Could Artificial Intelligence Automate Student Note-Taking? – By Benjamin Herold, EdWeek
Artificially intelligent digital agents are being marketed as a way to automate note-taking in the workplace, raising a big question for K-12:
Are classrooms next?
Take, for example, EVA, a "digital voice assistant" created by Silicon Valley startup Voicea. The AI agent can automatically read users' calendars, dial itself into their meetings, and use natural-language processing algorithms to create real-time transcripts of what's said. As a meeting progresses, EVA can also respond to voice commands ("EVA, add that to my to-do list") and "trigger" words ("that's a good point") to highlight what's most important.
In an interview, Voicea CEO Omar Tawakol described the technology as a way to help the masses employ the same listening and learning skills as top executives.
"Really good CEOs are 100 percent focused on their conversations, not looking at a screen," Tawakol said. "Obviously, the same thing is true in classrooms. You don't want people on their phones or opening up their laptops pretending to take notes."
Gov. Justice to Call Special Session to Discuss Ed Reform, Pay Raises – From WOWK TV
West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice is calling a special legislative session to address teacher pay raises and other education issues.
Justice said in a news release Wednesday night the special session would be held after the 60-day regular session ends on Saturday.
The governor asked lawmakers to go out and seek input from teachers, parents and others so that when they return to Charleston, "they will be ready to tackle the issues and get it done." The statement did not specify when lawmakers would return.
Justice last fall requested a 5 percent pay raise for teachers, state police and other state workers. The House of Delegates has passed a measure dealing solely with those raises but the state Senate has not.
Justice says the pay raise funding will be included in the upcoming state budget as an unappropriated expense.
What to Know Before Working With Google for Education – By Wade Tyler Millward, EdSurge
Even if you don’t like Google, Jeremy Lupoli told a crowded room surrounded by products from the tech giant, you’ll still have to work with it to get ahead in the education technology industry. The company boasts a footprint of 80 million educators and students using its G Suite for Education tools, and 40 million users using its Classroom app.
Lupoli, vice president of technical integration strategy at Irvine, Calif.-based educator software provider Illuminate Education, was among four executives who talked candidly about working in Google’s partnership program for edtech companies.
“You’d be stupid to say, ‘We don’t want to partner with Google,’” Lupoli noted.
The executives touted the program for the marketing benefit it brought their companies and the access to educators and potential clients, they said Monday at SXSW EDU. But at least one of the executives had to penetrate Google bureaucracy to see benefits. Not all of Google’s education efforts, which cut across hardware, software, third-party partnerships and professional development, are always in sync with one another. Sometimes, it can feel like one hand doesn’t know what the other is doing.
Could optional 13th year ease transition to college? – By Shwna De La Rosa, Education Dive
Boston City Councilor Michael Flaherty is advocating for an additional year in the city's K-12 public school system to help ease the transition from high school to college, an acknowledgment of the fact that half of the city's high school graduates don’t complete college within six years of graduation, the Boston Globe reports.
In pushing the Year 13 initiative, Flaherty points out that despite the city's increasing graduation rate, some graduates don’t seem prepared to take on the rigors of college — but the voluntary additional year of school would be available to all students who have earned their high school diplomas.
Flaherty has been touting the idea for about three years, and it has once again gained traction after the Globe’s Valedictorians Project found that about 25% of Boston’s top students between 2005 and 2007 didn't go on to earn a bachelor’s degree within six years of graduating.
Adding an optional 13th year of school for Boston students isn't entirely unique in its approach. While the Globe doesn't mention any college credit or vocational education opportunities during that proposed additional year, it is similar to how a number of states and other cities are offering free community college programs to address a variety of issues.
