Tag: education

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Online Course Report lists 50 most popular MOOCs of all time

Unlike regular college/ university courses, MOOCs can attract many thousands of enrollees around the world. They can come in the form of active course sessions with participant interaction, or as archived content for self-paced study. MOOCs can be free, or there can be a charge – either on a subscription basis or a one-time charge. Free MOOCs sometimes have a paid “verified certificate” option.

— The 50 Most Popular MOOCs of All Time http://www.onlinecoursereport.com/the-50-most-popular-moocs-of-all-time/

A good list, but be sure to read the caveats at the beginning and end.

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New AI could help write your next textbook, using Penn State technology – TechRepublic

Penn State has announced the launch of BBookX—new technology they developed that works with faculty to use artificial intelligence to build textbooks from open resources. The software, which was created in August, works to create personalized textbooks by extracting open source information from the Web, based on user input.

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/new-ai-could-help-write-your-next-textbook-using-penn-state-technology/#ftag=RSS56d97e7

This is an interesting development. Trying it out requires an account.

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Because profit is more important than innovation, high school testing still relies on the TI-83 graphing calculator.

But this is also a world where high school math students have to shell out $100 for the same TI-83 graphing calculator that their parents used twenty years ago (or one of its descendants, at least)—instead of using a free app that they could simply download to their phone. Why? Mic reports that the main reason is tradition. Texas Instruments has managed to get its calculators written into the standardized tests used by many schools. And inertia being what it is, it’s really hard to change something like that once it gets set down on paper.

Source: In an age of tablets and e-books, high school testing still relies on the TI-83 graphing calculator | TeleRead

This should serve as a reminder that it isn’t just the legal world that drags its feet when it comes to new and obviously better technology. The world is awash in examples of this sort of thing where a powerful incumbency holds back or outright blocks the adoption of new tech simply to preserve some profit margin. Ignoring, disregarding, or suppressing innovation in the name of maintaining profits especially in a near monopoly market is practically a rule of business.

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IBM Watson shakes up 7 industries. Are legal and education on the list?

Since IBM opened IBM Watson to the world last year, it has been building a developer and entrepreneur community around the development platform. The community now consists of more than 280 commercial partners, as well as tens of thousands of developers, students, entrepreneurs and other enthusiasts that are generating up to 3 billion monthly API requests on Watson.

How IBM Watson apps are changing 7 industries | Computerworld http://www.computerworld.com/article/2934460/emerging-technology/how-ibm-watson-apps-are-changing-7-industries.html#slide1

Surprise! Legal and education didn’t make the list. Maybe it isn’t much of a surprise. Both “industries” aren’t really driven by data crunching but much more by human interaction and both have been rather impervious to automation.