La Frágil Levedad del SER

Muerto el #Metaverso, larga vida a la #AI o #ChapGPT,  debiera decir?

En este mundo tan frágil, efímero e inconsistente en el que vivimos últimamente, resulta muy preocupante la fragilidad de los argumentos que soportan grandes decisiones de la vida diaria.

El duro mundo del influencer, del bloguero, del metaversado, en busca de la última novedad, o al menos así lo piensan ellos, los lleva a ensalzar ídolos y convertirlos en villanos en apenas unos meses. El poder del marketing, y su influencia en tomas de decisiones rápidas, en aquellos que actúan sin pensar (proactivos dicen ellos, desinformados, pienso yo) es realmente brutal. El numero de impactos en este breve espacio de tiempo, supera con creces las expectativas que se podría alcanzar por cualquier otro medio. Una caza sin piedad de desinformados, ignorantes habidos de ser, sin ser.

Nuevas generaciones que buscan respuestas rápidas a problemas complejos, sin importarles la consistencia ni la transcendencia de las decisiones o el alcance de estas.

¿Resultado? lo tenemos a la vista. El presente se nos cruza y abofetea cada día con temas tan trascendentes y relevantes como la canción de Shakira y las historias de Pique. Algo que no se produce como fruto de la casualidad, o ¿ piensas que si?.

Hoy a nadie le extraña que escritores, blogueros o revistas técnicas internacionales, lleven haciendo trampas con sus artículos firmados, y elaborados por una máquina. Por no hablar de grandes ídolos musicales de un solo tema, elaborados íntegramente por ordenador.

El nuevo «Tsunami» golpea nuestras desoladas costas de la educación. Aparecen nuevas voces en el horizonte, cantos de sirena, intentando convencernos de los milagros de la «Inteligenia Artificial» y los chats inteligentes, bla, bla, bla.

En 1988, durante mi etapa de formación en la Escuela de Informática de Siemens en Alemania, llegó a mis manos un libro verdaderamente apasionante: Sistemas Expertos, editado por Siemens y Dieter Nebendahl. Se convirtió en mi libro de cabecera durante algún tiempo y apoyó los desarrollos que llevamos a cabo en los días de los Sistemas de Información Geográfica.

A lo largo de los últimos 5 años, como Co-Chair del Comité de Educación de la Asociación (VRARA), hemos venido realizando una incesante labor de sensibilización, liderazgo y colaboración, con instituciones de primer nivel, en el estudio de implementación de metodologías, tecnologías inmersivas en la educación, tratando de avanzar en el desarrollo de un nuevo ecosistema educativo.

Humildemente creo que, en muchas ocasiones nos hemos anticipado a los tiempos, elaborando trabajos y estudios: El estudio de la VR/AR en Educación, Immersive Learning, Adcanced Simulations, Virtual Worlds and Metaeducation, Augmented Education for Augmented Soceity

A lo largo de la interesante sesión de la semana pasada «Are we ready for #AI in #Education», se pusieron de manifiesto por un importante panel de expertos internacionales, algunos puntos esenciales, como que uno de los propósitos centrales de la educación es desarrollar pensadores críticos. También que la educación se ve comprometida cuando tratamos de impartirla a grupos grandes. Y cuando la discusión se lleva a grupos pequeños es donde se logra el verdadero aprendizaje. Otro de los problemas que se pusieron encima de la mesa, es que estemos demasiado centrados en hacer trampa en algunos aspectos del desarrollo de nuestras habilidades, lo cual nos puede llevar a un triste escenario de futuros lideres, en donde la sociedad en su conjunto puede verse afectada. ¿Como vamos a permitirnos esta falta de integridad académica y su transcendencia en el desarrollo de los futuros lideres de esta sociedad?.

Es necesario poner el foco en incorporar el pensamiento crítico y el pensamiento basado en la aplicación en el sistema educativo con mayor peso, en lugar de escribir la información aprendida a través de libros (digital/papel) a los que se les puede dar un peso más bajo. En la actualidad podemos decir sin lugar a duda, que la perspectiva desde el punto de vista de los estudiantes, justo la opuesta.

Esto es, «Augmented Education» es un salto cualitativo, en donde metodologías y tecnologías inmersivas en entornos disruptivos, nos hacen visualizar y definir un espacio de educación y formación más práctica, colaborativa, avanzado, adaptado a las necesidades de la sociedad actual y futura. Centrándose en algo más práctico, innovador, basado en experiencias, trabajo colaborativo, etc… algo que está en el polo opuesto a la formación tradicional basada en la lectura, el aprendizaje escrito, etc…

Hace ya seis años, con motivo del congreso internacional #Expolearning, tuve la oportunidad de presentar: La rebelión de las máquinas y la formación disruptiva. Una visión futuristica de la Educación Inmersiva y Experiencial y su posible evolución…y parece que fué ayer.

Y en menos de tres semanas, es cuando aparece la novedad «para algunos» de herramientas como #ChatGPT. Y creen descubrir el nuevo santo grial, saltando inmediatamente a un nuevo futuro… olvidando todos los paradigmas, visiones y avances realizados en estos últimos años.

En realidad, estamos ante un escenario muy similar al inicio de la Robotica. Cuando empezaron a invadir nuestras vidas hace más de 50 años, con orígenes similares y en muchos casos paralelos a la IA… lástima que la memoria sea frágil, la ignorancia tan atrevida y el marketing de las grandes multinacionales tan potente. Alimentando la maquinaria paralela de los blogueros, que necesitan cada día para sus blogs novedades, noticias únicas, aunque no lo sean, y no se procuren de estudiar las cosas, su evolución, orígenes, etc…baste con copiar y traducir un artículo de una prestigiosa revista americana, y publicarlo como propio, o filtarlo por ChatGPT?.

Gracias a dios, no es el caso de los eruditos mortales, sino de los metaignorantes, que cada vez ocupan más la superficie de este maltratado planeta.

Es curioso ver cómo, año tras año, encaminados hacia la transformación digital en la educación, simuladores inmersivos, trabajo en equipo, herramientas avanzadas, mayor interactividad, realidad aumentada en tiempo real… alejándonos de libros, textos, mensajes literales, y apoyándose en el mundo gráfico e interactivo, y ahora…. we go back again?.

No tengo la bola de cristal, pero los tiempos están cambiando en una dirección, en la que necesitamos mas «Human Touch», «Etica», «Honestidad», «Sentido de Sacrificio, del esfuerzo», «Sentido Solidario» y «Educación en Valores».

Estas de acuerdo?…y Tu, que piensas?.

Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©

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Remembering my time as a student at Babson College.

One of my very best personal experiences throughout my long professional career was being a student in the International Entrepreneurship program at Babson College.

One of my very best personal experiences throughout my long professional career was being a student in the International Entrepreneurship program at Babson College.

In 1998, my past company Siemens decided to anticipate the competition, developing a joint program with Babson College to develop the Entrepreneurial spirit within the organization. Raising the talent of high potential and creating high-performance teams, capable of accelerating the transformation of a product company, into high-value-added services.

I was one of those selected for that program and thanks to that experience, allowed me to develop skills and abilities that helped me design and implement new global business areas at an international level, with a focus always on innovation.

A one-year international program, with professors from the most prestigious business schools, the participation of all managers of business centers and CEOs from different regions, in a spectacular and highly collaborative environment.

I seem to remember that this was one of the first international experiences of this type carried out by Babson College, between 1998 and 1999.

An unforgettable experience and I must thank Siemens and Babson College for that opportunity, whose principles continue to be a world reference today.

Carlos J. Ochoa ©

Las Claves para implantar las Tecnologías Inmersivas en la Educación.

Education is a system; teaching is an action; learning is a process. Terry Heick

Regulación y ética para máquinas, un desafío para los humanos
Analizamos el paradigma tecnológico al que se enfrenta el ser humano desde el punto de vista de los profesionales.

Educar, Educar y Educar…

¿Cómo vamos a formar en realidad virtual? La clave está en “educar, educar y educar”. De esta premisa parte Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández , fundador y CEO de ONE Digital Consulting y Co-Chair VRARA Metaverse on Dec 17 Education Committee, quien visitó nuestro auditorio en una de las sesiones del XR Fest.

Educar de forma transversal en nuevas tecnologías y crear documentos dirigidos a los centros educativos que aporten valor y formen al profesorado, es una tarea ardua pero necesaria. El primer paso es analizar el perfil de los profesores. En ocasiones, –comenta Ochoa– “queremos formar a gente o profesionales que son reacios o que no tienen la formación adecuada para luego impartir a los alumnos”.

Desde su organización, proponen un escrito de buenas prácticas donde reflexionan sobre la ayuda que necesitan los colegios, los docentes y los decisores para comprender la tecnología y ver el sentido de su aplicación en los métodos de enseñanza.

Marjorie NETANGE, directora de Desarrollo y Comunicación de la Escuela Superior de Música Reina Sofía, coincide en que “el docente tiene que trabajar su metodología en términos de cómo integrar la tecnología puntualmente”, pero sostiene que parte de su programa debe seguir una línea tradicional.

Según Angeles Heras Caballero, secretaria de Estado de Universidades de Ciencia, Investigación, Desarrollo e Innovación, es necesario orientar a los alumnos de universidades y posgrados hacia un futuro tecnológico. En España, ya se ha puesto en marcha la construcción de un Comité Científico de Ética, pero es imprescindible que estas normas coexistan con el resto de los actores empresariales, asociaciones e incluso, con otros Estados.

Una sesión, presentada y dirigida por Elena González de la Fuente, responsable del Espacio Fundación Telefónica.

Y con la participación de Ian Forrester, responsable del departamento de I+D de la BBC, el R&D Future Experiences, Pedro Lozano Alcolea, fundador y COO de Imascono, Marjorie NETANGE, directora de Desarrollo y Comunicación de la Escuela Superior de Música Reina SofíaCarlos J. Ochoa Fernández, fundador y CEO de ONE Digital Consulting y presidente de la Asociación VRARA Madrid y co-presidente global del Comité de VR Education de VRARA Metaverse on Dec 17, y Gonzalo Ruipérez García, CTO en EstudioFuture.

XRFEST , Fundación Telefónica Junio 2019.

Reimagining Business Performance with Industry XTR

Industry XTR, are we facing the new paradigm?

Never give up on your dreams. John Ford

It is true that Covid has been a serious blow in the advance towards Industry 4.0 in those companies in transition. Being seriously affected the processes of digital transformation, production, logistics, dependence on raw materials, etc., increased by the lockdown of a large number of organizations. Accepting that 4 key pillars of Industry 4.0 are digitization processes, including standardization, development of new skills and workforce, disruptive innovation processes and investments, it is clear that COVID has paralyzed industrial activity worldwide. And we continue to suffer from its impact today …

After participating in the first face-to-face events and conferences during the last weeks, we meet again and discuss the «state of the art» of our companies, markets and new challenges that we will face in this new scenario.

And it is true, that even today, many are not able to assimilate, that nothing is going to be as before. Although the changes do not occur at the speed that some want us to see, it is true that many activation and acceleration mechanisms have already been put in place in some organizations. Strengthening them in leadership positions and others are being left behind, hopelessly.

If we analyze some of the pillars of Industry 4.0, it is in investments, standardization, skills development and disruptive innovation where the greatest imbalances have occurred. Clearly marking a before and after among some companies, which have been able to adapt to the new situation quickly and activate very solid innovation mechanisms. While others continue to try to compose themselves and return to a pre-pandemic scenario, as a valid point of reference.

Reimagining Business Performance with Industry XTR, are we facing the new paradigm?

Perhaps it is time to take a step further, seeking «exponential acceleration» and trying to find solutions to new problems that we would never have thought before would intercept our society in this way. So, continuing with the transition to Industry 4.0 again, today, no longer makes sense.

From my perspective, today, it is absolutely necessary to rethink the industry model, without trying to return to pre-pandemic scenarios, which would be a long delay and would take us back to 2019.

Rethinking Industry 4.0, facing a new Business Performance process, accelerating the digitization processes, through the integration of disruptive technologies, with the training of new skills, incorporating new forms of more efficient and remote collaborative work, developing assessment platforms, empowerment and loyalty of high-performance teams and decentralizing networks of supply and manufacturing in several poles and suppliers, seeking value in competition in efficiency and innovation, and not only in price, not so dependent on a single country.

Anticipate foreseeable future crisis situations, minimizing the risks and impacts of technological threats, lack of talent to lead change, cybersecurity and virtual transactions, new pandemics, energy crises, climate change, shortage of raw materials and logistics. Just to list a small series of them.

Those who have the new vision of Industry XTR, will be able to lead the transformation of society to a safer and more sustainable planet.

These are some reflections, while I have my cup of coffee and listening my jazz session. Today with Kenny Burrel, enjoy.

Thoughts and ideas are always welcome. Good afternoon and good luck from the RealVerse.

Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©

Chronicles from the #RealVerse. Chapter II

Don’t run so fast Metaverse. The great trap of the Meta Boomers.

Learn from yesterday, live for today, hope for tomorrow. The important thing is not to stop questioning. Albert Einstein.

We live in an increasingly ephemeral and unequal society. Where the truth hides behind thick layers of images, headlines, screens … and where the speed of things is unreal. I do not know if this unjustified rush is accelerated by the need to flee or escape from ourselves.

So little do we like each other? Do we want to be immortal? Do we want to be other? We do not accept reality? … what is the real question to this paradigm. Maybe the is another answer to that question.

In the real world, nothing moves so fast, nor does society demand such ephemeral generosity, rather democracy, justice, equality, transparency … Searching for the ubiquity of the human being, ethics, transparency, honesty, goodness … .life, still exist … and are all around us, despite the Meta Boomers.

After more than 30 years involved in engineering, advanced technologies and working on real world projects … believe me if I tell you, I have never lived a similar time before. Where everyone is a futurist, visionary, town crier, spokesperson … without adding the slightest ounce of value to society, or to its real problems. Showing once again, that ignorance is very daring.

One of the great barriers to acceptance of advanced technologies is that they are credible, convey truthfulness, solve real problems, and the majority of society accepts and employs them for their mutual benefit.

Yesterday, without going any further, I saw a TV program about advanced robotics, the complexity of programming. The design of processes to teach robots to learn, to program tasks that are very easy for a human, but highly complex for a robot, until the final test is performed. This is a space for little fantasy and a lot of hard work. Today, robotics, 3D, AI, is taught in schools since childhood, it is understood, its contribution, benefits, risks … it is accepted and it lives with us a little more every day.

But this has required a long period of training, development, successful implementation in production processes, at home, in industry, etc … and this is not easy, nor is it free.

However, the futuristic Meta Boomers, the newcomers to this futuristic world, discovered by them of the «Edge-Science», find a context, where everything seems simple and they give free rein to the verb, without the slightest training and with a wide and generous ignorance of the fundamentals, technologies, risks and benefits that these paradises of the future hide … Oops, how scary …

It seems that, if today you do not talk about the Metaverse, you are not «cool» beings, or you simply are not and you are not even … experts in Creative, Educational, Communicative, Digital, and blablative Metaverse, who go even under the stones, even to dare to prophesy that «The Future is in the Metaverse» … Oops how scary

The news of the day, which sweeps the networks, is that Bermuda is in the Metaverse, everyone retweets, and hallucinates, without knowing the vast majority, not even where Bermuda is … in short, “breaking news”.

Barriers to entry? Here is one that spreads like weeds in a natural forest: the Meta Boomers, who are going to leave the field depleted before we wake up from our first dream.

20 years ago, I was extremely lucky to participate in the development of a virtual educational platform. It included customizable avatars, virtual tutors, virtual tours of natural landscapes, interactive games, spaces for teachers, students and parents. In short, an entire educational community based on client-server architecture with hundreds of value-added services: Edutopia. Thousands of children from hundreds of schools in Spain were online users of this platform, now obsolete and lost in the cloud. I have to honestly say that this was available to the entire educational community for free and was beyond many Goals to be drawn in the short-lived near future.

We will see how this continues in the next chapter of Chronicles from RealVerse, enjoying a cup of Colombian coffee listening to John Coltrane, by the way, something real and extraordinary.

Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©

Lead or follow the leader?. This is the question.

From the most remote origins of humanity, the need to know and discover things has been a struggle for subsistence and the development of life itself on the planet. With its evolution, scientific discoveries and technological evolution and innovation, it became a fundamental lever of human activity. But it has been from the last centuries and especially in this last decade, when this role has grown exponentially, almost in parallel with the same growth of the world population. The world’s population reached 7.7 billion in mid-2019, having added one billion people since 2007 and two billion since 1994 and with strong and accentuated tensions between rich and poor countries. In which the main viability engine up to now was development and growth, and which from now on must reconsider at a global level a new sustainability model that allows a fair redistribution of raw materials and finite wealth, to do so viable in the medium term.

Faced with this situation, the need for adaptation has always been an exceptional quality of the human being and therefore, the need to seek ways of evolution and sustainable growth necessarily goes through the impulse of research, development and innovation in search of a coherent and sustainable progress in convergent areas of knowledge and at a different time in different spaces. That is, in a global environment, although “knowledge” is accessible to everyone in almost real time, its application in different parts of the planet is affected by the variable time and this must be adapted to the reality of each space in each moment. With this, the potential benefits obtained in a certain place are not always replicable in the same way in other spaces / different territories.

To go beyond space and time in search of common patterns and homogeneous development denominators, or what is the same, geopolitical borders and time, MegaTrends are defined. Definition that comes from the world of research and that aims to redefine a framework of global trends in the evolution of society applied to all its agents (state, society and market). Or put another way, it is the knowledge and prediction of our possible future, where convergent sciences and technologies must deepen the path of sustainability.

After reviewing and reading in depth different works and documents of experts and reference organizations, everything seems to indicate that over the next few years, we are going to find an exaggerated and uncontrolled population growth, especially in countries of the so-called third world, a growth of the countries of the western world close to 2%, while in so-called emerging countries this will be higher than 7%. An aging population in developed countries with a clear inversion of the population pyramid, with all that this entails, is very considerable. If we add to this, that to guarantee this model of average growth of 5%, we have scarce natural resources to supply the planet and finite energy resources to guarantee growth and development, it is necessary to review the model urgently or this process is simply not feasible.

In any case, Megatrends have a different meaning for different agents, states, companies or individuals. The prediction or definition of potential future scenarios does not guarantee in any way that this is the true future to occur, since the development of society and its interrelationships is happening temporarily and the parameters are permanently affected by different situations that affect the total of the formula. That is, the evolution and development over time and the impact on society and its agents, is affecting day by day in the new future or immediate future that is presented to us and therefore the scenario that we draw from our knowledge in Today may not be anything like the one we will achieve tomorrow. But thanks to these models, we will have been able to adapt and theoretically, thanks to the knowledge and application of science and technological innovation, improve it.

In our particular case, we are going to consider “Megatrends” as a methodology for the future strategic and innovative development of society and, in particular, of companies. This methodology, combined with others, can help us to elaborate the development and innovation framework of our company. But this is not a guarantee of success or failure, since the way of applying these methodologies, for some visionaries, is based on the definition of scenarios in which multiple variables interact and therefore, they must be constantly reviewed and updated, to control and evaluate the interferences between all of them and see how it affects the evolution of our prediction model.

The methodology proposed here is a compendium resulting from the study of the analysis of the most prestigious consulting firms, organizations, universities and international magazines in the new technologies and innovation sector.

Imagining a global world in 2030, how we will live and develop our vital activity, we have grouped into five large blocks the Megatrends that will guide the world throughout this period and in particular, what will be their impact on society, on business and how they will affect current companies and how they must position themselves today to achieve success in the immediate future. Development opportunities in the markets, their size and main stakeholders.

Once these Megatrends have been defined, we identify possible ways of development and innovation, as well as possible actions to take into account in different scenarios. Each of these Mega Trends is broken down into trends, moving from an initial global perspective to a more local perspective and its potential geopolitical and temporal impact.

And finally, once all these possible trends have been analyzed, we identify potential actions to consider in each case, by the different agents involved in the process. Development of potential business opportunities, key and strategic businesses, as well as ways and keys for Innovation in them, identifying the value generated in a special way in the value chain of each business.

References: Fundación de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Fundación Telefónica, Fundación Acciona, European Commission, Onu, FAO, Unesco, Frost and Sullivan, e_Consultancy, TrendWatching, IDC, Gartner Group, Siemens, e_Consulting, Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies, Bertelsmann Future Challenges, MIT, IESE, Babson College Community, Harvard Business Review, LinkedIn Groups …

Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©

Chronicles from the #RealVerse. The New Age of Technology.

The world as we have created, it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking. Albert Einstein.

In just 12 months, the world has been turned upside down. And all predictive models, analyzes and future scenarios have become obsolete without being able to identify a single true and predictable answer about the immediate future.

Phrases such as transformation, adaptation to change, permanently reinventing oneself, sustainable and safe models, have become a thing of the past. All these definitions require a new mentality, attitude and mental strength far superior to what we were used to living together to face the day to day and think about a future, to some extent, stable.

And for this, we must be able to quickly change our way of thinking, acting and conceiving the world as we have done until now, or we will not be able to survive these new, unpredictable and uncertain scenarios.

Living in a permanent state of alert requires great mental strength, but above all honesty, ethics, networking and handling of truthful information in real time. In order to be able to anticipate unwanted scenarios, with some success.

And unfortunately, all this is what we are missing right now, as a society and as individuals.

It is enough to go outside and take a walk through our cities, fields, hospitals, schools, offices and homes and see how in just a few months, everything has radically changed.

While it is true that technology has invaded every corner and space of our lives. Changing our habits and ways of doing things, of working, of communicating … this change must accelerate and find a new temporary space, where we can significantly improve our quality of life. From communications, to transport, through health and health, science, energy, food, in short, each and every one of the activities that human beings develop in their day-to-day life must be reimagined in some way. way, allowing us to benefit from the efficient use of technologies.

Despite what we think, the planet earth has been inhabited in its greatest historical period by dinosaurs. And in the timeline, the human being has barely lived a hundredth part of it. The stone age lasted 200,000 years, the agricultural age 10,000 years, the industrial age 200 years and barely 60 years the era of high technology.

And it has been in this short period of time that the greatest technological developments have taken place, accompanied by the greatest industrial development on the planet, accompanied by the greatest environmental impact in known history.

The main technological drivers are all exponential, the development of broadband, the greater storage and data processing capacity, the increase in clean power generation plants, development in the world of medicine and telemedicine, have democratized access and benefit of technologies by facilitating and simplifying access and management of them to citizens.

The interrelationships that occur between major trends “Megatrends”and “Innovation” is a fertile field for scientists and developers in which new business models and opportunities must be modeled for the new society of the Post-Covid Era.

But in this new scenario, society has new expectations and demands that it is willing to lead, to guarantee a model of sustainability and well-being sponsored by this technological revolution. Transparency, honesty, veracity, ethics, environmental impact, sociability, sustainability, are some of the values ​​that emerge from the new society.

The British Alan Turin, considered by some the father of artificial intelligence, laid the foundations of what we know today as the “Information Society”, back in the 1930s and 1940s. One of the founders of modern computing, he was capable of programming everything that could be specified by an algorithm. And on the other hand, the American Claude Elwood Shannon, elaborated the bases and the essence of the communication mechanism, defining the concept of “information”, as the foundation and ability to store and transfer data. Almost seventy years later, those basic foundations and incipient beginnings of information and communication technologies have become fundamental elements of our current society and future evolution and development.

We are facing a unique opportunity, albeit in a very complex scenario. Which leads us to take on new challenges with courage, seek creative and innovative solutions, focusing primarily on those aspects that provide the greatest value and in which the capacity for green and sustainable leadership makes a difference to us to continue betting on life in the blue Planet.

Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©

#ImmersiveLearning Environments in Disruptive Advanced #Education #Ecosystems. Episode I.

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein.

Man is by nature a social animal. From birth, he absolutely needs others to develop physically and socially. Enhancing our intelligence in the face of our physical weakness. We are social creatures by nature and we need to learn how to be part of society, how to interact with groups of people, and how to work as a team. We are emotional, social, rational beings, with conscience and intentionality, will, freedom and personal identity, ethics…

“The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.” Albert Einstein.

Man is by nature a social animal. From birth, he absolutely needs others to develop physically and socially. Enhancing our intelligence in the face of our physical weakness. We are social creatures by nature and we need to learn how to be part of society, how to interact with groups of people, and how to work as a team. We are emotional, social, rational beings, with conscience and intentionality, will, freedom and personal identity, ethics…

We live in times of complete uncertainty. The world, had never faced a similar situation as we have today. Where there are too many questions in the air, still waiting for the correct answer, if there are any.

During this last months, I have got the perception that we were trying to hide ourselves into an increasingly virtualized world, behind decomposed avatars, robots or new small particles into a new virtual scenario as part of this new reality. Losing the control of our free brain activity, dominated for external unknown forces, as part of a live experiment drive by some kind of superior intelligence. But with some common feelings…the lack of affection, recognition, and human touch.

In this new world, governments face heedlessly to the new academic year, terrified of a new outbreak that will leave the system naked again, yes, let’s contribute something earthly. Let’s say things by their name, since, after several months of uncertainty, the capacity to anticipate, prepare for this new scenario has been nil and we continue to learn from the mistakes of the recent past.

There are no longer shortcuts, online paths traveled by elements devoid of the minimum preparation to face these new challenges in today’s society.

Today I lost my avatar, and I believe that there is only one possible path, towards the digital transformation in Education, from a completely disruptive and non-evolutionary approach. Since there is no time for it and these generations will not allow it.

Do we want to be remembered as responsible? Or guilty?

Episode I

Why do we want, need Immersive Learning Environments? Is it a new fad? is it a trend in education? does it really add value? is there proven evidence? Not it is not new, but what do we want it for.

  • Create immersive spaces in the image and likeness of real existing classroom spaces, but that adapt to different subjects.? Where classes are taught with immersive Caves / HDMI devices, etc.
  • Create a universal space, accessible by the entire educational community, both inside and outside the classroom, where to share experiences, activities, projects … etc.
  • Develop a learning methodology, where virtual spaces are recreated, with scenes adapted to the contexts and where students actively participate as members of the group. Customizing to your image and likeness? Future open worlds? Contributing your vision of the new virtual classroom?
  • Turn the classroom into an inspiring experience, each and every day of the year.? Are we ready for it?
  • Convert the workshops into creative, interactive and inspiring spaces, where students learn from good practices and develop their skills beyond their limitations?
  • Create multiverse spaces, where futuristic experiences are created, anticipating solutions to the world of the future? From the lessons learned from the past and through the use of new technologies? What would have become of … if we had acted …?
  • Imagine spaces that are transformed and adapted depending on the needs, the context, the problem … simulating unforeseen situations and seeing how the students react.
  • Learn from the silence, the stones, the walls, the art of the works hidden in the walls of history and understand the reason for the evolution of things, the need and the use of inventions … in contexts adapted to time.,

to be continue…

Have a nice and safe day.

Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©

#ArtificialIntelligence, #HumanIntelligence and #COVID

Another Brik on the Wall

I have a question. Does anyone have a reasonable answer about that? Today’s COVID data is terrifying: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/

Hospitals are saturated, professionals are exhausted, the economy collapses, staff morale is on the ground, radical movements are accentuated and mobilize more and more people in unpredictable directions, world leaders are fooled by the pharmaceutical multinationals afterwards to invest millions of euros in the development of vaccines… and all this surrounded by a lack of leadership and incompetence never imagined.

This is not the script of a science fiction or futuristic movie. It is the summary of the real news of today. On the other hand, they tell us, comment, know, that technologies such as AI can help in some way. Artificial Intelligence is a Computer Science Branch that aims at developing intelligent machines that carry out a broad variety of tasks, typically involving human intelligence and expertise. These smart machines are based on experience and historical information, assessing their environment, and conducting appropriate activities.…

So, the question is, as in all this crazy process, we are not capable of applying AI technologies in a way that helps you solve these very serious problems and situations. To design a global health policy, a plan for the sustainability of the planet, a sustainable economic policy… etc. Or it is simply used for the partial benefit of economic interests that do not benefit society as a whole at all. Yes, it seems like an ignorant question,

I know… and I do confess that every day I feel myself more ignorant, because of so much chatter, unable to provide tangible solutions for the benefit of society. Every day we found more digital barriers, more social barriers, more cultural barriers…or it is just another Brik on the Wall?

Have a nice and safe day.

Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©

The History Behind the Picture

At the end of the 60s, a small group of young people from Madrid, decided to start entrepreneurial careers in the energy sector. And they planned to go to Germany, the benchmark of heavy industry at that time. A trip to the unknown world for them. An unknown country, an unknown language, an unknown culture,… quite a challenge for that group of people, moved by their concerns, intuition and entrepreneurial inspiration.

Four friends, from very humble families, and with no other financial capacity than the result of their work and personal savings effort, in a small car with their suitcases full of dreams. On the way back, they set up one of the first black heat radiator companies in Spain. Later they created a new industrial facility…and so on. Finally, with a lot of work, effort, and sacrifice, they turned their dreams into reality.

One of those entrepreneurs was my father, from whom I inherited the effort, work, and dedication to developing ideas.

Sometimes, overwhelmed by the artificial speed to which we are subjected, we forget who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. Thanks to your effort and energy, today I can be proud to share this little story in your tribute, recognition, and gratitude to «a good man», my father.

Years later, I started my professional career at Siemens, remembering the first tracks from my father…

In a world where practically everything is trivialized, where irrelevance is rewarded, fake news is the order of the day, our identity is usurped by digital vultures disguised as virtual fairies, many young people pretend to become millionaires by influencing to millions of followers with the most outlandish stupidities, it takes a bit of good sense, to value the things that really have it and to jump a step or two to get out of this crushing mediocrity, to which some ignorantly enlightened visionaries try to lead us.

The picture illustrates the short story related to effort, work, sacrifice and vision of the future, since it is the only toy that I keep on my shelf, and it was his gift from that trip to Germany.

The machine needs to be powered every single day as if it were the last day you are going to go out on the winding and complex paths of life.

Have a nice and safe day.

Carlos J. Ochoa Fernández ©