21st Century Learning and Teaching

Google will allow anyone to use its custom AI chips via the cloud
Dedicated machine-learning hardware could help Google fight off rivals in an increasingly competitive cloud AI market.

Backstory: Last year, Google announced it had designed a new chip, called a tensor processing unit (TPU), built to crunch the math AI uses. At the time, it ran the chips itself and allowed just a select group of researchers to make use of them.

What's new: The New York Times reports that Google will allow other companies to make use of the hardware via the cloud. “We are trying to reach as many people as we can as quickly as we can,” Zak Stone, leader of Google’s TPU team, told the newspaper.

Why it matters: Putting AI in the cloud is big business. Google, Amazon, and Microsoft all provide AI software on their cloud servers, and China is joining the race, too. By offering dedicated hardware for AI grunt work, Google will hope to gain a competitive edge over the others.

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Preparing teachers to equip their students to become responsible digital citizens.

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At Google, we think that AI can meaningfully improve people’s lives and that the biggest impact will come when everyone can access it. Learn more about our projects and tools.

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Google is convinced about the long-term of VR. The company is heavily pushing it through affordable hardware initiatives like Google Cardboard and Daydream. And now, Mountain View is bringing it to the classroom with the aim of introducing the concept to one million British schoolchildren.

In his first visit to the UK since landing the coveted role of Google CEO, Sundar Pichai has said that Mountain View will offer VR training and resources to teachers through its Google Expeditions program.

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Ever dreamt of visiting a majestic château in France’s world-famous Loire Valley but can’t afford it? Well, now you can.

The Loire Valley, which once housed France’s kings and nobility, attracts thousands of tourists a year. But, for many, a trip to France to see the fairytale former royal residences has long been an inaccessible dream.

The castles that can now be viewed almost brick by brick with the new ‘Google Street View’ virtual tours include Sully-sur-Loire, Chambord and Cité Royale de Loches. Those who run these historic landmarks hope that the project will boost tourism to the charming and scenic “Valley of the Kings”.

Teachers can take their students on virtual field trips with Expeditions. For more information, visit google.com/edu/expeditions

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To help create the best version of your online story, remember to think before you share. Anything you post online can be forwarded, copied, and found...

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Most of us have things on the web that we want to keep safe. One of the best ways to keep those things secure is to make sure that you have set strong passwords!

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The Washington Post recently reported on a 2013 Google study of its hiring, firing, and promotion data since 1998. The study, called Project Oxygen, shockingly concluded that “among the eight most important qualities of Google’s top employees, STEM expertise comes in dead last.”

So, what came out on top? “The seven top characteristics of success at Google are all soft skills: being a good coach; communicating and listening well; possessing insights into others (including others different values and points of view); having empathy toward and being supportive of one’s colleagues; being a good critical thinker and problem solver; and being able to make connections across complex ideas.”

The soft skills valued by employers are byproducts of foreign language acquisition.

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Eric Schmidt, the executive chairman of Alphabet, says AI can be harnessed to help solve major challenges like climate change, food security, and many other problems in health care, energy, and other critical sectors. Machine learning algorithms can directly analyze thousands of previous cases of different types of diseases and make their own conclusions as to what constitutes a sick individual versus a healthy individual, and consequently help diagnose dangerous conditions including cancer. Also, the technology is being fed big data to help scientists understand and predict the effects of climate change.

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It’s terribly confusing, but perhaps no coincidence, that three of the world’s most prominent consumer technology companies—Apple, Google, Microsoft—each boast a “Classroom” tool aimed at K-12 educators and students. After all, what better way to secure a foothold in the market than impressing on...

[Gust MEES] looks like Microsoft is BEST choice as it can integrate as well also Apple and Google products!!

Since 2008, Google has run an online tool called Map Maker that allows anyone worldwide to contribute data to Google Maps. Now, that tool is shutting down. The company announced today in its online forum for the project that the Google Map Maker service, as a standalone product, is retiring in March 2017. However, crowdsourced contributions to Google Maps are not ending, the company noted – instead, those will be transitioned to Google’s Local Guides program.

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Here's some great news for fans of Scratch, an extremely popular game that teaches kids the conceptual "language" around computer programming, using cartoon-y animated characters. The MIT Scratch Team said Tuesday that it will collaborate with Google to create the next generation of the game.

MIT says this collaboration will first result in a new generation of graphical programming blocks, called Scratch Blocks, which is an open source project that allows developers to create and share the "blocks" (or code) of each game with one another. Developers can also easily integrate the blocks into apps, games and toys they create for kids. Scratch Blocks makes it easier to create programming experiences for a wider range of people that will work on a wider range of devices.

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Treat others the way you want to be treated, offline and online! Being positive on the web means that you should only post, comment or forward something, if...

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