This free ALISON online Diploma in Basic English for Business and Tourism course is ideal for business, tourism and hospitality students who wish to advance to an intermediate level of English with a focus on the travel and hospitality industries. Business English language skills are in great demand around the world as more and more […]
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http://ift.tt/eA8V8JIn the face of an increasing average student-loan debt and 44 percent for graduates ages 22 to 27 taking jobs that don’t require bachelor’s degrees, it is tempting to question the worth of college education. But rather than throwing out degrees altogether, it is really time to reassess how both education providers and students perceive and participate higher education. Jeff […]
Read more about Big Idea 2015: Let’s Rethink the Bachelor’s Degree on Masters and PhDs.
IRISHMAN Mike Feerick likes to stir things up, writes Andrew Trounson in The Australian. He was running the world’s first massive open online courses before the MOOC acronym was born. And, unlike most MOOCs, his free online education site ALISON is making money. But an even bigger disruptive force is on the way. Feerick calls […]
Read more about Crowd Sourced Accreditation to shake up the staid world of traditional education says ALISON CEO on Online And Distance Learning.
http://ift.tt/eA8V8JRyan Lawler, Senior Editor for TechCrunch: Thanks to pretty incredible traction in an industry that historically has been loathe to adopt technology, Clever has raised a new, $30 million round of financing just one year after its last round. The funding is being led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and includes participation from existing investor Sequoia Capital, as […]
Read more about Clever Gets $30 Million From Lightspeed To Become The Login Layer For Education Apps on Masters and PhDs.
A study following teens who had summer jobs found violent crime in that population almost cut in half, during and following the employment. Cynthia Graber reports for Scientific American: Violence is more than a criminal problem. It’s also a public health issue. More than 6,000 people are injured annually due to violence, mostly young people […]
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Sameer Bhatia, founder and CEO of ProProfs: The biggest obstacle to education in Africa is access. According to UNESCO, nearly one-quarter of children in Sub-Saharan Africa have never been to school or dropped out early. Part of the reason for the large number of uneducated children is the huge shortage of teachers. Of the 1.7 […]
Read more about There are still awesome, transformative prospects for technology in African education on Online And Distance Learning.
http://ift.tt/eA8V8JFirst came MOOCs — Massive Open Online Courses — and now universities are experimenting with SPOCs, or small private online classes, better known as “hybrid” or “blended learning,” in place of larger, less personal class structures. The courses offer MOOC-style video lectures along with other online features like course materials in an actual college class. Students […]
Read more about SPOCs, Small Private Online Classes, Tweak MOOCs on Online And Distance Learning.
According to recent data from IDC, Google shipped 715,000 Chromebooks to schools in the third quarter. Meanwhile, Apple shipped 702,000 iPads to schools in the same time frame. Chromebooks now account for one quarter of the entire educational market. Laptops running Chrome OS have gone from zero to a quarter of the market in only […]
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An annual report by The Open University said the current key challenge for education specialists is to engage thousands of learners in productive discussions while learning in a collaborative, online environment. The report, Innovating Pedagogy 2014, is the third annual report concerning technological trends that could revolutionize education. It suggests that the next step in the world […]
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Brendan O’Malley, University World News: Universities risk becoming irrelevant and irresponsible if they don’t equip staff to deal with the digital age, said Martin Bean, vice-chancellor of the Open University, in the 2014 Sir John Cass’s Foundation Lecture at the Cass Business School in London. Bean said he wanted to focus his 5 November lecture […]
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In this article, Jonathan Zimmerman, Professor of Education and History at the Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development at NYU, reviewes three books on American teaching: The Teacher Wars: A History of America’s Most Embattled Profession by Dana Goldstein; Building a Better Teacher: How Teaching Works (and How to Teach It to Everyone) by Elizabeth […]
Read more about Why Is American Teaching So Bad? by Jonathan Zimmerman | The New York Review of Books on Masters and PhDs.
theguardian.com - It's hard to know where to start with Ray Kurzweil. With the fact that he takes 150 pills a day and is intravenously injected on a weekly basis with a dizzying list of vitamins, dietary supplements, and substances that sound about as scientifically effective as face cream: coenzyme Q10, phosphatidycholine, glutathione? With the fact that he believes that he has a good chance of living for ever? He just has to stay alive "long enough" to be around for when the great life-extending technologies kick in (he's 66 and he believes that "some of the baby-boomers will make it through").
medicalxpress.com - (HealthDay)—Telemedicine offers a potential solution to the increased demand for physician-patient interaction, according to a report from a recent forum. The forum was hosted by the Robert Graham Center for Policy Studies in Family Medicine and Primary Care, and the results of the discussion were published by the American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP). Noting that implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act is leading to increased demand for physician-patient interaction, forum panelists highlighted the potential of telemedicine as a solution.
online.wsj.com - Fitbit, a maker of wristbands that track physical fitness, says it is "helping people lead healthier, more active lives." But complaints continue to mount from users who say Fitbit's newest product, the Force band, is causing blisters, rashes and itchy dry patches on their wrists. User forums on Fitbit.com, the website of the San Francisco company that also makes other wearable devices, include hundreds of comments about skin problems from wearers of the $129 Force.
businessinsider.com - It's been four long years since Apple released the original iPad. Investors, and consumers, are getting restless. They want a new category-defining product from the company that reinvented the MP3 player with the iPod, the mobile phone with the iPhone, and the personal computer with the iPad. So, what's it going to be? All signs point to Apple tackling the watch for its next major piece of brand new hardware.
gizmag.com - Imagine if it were possible to send tiny machines into living cells, where they could deliver medication, perform ultra-micro surgery, or even destroy the cell if needed. Well, we've recently come a little closer to being able to do so. Scientists at Pennsylvania State University have successfully inserted "nanomotors" into human cells, then remotely controlled those motors within the cells. The nanomotors are described as "rocket-shaped metal particles," and they're propelled by externally-delivered ultrasonic waves.
mobihealthnews.com - A new patient-facing educational app for stroke patients is due to start proof-of-concept testing in hospitals next month. Hermosa Beach, California-based personalRN is developing StrokeApp, a context-dependent app that will anticipate the particular questions stroke patients have based on their demographics, the kind of stroke they’re suffering from, and whether they’re receiving care in the emergency room, the intensive care unit, or inpatient rehab.
abc.net.au - Updated February 08, 2014 01:19:34 Western Australia's Department of Water has told a state parliamentary inquiry it has no veto over fracking for natural gas below proclaimed groundwater areas such as rivers. But it says it would advise authorities against the approval of shale gas fracking underneath a major water source. The Water Department made the admission on the first day of the inquiry in the implications of hydraulic fracking, the fracturing of hard rock to release natural gas.
medicalxpress.com - Declines in the underlying brain skills needed to think, remember and learn are normal in aging. In fact, this cognitive decline is a fact of life for most older Americans. Therapies to improve the cognitive health of older adults are critically important for lessening declines in mental performance as people age. While physical activity and cognitive training are among the efforts aimed at preventing or delaying cognitive decline, dietary modifications and supplements have recently generated considerable interest.
edutopia.org - International educator Scot Hoffman is a big believer in the power of curiosity to drive learning. After nearly two decades of teaching around the globe, he also realizes that school isn't always so hospitable to inquiring minds. (As Einstein said, "It's a miracle that curiosity survives formal education.") That's why Hoffman has developed The Curiosity Project, a self-directed learning experience that engages students, parents, and teachers as collaborators in inquiry.
theguardian.com - Dean D'Souza, PhD in cognitive neuroscience
Securing employment is becoming increasingly difficult. But there are at least two routes to a postdoctoral research career. The first is to develop a research proposal and then seek funding for it. The advantage of this option is that you can seek answers to questions that you thought about during your PhD training but never had the time to pursue. The second route is to apply for an advertised job and work on someone else's project. The advantage of this is that you will learn different perspectives, methodologies and techniques. So I find myself at a junction, with an important choice to make. Do I take the blue pill and extend my research? Or do I take the red pill and find out how deep the rabbit hole goes?
theguardian.com - 'British higher education sector is in crisis mode and those chosen to oversee this crisis are recruited from the private sector.' Photograph: Alice Bell As an early-career lecturer in a post-1992 university, I often feel like a rare bird in an ornate cage struggling to maintain its dignity in a discount superstore filled with pets. This bird knows it could have been a proud representative of a noble lineage and chirrups dolefully as it ruffles its plumes, but the song is drowned out by the bustling sale of cheap, plastic imitation bird-objects around it.
scientificamerican.com - Bacterial 'superbugs' are getting ever more potent. Tuberculosis (TB) strains in Russia carry mutations that not only make them resistant to antibiotics but also help them to spread more effectively, according to an analysis of 1,000 genomes from different TB isolates — one of the largest whole-genome study of a single bacterial species so far. TB, which is caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium tuberculosis , exploded in Russia and other former Soviet nations in the early 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and its health system.
theguardian.com - The software scans communications for acronyms such as ‘gnoc’ and ‘dirl’ as well as conventional vocabulary used in bullying. Photograph: redsnapper/Alamy More than a thousand British schools are monitoring pupils' online communication for bullying and self-harm using software that analyses and translates slang for teachers. The software uses a constantly updated dictionary which includes words that most adults would not understand.
timeshighereducation.co.uk - Most major research universities view their international standing as a vital part of their strategic plans. With powerful global networks universities can find the best academic talent, attract the brightest students and produce collaborative, innovative research that exploits the resources of multiple institutions and tackles matters of global concern. Times Higher Education has compiled a list of the top 25 most international universities using the “international outlook” indicator from the Times Higher Education World University Rankings .
futuregov.asia - Minister for Justice Michael Keenan launched the Emergency+ app last month that allows users to give emergency call operators their exact location by longitude and latitude. According to Australian Federal Police , over 66 per cent of callers to emergency numbers are from mobile phones. Many callers are unable to tell officers their exact location. Moreover, many people use the Triple Zero (000) number when they should really be calling other numbers, such as the Police Assistance Line (131444) the State Emergency Service (132500), Crime Stoppers (1800 333 000), the National Relay Service (106) and Health Direct Australia (1800 022 222).
medicalxpress.com - Excess abdominal fat can be a precursor to diseases such as cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. A person's measure of belly fat is reflected in the ratio of waist circumference to hip circumference, and it is estimated that genetics account for about 30-60 percent of waist-to-hip ratio (WHR). Kira Taylor, Ph.D., M.S., assistant professor, University of Louisville School of Public Health and Information Sciences, and her research team have identified five new genes associated with increased WHR, potentially moving science a step closer to developing a medication to treat obesity or obesity-related diseases.
bulletin.sciencebusiness.net - Speaking at the launch of the centre this week, Brad Smith, Executive Vice President for Legal and Corporate Affairs at Microsoft, said the company is committed to participating in the development of skills for the ICT sector and pointed to the increasing number of ICT positions that remain unfilled. Between 2006 and 2010 there was a 10 per cent fall in the number of ICT graduates across Europe – and this at a time when youth unemployment was increasing rapidly.
theguardian.com - Australian scientists have stumbled upon a "simple" way to dramatically reduce the damage caused by a heart attack. They say the new method could transform the treatment of heart attack patients, and could also help people with multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. The key to the treatment is for doctors to inject synthetic microparticles into the patient's bloodstream within 24 hours of a heart attack.
huffingtonpost.com - A relative recently told me about her year-old granddaughter's first three words. "She can say 'mama,' 'dada' and 'iPad', "she reported. Have iPads become the new "babas"? Certainly iPads and similar tablet devices has become far more ubiquitous in young children's lives than ever. In a Fall 2013 study, Common Sense Media reported that while only 8% of American families with children between the ages of 0-8 had some kind of tablet in 2011, just two years later about 40% did.
wtnh.com - HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Working on her blog in California one day, Vietnamese democracy activist Ngoc Thu sensed something was wrong. It took a moment for a keystroke to register. Cut-and-paste wasn't working. She had "a feeling that somebody was there" inside her computer. Her hunch turned out to be right. A few days later, her personal emails and photos were displayed on the blog, along with defamatory messages.
ibtimes.co.uk - A skin cancer drug has been used to completely cure a rare form of leukaemia in a patient in just days, doctors confirmed. Scientists from the University of Leicester, publishing their findings in the New England Journal of Medicine, show how a patient suffering from Hairy Cell Leukaemia had a complete clinical recovery after taking Vemurafenib, a drug approved for treatment of advanced melanomas.
eschoolnews.com - From wire service reports Read more by staff and wire services reports These Kentucky schools have embraced a new approach called “design thinking”—and it’s paying off with higher achievement At Eminence Independent School in Henry County, Ky., elementary students walk through halls painted like Disney storefronts and, during lunch, glide through a tube slide that drops down into the cafeteria. Half the high school students travel to Bellarmine College in Louisville two days a week to take college classes.
mashable.com - The appointment of Marissa Mayer as Yahoo CEO has been a godsend for those in the media. If nothing else, the photogenic, enigmatic and workaholic chief executive has made people interested in the company again. In 2011, Yahoo was never mentioned in the same breath as Google or Facebook . But now, Mayer has propelled the company into the top tier of Internet Companies That Tech Writers Like to Cover.
fastcoexist.com - Robots are getting quite a bit smarter: Earlier today, in a mocked-up hospital room in the Netherlands, one robot taught another how to serve a patient a drink in bed. While some might see this burgeoning robotic intelligence as an early sign of the robo-apocalypse, it also might be the beginning of much greater roles for robots than their current status assembling car parts at factories or vacuuming your floor.
mashable.com - LinkedIn added a new Volunteer Marketplace on Wednesday, allowing users to search for volunteer opportunities that require particular skill sets like open board seats at non-profits. In August, LinkedIn allowed users to openly express interest in these types of opportunities on their profile page, but until Wednesday, these people could only be contacted for positions and couldn't actively search for them.
teachthought.com - The following is an edited transcript of an interview with Laura McBain and Ryan Gallagher of High-Tech High, a public charter school based in San Diego, on their upcoming MOOC, “Deeper Learning”, hosted by P2PU starting January 20, 2014. Interview by Charlie Chung of Class Central , a comprehensive MOOC listings directory. Laura McBain, Director of External Relations, has been with High Tech High 10 years and runs an online hybrid program for adults and external schools, using online technology to bring educators together to talk about their practices.
edudemic.com - It’s common to see students bringing along their tablets when they go to school. These devices have become powerful that they are now preferred over the good ol’ laptop and netbook. This is the reason why parents are thinking hard on whether it is a good investment to give their kids this gadget even when they are just in high school. It is indeed a good investment because aside from being a multimedia device, these tablet PCs have become a tool for them to make their homework, take down notes and even record their teacher’s lectures.
news.yahoo.com - Babies as young as 9 months old know that friends usually have similar interests, new research suggests. The new study, published online January in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, shows that babies who are too young to talk still have a set of abstract expectations about the social world. "Nine-month-old infants are paying attention to other people's relationships," said study co-author Amanda Woodward, a psychology professor at the University of Chicago.
venturebeat.com - What will be hot in consumer electronics and computing in 2014? Read our full coverage of International CES 2014 to find out. Big data analysis from Kontera reveals what everybody talked about when it comes to the 2014 International CES. Kontera, a big data analytics and marketing platform, sifts through millions of sources to find out the buzz on an event or topic. Here’s the results of their study of the last three days of CES, the big tech trade show in Las Vegas.
forbes.com - One Laptop Per Child, launched in 2005 by Nicholas Negroponte out of MIT’s Media Lab, continues its mission to help impoverished kids through low-cost laptops and connected devices. And as always, proceeds from sales of the XO laptops it released in 2007, designed by Yves Béhar, and new tablet are used to help fund devices for even more needy kids.
fastcompany.com - Shortly after Will Blythe got let go from his job at Byliner, the writer got an innocent looking email. The termination agreement outlined his last date of employment, the vesting options, and if he'd have to return the iPad he got as a gift for Christmas. Then came much less amenable clause. As he details in the New York Times : What brings me up short is clause No. 12: No Disparagement. “You agree,” it reads, “that you will never make any negative or disparaging statements (orally or in writing) about the Company or its stockholders, directors, officers, employees, products, services or business practices, except as required by law.
online-masters-and-phds.com - Authors: Zoran Mitrovic, University of the Western Cape, South Africa; Wallace J Taylor, The Information Society Institute, South Africa; Mymoena Sharif, e-Skills Institute, South Africa; Walter T Claassen, Research Network for e-Skills, South Africa; Harold Wesso, e-Skills Institute, South Africa
Over 350 national and international delegates at the 2nd e-Skills Summit and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) Global ICT Forum on Human Capital Development have agreed that the e-skilling agenda in South Africa is making a “profound difference” but still not sufficient to build a capable developmental state.
online-masters-and-phds.com - Authors: Camilius A Sanga, M Magesa, E E Chingonikaya and K K Kayunze Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania
The recent development of ICTs has brought many changes in different sectors. In Higher Learning Institutions, there are a number of positive changes. ICTs have brought efficiency, effectiveness and efficacy in the provision of the core functions namely: teaching, outreach, research and consultancy.
With the growing use of social networking sites like Facebook and twitter, the methodology of education for students is finding new and improved ways. Students are getting more prone to the commodities these platforms offer. Therefore this advancement in social networking platforms is providing students with much better options to engage with their contemporaries, enhance their skills and access a wide variety of academic tools and resources which will most definitely add up to their convenience.
digitaltrends.com - Home automation is gradually creeping closer to being a reality. LG has just shown off its new HomeChat service at the Consumer Electronics Show that allows you to send natural language text messages to your home appliances. This means you can use your smartphone or tablet to communicate with your LG refrigerator or washing machine. Why would you want to? Well, the example LG provides is sending your fridge a text saying “I’m going on vacation;” thanks to HomeChat, it will reply “Should I convert to vacation mode?
Authors: Troy Devon Thomas, Lenandlar Singh and Kemuel Gaffar, University of Guyana, Guyana
In this paper, we compare the utility of modified versions of the unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model in explaining mobile learning adoption in higher education in a developing country and evaluate the size and direction of the impacts of the UTAUT factors on behavioural intention to adopt mobile learning in higher education.
businessinsider.com - We quickly get used to the latest technology and forget how fast things are moving and how amazing everything is. So it's helpful to occasionally be reminded. This is a picture of an IBM hard drive being loaded onto an airplane in 1956. According to @HistoricalPics , which tweeted the picture, it's a 5 mega-byte drive, and it weighed more than 2,000 pounds. To put that in context, 55 years later, the weakest iPhone 5S has a 16 gigabyte drive, about 3,200-times as big.
medicalxpress.com - A plant used for centuries as a pain reliever in Chinese medicine may be just what the doctor ordered, especially when it comes to chronic pain. A key pain-relieving ingredient is a compound known as dehydrocorybulbine (DHCB) found in the roots of the flowering plant Corydalis , a member of the poppy family, according to researchers who report their findings in the Cell Press journal Current Biology on January 2.
online-masters-and-phds.com -
Authors: Taotao Long, The University of Tennessee, USA
Wexin Liang, Center for Distance Education, Beijing Institute of Education, China
Shengquan Yu, College of Educational Technology, Beijing Normal University, China
As an emerging mobile terminal, the tablet computer has begun to enter into the educational system. With the aim of having a better understanding of the application and people’s perspectives on the new technology in K-12 schools in China, a survey was conducted to investigate the tablet computer’s application, user’s perspectives and requirements among K-12 students, teachers and educational administrators in developed areas in China.
online-masters-and-phds.com - Photograph by Trent Deberry
Author: Begum Cubukcuoglu, Eastern Mediterranean University, North Cyprus
The importance of information and communication technologies in the teaching and learning process has been proven by many research studies to be an effective way of supporting teaching and learning. Although many teachers do not use new technologies as instructional tools, some are integrating information and communication technologies innovatively into their teaching. There are a number of factors which encourage these teachers to use information and communication technologies in the teaching and learning environment. This article discusses the factors that encourage Turkish Cypriot teachers to integrate technology into the classroom.
allafrica.com - Harare — Even 33 years after Zimbabwean independence, President Mugabe remains a harsh critic of the white colonial government's system. But through the latest radio ban, he is imposing the same oppressive tactics that he himself once fought against to liberate his people. As I write, Zimbabwe's statutes are still being starched with the state oppression that Mugabe himself once fought against. A case in point is the state's latest ban of small wind-up radios with a short-wave dial.
Authors:
Laura Hosman, Illinois Institute of Technology, USA
Maja Jagev Cvetanoska, YES Network Project, EDC/USAID Macedonia
Numerous developing countries are currently planning or executing projects that introduce technology into their educational systems. This article asserts that such projects will have limited long-term success or impact until they are reconceptualized to incorporate three transformative concepts: teachers play the key role in determining the success or failure of such projects; change is a years-long process and not a one-time event; and teachers need ongoing support to adopt the technology and should be treated as stakeholders in the innovation-adoption process.
allafrica.com - Researchers had developed the first non-invasive method of detecting malaria infection using a laser beam scanner. The painless test appears to be 100 percent accurate and does not require using any blood. Currently, the gold standard of malaria testing is examining a blood smear under the microscope for evidence of the deadly parasite. A diagnosis requires trained technicians, expensive equipment and time, things that are not always available in poorer and more remote parts of the world.
online-masters-and-phds.com - Article by: Agnes Chigona, Cape Peninsula University of Technology
Employing the theory of Community of Practice (CoP), this paper shows how the use of multimedia led a group of pre-service teachers to build a community of practice in the process of completing their individual digital stories for assessment. The paper is focused on a group of diverse pre-service teachers doing their final year at a teacher education institution in Cape Town.
m.bbc.co.uk - By Adam Brimelow, Health Correspondent, BBC News
Researchers in Oxford have developed a degradable implant which they say has huge potential to improve surgical success rates. The protective patch, which wraps round soft tissue repairs, will be trialled in patients with shoulder injuries. It is hoped in time this approach could help patients with other conditions including arthritis, hernias and heart defects.
online-masters-and-phds.com - Woman from Kobli, Atakora. Photograph by: Jacques Taberlet
Article by: Julia Bello-Bravo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA
Elie Dannon, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Benin
Tolulope Adebimpe Agunbiade, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA
Manuele Tamo, International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, Benin
Barry Robert Pittendrigh, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, USA
Cell-phone ready educational videos, translated into local languages, are a very recent phenomenon in developing nations. One of the reasons for the emergence of this approach is due to the scarcity of other forms of educational materials with appropriate content for low literate learners. Additionally, the World Wide Web (WWW) has very little to offer in regards to audio-visual training materials that could be used to educate people in their own local languages without the need for literacy. Scientific Animations Without Borders (SAWBO) creates and works with local groups to deploy educational videos in local languages facilitating access to information and knowledge to individuals in the developing world. This paper is based on a survey conducted with 83 individuals on the perception of three SAWBO educational animations – neem extracts for insect control, cholera and malaria prevention; and their potential as training tools for health and agricultural extension in Benin.
