Author Archives: Michael Lance Whisenant, PhD

What Made AlphaGo’s Victory Different from Watson’s?

What was different about DeepMind’s AlphaGo defeating a world-class Go player and IBM Watson defeating champions on Jeopardy!? Both systems represented major advances in artificial intelligence, but they demonstrated different kinds of machine intelligence. AlphaGo was designed to make strategic decisions within a highly complex game, while Watson was designed to interpret language, search largeContinue reading “What Made AlphaGo’s Victory Different from Watson’s?”

Designing Learning Technologies That Empower, Explain, and Earn Trust

Technology and the learning environments we create teach us to experience the world in new ways while sharing the resources that prepare us for future learning. Whether we are designing a game-based activity, developing an artificial intelligence system, or building an online learning environment, the choices we make influence how people think, behave, participate, andContinue reading “Designing Learning Technologies That Empower, Explain, and Earn Trust”

Can Machine Learning Personalize Education Without Isolating the Learner?

“Personalized learning” seems to be having an identity crisis of sorts. One group defines it one way, while another group of educators, schools, and technology developers uses the term to describe something different. That lack of agreement appears to be one of the main problems surrounding personalized learning. We do not have a communal definitionContinue reading “Can Machine Learning Personalize Education Without Isolating the Learner?”

How Can Learning Analytics Better Support Community College Students?

What learning analytics would be most useful in a community college, and how could those data help students make more informed decisions throughout their educational journey? At the institution where I worked, we served as an open-enrollment college that accepted students with a wide range of academic backgrounds and life experiences. Placement measures such asContinue reading “How Can Learning Analytics Better Support Community College Students?”

What Skills Will Tomorrow’s Workers Need Most?

If you were responsible for preparing tomorrow’s workers for a retraining program, which skills would you prioritize? The possible answers are extensive: emotional intelligence, creativity, cultural flexibility, technological adaptability, storytelling, design thinking, data analysis, financial literacy, mindfulness, entrepreneurship, and many others. My own five choices come from a mixture of what is needed to becomeContinue reading “What Skills Will Tomorrow’s Workers Need Most?”