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Algorithms have become one of the most powerful arbiters in our lives. They make decisions about the news we read, the jobs we get, the people we meet, the schools we attend and the ads we see. Yet there is growing evidence that algorithms and other types of software can discriminate.

The people who write them incorporate their biases, and algorithms often learn from human behavior, so they reflect the biases we hold.

Fairness, Accountability and Transparency in Machine Learning workshop, which considers the role that machines play in consequential decisions in areas like employment, health care and policing.

There are more platforms, more websites, more pat solutions to serious problems — here’s an app that can fix drug addiction! promote fiscal responsibility! advance childhood literacy!

The doors to start-up-dom have been thrown wide open. At Harvard, enrollment in the introductory computer-science course, CS50, has soared. Last semester, 39 percent of the students in the class were women, and 73 percent had never coded before.

I protested: “What about Facebook?” He looked at me, and I thought about it. No doubt, Facebook has changed the world. Facebook has made it easier to communicate, participate, pontificate, track down new contacts and vet romantic prospects. But in other moments, it has also made me nauseatingly jealous of my friends, even as I’m aware of its unreality. Everything on Facebook, like an Instagram photo, is experienced through a soft-glow filter. And for all the noise, the pinging notifications and flashing lights, you never really feel productive on Facebook.

In the group that did the best someone took on a lead role and was able to delegate and make sure things were done effectively. This makes me wonder about teaching project management and group dynamics for the social sciences and other solo-author disciplines?

Remember those moments when you just don’t feel like doing a task, but you know you have to?

Starting is actually the secret to accomplishing a lot of things. Just by starting, somehow you are compelled to continue on. 

As psychologist Roy Baumeister and science writer John Tierney pointed out in their Willpower book, it works a lot like a muscle. Like a muscle, it can get tired and need recovery.

His new book The Power of Habit explores the science behind why we do what we do — and how companies are now working to use our habit formations to sell and market products to us.

every habit starts with a psychological pattern called a "habit loop," which is a three-part process. First, there's a cue, or trigger,

third step, he says, is the reward: something that your brain likes that helps it remember the "habit loop" in the future.

Although there is no single definition of active learning approaches, they include asking students to answer questions by using handheld clickers, calling on individuals or groups randomly, or having students clarify concepts to each other and reach a consensus on an issue.

But I don’t think there should be a monolithic stance about lecture or no lecture. There are still times when lectures will be needed, but the traditional mode of stand-and-deliver is being demonstrated as less effective at promoting student learning and preparing future teachers.”

U.S. Department of Education h

Hot-desking, as I'm sure you know, is the practice of not assigning desks to staff but requiring them to find a new workspace each day.

Hot-desking is often accompanied by "activity-based working", where staff are issued laptops or other technology and given the flexibility to work wherever and whenever.

Problems included increased distrust, distractions, uncooperative behaviour and negative relationships.