On July 10, 2023, the Chief Information Systems Officer Association (CISOA.org) met for its annual conference aboard the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California. CISOA members include the technology chiefs from all 116 California community colleges, annually serving more than two million students.Among the millions of graduates are the majority of California’s police, firefighters, nurses, and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). (CCC Keyfacts)

The community college technology chiefs identified the promise and danger of artificial intelligence as the theme of their advanced seminar and number one among their present interests. Specifically, they focused on the impact and potential of AI in education and learning.

The overall conclusion of the CISOs was that AI is a net positive for education and learning. While the chiefs are optimistic and agreed that AI is a net positive in education, it is also acknowledged as representing a double-edged sword. There are negatives to be managed. There is little question that AI will speed up information search and enhance the prediction of trends. The potential of AI and language structure-driven search will also revolutionize today’s traditional research methods and have a great influence on predictions and decision-making. AI will also affect many jobs and significantly refine and enhance administrative and student services.

The chiefs also agreed that the COVID pandemic significantly accelerated embrace of hybrid, online, and distance learning. However, one of the biggest concerns about AI applied in education is that it can also dehumanize the learning experience. Maintaining a human connection is critical. With AI algorithms generating content and managing the pace of learning experiences, it is important to preserve the nuanced approach that a human teacher and support staff member can offer. In addition, the trend toward diminishing the human response by substituting the chatbot response with verbal, email, and text communication was noted as a critical factor that requires continuous attention, research, and evaluation.

The general consensus included advancing AI in ways that:

1. Support personalized learning in ways that were previously impossible.
2. Provide learners with immediate feedback that optimizes effective learning.
3. Provide learners with access to vast amounts of information that they may not otherwise have had access to.
4. Help to reduce the workload of teachers and administrators.
5. Facilitate smoother governance throughout cooperating partners.

ChatGPT, for example, can be a helpful tool in supplementing learning, but it is crucial to remember its limitations and the need for human interaction.

Educators need to be mindful of the benefits and limitations of AI and use it appropriately. Learners need to develop skills to navigate AI-based learning tools effectively. AI has the potential to help positively transform education, but it must be used ethically, transparently, and with consideration by learners and educators alike.

ChatGPT is just one example of the increasing number of AI tools rapidly becoming available, as the new AI boom replicates the dot.com boom period—but, hopefully, not the dot.com bust that occurred at the end of the twentieth century. Therefore, when adopting an AI application, its role should be carefully considered in the context of history and each unique learning environment.

Along with potential benefits, the chiefs identified some of the difficult challenges and risks to which the education community must pay attention through research and apply in practice. They include:

• Bias in AI algorithms
• Privacy concerns
• Decreased social connection
• Overreliance on technology
• Equity issues
• Ethics issues
• Policy issues
• Job changes and
• A blizzard of new planning tools and recommended improved techniques.

In short, there is little question that AI will be a continuous disruptor. The chiefs agreed to keep AI high on their leadership, research, and professional development agendas and to include the study of AI in their professional development programs. AI is an agenda item, and an understanding of that is essential for professional excellence. Research opportunities now abound in the study of AI and call for a commitment to identify, evaluate, test, and adopt best practices.

The past 75 years reflect an accelerated evolution of AI-boosting technology breakthroughs. The 1958 launch of Sputnik, the 1960s adoption of widespread digital computing, the 1970s telecourses, the 1980s birth of the laptop, and the perfection of the digital processing chip, compact disc, and the 1990s keyboard clicking Blackberry, supplanted by the Apple iPhone’s touch screen, and current streaming. All of these breakthroughs promise a bright educational and learning future involving AI that is human-centered and screen-deep.

The CISOs of California community colleges have built one of the most significant technology networks in higher education. They recognize the importance of maintaining human sensitivity and attention. The evolution of media psychology, applications technology, and artificial intelligence are synergistic and central to information studies and information systems improvements ahead. The CISOs are professionally involved in working to identify and optimize artificial intelligence as it advances and permeates education and learning.

Artificial intelligence will remain high on their professional development agenda. But they are well aware that AI has opened Pandora’s boxl.

Improve your study skills with our assistance. We provide many forms of academic help, but studying begins with you. Check out some of these resources about self-management and learning, two areas essential to your academic success.

Management

Motivation

• Motivation is the force behind all learning.  Without motivation, you may dread going to class, procrastinate, or your mind may wander during homework.  Try setting goals or learning more about your mindset in order to boost your motivation. 

Time

• Learning takes time, but you have to make time by blocking out your weekly schedule and finding the best times to study. Use a planner to keep track of daily tasks and activities. Write detailed to-do lists to keep yourself on track in accomplishing your goals. 

Productivity  

• Focus is imperative for learning, and phones and computers are both a gift and a curse. Use your time wisely by taking frequent brief breaks and avoid multi-tasking.

Self-care

• Sleep aids learning. Shoot for 8 hours, although some people need a bit more or less. When you exercise, proteins and hormones are created and released which boost learning power and memory. Eating well is important for learning, and affects sleeping and exercise habits too.

Learning

Learning skills

• Learning takes time and effort; there are no short cuts. Here are tools and techniques to help you apply that time and effort well.

Note-taking

• Remember, you should MAKE notes, not take notes. notes are most helpful when they involve active listening, and you return to them on a regular basis. Make sure to engage with your notes when reviewing by asking questions, speaking aloud, reorganizing, and discussing with classmates.

Reading

• Professors assign textbooks for a reason. reading can take time, but ti is worth it to prime your brain to the syllabus you will discuss during class, and textbooks are an invaluable resource when reviewing for tests.

Test taking

• Tests are one of the most intimidating aspects of college, but with good preparation and understanding of how testing works, you can come out ahead. Remember to communicate with your professor to know what to expect, and always start studying at least 5 days ahead of the test date.

MORE RESOURCES

They say that there's no sense in crying over spilled milk. But what do they know? Crying can get you another glass of milk if you do it loud enough. Plus, crying may serve a real physiologic purpose, according to a study published recently in Emotion, meaning the journal and not in an Emo-kind of way.

For the study, three researchers from the University of Queensland (Leah S. Sharman, Genevieve A. Dingle, and Eric J. Vanman) and one from Tilberg University (Ad J. J. M. Vingerhoets) recruited 197 female undergraduate students. They said that they choose all women rather than including men because pilot testing of sad videos had revealed that more women than men cried or at least more women revealed that they were crying. This did not account for the men who cried inside or used some bro-language or high fives to hide the crying.

The research team then showed each of the study participants either a video that are supposed to make them feel sad (sad videos) or a video that was not supposed to elicit any emotion (neutral videos) like something from a documentary or a ted talk. Each video lasted for close to 18 minutes. After the video, the researchers noted whether or not each participant had cried while watching the video. Ultimately, 65 participants watched the neutral video, 71 watched the sad video and cried during it, and 61 watched the sad video and did not cry. Presumably, no one cried during the neutral video. But then again, actor Bryce Dallas Howard was able to cry when Conan O'Brien talked about Home Depot in this Conan clip:

Then, each participant underwent a Cold Pressor Stress Test (CPT), which involved placing the participant's left hand, up to the wrist, in cold 0° to 5°C water. Unless you are the Iceman or Killer Frost, this is supposed to be painful. The research team measured how long each participant could stay in this position until pulling her hand out of the water. During the study, the research team continuously measured each participant's heart rate and respiratory rate and periodically measured cortisol levels from saliva samples. Cortisol is a stress-hormone that's produced by the body.

Also, at four points during the study, participants answered questions from the Positive and Negative Affect Scale short form (PANAS). These questions asked the degree to which the participant was experiencing ten different emotions and to rank each on a five-point scale that ranged from a one (very slightly or not at all) to a five (extremely).

When it came to cortisol levels and how long the participants could keep their hands submerged in the cold water, the study ended up finding not much difference between the neutral video watchers, the sad video non-criers, and the sad video criers. So if you are about to dunk yourself in cold water or take a cold shower, it may not help to cry first.

But here's a difference that the study found. Are you ready? Take a deep breath. The difference was breathing rates. While watching the videos, the non-criers tended to have elevations in their breathing rates, whereas, by contrast, the criers tended to maintain their initial breathing rates. In other words, tearing up could have helped participants better control their breathing rates. This provides further evidence that crying may help you better regulate arousal, serving as an emotional release.

Another interesting finding was that right before crying, participants tended to experience decreases in their heart rates, seemingly in anticipation of the crying. Once the crying began, their heart rates then tended to creep back up but not above where their heart rates had been before everything began. This may be further evidence that crying has a beneficial regulatory effect on your physiology.

So perhaps next time you start crying you can tell people that you are regulating your physiology. You've probably heard of people saying that they had a good cry and feel better after they've let the tears flow. It can be important to find reasonable ways to periodically release your emotions. Otherwise, you may end up bottling everything up like a hot air balloon that can explode when you least expect it.

Moreover, crying can be a way of communicating. It's really the only way that babies can express their needs before they learn how to say things like "why you throwing shade on me," or "I'm not Gucci." Crying can help communicate to others that you need more sympathy, comfort, or help. Of course, this can be misused. You don't want to cry every time your order at a restaurant doesn't come out right. And of course, there is the whole concept of crocodile tears: people crying to get something when they don't really mean it.

Crying can also be a way of communicating with yourself. Even when you cry alone, you may be telling yourself about your own state because, like many people, you could be terrible at reading your own emotions and situation. Tears could be your body's way of saying, "hey, take a break," or "something's not right," or "take care of yourself." Tearing up can then be a way of your body literally crying out to you.

Your body is a complex system. Crying can be complex. Your tears can flow when you are very sad, very angry, or even very happy. Better understanding what causes us to cry and what happens as a result could help us better handle our emotions and stress.

Puzzles, chess and writing journals may be more than pure amusements to pass the time. These brain activities could help reduce the risk of dementia. 

According to a accurate study in JAMA Network Open, activities related to adult literacy, such as taking classes, using a computer or writing journals, as well as active mental tasks like games, cards, or crossword puzzles, were related to a reduced dementia risk over 10 years.

As part of its mission to advocate for parity in employment, compensation and recognition for women theatre practitioners through industry-wide initiatives and public policy, the League of Professional Theatre Women has launched an industry-wide, comprehensive pay equity research study. Focusing on New York City and New York State theatre professionals in a variety of disciplines, the study will include qualitative and qualitative data collected through anonymous surveys and interviews in order to assess economic equity and hiring practices during the 2018 - 2022 seasons.

The Study is developed in partnership with the research firm Network for Culture & Arts Policy (NCAP) to examine pay equity, opportunities, negotiation practices, and the financial needs of theatre professionals across New York. It will be distributed to theatre professionals through unions, membership organizations, theatre staff, and guilds. All theatre professionals are encouraged to participate. All responses will be collected anonymously.

The study will remain open through December 23, 2022. All theatre professionals working or living in New York State can access the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LPTWEquity

Fact checked by Sarah Scott

• A new study suggests that taking vitamin D supplements may help protect older adults from major cardiovascular events, like heart attacks.

• The study is relatively small and researchers and outside medical professionals alike emphasize the need for further research in order to clarify vitamin D's ability to contribute to heart health in this way.

• Experts agree that lifestyle factors, like diet and exercise, are still the primary ways individuals can focus on prevention of heart attacks and other cardiovascular-related events.

Taking vitamin D supplements may help reduce the risk of major cardiovascular events (like heart attacks) for older adults, according to a new study.

The trial, which was based out of Australia, assessed 21,315 people who ranged from 60 to 84 years old. They randomly gave one group of 10,662 participants one capsule of 60,000 IU vitamin D, while a placebo was given to 10,653 participants.

The supplements and the placebo were taken orally by participants at the beginning of each month for up to 5 years, with the clinical trial starting in 2014 and concluding in 2020.

Researchers excluded people from the trial with a history of hypercalcemia, or high calcium levels, overactive thyroid, or hyperparathyroidism, kidney stones, osteomalacia, or "soft bones," sarcoidosis, which is an inflammatory disease, or who were already taking more than 500 IU per day of vitamin D supplements.

Study author Rachel Neale, PhD, told Health that there have been plenty of observational studies suggesting that the concentration of 25 hodroxy vitamin D [25(OH)D—the molecule that is measured to determine vitamin D status—in the bloodstream is "inversely associated with health outcomes."

The opposite has been examined less.

While the largest clinical trial of its kind, the researchers acknowledge that the study was relatively small, and more work needs to be done to understand the effectiveness of these kinds of supplements, especially in people who are taking statins or other medications to manage cardiovascular disease.

Neale, who also serves as the deputy coordinator of the Population Health Department at QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute, noted that the association between vitamin D and cardiovascular health risk may not be causal.

"Randomized controlled trials are needed to determine whether supplementing people with vitamin D would Strengthen health outcomes," she said.

Taking Vitamin D Supplements Could Protect Your Heart

Over the course of the trial, 1,336 of the participants experienced a major cardiovascular event—this was evenly divided between the placebo and vitamin D supplement groups.

The research team found that 6.6% of those in the placebo group and 6% in the supplement group experienced a cardiovascular event during those five years.

Those in the vitamin D supplement group seemed better protected from these heart disease events; this group experienced a rate of major cardiovascular events that was 9% lower compared to what was seen in the placebo group.

This comes out to about 5.8 fewer cardiovascular events per 1,000 participants. The heart attack and coronary rates were 19% and 11% lower, respectively, in the vitamin D group. That being said, the rate of stroke showed no difference between the placebo and supplement groups.

Related: 26 Symptoms of Low Vitamin D You Need to Know About

How Vitamin D Impacts the Heart

When asked what is known about vitamin D and its impact on heart health, Boback Ziaeian, MD, PhD, an assistant professor of medicine at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in the Division of Cardiology, told Health that there are many studies out there on vitamin D "that span basic sciences, observational research, and clinical trials."

That being said, it's only very recently that we've started seeing large randomized trials like this one that focus on vitamin D supplements as a mechanism to prevent cardiovascular disease, cancer, and even dementia.

"These trials have all largely been negative for their primary endpoint design. The accurate Australian study is the first large study to suggest a possible benefit and that is very uncertain," said Ziaeian, who is unaffiliated with this clinical trial.

Essentially, more needs to be examined here.

Neale said that there are a number of different potential mechanisms inherent in vitamin D that could be beneficial for your heart.

She mentioned that vitamin D "can influence the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system, which influences blood volume and vascular resistance." She also noted that vitamin D can also lower inflammation and "reduce cardiac remodeling."

"People have hyped Vitamin D for a long time, but blood levels are heavily confounded by other lifestyle factors like how much time someone spends outdoors or not having other chronic diseases," Ziaeian said.

"So, overall, there's no good evidence that supplementing people with vitamin D does anything beneficial for their health unless they cannot produce it, such as patients with severe kidney disease."

What Future Studies Need to Clarify

Ziaeian said that he doesn't believe we will see a future where vitamin D supplementation will be part of a prescription from your doctor.

"Looking at the literature overall, I think it is very unlikely that we would find many benefits for any vitamin supplementation that for vitamins we normally ingest with normal food intake or that our body produces," he said.

Neale said that "uncertainty in the evidence may not ever be completely resolved." She said this leaves medical providers in a "somewhat difficult position" when it comes to prescribing vitamin D supplements, outside of treating vitamin D deficiency.

"I would emphasize that even if our findings do indicate a real effect of vitamin D, it is not a magic bullet," she said. "Diet and exercise will play a much more important role."

Related: 12 Foods That Are Good Sources of Vitamin D

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Read the original article on Health.