Robot teacher in front of classroom of studentsThe AI boom has a lot to do with it.
Thirty years ago, it was a big deal when schools got their first computers. Today, it’s a big deal when students get their own laptops.
According to Thomas Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, “In 14 years it’ll be a big deal when students learn from robot teachers over the internet.”
Continue reading… “Robot teachers might be the largest internet business in 2030”
At Shiru Cafe in Providence, R.I., students “pay” for coffee, but not with money.
Shiru Cafe looks like a regular coffee shop. Inside, machines whir, baristas dispense caffeine and customers hammer away on laptops. But all of the customers are students, and there’s a reason for that. At Shiru Cafe, no college ID means no caffeine.
“We definitely have some people that walk in off the street that are a little confused and a little taken aback when we can’t sell them any coffee,” said Sarah Ferris, assistant manager at the Shiru Cafe branch in Providence, R.I., located near Brown University.
Continue reading… “No cash needed at this cafe. Students pay the tab with their personal data”
New Bankrate research shows that Actuarial Science is “the most valuable” major you can study in college out of 162 total, with a whopping average income of $108,658 to go along with an unemployment rate of only 2.3%.
Wondering how the site arrived at these results? The methodology was multi-layered, but the company evaluated the latest information featured in the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey, among other points. The majors had “labor forces of at least 15,000 people,” and the number of grads with “a higher degree” was also considered.
Continue reading… “Survey: These college majors were just named most and least valuable”
Online learning taught by robots could be widespread by 2030.
Thirty years ago, it was a big deal when schools got their first computers. Today, it’s a big deal when students get their own laptops.
According to Futurist Thomas Frey, in 12 years it’ll be a big deal when students learn from robot teachers over the internet.
It’s not just because the technology will be that sophisticated, Frey says, but because the company responsible for it will be the largest of its kind.
“I’ve been predicting that by 2030 the largest company on the internet is going to be an education-based company that we haven’t heard of yet,” Frey, the senior futurist at the DaVinci Institute think tank, tells Business Insider.
Continue reading… “The largest internet company in 2030? This prediction will probably surprise you”
This fall, 19.9 million college students will be traveling to college campuses across the United States to start a new school year. There are over 4,000 colleges and universities in the United States, but Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen says that half are bound for bankruptcy in the next few decades.
Christensen is known for coining the theory of disruptive innovation in his 1997 book, “The Innovator’s Dilemma.” Since then, he has applied his theory of disruption to a wide range of industries, including education.
In his recent book, “The Innovative University,” Christensen and co-author Henry Eyring analyze the future of traditional universities, and conclude that online education will become a more cost-effective way for students to receive an education, effectively undermining the business models of traditional institutions and running them out of business.
Also, check out Futurist Thomas Frey’s prediction about emerging new edtech.
Whether it’s apps like Duolingo or the ease of travel, there are plenty of ways technology has made it more straightforward to learn a second (or third or fourth …) language. Now, IBM Research and New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute have come up with an entirely new high-tech approach — and it totally reminds us of the Vulcan school from 2009’s Star Trek movie.
Called the Cognitive Immersive Room (CIR), it pairs an A.I.-powered chatbot smart assistant with a 360-degree panoramic display system to place users into a variety of immersive locations to try out their language skills. Currently, it’s being used for Mandarin, which is widely considered to be among the more difficult languages for Westerners to learn. The CIR setup drops students into scenarios like a restaurant in China and a tai chi class, where they can put their Mandarin to the test.
Continue reading… “IBM’s Holodeck-style classroom tech makes language-learning apps look primitive”
Here’s a new kind of teacher. It’s back to school, and you know what that means — time to fire up the computer that teaches you!
That’s what primary school students in New Zealand have to look forward to, anyways. They’ll soon be the first students in the world to learn from an artificially intelligent (AI) digital avatar.
Continue reading… “The world’s first digital teacher just debuted in New Zealand”
Are you a high schooler wondering what career to pursue that won’t be gobbled up by robots in the next few years? Are you an engineering grad, economist, physicist, or policy analyst looking to become an expert in a new, but fast-developing discipline? If so, the Colorado School of Mines has the perfect answer for you: You should totally take up space mining.
No, we’re not kidding. While the idea of extracting water, minerals or even metals from an asteroid sounds like the stuff of far-future science-fiction, it’s likely to actually happen in the coming decades — and Colorado School of Mines’ newly launched “Space Resources” course will help you get in on the ground floor.
Continue reading… “Want a future-proof degree? Head to Colorado for asteroid mining”
High School failed me. As a high school dropout, I knew I was taking a risk by rejecting the ‘normal route’ and knew I always wanted to be in the business world. During one assignment in my computer class, I did not show up in a suit and tie for the presentation. The teacher docked me for not ‘dressing proper’, which I found puzzling. After all, this class was about desktop publishing – why should this be an issue? It should be about the substance of my work and not some preconceived, superficial notion about how I looked. For me, it has always been about the substance and not the suit.
The good news is that federal aid for colleges has reached its high-water mark. The bad news is that millions of young adults feel they have no choice but to enroll in a four-year University, something that brings with it an inordinate amount of debt for many students.
Continue reading… “News flash:It’s about the skill set, not the suit or the degree”
No language in history has dominated the world quite like English does today. Is there any point in resisting? By Jacob Mikanowski
On 16 May, a lawyer named Aaron Schlossberg was in a New York cafe when he heard several members of staff speaking Spanish. He reacted with immediate fury, threatening to call US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and telling one employee: “Your staff is speaking Spanish to customers when they should be speaking English … This is America.” A video of the incident quickly went viral, drawing widespread scorn. The Yelp page for his law firm was flooded with one-star reviews, and Schlossberg was soon confronted with a “fiesta” protest in front of his Manhattan apartment building, which included a crowd-funded taco truck and mariachi band to serenade him on the way to work.
Continue reading… “Behemoth, bully, thief: how the English language is taking over the planet”
A Chinese student had his enrollment at a university suspended because of his father’s bad social credit score. The father, surnamed Rao, had failed to repay a $29,900 loan and was added to a debtor blacklist that prevented a university from accepting his son. State media reported that the incident also caused Rao’s social credit score to drop.
China is expected to roll out a national social credit system in 2020, but it remains to be seen if citizens will actually be given a “trustworthiness” score or if they’ll just be subjected to more blacklists.
A futurist says the industry may have nowhere to go but down. What does the slide look like?
Maybe higher education has reached its peak. Not the Harvards and Yales of the world, but the institutions that make up the rest of the industry—the regional public schools who saw decades of growth and are now facing major budget cuts and the smaller, less-selective private colleges that have exorbitant sticker prices while the number of students enrolling in them declines.
Continue reading… “Here’s how higher education dies”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
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