Thursday, June 4, 2020

western prairie fringed orchid: BERKELEY, and there's a nonviolent Black Lives Matter protest * * * Learning 'machine learning' with Lego robotics with "Special WeDo2 Scratch BOXER" Lego kit, "... Lego Robot Competition '99," into "Google Research Football" eventually? * * * "Dear World University and School prospective students, We are delighted to let you know that WUaS will be matriculating students this autumn in August and September



Hello Ed, Came off ridge to get out of heat: 96 F the car said, 89F the smartphone said (and was probably 95F inside where I live). Found my way to BERKELEY, and there's a nonviolent Black Lives Matter protest on MLK and Bancroft near Berkeley High, your kids' alma mater (Amelia's at least so far). People with signs are on both sides of the road, that I saw. Putting on my bandana mask, and may head out to join ... see you there? Have just seen 5 cop cars drive by at corner of Allston & McKinley. How are you? EdX for courses at WUaS is looking promising this autumn! :)


Lots of Black Lives Matter signs, no speeches, no bullhorns or megaphones (e.g. https://twitter.com/jazmine_latrice/status/1269613158597099523?s=20), cars are honking as they pass in solidarity, most demonstrators are wearing novel coronavirus masks, about 73F, possibly 50-150 protesters, many kids - with signs


But Telegraph Ave near campus (UC Berkeley) had absolutely no one on it, and no tie die tables, bong and pipe vendors (despite cannabis being more legal than ever, at the state level), or artists displaying their creations for sale.




* * *

Special WeDo2 Scratch BOXER 


Lego Robot Competition '99 


Google Research Football 


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Brian, Alexandra, Leanna, 

You can see the beginnings of learning 'machine learning' with Lego robotics here (WeDo 2.0 and with a 1999 competition) in this blog entry - 
http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/02/flying-and-gliding-animals-this-is-next.html - and potentially with Google Research Football machine learning. 

See you soon, 
Scott

Home ONLINE #LegoRobotics in #RealisticVirtualHarbin w #ScratchProgramming & #MachineLearning HOW? Special WeDo2 Scratch BOXER https://youtu.be/HjD1zAWToYU
MIT Lego Robot Competition '99 https://youtu.be/SXH-bBw3uxg
Google Research Football https://youtu.be/F8DcgFDT9sc https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Machine_Learning… -

https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch/status/1223721119191977984?s=20

ONLINE Lego Robotics' Tournaments from HOME at WUaS (with Scratch programming language?) HOW? Special WeDo 2.0 + Scratch Project BOXER
https://youtu.be/HjD1zAWToYU? #ActualVirtual #PhysicalDigital #RealisticVirtualEarthForRobotics #RealisticVirtualEarthForLego https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Robotics ~

https://twitter.com/sgkmacleod/status/1222625242515771392?s=20



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Wonderful and thank you, Leanna and All, 

I learned some new Lego language. 

A realistic virtual earth for Lego ... from Lego Duplo bricks - and the creative computing projects you shared - to Lego machine learning with the WeDo 2.0 special Lego Robotics' kit (maybe with 2 smart hubs, etc) and in Google Research Football etc. - http://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/02/flying-and-gliding-animals-this-is-next.html  - are a lot of virtual world dots to connect, but would open up vast learning horizons (in so many countries and languages even, and re World Univ & Sch).

Am interested in building a best STEM Cc-4 OCW-centric WUaS curriculum for Lego Robotics for WUaS College level Engineering majors, potentially taking courses on the edX platform in addition to the one best STEM Cc-4 OCW Lego resource - https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/experimental-study-group/es-293-lego-robotics-spring-2007/- as well as curriculum for something like IB high school science majors. Please keep your ears open if you learn of people creating this. (Am reading Karen Brennan's Twitter feed - https://twitter.com/karen_brennan - and re Creative Computing with Scratch programming in these regards, but am not seeing much about Lego Robotics with Scratch out of the Harvard Graduate School of Education, which is a direction WUaS is heading in for major online universities in all ~200 countries' official languages! ). Thank you!

I appreciated your coding progression slide - about the 6th to last - in these regards too. Very nice to meet you too, Alex, Brian and Leanna!

Best regards, Scott



Again, brainstorming-wise -

Home ONLINE #LegoRobotics in #RealisticVirtualHarbin w #ScratchProgramming & #MachineLearning HOW? Special WeDo2 Scratch BOXER https://youtu.be/HjD1zAWToYU
MIT Lego Robot Competition '99 https://youtu.be/SXH-bBw3uxg
Google Research Football https://youtu.be/F8DcgFDT9sc https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Machine_Learning… -

https://twitter.com/WorldUnivAndSch/status/1223721119191977984?s=20

ONLINE Lego Robotics' Tournaments from HOME at WUaS (with Scratch programming language?) HOW? Special WeDo 2.0 + Scratch Project BOXER
https://youtu.be/HjD1zAWToYU? #ActualVirtual #PhysicalDigital #RealisticVirtualEarthForRobotics #RealisticVirtualEarthForLego https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/Robotics~
https://twitter.com/sgkmacleod/status/1222625242515771392?s=20






* * *


Here's a draft letter to our current prospective undergraduate students, for this autumn: 

"Dear World University and School prospective students, 

World University and School is delighted to let you know that WUaS will be matriculating students this autumn in August and September. Students will be taking edX courses, many derived from CC-4 MIT OpenCourseWare courses, and offering these 6 majors: 1) EECS, 2) General Engineering, 3) General Science, 4) English, 5) History, 6) Business.

Please stay tuned for the next steps in how you can enroll, and the courses that you can choose from in your first year of studies at WUaS, which you will access from here - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/. Thank you for your interest in studying at World University and School for a 4 year free-to-students' Bachelor degree. 

Sincerely yours, Scott GK MacLeod
President, Founder and Professor
World University and School" 




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Dear Larry,

Looks like Sanjay's email was about both linking edX courses, and licensing/ endorsement clarifications.

1
Thinking in terms of Shahbaz Sanjer in India, one clarifying question for MIT legal:
Can WUaS add all edX courses, in English lit, for ex., to the WUaS course catalog?

I think Sanjay said we can here.

2
In that edX is creating a MicroBachelors and MicroMasters degrees - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroMasters (and edX here is listed as owner, with Anant and Sanjay as key people) - and since our BPPE workshops are cancelled, could edX/WUaS somehow create a NEW 'MacroBachelor' or 'MajorBachelor' degree with edX name credibility? A 'MacroPhD,' 'MajorPhD' too (and skip BPPE & WASC)?

3
Reimbursement from countries' Depts of Education, non-student sources via edX - pegged on MIT tuition level?

4
Am glad WUaS may be getting in communication with MIT legal (rather than edX legal), since this could open avenues to other questions regarding WUaS matriculating students each a Wikidata PIN # in 300 languages (7117 living languages too regarding WUaS wiki schools too?, & 7.5 billion people re UBI experiments too?), transcripts, - and re questions of money transfer mechanism.
This would be a very edX-centric set of developments for WUaS, - and I hope that the MIT LEGAL licensing clarifications re above would include questions of remuneration for WUaS.
Am hoping Shahbaz can enroll in the autumn, as example. Quality of WUaS degrees will inform reimbursement from countries' questions. Glad too that Sanjay is beginning to think in terms too of WUaS (and that Rafael Reif has his PhD from Stanford too, like Anant).




* *


Scott MacLeod sgkmacleod@worlduniversityandschool.org

Tue, Jun 2, 9:50 AM (2 days ago)
to GovindKyletitoJuanJayniYuping-CASPALarry
Dear Larry, and Jayni, and Board of Directors,

Re my email to Varun Shukla in India just now, am wondering about the value, with time, of having our WUaS applicants take a standardized exam online like the CLT - https://www.insidehighered.com/admissions/article/2019/10/21/classic-learning-test-aims-challenge-sat ... which currently costs around US $54, probably out of the range of Varun, and many high achieving students from the developing world seeking a better future for themselves. So would WUaS cover the cost of this? To be seen. What do you think?  

In further communication with the MIT Professor and VP in the Office of Digital Learning, Sanjay Sarma, who's uncle or similar is a politician in India I think, am wondering too about reimbursement from Departments of Education in all ~200 countries. Thoughts, questions, ideas, suggestions?

FYI, here's where World Univ & Sch stands with licensing currently: 

World Univ & Sch continues to seek to observe the best STEM Cc-4 OCW,  and the edX, licensing terms (and per our communication with OCW director Cecilia d'Oliveira previously, that WUaS may 1) share, 2) adapt, 3) but non-commercially the best STEM Cc-4 OCW (now in 4 languages), - and see the further licensing clarifications here per her: http://worlduniversityandschool.org/) - 

Best STEM Cc-4 OCW Creative Commons' licensing and endorsement clarifications:
a) MIT is not affiliated with, and does not endorse, World University and School b) MIT does not offer credit to WUaS students, and c) All MIT OpenCourseWare materials are available for free through http://ocw.mit.edu )
And see too correspondence with MIT's Sanjay Sarma - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/05/cosmos-bipinnatus-heard-back-from-mit.html - 

And as WUaS prepares for a possible autumn collaboration with edX, WUaS has listed about 75 CC-4 best STEM CC-4 OCW courses, ~14 edX courses, and about 19 CC-3 Yale OYC courses in our course catalog (but wouldn't yet have access to edX MITx courses from  best STEM CC-4 OCW grades, for example) - https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1VRHhXYsk-V9lvSh5onaU2hnEhwoapSN7HyBK1P09LIk/edit?usp=sharing (http://worlduniversityandschool.org/).

WUaS is currently waiting to hear back from MIT Legal per Sanjay with regard to further exploratory steps re linking, licensing and much more. 

Sincerely, Scott


Email today to Varun Shukla near Mumbai, India: 

Thank you for your mail. And greetings! Is this your Twitter URL - https://twitter.com/varunss2211? And what languages do you speak?  best STEM CC-4 OCW-centric wiki World University & School admission's process is in progress. At this stage, World Univ & Sch will likely offer only 4-year Bachelor degree programs, with these 6 majors - 1) EECS, 2) General Science, 3) General Engineering, 4) English, 5) History, 6) Business - see: http://worlduniversityandschool.org/ -  but since you already have a Ph.D., why might you be interested in a Bachelor degree? And what major might you apply for?

WUaS will likely have space in our Business major for a free-to-students'  best STEM CC-4 OCW-centric Bachelor's degree, providing WUaS could move forward together with edX and regarding the edX platform (which is something WUaS is in communication with edX about). The enrollment process would then be similar to edX's, but stay tuned since WUaS may seek essays, language proficiency, letters of recommendation, & test scores (possibly the CLT - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_Learning_Test), etc. - as if someone from India were applying to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) itself on-the-ground in Cambridge, Massachusetts. While World Univ & Sch seeks to begin to offer our online Bachelor's degree classes in collaboration with edX this autumn 2020, the WUaS Ph.D. degrees would begin the following autumn 2021 at the earliest. Applying would probably occur through - http://worlduniversityandschool.org/ - and I will add you to WUaS's monthly business meetings' emailings. Thank you again for your interest in  best STEM CC-4 OCW-centric wiki World Univ & Sch.

Sincerely, Scott
Scott GK MacLeod
Founder, President  & Professor

PS 
What does D.B.S. stand for? 


*

Dear Larry, Govind, Kyle, Jayni, Tito, Yuping, Juan, WUaS Board, 

Varun Shukla in India has written again with an interest in matriculating at World Univ & Sch this autumn in the General Science major. Our recent correspondence is below. 

It's great that WUaS has a prospective student who is interested in our proposed General Science degree, potentially beginning this autumn. Am wondering how the WUaS Admissions' process will grow over the years' ahead. Am wondering too about WUaS seeking a variety of Department of Educations in India for reimbursement, for example; in what ways might WUaS engage MIT Professors, Sanjay Sarma, the VP in the Office of Digital Learning, or Anant Agarwal, edX's CEO in these regards? 

As you'll see in this recent blog post, best STEM CC-4 OCW doesn't have a "Science" page upon searching, but it does have a page for our other 5 majors - https://scott-macleod.blogspot.com/2020/05/starfish-fromia-monilis-cc-4-mit-ocw.html - and WUaS has alos posted only one edX from MITx from  best STEM CC-4 OCW Science courses so far. 

All the best, 
Scott




*
Dear Sir,

I have done Ph.D. in Religion & Doctor of Biblical Studies (D.B.S.) both from ULC, Modesto, California (unaccredited).

Yes @varunss2211 is my twitter.

I would like to take major in General Science

My mother tongue is Gujarati. I also speak English, Hindi, Marathi and Bengali.



Yours,

Dr. Varun Shukla

Navi Mumbai,
India


Thank you for your response. Stay tuned as World Univ & Sch develops its admissions' process, as well as our collaborations with edX. WUaS is seeking to offer courses like this over 4 years - Introduction to Biology - The Secret of Life: 
 https://www.edx.org/course/introduction-to-biology-the-secret-of-life-3 - for World Univ & Sch credit, as we seek to develop online free-to-students' Bachelor degrees, and also to seek reimbursement from nation states, countries, counties, and states' Departments of Education. 

Thank you, 
Scott



*
Dear Larry, Govind, Kyle, Jayni, Tito, Yuping, Juan, WUaS Board, 

By the way, Varun Shukla in India writes he's completed both a high school degree and an online, it appears, "Ph.D. in Religion & Doctor of Biblical Studies (D.B.S.) both from ULC, Modesto, California (unaccredited)" - from Universal Life Church and costing $59 - see: https://store.ulc.net/mobile/Product.aspx?ProductCode=doctor-of-biblical-studies AND https://www.degreeinfo.com/index.php?threads/ulc-scamage.39628/ - so I can understand perhaps now why he is interested in the WUaS free-to-students' 'accrediting'  best STEM CC-4 OCW-centric Bachelor's degree. He could conceivably even afford the CLT exam from India. 

The first step of licensing and accreditation for WUaS may be to go through the CA BPPE's "Application for Approval to Operate for an Institution Non Accredited" - https://www.bppe.ca.gov/forms_pubs/approval_nonaccredited.pdf" but I've read that the related BPPE workshops are cancelled. 

So, in terms of WUaS's licensing (CA's BPPE) which is the first step in then concurrently accrediting (probably with WASC), all of the CA BPPE workshops have been cancelled through the end of 2020 (probably due to the coronavirus pandemic) - https://www.bppe.ca.gov/schools/application_workshops.shtml - this makes it difficult for WUaS to begin to offer online Bachelor (or Ph.D.) degrees that will then become accredited (as WUaS becomes accredited). (Also WUaS doesn't have the BPPE fee money to begin this process anyway). 

So I'm wondering if state of California licensing / accreditation ONLINE is the right direction to head in at this stage - since online licensing / accreditation may be impossible at this stage. And could WUaS collaborate with edX to create potentially our own forms of accreditation, per recent correspondence with Larry: "in that edX is creating a MicroBachelors and MicroMasters degrees - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/MicroMasters (and edX here is listed as owner, with Anant and Sanjay as key people) - and since our BPPE workshops are cancelled, could edX/WUaS somehow create a NEW 'MacroBachelor' or 'MajorBachelor' degree with edX name credibility? A 'MacroPhD,' 'MajorPhD' too (and skip BPPE & WASC)?

In a related vein: am curious if WUaS could eventually request  best STEM CC-4 OCW courses to be translated into MITx / edX courses. Here's an Anthropology course taught by MIT Professors Heather Paxson (Quaker, I think), and Graham Jones (who's a Reedie - a Reed College Alum), as an example - https://ocw.mit.edu/courses/anthropology/21a-157-the-meaning-of-life-spring-2019/ . And do you know this Monty Python version of 



Monty Python's The Meaning of Life | The Miracle of Birth
https://youtu.be/_YruT2ROEUc :)

Thoughts, comments, ideas, suggestions? 

All the best, Scott



*
Browser was shutting down as I was writing the last email, and with a familiar error message was popping up just before the Safari browser shut down - the 3-repeat message happens and then Safari closes - and then the 3-repeat message but Safari didn't close ... is this a Google Apple process? 

So BPPE may have had its highs and lows in recent decades, and may also be saying with 'non-accredited' licensing to end users, like people in India, PERHAPS to BEWARE. Shall WUaS seek edX 'accreditation' or its own creation, or seek BPPE licensing / WASC senior accreditation for both Bachelor and Ph.D.s (per BPPE, and first in English) - if WUaS had the $5,000 for BPPE and the $10,000 eligibility fee, and then the $1,000 per year per student I think - and then the $10,000 or so to become accredited - with accreditation happening only AFTER we graduate our first undergraduate Bachelor's degree class (but with provisional accreditation in the interim). What  do you think? And what would be best for our students, and seeking reimbursement from Departments of Education in all ~200 countries (and if we were collaborating with edX as well)? And what about 'the other America' and the non-rich 'developing world'? I'd think if we could guarantee quality of degrees, and make these relevant for India and other countries in the developing world, their Departments of Education might appreciate less of an outlay for WUaS degrees (re accreditation) ... even as WUaS seeks to peg reimbursement on MIT's tuition for studying from home degrees. 

I've also renewed WUaS's Grants.gov password over the weekend for about the 10th or 15th time, - every 6 weeks (WUaS didn't get a $250,000 grant through Grants.gov a few years ago) - and just received today Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi's Grants' Newsletter, a few days late after the beginning of the month, which lays out grant opportunities. Would a granting agency fund WUaS NEWLY to license with BPPE and then seek accreditation with WASC senior? (Can't also attend the BPPE workshops if they are closed through year's end). Would a granting agency award WUaS monies to hire graduate student instructors from MIT and Harvard and Stanford, without WASC senior or similar accreditation? 

Where might the CLT play a role in WUaS seeking and finding high achieving students from around the world - https://www.cltexam.com/home ? Princeton's Robert George on this page went to Quaker schools too I think. I've met him at Stanford as well. I don't think accepting the CLT exam would cost WUaS anything.  

Thoughts, ideas, questions, comments? I think a WUaS US degree would have much more value if WUaS was accredited - opening avenues to many careers otherwise inaccessible. 

Cheers, 
Scott




*
Dear WUaS Board, 

Each person in the world, all 7.5 billion people, a WUaS Wikidata PIN# (nee Wikidata Q-item #), beginning with matriculating WUaS students in all ~200 countries' official languages, and then speakers of all 7,117 known living languages as wiki teachers and learners at WUaS - since WUaS donated ourselves to Wikidata for co-development, and got the front end WUaS Miraheze MediaWiki in 2017 as a consequence? For ex. - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/You_at_World_University .

Just asked these questions, as I registered for this Stanford Law SVDX webinar on Tu June 9, 2020 at 10 am PT - https://www.svdx.org/calendar/2020/6/9/esg-resiliency-in-a-time-of-turmoil-webinar
"Brainstorming-wise, what role could UBI experiments in all ~200 countries and their main languages, in order to distribute a single cryptocurrency (with block chain ledger), facilitate further ESG goals, (and even conceptually regarding all 7.5 billion people, re universal, to alleviate poverty)? What if a hypothetical "Mine Pi" (coded by Stanford students), or a "Bitcoin" could even be listed, by a company with its Board, on the emerging Silicon Valley long term stock exchange (which has passed one SEC hurdle, I've read) - and, for example, to address the 40 million unemployment claims in the US due to the novel coronavirus pandemic? Thank you, Scott (sgkmacleod@worlduniversityandschool.org)"

... and somehow backed by some number of ~200 countries' central banks (post Euro in 19 out of 28 countries, and post dollar as de facto international currency)? This could be because WUaS Law Schools in all ~200 countries' official languages code for this, and our WUaS Law Faculty teach this too - https://wiki.worlduniversityandschool.org/wiki/World_University_Law_School

I think the Stanford Law SVDX webinar is open - and its focus is Board Members actually. All of the above would be in the WUaS Corp legal entity in all likelihood. 

Still waiting to hear back about edX licensing and similar from Sanjay Sarma, MIT Professor and VP in the Office of Digital Learning, and re MIT Legal, which he said he would brief regarding best STEM CC-4 OCW-centric World Univ & Sch, and they - MIT Legal - would get back to WUaS. 

Sincerely, Scott









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