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The average U.S. high school class has 30 students, according to research from theNational Council on Teacher Quality, and while each student learns in their own way, practice and specific feedback are repeatedly shown to be effective in modern classrooms. With interactive tools likepractice sets, students can receive one-to-one feedback and support without ever leaving an assignment. This saves the educators time, while also providing insight into students learning processes and patterns.

Achieving both aims at once sounds like a tall order, but adaptive learning technologies helpto do just that. Adaptive learning, a model where students are given customized resources and activities to support their unique learning needs, has been around for decades. However, applying advancing artificial intelligence technology opens up a new set of possibilities to transform the future of school into a personal learning experience.

Google for Educationrecently expanded its suite of adaptive learning tools using artificial intelligence, machine learning and user-friendly design to bring robust capabilities into the classroom.

For educators, adaptive learning technologies help boost instruction, reduce administrative burdens and deliver actionable insights into students progress. More time for planning and catch-up work would help alleviate teachers stress, according to anEdWeek Research Center survey.

For students, adaptive learning tech can deepen comprehension of instructional concepts and help them achieve their personal potential. Through interactive lessons and assignments, real-time feedback and just-in-time support, students can advance through lessons in ways that help increase the likelihood of success.

LEARN MORE:Discover how Google for Education supports students and teachers with CDWG.

When a student grasps a new concept, it can create a magical moment where they suddenly get it, says Shantanu Sinha, vice president and general manager of Google for Education. Ensuring that students get access to the right content or material at the right time is a critical part of making this happen.

By prioritizing students individual learning needs and adapting instruction accordingly, personal learning delivers various benefits, from a well-rounded learning experience to increased productivity, according toeducational publisher Pearson.

Practice setsoffer immediate, personal feedback, which is one of the best ways to keep students engaged. When students are on the right track, fast feedback helps them build confidence and celebrate small wins. When students struggle, real-time feedback helps to ensure they truly understand the material before advancing through a lesson.

Making these experiences interactive can dramatically improve the feedback loop for the student, says Sinha. The ability to see their progress and accuracy when working on an assignment, as well as helpful additional content, can guide students and help them learn.

For instance, Google for Education practice sets use AI to deliver encouragement and support the moment students need them. This includes hints, pop-up messages, video lessons and other resources.

Click the bannerbelow to find resources from CDW to digitally transform your classroom.

With practice sets, teachers can build interactive assignments from existing content, and the software automatically customizes support for students. Practice sets also grade assignments automatically, with the AI recognizing equivalent answers and identifying where students go off track. All these capabilities help teachers extend their reach and maximize their time.

Practice sets also leverage AI to provide an overview of class performance and indicate trends. If several students are having trouble with a concept, teachers can see patterns and adjust quickly without manually sorting through students results.

AI-driven technology opens new opportunities for flexible teaching and learning options. OnChromebooks, for instance, teachers can use Screencast to record video lessons. AI transcribes the spoken lessons into text, allowing students to translate those transcripts into dozens of languages.

Googles adaptive learning tools have built-in, best-in-class security and privacy to protect students and educators personal information. Transparency, multilayered safeguards and continuous updates to ensure compliance with new legislation and best practices are central to delivering adaptive instruction that is secure.

Educators can see and manage security settings on Chromebooks andGoogle Workspacefor Education. IT administrators have visibility via Google for Educations Admin Console.

LEARN MORE:How can a Google Workspace for Education audit benefit your K12 district?

Screencast onChrome OSand practice sets inGoogle Classroomare Googles newest offerings in adaptive learning. Other useful tools include:

As adaptive learning technology continues to evolve, it has the potential to transform the learning experience and help teachers better meet students where they are in the learning journey. When the right technology is applied to teaching and learning, teachers and students can go further, faster.

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Google's Adaptive Learning Technologies Help Amplify Educators' Instruction - EdTech Magazine: Focus on K-12

Mon, Aug 22nd 2022 11:20 am

New book co-written by UB philosopher claims AI will never rule the world

AI that would match the general intelligence of humans is impossible, says SUNY Distinguished Professor Barry Smith

By the University at Buffalo

Elon Musk in 2020 said that artificial intelligence (AI) within five years would surpass human intelligence on its way to becoming an immortal dictator over humanity. But a new book co-written by a University at Buffalo philosophy professor argues that wont happen not by 2025, not ever!

Barry Smith, Ph.D., SUNY Distinguished Professor in the department of philosophy in UBs College of Arts and Sciences, and Jobst Landgrebe, Ph.D., founder of Cognotekt, a German AI company, have co-authored Why Machines Will Never Rule the World: Artificial Intelligence without Fear.

Their book presents a powerful argument against the possibility of engineering machines that can surpass human intelligence. Machine learning and all other working software applications the proud accomplishments of those involved in AI research are for Smith and Landgrebe far from anything resembling the capacity of humans. Further, they argue that any incremental progress thats unfolding in the field of AI research will in practical terms bring it no closer to the full functioning possibility of the human brain.

Smith and Landgrebe offer a critical examination of AIs unjustifiable projections, such as machines detaching themselves from humanity, self-replicating, and becoming full ethical agents. There cannot be a machine will, they say. Every single AI application rests on the intentions of human beings including intentions to produce random outputs. This means the Singularity, a point when AI becomes uncontrollable and irreversible (like a Skynet moment from the Terminator movie franchise) is not going to occur. Wild claims to the contrary serve only to inflate AIs potential and distort public understanding of the technologys nature, possibilities and limits.

Reaching across the borders of several scientific disciplines, Smith and Landgrebe argue that the idea of a general artificial intelligence (AGI) the ability of computers to emulate and go beyond the general intelligence of humans rests on fundamental mathematical impossibilities that are analogous in physics to the impossibility of building a perpetual motion machine. AI that would match the general intelligence of humans is impossible because of the mathematical limits on what can be modeled and is computable. These limits are accepted by practically everyone working in the field; yet they have thus far failed to appreciate their consequences for what an AI can achieve.

To overcome these barriers would require a revolution in mathematics that would be of greater significance than the invention of the calculus by Newton and Leibniz more than 350 years ago, says Smith, one of the worlds most cited contemporary philosophers. We are not holding our breath.

Landgrebe points out that, As can be verified by talking to mathematicians and physicists working at the limits of their respective disciplines, there is nothing even on the horizon which would suggest that a revolution of this sort might one day be achievable. Mathematics cannot fully model the behaviors of complex systems like the human organism, he says.

AI has many highly impressive success stories, and considerable funding has been dedicated toward advancing its frontier beyond the achievements in narrow, well-defined fields such as text translation and image recognition. Much of the investment to push the technology forward into areas requiring the machine counterpart of general intelligence may, the authors say, be money down the drain.

The text generator GPT-3 has shown itself capable of producing different sorts of convincing outputs across many divergent fields, Smith says. Unfortunately, its users soon recognize that mixed in with these outputs there are also embarrassing errors, so that the convincing outputs themselves began to appear as nothing more than clever parlor tricks.

AIs role in sequencing the human genome led to suggestions for how it might help find cures for many human diseases; yet, after 20 years of additional research (in which both Smith and Landgrebe have participated), little has been produced to support optimism of this sort.

In certain completely rule-determined confined settings, machine learning can be used to create algorithms that outperform humans, Smith says. But this does not mean that they can discover the rules governing just any activity taking place in an open environment, which is what the human brain achieves every day.

Technology skeptics do not, of course, have a perfect record. Theyve been wrong in regard to breakthroughs ranging from space flight to nanotechnology. But Smith and Landgrebe say their arguments are based on the mathematical implications of the theory of complex systems. For mathematical reasons, AI cannot mimic the way the human brain functions. In fact, the authors say that its impossible to engineer a machine that would rival the cognitive performance of a crow.

An AGI is impossible, says Smith. As our book shows, there can be no general artificial intelligence because it is beyond the boundary of what is even in principle achievable by means of a machine.

See the rest here:
Terminator? Skynet? No way. Machines will never rule the world, according to book by UB philosopher - Niagara Frontier Publications

For Donald Trumps critics, his Mar-a-Lago scandal has brought to mind the mess surrounding Hillary Clintons emails, and for good reason. Republicans and much of the political world spent years treating the Democrats email server protocols as one of the defining controversies of the era with many on the right calling for her prosecution for allegedly mishandling classified information.

Six years later, its the Republican who called for Clinton to be locked up who stands accused of mishandling classified national security information he took and wouldnt give back.

But in an unexpected twist, its Trumps allies who are also bringing up the story surrounding Clintons emails though the right doesnt appear to remember it quite as well as it should.

The Hill had this report, for example, on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis speaking at a far-right gathering earlier this week.

And you look at the raid and Mar-a-Lago, and Im trying to remember, maybe someone here can remind me about when they did a search warrant at Hillarys house in Chappaqua when she had a rogue server and she was laundering classified information, [the governor said].

DeSantis added, I dont remember them doing that. The point, of course, was to suggest that federal law enforcement treated Clinton with kid gloves, while being vastly more aggressive toward Trump.

But there are a few problems with the story the Florida governor was trying to remember. For one thing, the FBI didnt raid Mar-a-Lago. For another, Clinton didnt launder any secrets. While were at it, there was no need to execute a search warrant to obtain emails, since they werent printed out, and unlike Trump, the former secretary of state didnt make any effort to obstruct federal officials efforts.

But most importantly, the detail DeSantis conveniently overlooked was the fact the FBI, as part of its investigation into Clinton, really did take her email server. (A search warrant wasn't necessarily because the former cabinet secretary, unlike the former Republican president, voluntarily turned over what the FBI was looking for.)

As it turns out, DeSantis isnt the only one whos a little forgetful about the story the GOP claimed to care so much about. His fellow Florida Republican, Rep. Michael Waltz, told Fox News this week that Trump, after taking office, made a conscious choice to leave his 2016 opponent alone.

President Trump took that approach. He said, You know what, were not going to prosecute Hillary Clinton, Waltz said, as if reality had no meaning. The congressman added, [Trump] said, You know what, lets move on. Lets move forward. But they are just incapable of doing it when it comes to him.

For those of us who were awake during Trumps presidency, the truth is that the Republican repeatedly lobbied the Justice Department to prosecute Clinton, even as late as October 2020. He also reveled in lock her up chants before, during, and after holding office.

The idea that the former president magnanimously decided to give the Democrat a pass and moved on from the email flap is utterly bonkers and the exact opposite of what actually happened.

Perhaps most amazing of all was Republican Rep. Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma who complained late last week that there was no media frenzy when Clinton kept 33,000 classified emails on her server.

In reality, there were 113 emails, and Mullin was only off by 32,887. As for the lack of media frenzy, Im not sure how much more news organizations couldve obsessed over Clintons controversy. Shortly before Election Day 2016, Gallup asked voters what word they most closely associated with the former secretary of state, and emails dominated to an almost cartoonish degree.

That was, of course, the result of relentless media coverage. The year after the election, Columbia Journalism Review found that between October 29, 2016, and November3, 2016 a six-day span that included early voting in much of the country the New York Times published as many cover stories about Hillary Clintons emails as it did about all policy issues combined in the 69 days leading up to the election.

Taken together, Republicans have spent the last several days arguing that the Justice Department largely gave Clinton a pass; Trump chose to leave Clinton alone; and the media downplayed the significance of the entire Clinton email mess.

None of these claims reflects reality in any way and the most charitable explanation is that the same GOP voices who were obsessed with the email controversy just dont recall the events as well as one might expect given the circumstances.

Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MSNBC political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "The Impostors: How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics."

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GOP focuses on the Hillary Clinton email mess it doesn't remember - MSNBC

Remember when Donald Trump was running for president the first time and, outside of declaring Mexicans rapists and criminals, devoted his entire campaign to calling for Hillary Clinton to be prosecuted and sent to prison for her emails? And regularly encouraged the lock her up chants from his supporters? And told his opponent, at the second presidential debate, that if he was in charge of the country youd be in jail? His son-in-law, Jared Kushner, would like people to know that after winning the election, he tried to be friends with HRC but she blew it.

The Hill reports that in his new memoir, Breaking History, which was described this week by The New York Times as nausea-inducing and like watching a cat lick a dogs eye goo, Kushner writes that the most divisive president in US history genuinely wanted to help the country unite in the days following the 2016 election. As such, Trump supposedly tasked Ivanka Trump with getting in touch with Chelsea Clinton to arrange a get-together with Bill and Hillary. The Ivanka outreach, Kushner says, was meant to convey that Trump had no intention of looking backward and hoped to have a cordial relationship with Hillary to unite the country. Recalls the former first son-in-law: He even told Ivanka to invite Hillary and Bill for dinner in the coming weeks.

What, pray tell, would Trump have said at this dinner, in order to convey that he was willing to bury the hatchet he spent the entire campaign swinging at Hillarys head? Kushner doesnt get into details but presumably something along the lines of, Hillary, you lost really, really big. And even though people, many people, are saying I should throw you in prison, which would be my right as King of America, Im not going to do that. Youre welcome, Hillary.

Unfortunately, as it turns out, that dinner never came to pass. While Kushner claims that Ivanka did make the call to Chelsea, days later Hillary backed [Green Party presidential nominee] Jill Steins challenge to the election, and Trump ended his outreach. Then he proceeded to spend the next six years insisting that Clinton was a criminal, a theme that got plenty of airtime during his second run for the White House, despite Hillary not actually being his opponent.

Rudy Giuliani: Trump didnt steal classified documents, he was just holding onto them for safekeeping

Read more:
Jared Kushner Says Trump Wanted to Bury the Hatchet With Hillary Clinton After Spending All of 2016 Calling for Her Imprisonment - Vanity Fair

President Donald Trump signing a bipartisan bill to stop the flow of opioids into the United States in the Oval Office of the White House on January 10, 2018, in Washington, DC.Ron Sachs-Pool/Getty Images

David Laufmansaid there would be evidence if Trump declassified the Mar-a-Lago documents.

Laufman, a former DOJ official, investigated Hillary Clinton's handling of classified records.

Trump said he had a "standing order" to declassify, but ex-officials have pushed back on the claim.

A former Department of Justice official has pushed back on Trump's claim that he had broadly declassified all the documents held at Mar-a-Lago, saying if that were the case there would be evidence to back it up.

Trump made the claim after the FBI raided his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida last week. The search was part of a Justice Department investigation into potential violations of three laws related to the handling of government records. Court documents showed that 11 sets of classified materials were seized during the search.

Trump has denied any wrongdoing and said he had a standing order to declassify documents that were removed from the Oval Office and taken to his residence. Presidential records, classified or not, are public property and by law are managed by the National Archives when a president leaves office.

David Laufman, a former chief of the Justice Department's counterintelligence division, dismissed the idea of the standing order or broad declassification.

"It can't just be an idea in his head," Laufman, who led the investigation into Hillary Clinton's emails and handling of classified documents, told CNN. "Programs and officials would have been notified. There is no evidence they were."

Presidents have broad authority to declassify documents, but former Trump administration officials told CNN there is a process that is followed. The process typically involves documenting the declassification and notifying agencies, such as the CIA, NSA, or Defense Department.

Laufman had previously said the documents Trump was holding at Mar-a-Lago were particularly "stunning" and "egregious" because of their level of classification. Court records showed that one set of documents was labeled "Sensitive Compartmented Information," the highest level of sensitivity a classified documentcan be designated.

Story continues

Former Trump White House officials also pushed back on Trump's claim that he had a "standing order" to declassify documents when they were transported. Two of Trump's former chiefs of staff, John Kelly and Mick Mulvaney, told CNN they'd never heard of such an order.

"Nothing approaching an order that foolish was ever given," said Kelly, who was Trump's chief of staff from July 2017 to January 2019. "And I can't imagine anyone that worked at the White House after me that would have simply shrugged their shoulders and allowed that order to go forward without dying in the ditch trying to stop it."

CNN spoke with a total of 18 former Trump administration officials, some unnamed, who all said they had never heard of such an order, with several laughing at the idea and suggesting Trump had made it up.

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Ex-official who investigated Hillary Clinton's emails said there would be evidence if Trump declassified documents: 'It can't just be an idea in his...