Cyborg patented?
Forbes reports that Microsoft has obtained a patent for a “conversational chatbot of a specific person” created from images, recordings, participation in social networks, emails, letters, etc., coupled with the possible generation of a 2D or 3D model of the person.
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Racial bias in algorithms
From the UK Open Data Institute’s Week in Data newsletter
This week, Twitter apologised for racial bias within its image-cropping algorithm. The feature is designed to automatically crop images to highlight focal points – including faces. But, Twitter users discovered that, in practice, white faces were focused on, and black faces were cropped out. And, Twitter isn’t the only platform struggling with its algorithm – YouTube has also announced plans to bring back higher levels of human moderation for removing content, after its AI-centred approach resulted in over-censorship, with videos being removed at far higher rates than with human moderators.
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Gap between rich and poor university students widest for 12 years
Via The Canary.
The gap between poor students and their more affluent peers attending university has widened to its largest point for 12 years, according to data published by the Department for Education (DfE).
Better-off pupils are significantly more likely to go to university than their more disadvantaged peers. And the gap between the two groups – 18.8 percentage points – is the widest it’s been since 2006/07.
The latest statistics show that 26.3% of pupils eligible for FSMs went on to university in 2018/19, compared with 45.1% of those who did not receive free meals. Only 12.7% of white British males who were eligible for FSMs went to university by the age of 19. The progression rate has fallen slightly for the first time since 2011/12, according to the DfE analysis.
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Quality Training
From Raconteur. A recent report by global learning consultancy Kineo examined the learning intentions of 8,000 employees across 13 different industries. It found a huge gap between the quality of training offered and the needs of employees. Of those surveyed, 85 per cent said they , with only 16 per cent of employees finding the learning programmes offered by their employers effective.
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Well inspired by Dirk’s twitter, I thought I might actually come to this event.
I clicked on the url, found the website but had no idea how to navigate it and no idea how I could make a contribution. I clicked randomly on words I didn’t understand but it kept asking me to log in. I tried that because I thought I had to create an account to say anything. When I tried to do that I just kept getting a message saying I didn’t have an account so could not contribute anyway.
One of the things I wanted to comment on was that it is described as an event designed by researchers for researchers yet the focus is on practice. I can’t get my head around this. Is it going to be another event where researchers talk to researchers about what teachers and trainers should be doing? Or is it for practitioners as well? Anyway, I thought I might do something on that – like what the issues are.
The reason I have never been interested in attending e-learning events is because they all seemed out of reach of ‘the rest of us’. Since working for Pontydysgu, I decided I ought to take the plunge.
So, the first thing I tried to join was some on-line conference thing a few weeks ago but the technology broke in the first few minutes so depressed and with confidence shaken, I gave up.
Thoughtfest was only the second thing I tried to get involved in and I’m now even more depressed. Maybe I am just dull – tho’ I don’t suppose any more so than other ordinary teachers and trainers I know who might be interested in discussing e-learning – but so far this event is totally inaccessible to me.
It might be OK for the ‘community of practice’ that is already involved but as sure as hell it is not welcoming for those who are just dipping their toe in the water. Both the web site and the ideas are impenetrable to a newcomer.
Have a nice conference!