OLDaily

Facial Recognition Technology Has No Place in Schools
Doug Levin, EdTech Strategies, 2018/06/22

I think that the main problem here is that facial recognition software won't actually solve any problems or prevent any of the things (like armed intrusions) it is intended to prevent. This leaves it with only one real purpose: to track students at school through the school day. Aside from the trivial task of taking attendance, though, this serves no educational purpose at all. It does generate a lot of data, however,. which will eventually be of great interest to data miners and marketers. I don't see facial recognition technology as "potently, uniquely dangerous", though. I reserve that designation for firearms. But it's definitely not helpful.

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Woolf University: the Airbnb of higher education or a sheep in wolf’s clothing?
Tony Bates, Online learning and distance education resources, 2018/06/22

"You are going to hear a lot about Woolf University over the next year or so and possibly much longer," predicts Tony Bates. The reference is to a white paper titled Building the First Blockchain University (58 page PDF), which Bates recommends you read cover to cover. It will generate its own token, rely on smart contracts, and through these "support direct personal, individual apprenticeships in thinking." The model described is basically a distributed corporation similar to the model of the DAO (I wrote about it here). From the instructor's perspective, it really is (as Bates suggests) the Airbnb of learning. "This is in some ways a highly innovative proposal for a new type of university, but in other ways, it is a terribly conservative proposal, an extension of the Platonic dialogue to modern times. It could only have come from Oxford University academics, with its mix of blue sky dreaming, the latest technological buzz, and regression to cloistered academe," writes Bates. See also this article from last week in Forbes.

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The XaaS Economy is Here: How Well Are You Serving Your Customers?
Stephan Sieber, ReadWrite, 2018/06/22

This is more of a business model change than a technology change, but it is certainly enabled by technology. Everything as a Service (XaaS) refers to an economy where "where products and services are delivered in a continuous relationship with the customer, rather than as a series of discrete individual sales." This article documents the transition to XaaS (describing those not using it as 'lagging behind'). It also describes a 'customer revolution' where "world-class technology and platforms are no longer exclusively the domain of large corporations and organizations" which means "an organization’s success will hinge far less on its access to software and technology, and far more on the most effective use and execution." I'm not sure that latter point is entirely true - the technology and information consumers have access to is a generation or two behind what large corporations can leverage. After all, how many people are running cloud networks in their living rooms?

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9 ways to use Artificial Intelligence in education
Emily Watts, Big Data Made Simple, 2018/06/22

This isn't an especially deep article but it serves to prompt some thinking about the subject. The uses of AI include things like chat, personalized learning and automatic grading. I think that we could probably cast our imaginative nets more widely to include things like AI-supported performance assist with physical devices (like tennis rackets) and AI-enhanced job preparation and placement services, both of which have been talked about in these pages over the years. I did like the idea of using AI to supoport interval education; that's the first time I

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At E3, video gaming's bigots have lost
Dave Lee, BBC News, 2018/06/22

This is how an institution gets better. Four years ago, Gamergate ricked the gaming industry. It was a harassment campaign intended to drive women out of gaming. It failed. "What were once referred to as the 'thinly-veiled' elements of Gamergate are now fully visible. But it no longer matters. As I leave Los Angeles, with another E3 behind us, it’s clear that the Gamergate way of thinking has lost. The industry has stepped up - and video games will be all the better for it." There will be longer term impacts as well. The rise of male-only gaming was followed by a male-only technology industry. It may be that we're seeing the end of that as well. Long overdue.

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