A Mission teacher wants to create a series of tutorial videos to teach people about machine learning, that is, if he can get his idea off the ground and running.
Jeremy Ellis is a teacher at Mission Secondary School and he thinks machine learning is a valuable tool for almost everyone.
But what is machine learning?
Some websites define it as “a field of computer science that gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed,” but Ellis has a simpler example.
“Machine learning is what Google uses to figure out what ads to give you when your Google searching. So, it kind of knows a little bit of your history and extrapolates to something you might be interested in .”
“It’s machines having individual skills which computer programs never used to have,” he added.
He said each machine could be taught to do something better than a human.
Using the example of a farmer, Ellis said a machine learning program could be created to help run a farm more efficiently.
“It would be like having an old, experienced farmer in your back pocket.
Ellis said Google has recently released a version of machine learning that works in Java Script. He believes this to be a real opportunity.
“With my 20-plus years of teaching computer programming, I know it {learning machine learning using Java Script} can be done easier.”
He is looking for support to get his tutorial project going.
He realizes that online tutorials can be boring so, he created a humourous “little video” to try and gather support and to give people the sense that he wants to have fun with the learning process.
Ellis hopes that after watching the yet-to-be-made tutorials, people “would be able to get some code working and do some of this machine learning.”
While he would like to eventually teach his students, right now this is a personal project and is not affiliated with the school.
“Creating a series of fun lectures on Youtube that teach the basics of machine learning, that’s the end goal.”
Ellis has created a kickstarter fundraising page in an effort to raise funds for the tutorials.
To see his light-hearted introductory video, click here.