To the Edge and Beyond

In August, the UN issued a 26-page policy brief on education during COVID-19 and beyond. The UN Secretary General did not mince words when he said the pandemic has created the largest disruption of education in our world’s history. And, if we don’t put solutions in place, “these learning losses threaten to extend beyond this generation and erase decades of progress.”

On this episode of To The Edge and Beyond, Education Marketing Director Chris O’Malley and Platform Solution Architect Marcos Silva from Intel Corporation’s Internet of Things Group sat down with host Shelby Skrhak to discuss these challenges and share how technology is improving hybrid learning solutions and more.

“What we’re facing now with COVID is absolutely the greatest disruption in history; there’s no doubt about it,” O’Malley said. “When I look at this, technology is a key input we have to address this disruption around the world. As a technology company, Intel continues to step up to ensure that progress is made in education.”

Students from elementary school all the way to higher education are using remote learning technologies during this pandemic, but, as Silva explains, the term remote learning encompasses both synchronous and asynchronous learning, as well as blended approaches.

Synchronous learning in elementary and secondary schools offers a more teacher-centric approach to learning — one that allows teachers to interact more often with students. At the higher education level, students require less direct instruction from teachers, but instead rely on curriculum distribution and effective collaboration tools that allow them to work in small breakouts with other students, often called asynchronous learning.

“In elementary education, it’s more about how you connect the teacher [with students], but in higher education, it’s about making discussion and collaboration more efficient,” Silva said.

O’Malley said, during this first year of widespread remote learning, technology providers have removed many of the impediments to distance learning by “getting technology in the hands of students and getting connectivity between the students and the school.”

Now, technology is helping merge in-class materials with the digitization of classroom content, but all that digital content and classroom video is driving another challenge — cloud connectivity problems.

“Now we’re starting to run into new challenges,” O’Malley said. “For school districts, that’s driving the need for local edge computing. That is a shift in the compute paradigm of balancing the immense amount of data stored in the cloud and locally. School districts are realizing this need.”

Most importantly, Intel and their ecosystem partners are focused on ensuring teachers know how to best leverage technology to enhance learning, as the “classroom” of the future is evolving quickly. This continues to also be an opportunity to learn from teachers to ensure solutions are naturally integrated into teaching approaches and easy to use.

Learn more about Education with Intel by connecting with Chris O'Malley or Marcos Silva on LinkedIn or visit https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/education/intel-education.html.

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The education revolution is here. Digitization of learning, although critical, wasn’t on the fast track. The pandemic changed all that. Educators, administrators, communities, and students face new learning challenges, and technology is key to improving access, engagement, and outcomes. Wei Oania, Global Education General Manager for Intel’s Internet of Things Group, shared Intel’s vision and plan with Mariya Zorotovich, host and customer experience advocate at Intel.

“Technology is enabling students to receive the education they deserve and desire without location boundaries. We’re using a data-driven approach to find intuitive ways to teach. Now is the time for smart learning with multiple different delivery methods to ensure learning can be conducted everywhere,” Oania said.

Oania discussed three main areas of focus—equality, efficiency, and personalization—that technology can address. She commented, “Equality is about accessibility, it remains a priority for us. Efficiency improvements can occur with the use of AI to support repetitive tasks so teachers can focus on higher value work. Personalization is key, as education isn’t a one size fits all. We need to make it easier for different learning styles to thrive.”

How does deployment of technology to the classroom work? Some countries have adjusted well to the disruption of COVID-19. Others are struggling. “We’re looking at student-centered approaches and creating an engaging learning environment, whether that be virtual or in-person. Those schools succeeding early already had a digital foundation,” Oania noted.

The mission is to support digital transformation through four stages, which require communities, schools, and the technology ecosystem working together. “We welcome those education solution providers to collaborate with us for pilot programs and define solutions to solve these challenges. The disruption happening now is also an opportunity. With the right technology, we can deliver improved outcomes,” Oania said.

Learn more about education and IoT by connecting with Wei Oania on LinkedIn or following her on Twitter @WeiOania. Or visit http://www.intel.com/education.

When looking at the future of retail, gaming and entertainment, there is a significant opportunity for these industries to evolve, grow and leverage emerging technologies. On this episode of To the Edge and Beyond, Cheol Kim, General Manager of Intel IOT Retail, Gaming and Entertainment offers a look ahead.

In the realm of retail, Intel focuses on three outcomes. Kim explained, “They are to provide a frictionless customer experience, improve operations and augment workforces.”

These three outcomes cross many use cases, and Kim discussed what they really mean for retailers in the future.

“To improve the customer experience, technology can have major impacts. Self-checkout kiosks and autonomous stores enable frictionless shopping. Smart shelves and virtual dressing rooms provide new opportunities to engage shoppers under a variety of conditions,” he said.

Technology, specifically edge computing, boosts operational efficiency with data capabilities. “Examples include the use of RFID for real-time inventory management as well as analysis of safety protocols like temperature scans and monitoring physical distancing,” Kim commented.

In the world of gaming and entertainment, those industries were hit hard by the pandemic. Kim is optimistic on the long-term outlook, as these markets are adopting digital technology with speed. “We are focused on consolidating computing workloads that maximize performance of AI, computer vision, security, graphics rendering and platform optimization,” Kim said.

Kim is also responsible for digital out of home (DOOH), which is digital advertising automation and optimization of media reach to customers outside the home. This medium is traditionally one to many and has opportunity to become more intelligent and smarter by serving improved content to the right audience.

The future of this market is becoming 3A compliant. 3A refers to addressable (serving ads to the right audience in proximity), accountable (how many people see it, who are they and how long do they see it) and attributable (what’s the business impact from the exposure to the ads). “We’re working with partners to provide the next generation of DOOH tools and improve the value of this medium,” he said.

Learn more about Future of Retail, Gaming and Entertainment by connecting with Cheol Kim on LinkedIn or visit https://www.intel.com/retail.

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