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 .
edx.org - For decades, the World Economic Forum has enabled leaders in business, policy and academia to meet and learn from one another at events held in Davos, Switzerland and many other locations around the world. These gatherings have provided the setting for an exchange of ideas that have helped set the direction for solutions to critical global problems. Now, with the creation of Forum Academy , the World Economic Forum (WEF) will provide a much wider audience with the opportunity to participate in a discussion addressing global, regional and industry challenges through courses created using the cutting-edge platform and tools innovated by edX.
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.
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.
infodev.org - The CCIC will offer financing, training, mentorship, and other services to a growing network of innovators in the areas of solar power, energy efficiency, water management, resource use efficiency, and sustainable agribusiness. It is expected to support up to 80 sustainable climate technology ventures in the first five years, generating $11 million in economic impact and helping 35,000 people increase their resiliency to climate change.
digitaltrends.com - When you gaze up at the night sky and marvel at the wondrous sight of all those sparkling stars and faraway planets, it’s hard to imagine that’s there’s also a load of crap floating about up there. Our crap. The problem of orbiting space junk – which includes stuff like abandoned satellites, bits of old rockets, and other odds and ends – has become so serious that it could affect the safety of future space missions or knock out important communications satellites.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
zunia.org - The “fragmented” coordination between relief actors in the Philippines following Typhoon Haiyan last month underscores the need for artificial intelligence to streamline disaster response, says a team behind such an effort. The ORCHID project — a consortium of UK universities and private firms — aims to make this possible by combining human and artificial intelligence into an efficient complementary unit known as a Human Agent Collective (HAC).
The computer systems being developed can assume tasks such as directing surveillance drones, resource management and search planning, says David Jones, head of Rescue Global, the disaster response organisation responsible for testing the software next year.
“Coordination of such a large response [after a disaster] is so challenging without technological assistance that makes data more accessible,” he tells SciDev.Net while on mission in the Philippines. “Bringing humans and artificial intelligence together is the only way to get the job done better.”
online-masters-and-phds.com - Ibadan street scene. Attribution: Dassiebtekreuz
Article by: Emeka K Ezemenaka, Institut Français de Recherche en Afrique (IFRA), Nigeria
The usage of Internet enabled phones has been a 21st century phenomenon that spreads for different purposes and functions. This study looks into the usage and perceived effect implications internet enabled phones have on the academic performance of the tertiary students using University of Ibadan students in Nigeria as a case study.
theguardian.com - After graduating from Cambridge this summer, I temped in a diesel factory to save money for my Master's. They were used to students in the factory, but they didn't get many from Cambridge. Telling people where I'd studied usually resulted in a bit of a double take and a question along the lines of: "What, the posh one?" Yes, the posh one.
