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How hackers could use doll to open your front door

How hackers could use doll to open your front door

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The National Cyber Security Centre in London opens on Tuesday, aimed at protecting the UK against cyber attacks. Technical Director Dr Ian Levy demonstrated how smart devices – and even toys – could be a security threat in your home. My child could not sleep for months after a story went around the school about an app that spied on little children. We had to get a dog after a year of sleepless night. It is great that we have social media to warn us about specific threats but it is a nightmare when taken out of context. Luckily, I now have a guard dog that has a bark that will scare anyone off but lets my daughter sleep through the night.

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Science classes won’t future-proof our children. But dance might

Science classes won’t future-proof our children. But dance might

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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/mar/30/science-classes-future-children-dance-schools

Focusing exclusively on science, maths and tech is misguided. Future workers will need the creativity that only the arts teach Focusing exclusively on science, maths and tech is misguided. Future workers will need the creativity that only the arts teach Prince George is going to learn ballet.

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How We Think: John Dewey on the Art of Reflection and Fruitful Curiosity in an Age of Instant Opinions and Information Overload

How We Think: John Dewey on the Art of Reflection and Fruitful Curiosity in an Age of Instant Opinions and Information Overload

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How We Think: John Dewey on the Art of Reflection and Fruitful Curiosity in an Age of Instant Opinions and Information Overload

Decades before Carl Sagan published his now-legendary Baloney Detection Kit for critical thinking, the great philosopher, psychologist, and education reformer John Dewey penned the definitive treatise on the subject — a subject all the more urgently relevant today, in our age of snap judgments

I found this nugget of gold from my EDC peer Clare!

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2016 Summit: Talking With Children and Quality Interactions

2016 Summit: Talking With Children and Quality Interactions

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The Early Years Summit is an annual online CPD event for Early Years Practitioners. Each year the summit provides in-depth training in the fundamental skills, that is required when working in Early Years settings, through interviews and presentations with leading experts and practitioners. Access is free until March 31st but a lifetime access pass can be purchased for £25. There are quite a few videos uploaded each day that can last up to 1 hour, therefore, it may be difficult to watch and retain the information in the short timeframe that the access is given for FREE. Intrigued by the online CPD opportunity, I registered for the free access and membership and was instantaneously delighted at the first video available; Sally Goddard Blythe on Improving Personal, Social and Emotional Well-Being Through Physical Development. Now this interview of what looked like a recorded Skype chat was fascinating and I found the conversation extremely valuable in regard to my Early Years classes and projects. The content was an in-depth discussion of academic research and findings and although I found this easy to follow and put into context I had to consider the relevance to Early Year practitioners or assistants that I come across on a weekly basis. Their approach is less academic and they are hands on with the children. The content may be valuable but the information that is disseminated through video and an  ‘in the mind’ learning approach may be problematic as the visualisation of the knowledge may be difficult to transfer into the day to day approach within the Early Year setting. Although a wonderful initiative it falls back to how and when learning happens. Is it enough to just listen to a conversation? Should one be a part of that conversation to allow full understanding? Is listening the only form of learning and should visual representation or examples be available? How can the learners then take the information gained and put it into practise which will solidify learning and allow retention?

 

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Using algorithms to create a unique dance

Using algorithms to create a unique dance

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“We came into our algorithm planning meeting not really having any ideas and unsure of where to start. For about a half hour, we bounced ideas around but couldn’t decide how to execute anything. Then, one of our group members mentioned the idea of doing a dance.”

 

I LOVE this idea and it particularly resonates with Kozinets (2010) description of the interaction between technology and culture as a complex dance alongside Williamsons (2014) description that software is code and that it is fundamentally performative. Could dance algorithms create new ways to teach online?

References:

Kozinets, R. V. (2010) Chapter 2 ‘Understanding Culture Online’, Netnography: doing ethnographic research online. London: Sage. pp. 21-40.from Pocket http://ift.tt/2mZjhpx

Williamson, B. (2014). Governing software: Networks, databases an algorithmic power in the digital governance of public education. Learning, Media an dTechnology, 40(1), 83-105. DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2014.924527

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A Dance With Algorithms

A Dance With Algorithms

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“Philippe Pasquier, a professor in artificial intelligence and a researcher at Simon Fraser University, is merging art and science to create systems that can understand and produce human-quality movement.”

Here Pasquier is using a resource called  XSEDE, which can train some of most complex movements within 24 hours.

Creative tasks, particularly movement, is complex and information and code can be hard to produce manually as well as difficult to interpret. Human expression needs to look authentic for the machine to replicate a human like product. The body and mind move simultaneously resulting in an overwhelming amount of muscles, bones, tissue, hair and fibres moving at the same time.

As the article highlights, dancers have an individualised style of movement. The platform iDanceForm provides software that can help many choreographers create and explore movement when there are facing space and financial limitations and have a lack of dancers. If we were to create teaching resources could we use algorithms to produce sequences online for our online students to replicate or would we need the high tech systems like this article. The thought of a computer turning movement into data seems possible but can we create data and algorithms that will transpire into online movement for learners to decode and interpret?

https://www.tacc.utexas.edu/-/a-dance-with-algorithms

 

 

 

Identity, Power, and Education’s Algorithms

Identity, Power, and Education’s Algorithms

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Although dated in 2014, this article reflects the change in the use of Twitter from a reverse-chronological timeline for Tweets to an algorithmically organised one. It covers the pros and cons of the old Twitter feed and that the exposure helped distribute particular news feeds as and when it happened compared to the Facebook posts which followed an algorithmic nature. Does the personalisation of algorithms keep us within our bubble and around like minded communities, such as the ‘you loop’? Is it not best to challenge and expand our understanding by socialising and interacting with communities from different backgrounds and perspectives? Can we continue to learn and grow as humans if we surround ourselves with the same information or communities? As the saying goes “if you always do what you have always done, you will always get what you have always got.”
References:
Beer, D. (2016). The social power of algorithms. Information, Communication & Society, 20(1), 1-13. DOI: 10.1080/1369118x.2016.1216147

Scientists develop algorithm to create world’s most detailed pregnancy scan

Scientists develop algorithm to create world’s most detailed pregnancy scan

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After algorithms led me to this article via Facebook I looked into the ultrasound technology. The incredibly detailed footage was captured using computer-guided ultrasound technologies. The footage can capture the 20 week foetus and its movement using algorithms to create a clearer image which can detect any abnormalities earlier than the current 3D ultrasounds. The international team of researchers have captured the clearest images to date of a foetus. It amazes me that we can process the body as information, codes and patterns. It’s like the ‘Visible Human Project’ from Miller’s (2011)  paper. Medical research has evolved in so many ways because technology has enabled us to progress and increase virtualisation of the body by algorithms and bioinformational imperatives.
References:
Miller, V. (2011) Chapter 9: The Body and Information Technology, in Understanding Digital Culture. London: Sage. (e-reserve, pdf)
The Algorithmic Future of Education

The Algorithmic Future of Education

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I stumbled upon this blog by Audrey Watters and what a find!

This particular blog post theme was on the Algorithmic Future of Education and put into three A’s which were: austerity, automation, and algorithms.

Similar to Boyd & Crawford (2012) and Selwyn (2014) , Watters describes the data collected in education as an administrative way to record and analyse: assessment, outcomes, standardisation and the monitoring and control of labour.

When discussing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the machine as a tutor she asks about the view of  “intelligence” and “learning” of machines and how might that be extrapolated to humans?

Similar to my experience on a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) she highlights the fact that AI assesses the answer(s) to multiple choice question(s) and that that doesn’t require a particularly complicated algorithm.  She goes on to discuss the need for personalisation and an individualisation of instruction and assessment, mediated through technology if we are going to learn outside the typical classroom.

“They must be able to account for what students’ misconceptions mean – why does the student choose the wrong answer. Robot tutors need to assess how the student works to solve a problem, not simply assess whether they have the correct answer. They need to provide feedback along the way. They have to be able to customize educational materials for different student populations – that means they have to be able to have a model for understanding what “different student populations” might look like and how their knowledge and their learning might differ from others. Robot tutors have to not just understand the subject at hand but they have to understand how to teach it too; they have to have a model for “good pedagogy” and be able to adjust that to suit individual students’ preferences and aptitudes. If a student asked a question, a robot would have to understand that and provide an appropriate response. All this (and more) has to be packaged in a user interface that is comprehensible and that doesn’t itself function as a roadblock to a student’s progress through the lesson.” (Watters, 2015)

If we look at Williamson’s paper at how ‘machine learning’ can be used to predict actions, behaviour and attitude. Big Data, Algorithms and Learning Analytics are trying to anticipate and predict how people act to govern education in a way that makes learners amendable to pedagogic intervention. (Williamson, 2014, p97)

 

I’ve stated in previous posts, there is a high expectation of technology because of sic-fi. Technology and the algorithm may be intelligent but they do not have a consciousness or an understanding of human tendencies which can transfer certain information into knowledge. The fear should not lie in them killing us or becoming superior or fear that is rooted to their ability to make us redundant and take our jobs. Like Audrey Watters implies   “it’s that they could limit the possibilities for, the necessities of care and curiosity.”

 

References:

Boyd, Danah, & Crawford, K. (2012). CRITICAL QUESTIONS FOR THE BIG DATA. Information, Communication & society, 15(5), 662-679. DOI: 10.1080/1369118x.2012.678878

Selwyn, N. (2014). Data entry: Towards the critical study of digital data and education. Learning, Media and Technology, 40(1), 64-82. DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2014.921628

Watters, A. (2015, October 22). The Algorithmic future of education. Retrieved from http://hackeducation.com/2015/10/22/robot-tutors

Williamson, B. (2014). Governing software: Networks, databases an algorithmic power in the digital governance of public education. Learning, Media an dTechnology, 40(1), 83-105. DOI: 10.1080/17439884.2014.924527

 

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