning, as AI systems themselves often learn by a trial-and-error method.
Data powered by AI can change how schools find, teach, and support students. Smart data gathering, powered by intelligent computer systems, is already making changes to how colleges interact with prospective and current students. From recruiting to helping students choose the best courses, intelligent computer systems are helping make every part of the college experience more closely tailored to student needs and goals. Data mining systems are already playing an integral role in today’s higher-ed landscape, but artificial intelligence could further alter higher education. Initiatives are already underway at some schools to offer students AI-guided training that can ease the transition between college and high school. Who knows but that the college selection process may end up a lot like Amazon or Netflix, with a system that recommends the best schools and programs for student interests.
AI may change where students learn, who teaches them, and how they acquire basic skills. While major changes may still be a few decades in the future, the reality is that artificial intelligence has the potential to radically change just about everything we take for granted about education. Using AI systems, software, and support, students can learn from anywhere in the world at any time, and with these kinds of programs taking the place of certain types of classroom instruction, AI may just replace teachers in some instances (for better or worse). Educational programs powered by AI are already helping students to learn basic skills, but as these programs grow and as developers learn more, they will likely offer students a much wider range of services. The result? Education could look a whole lot different a few decades from now.
During the last 15 years, we in education have moved at light speed in the area of educational technology. Whether you are involved in higher ed, secondary ed, elementary ed, or special ed, all of us find it difficult to catch up, keep up, and put up with fast-moving computer-based technology. Not since the introduction of the blackboard have we seen a piece of equipment make such a difference in how we teach. Today, not only do we use computers, but we also have laptops, wireless laptops, and tablet PCs. In addition, we have the World Wide Web, scanners, CD burners, USB drives, digital cameras and digital video cameras, PDAs, as well as video and DVD players. And most educators use a variety of tools-including video, e-mail, desktop conferencing, online programs such as WebCT and Blackboard, as well as video conferencing-to teach. Thus, it is no longer acceptable for educators to be technology illiterate.
With that in mind, here is a comprehensive listing of the technology skills that every educator should have. Because as computer and associated technologies continue to change and evolve, educators must continue to strive for excellence in their work. Today that includes continued time and effort to maintain and improve their technology skills (as much as some educators do not want to admit).
Here are 20 basic technology skills that all educators should now have:
Word Processing Skills
Spreadsheets Skills
Database Skills
Electronic Presentation Skills
Web Navigation Skills
Web Site Design Skills
E-Mail Management Skills
Digital Cameras
Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System
File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)
Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
Videoconferencing skills
Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
Scanner Knowledge
Knowledge of PDAs
Deep Web Knowledge
Educational Copyright Knowledge
Computer Security Knowledge
16. Scanner Knowledge
Educators should know how to use a scanner and what OCR capacity is. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.
A Few Scanning Tips www.scantips.com
Scanning Tips by Wayne Fulton
Educators should understand the copyright issues related to education including multimedia and Web-based copyright issues. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.
University of Maryland University College: Information and Library Services www.umuc.edu/library/copy.html
Copyright and Fair Use in the Classroom, on the Internet, and the World Wide Web
During the last 15 years, we in education have moved at light speed in the area of educational technology. Whether you are involved in higher ed, secondary ed, elementary ed, or special ed, all of us find it difficult to catch up, keep up, and put up with fast-moving computer-based technology. Not since the introduction of the blackboard have we seen a piece of equipment make such a difference in how we teach. Today, not only do we use computers, but we also have laptops, wireless laptops, and tablet PCs. In addition, we have the World Wide Web, scanners, CD burners, USB drives, digital cameras and digital video cameras, PDAs, as well as video and DVD players. And most educators use a variety of tools-including video, e-mail, desktop conferencing, online programs such as WebCT and Blackboard, as well as video conferencing-to teach. Thus, it is no longer acceptable for educators to be technology illiterate.
With that in mind, here is a comprehensive listing of the technology skills that every educator should have. Because as computer and associated technologies continue to change and evolve, educators must continue to strive for excellence in their work. Today that includes continued time and effort to maintain and improve their technology skills (as much as some educators do not want to admit).
Here are 20 basic technology skills that all educators should now have:
Word Processing Skills
Spreadsheets Skills
Database Skills
Electronic Presentation Skills
Web Navigation Skills
Web Site Design Skills
E-Mail Management Skills
Digital Cameras
Computer Network Knowledge Applicable to your School System
File Management & Windows Explorer Skills
Downloading Software From the Web (Knowledge including eBooks)
Installing Computer Software onto a Computer System
WebCT or Blackboard Teaching Skills
Videoconferencing skills
Computer-Related Storage Devices (Knowledge: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks, DVDs, etc.)
Scanner Knowledge
Knowledge of PDAs
Deep Web Knowledge
Educational Copyright Knowledge
Computer Security Knowledge
11. Downloading Software from the Web Knowledge – including e-Books
All educators should be able to download software from the web and know of the major sites that can be used for this purpose. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.
Educators should be aware of these two online teaching tools and know about them and/or know how to use them to teach or take classes. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.
Educators should be able to use a video conferencing classroom and understand the basics of teaching with Video Conferencing. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.
JISC Technology Applications Programme www.cse.dmu.ac.uk/~jtb/jtap-037.htm
Practical Guidelines for Teaching with Video Conferencing from JTAP
Educators should understand and know how to use the following data storage devices: disks, CDs, USB drives, zip disks & DVDs. See the following Web sites for helpful information and tutorials.
