Technology In Education

Bridging the Digital Divide: A New Role for Hospitals in the 21st Century In today’s world, where technology is inextricably linked to every aspect of our lives, the stark reality of the digital divide has never been more pronounced. This divide does not merely separate the tech-savvy from the technophobes; it delineates a chasm between those who have access to critical online health resources and services and those who do not. As we navigate the complexities of healthcare in the digital age, it's clear that hospitals have a unique and potent role to play in bridging this gap. For too long, the digital divide has been a pervasive barrier to equitable healthcare access. It's a divide that disproportionately affects the most vulnerable among us—low-income families, the elderly, and communities of color. These are the same communities that are often hardest hit by health disparities and systemic inequities. The COVID-19 pandemic has only magnified these issues, making it abundantly clear that internet access is not a luxury; it's a lifeline. Hospitals stand at the crossroads of healthcare and technology. They are not just institutions for healing but pivotal community resources with the potential to lead transformative change. Imagine a hospital where every patient, regardless of their socio-economic status, leaves not just with a care plan but with the tools and knowledge to access telehealth services, manage their health records online, and utilize digital platforms for follow-up care. This vision is not only achievable; it's essential. Initiatives to get patients connected can take various forms, from simple measures like providing Wi-Fi access in hospital waiting rooms to more comprehensive strategies like deploying digital navigators—staff members trained to assist patients in setting up and using online health tools. Hospitals can partner with community organizations and leverage existing programs to offer internet access subsidies and distribute devices to those in need. These efforts, while seemingly straightforward, can dramatically alter the healthcare landscape for millions. Moreover, by integrating digital access into patient care, hospitals can also enhance patient engagement, improve adherence to treatment plans, and reduce readmissions. It's a win-win situation where improved patient outcomes go hand in hand with the democratization of healthcare information. While some argue hospitals are overwhelmed, our duty as healthcare providers extends beyond the exam room. Closing the digital divide is part of ensuring patient welfare. From ER to policy advising, one truth stands: healthcare innovation must be inclusive. The digital future of healthcare isn't just an opportunity. Hospitals should be more than healing centers—they're pathways to a connected, empowered society. Access to health services shouldn't depend on zip codes or income. Let's bridge the gap and ensure health is a right for all. #healthcare

AI Educator Levels Over the past six months, I’ve trained thousands and thousands of educators around the world on how to integrate AI into their classrooms. Not just for saving time. Not just for shortcutting tasks. But to reimagine what teaching and learning can look like in this new era. Through surveys, collaborative design sessions, and watching teachers create in real time, a clear pattern has emerged. Many educators aren’t asking, “How do I prompt better?” They’re asking: How do I use AI to give students better feedback? How do I make learning more inclusive, more human, more student-driven? How do I design lessons that use AI to deepen and not distract from thinking? So I created this to think about and illustrate what I am seeing at these schools, many of which I have been working with over time. It’s not about who's tech-savvy or who’s “behind.” It’s about where we are in the journey to using AI as a teaching partner, one that supports curiosity, equity, creativity, and voice. From empowered lesson designers to thoughtful skeptics, every stage on this continuum is valid. But the goal isn’t to stay still, it’s to grow. Because the future of education isn’t AI-powered. It’s educator-powered and AI infused. I’d love to hear: where do you see yourself, or your colleagues, on this continuum? Have you noticed other patterns in how educators are approaching AI tools? I definitely have but these were the ones that showed themselves over and over. This continuum might not include you perfectly but I can tell you its a pretty researched product from my trainings. #AIinEducation #TeacherLeadership #ChatGPT #AIEducation #AIforGood #AITraining #Gemini #Claude

The shift toward #onlinelearning is enhancing #highered's ability to meet all students where they are. But much work still remains to educate all relevant stakeholders—including policymakers, institutional leaders, and even students’ families—about the potential benefits tech-enabled learning can yield. As the president of Western Governors University, I recognize the unique role I can play in elevating this discussion. Today, both innovative online universities and established brick-and-mortar institutions are leveraging technology to provide students with greater flexibility and personal ownership over their experience; recently it was reported that 70% of college students are enrolled in at least one online course. But offering online courses or even programs doesn’t necessarily mean an institution is fully capitalizing on technology’s potential. As with any innovation, its potential rests in how it’s deployed. Unfortunately, online learning is often deployed with the same artificial constraints that exist in traditional models of learning, ensuring its impact will be limited. (It's been said before, but I'll say it again: delivering lectures via Zoom is not quality online learning). In stark contrast, effective online learning design should be purposefully designed for the virtual environment, leveraging digital tools and approaches that would be difficult to replicate in-person, at scale. Thanks to advances in technology, for instance, readily available data on how students are doing can empower faculty to reach out to students in need—and critically before they fall too far behind and get discouraged. At WGU, we use machine intelligence to better understand our students’ momentum at a given moment, drawing on indicators such as how they’re interacting with learning resources, the extent to which they’re engaging with faculty, and how they’re progressing. By identifying when students have less momentum and are in greater need of support, our faculty are empowered to design personalized interventions when students need them the most, which we’ve shown improves retention and progression. Compiling this sophisticated level of actionable information simply would not be possible without the support of technology. I’d love to know—how else are you seeing online learning deployed deliberately and effectively?

The U.S. Department of Education just released new guidance on using federal grant funds for AI in education. Here's what educators and school leaders should know: 3 Main Supported Areas Where Federal Funds Can be Utilized: 1. AI-Based High-Quality Instructional Materials - including: • Personalized learning materials and AI-powered instructional tools that adapt to learner needs in real-time • Training for educators and families on responsible AI use 2. AI-Enhanced High-Impact Tutoring - including: • Individualized tutoring systems (including human tutoring hybrid platforms) with real-time assessment,  • Diagnostic and scheduling tools that use AI to match learners with tutoring services 3. AI for College and Career Pathway Exploration, Advising, and Navigation - including: • AI-enhanced career exploration and college advising platforms • Predictive models to identify students needing additional support By making federal funds available to support these initiatives, the administration continues to lean into AI integration in education as part of their goal for the US to remain the leader in AI development - albeit while withholding billions in education funding at the same time. We're glad to see the funding of AI literacy included here, and the overall focus on responsible adoption that enhances human teaching rather than replaces it. Link in the comments to the full document! #AIforEducation #Education #FederalFunding #K12 AI for Education

A big challenge with digital mental health is the digital divide. New paper in JAMA looks at U.S. counties without a psychiatrist and without broadband. Nearly one in five counties, comprising 10.5M people, had no psychiatrist and no broadband in 2020. Compared to counties with psychiatrists or broadband (for telehealth), the counties on the far side of the digital divide had an 8-fold increase in suicide and nearly a 4-fold increase in drug overdoses. While these outcomes can be, in part, attributed to rural locations, higher rates of poverty, and a range of other factors known to increase the risks of suicide and drug overdoses, the lack of broadband access means that over 10 million people might not be able to access mental health care, either online or offline. As we look at solutions to the nation's mental health crisis, increasing broadband access might be one of the most effective. https://lnkd.in/gtWjHVJ3

🎓 Bullshit Universities: The Future of Automated Education This sharp and provocative essay by Sparrow and Flenady challenges the utopian narratives surrounding AI in higher education. The authors argue that AI outputs—lacking truth, meaning, and moral accountability—are unfit for replacing human teaching. While automation promises efficiency and access, it risks hollowing out the essence of education: learning by example, dialogue, and critical inquiry. To defend education’s social and transformative role, universities must reinvest in people, not platforms. ⚖️ 5 Key Trends, Trade-offs, and Contradictions: 1. 🚀 EdTech Hype vs. Pedagogical Reality History shows that "assistance" is often the first step toward labor displacement. Once AI designs lessons and grades essays, the rationale for keeping educators weakens. The tech utopia may actually be a cost-cutting dystopia. 2. 📦 Content Delivery vs. Human Formation AI excels at packaging and distributing content, but real education involves identity, ethics, and intellectual rigor. Teachers inspire, challenge, and mentor—not just instruct. 3. 🌍 Access vs. Quality AI can extend access to learning, especially in underserved areas—but what kind of learning? If AI replaces meaningful teacher interaction, we risk offering a second-class education to marginalized groups. 4. 🤖 Automation Bias Once AI systems become routine, users tend to trust them too much—even when they’re wrong. Teachers may stop reading student work critically, while still being held responsible for errors. Over-reliance on machines erodes professional judgment. 5. 🧠 Learning that vs. Learning how Knowing facts (“that”) is not enough—students must develop skills and judgment (“how”). Writing, critical thinking, and discussion require human modeling and feedback. 🛠️ 5 Policy Recommendations 1. 🧑🏫 Reinvest in Human Teachers: Fund smaller classes with passionate, expert human teachers. Teachers are not content deliverers—they are mentors, models, and guides. Smaller classes mean more dialogue, personalized feedback, and intellectual engagement. 2. 🧰 Use AI Only in Dedicated Skills Units: Let students learn how to use AI tools responsibly—just like learning to use a library or a bibliography. But don’t let AI replace disciplinary teaching or feedback. 3. 📋 Protect Assessment Integrity: Avoid AI-based grading; protect integrity through human assessment. AI lacks the judgment, context, and accountability that grading demands. 4. 🔁 Prioritize Human Mentorship and Feedback: Mentorship builds trust, motivation, and deep thinking. 5. 🎓 Resist the Temptation to Mass-Produce Education: Incentivize deep learning, not scalable content delivery platforms. https://lnkd.in/eE9Vvni3

Digital transformation requires skills transformation! The World Economic Forum’s Putting Skills First report notes that 60% of businesses are holding back on transforming their business because of the #skills gap in in their local labor market. It is the top barrier globally. Digital transformation requires skills transformation, both for the current and future workforce. Colleges and universities play a significant role in addressing the needs of a digitally-minded workforce. More than ever, industry must partner with academia to better address these skills challenges. A few lessons learned from the classroom I was in last week: 🔖 CONTEXT matters We met with educators at our Siemens eXplore live experience center at LIFT. It is a perfect classroom to discuss digital threads in the context of a manufacturing shop floor. We were all students for the day. Educators learned from our colleagues at each station in a Smart Manufacturing digital thread. We learned from educators the challenges and opportunities to apply industry context in future engineers’ skillsets. We explored how to make technology and real-world content and context more accessible and engaging. 🚦 METER the speed of change It is rare but refreshing to have so many educators who came from industry. They are the change agents in their institutions. Yet, they spoke to the challenges of keeping up with multiple software versions each year. We don’t need to slow down the technology transformation, but we need to consider multiple onramps. Some want to drive change as early/beta adopters. Others need more time and require backward compatibility with multiple versions. Educators emphasized the challenges of cloud despite progress made during the dramatic shift online through the pandemic. Some schools still have 20% of their students with low or no connectivity. 🎒 Go back to SCHOOL Even this single day together was a learnathon for all of us. Connecting educators with technology in action, especially in an industry context, is important. And connecting them to each other helps them share best practices. We discussed how to break down silos between departments to connect the dots through an interdisciplinary approach. That’s when we learned about an award-winning Grand Valley State University’s interdisciplinary capstone. Those were my lessons last week. SHARE something you learned recently that can inspire or drive change at the intersection of industry and academic collaboration. Thank you Blake Ashby, Allen Dickenson, Azeem Hafeez Ph.D., Katherine Stevenson, Nicholas Hendrickson. Thank you Keith Ferguson and Genesis fresh graduates Natalie Schmid, Adam Alkire, Jacob Krueger & Liam Fogerty. Shout out to one of my career long mentors & friends Tom Hoffman, who inspires and teaches daily as he manages our center at LIFT. #digitaltransformation Shannon O'Donnell Janelle Simmonds Audrey Villarreal

ChatGPT got an A on an MBA exam and can write essays in seconds. Claude can summarize complex texts and solve calculus problems. AI has made jaw-dropping progress. 🍎 Where does this leave the future of education? It's a question weighing on every teacher's mind. Could machines replace them? I believe the answer is...NO. AI may master content delivery and basic tasks. But teaching is so much more than that. Great teachers inspire curiosity, creativity and critical thinking. They build character and empathy. This requires emotional intelligence - something no algorithm can replicate. Rather than replace teachers, AI can augment our capabilities especially for the overworked teacher and her students. Imagine Claude helping suggest personalized learning plans for students. Or ChatGPT assisting with lesson prep and administrative tasks. The future of education should embrace this technology thoughtfully. Let AI handle rote tasks so teachers can focus on meaningful connections. With human ingenuity and values guiding it, AI can expand access to quality education worldwide. But the teacher-student relationship will remain invaluable. 💙🧡💙 The machines can handle facts and figures. But Teachers...will keep providing the personal connection and building learning communities that foster connectivity and collaboration. Educators still have an irreplaceable role in shaping young minds and lives. #AIinEducation #AICollaboration #TeachersAI #TheFutureofEducation

After transitioning from teaching, one major difference became evident: organizations prioritize profit over people. While I understand the necessity for businesses to be profitable, what surprised me was the extent of its implications. In education, where the focus is on students, prioritizing people over profit is foundational. For educators, this principle is ingrained. With the growing presence of AI, it's crucial to pause and ask practical, applicable questions before investing. Seeking professional guidance becomes essential, not just in policy but also in cultivating understanding. From an ethical AI perspective, here are five pertinent questions I'd ask: 1️⃣ How does this AI application mitigate bias and ensure fairness in student evaluations and assessments? 2️⃣ What steps are taken to ensure transparency and accountability in the AI algorithms used? 3️⃣ How is consent given, and what data privacy standards are applied in collecting and utilizing student data? 4️⃣ What measures are in place to continuously monitor and evaluate the performance of systems? 5️⃣ How do you promote collaboration between educators, technologists, and ethicists to ensure AI technologies align with ethical principles and educational goals? It's time to uphold integrity and humanity in the pursuit of educational innovation. #ethicalai #aiineducation #educationalleadership #aiimagegeneration

Law schools need to teach technology skills. It's not optional anymore. I see new lawyers struggling with basic legal tech that firms use every day. Document review platforms, contract analysis software, AI research tools. These aren't coming someday. They're here now. What should law students actually learn? Some essential tech topics for law students and new lawyers: -IP questions when AI creates content -How and when to use AI for legal work and examples of tools that can help -Liability issues with automated systems -Using tech to help clients including underserved clients access legal services -Ethics rules around AI in legal practice The reality: Clients expect those they hire to know how to use and when to use the tools of their trade. Lawyers who combine legal knowledge with tech skills are winning cases and building practices. Those who don't are falling behind. Law schools that skip this preparation are failing their students. The market has already decided that tech literacy matters. Follow me for insights on legal innovation and subscribe to my LinkedIn Newsletter. #legaltech #innovation #law #business #learning