Group items tagged

Mattel is using AI to turn Barbie into a young girl's friend. Hello Barbie is the new incantation of the doll that appeals to 3 - 10 year old girls. Hello Barbie can react to what a young girl is saying to her, and is programmed with thousands of responses. Unlike the toys that had pull strings, Hello Barbie transmits via wifi so the girl's voice is read and then sends Barbie a response to the keywords in the voice data within a second. Hello Barbie has thicker thighs to accommodate the batteries necessary for all this. Interesting research on girls who play with Barbie have lower self esteem than those who do not, and feel they have to be think, have large breasts, and be blond and blue eyed. Scary!

article by Sarah Haffee--interview with Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor on issues for women that must be addressed-glass ceilings for women in politics and corporate America. what about access to health care, reproductive health care, child care, living wage jobs? March 1, 2017

Blog post by Stephen Downes exploring what a MOOC does and does not do--it does not replicate or build on past failed educational pathways where a person--adult or child--is not motivated enough to invest time in his/her own learning path. He mentions that online gaming is the best pre-MOOC and equivalent to MOOC for young people. Makes me wonder about my addiction to WordsFree and Scrabble on my iphone and desire to beat the computer again and again. Or enrolling in a MOOC where the opportunity to connect with smart, similarly-quested learners/achievers/doers must motivate me to overcome challenges of schedule, technology, serendipitous approach to learning, self-expression, etc. The MOOC is simply a much bigger playground where my motivation and my two feet (or eyes!) rule my behavior .

Great short post by Oprah on getting unstuck. The quote by Turecki is so true: "Nothing happens until you decide." Excerpt: When our expert, Dr. Stanley Turecki, finished watching, he said something that made the hairs on my arm stand up: "Nothing happens until you decide." The reason her 3-year-old didn't sleep in his own bed was that the mother had not decided it would happen. When she did, the child would go to his bed. He might cry and scream and rant until he fell asleep, but he would eventually realize that his mother had made up her mind. Well, I knew he was speaking about a 3-year-old, but I also knew for sure that this brilliant piece of advice applied to many other aspects of life: Relationships. Career moves. Weight issues. Everything depends on your decisions. For years I was stuck in a weight trap, yo-yoing up and down the scale. I made a decision two years ago to stop wishing, praying, and wanting, wanting, wanting to be better. Instead I figured out what it would really take to improve my life. Then I decided to do it. When you don't know what to do, my best advice is to do nothing until clarity comes. Getting still, being able to hear your own voice and not the voices of the world, quickens clarity. Once you decide what you want, you make a commitment to that decision. One of my favorite quotes is from mountaineer W.H. Murray: "Until one is committed there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then Providence moves, too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favor all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way. I have learned a deep res

short video by Kathryn McClendon on many women not seeing themselves as leaders yet have a long list of accomplishments to show that they are. Distills leadership to three actions: Inspire. Persuade. and Influence. 8.5 minutes long. Talks about her leadership table of women who have touched her life. Women of courage include her mother who immigrated from Guyana with two year old child (speaker). Claudette Colvin--an unwed, pregnant teenager who refused to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, ALA months before Rosa Parks emerged. Marian de Forest--Buffalo, NY woman who became a playwright and journalist. Founded Zonta. Set a place for yourself at table of four.

"The way mothers and fathers spend their time has changed dramatically in the past half century. Dads are doing more housework and child care; moms more paid work outside the home. Neither has overtaken the other in their "traditional" realms, but their roles are converging, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of long-term data on time use. At the same time, roughly equal shares of working mothers and fathers report in a new Pew Research Center survey feeling stressed about juggling work and family life: 56% of working moms and 50% of working dads say they find it very or somewhat difficult to balance these responsibilities."

excellent explanation by Tom Vander Ark on why parent-managed learner profiles are becoming more important all the time for young people.  Is the corollary true for adults owning their learning in portable, digital carry-alongs for sharing with potential employers, etc.  

#7 in a series on big data by Martin Muller, Marcel Rosenback and Thomas Schulz

guest post by Arun Pradhan for Learnnovators on learning ecosystems