YouTube Deja:View
Google, YouTube, 2017/07/12
This is very clever. It pits you against some other opponent (of roughly equal skill) in a quiz about recent popular videos posted to YouTube. You use your Google ID to keep track of your points across games. An excerpt of the video plays as an animation in the background; no sound. More...

The Mechanical Universe
David Goodstein, James F. Blinn, CalTech, YouTube, 2017/07/12
O'Reilly summarizes this as follows: " a critically acclaimed series of 52 30-minute videos covering the basic topics of an introductory university physics course. So, like a MOOC or Khan Academy, but from 1985." So, yes, except now it's on the internet so everyone can view it for free. And there are no subscription fees (unline some MOOCs). More...

Transforming university students from consumers to developers of online content
Rebecca Quintana, Coursera Blog, 2017/07/12
This is presented as a "gee whiz isn't it amazing" sort of way. "What would it look like for university students to be the content creators for a Coursera social impact campaign course?" the author asks. More...

Google DeepMind AI learns to creatively move around obstacles
Swapna Krishna, Engadget, 2017/07/11
As the teaser says, "Come for the reinforcement learning, stay for the GIFs." Stay for the short video, actually, to watch a human-shaped robot figure navigate complex landscapes. This aerticle summarizes the outcomes of a reserach paper (14 page PDF), It wasn't given instructions on how to do this; it learned how to jump and climb via reinforcement learning. More...

Making Room for Artificial Intelligence in the Classroom
Avron Barr, 2017/07/11
This presentation describes some of the work on the IEEE Learning Technology Standards Committee (LTSC). There's downloadable audio and video, and also an embed version that's too slow to try to put into the newsletter. The actual presentation starts at 3:50 of the video and the audio is good. More...

P1876 – Networked Smart Learning Objects for Online Laboratories
Various authors, Ieee, 2017/07/11
This is an IEEE working group that has receively been reinvigorated. It "defines methods for storing and retrieving learning objects for remote laboratories. More...

Hyperledger Fabric 1.0 is Released
Chris Ferris, The Linux Foundation, 2017/07/11
According to the website, "Hyperledger Fabric is a platform for distributed ledger solutions, underpinned by a modular architecture delivering high degrees of confidentiality, resiliency, flexibility and scalability." Basically, it's a mechanism for implementing biusiness functions supported by blockchain for security and verifiability. More...

What We Learned from Improving Diversity Rates at Pinterest
Candice Morgan, Harvard Business Review, 2017/07/11
This is an interesting article. It shows you can't just set goals for diversity, you have to work at it, and constantly reinforce the reasons why you're doing it. It also shows that the steps taken to ensure diversity also help ensure a proper hiring process overall - for example, casting a wide net instead of relying mainly on referrals (because people tend to refer people who are like themselves - something I've seen firsthand). More...

OpenStax Launches Learning Platform
Carl Straumsheim, Inside Higher Ed, 2017/07/11
Rice University's OpenStax, which once upon a time was known as a free textbook site called Connexions, has launched Tutor Beta, an online learning platform that will make three courses -- biology, physics and sociology -- available this fall. I'm thinking that the textbook project felt it was missing out on the MOOC phenomenon (MOOCS: still not dead). More...