Technology

New York City Public Schools’ decision to prohibit generative AI for students through eighth grade is understandable. I even agree with much of the reasoning behind it. Students need to think. They need to write, struggle with difficult ideas, wrestle with uncertainty, develop relationships, create things themselves, and learn how to solve problems without immediately handing the work to a machine. But, banning AI is an overcorrection. The challenge facing schools is no longer whether young people will encounter artificial intelligence. They already have, and AI will increasingly be embedded in the tools, workplaces, universities, and institutions they enter. Our responsibility is to teach them how to live and think in that world without surrendering their own capabilities...

HAMPTON ROADS, Va. — Artificial intelligence is often associated with automation, productivity, and efficiency. But a new international project involving a Hampton Roads technology leader is demonstrating how AI can also be used to expand access to information, safety, and support for underserved women and communities. Gerry White, Dean of Academic Technology at ECPI University and Human-Centered AI Lead for the Hampton Roads Chapter of the AI Collective, is collaborating with partners in Belém, Brazil, to develop MariasBot, a secure AI-powered platform designed to provide women experiencing abuse, violence, or crisis with confidential access to information, safety planning, and local support services. The initiative is focused on addressing one of the greatest challenges facing many...

by Ryan McCreadie The global COVID-19 pandemic took the world by storm, and many people and businesses became casualties of this unrelenting virus. Regions of the country such as Virginia Beach that typically have thriving tourism saw their numbers drastically lower this year. Like most beach cities, Virginia Beach depends upon tourism as its primary revenue driver. Like their sister cities, they felt the pressure this past summer as popular tourist attractions remained at minimal capacity or closed entirely.  The suddenness forced city representatives to reevaluate and rethink the region’s future economic stability as a top priority. Over the past ten months, as the area was ground to a halt, the city of Virginia Beach, Mayor Bobby Dyer, and his team have been meeting with vend...

By Gerry White Our society is moving faster than ever, and at the rate technology is advancing, it looks like it will only continue to speed up. With artificial intelligence now at everyone's fingertips, we should prepare to move and grow with society as it changes. To do so, there are new skills to cultivate which allow us to set the pace, or at least keep up. So, as we delve into this world of artificial intelligence (AI), we discover various facets of AI that contribute to our use of these sophisticated systems. One such integral component is "prompt engineering". It is a method used to communicate effectively with AI, especially large language models like the GPT series from OpenAI. It involves crafting specific instructions, or prompts, to guide AI responses in a des...

Classroom of the Future is here at ECPI University ECPI Introduces Most Advanced Virtual Reality Teaching Tools Available The future is now! Most certainly, it’s an old cliché, but it takes on fresh meaning when viewed through the eyes of students at ECPI University. Always seeking to embrace the latest in teaching technology, ECPI is once again proving that it’s a leader in higher education. Earlier this year, ECPI University began phasing in new technologies which are part of its initiative, Classroom of the Future. Within its Colleges of Nursing and Health Science, it introduced the Anatomage Table, the world’s first virtual dissection table, the most technologically advanced 3D anatomy visualization systems for anatomy and physiology education. The Anatomage Table is the on...