Wednesday, March 27, 2013
Tuesday, March 26, 2013
Harvard and MIT Offer Online Education for Free
The courses offered through edx will incorporate video lessons, online quizzes, and real-time feedback. Students will receive a certificates of mastery for their efforts. In recent years, there has been a massive groundswell in online learning—enabled by high-speed Internet connections, ubiquitous computers, and back-end technology like cloud computing. Edx is just the latest—and most prestigious—endorsement of that phenomenon.
https://www.edx.org/
MIT Open Courseware (OCW) Available
OCW makes the materials used in the teaching of MIT's subjects available on the Web:
http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm
Open Source Eliminates Lack of Resources at Inner City Schools
Until open hardware and software existed, many public schools in the
inner cities lacked the resources to provide highly qualified teachers or
quality textbooks, books (fiction, nonfiction, and reference), periodicals,
videos, or much technology. But today abandoned and old computers are being
donated and recycled for use in low-income school districts; free
computers can also be obtained through organizations like Free Geek
and Freecycle,
and on CraigsList.
Read more: http://opensource.com/education/13/2/open-source-resources-inner-cities?sc_cid=701600000007PsBAAU
Read more: http://opensource.com/education/13/2/open-source-resources-inner-cities?sc_cid=701600000007PsBAAU
If school districts install Linux and Open Office, they can save
thousands and thousands of dollars in licensing fees, maintenance,
and personnel. With Internet access, open source web browsers such as WebKit,
Wordpress, and
Buddypress
can then be installed within six minutes to create a website or blog. And with
Internet access, limitless educational opportunities ensue; a few examples
include:
Highly qualified teachers and instructors found on MIT's OpenCourseWare
National Science Teachers Association freebies for science teachers
Yale professor Keith Wrightson's lecture's on Early Modern England from FreeVideoLectures
With Internet access and an open source web browser, the lack of
resources associated with public schools in the inner cities can potentially be
greatly reduced or eliminated.
Sunday, March 24, 2013
Americans Cut Off From Opportunity Without Equal Access to the Internet | PBS NewsHour | March 22, 2013 | PBS
Internet use is now so ubiquitous in the U.S. that not having access or online literacy can create major hurdles
The Power of Digital Education
Saturday, March 23, 2013
What Makes Health Care So Expensive? | TIME.com
Why Medical Bills Are Killing US
"We now spend 20 percent of our GDP—an estimated $2.8 trillion for 2013—on health care. It’s time to cut through the policy debate and follow the money. A special report on why our medical bills are so expensive" see link for full article:
The Potential of Quantum Computing
Why It Matters
View video ow.ly/jhT1y
Quantum computing has potential to solve challenges ranging from designing new lifesaving drugs to instantaneously debugging millions of lines of software code. In partnership with the University of Southern California, Lockheed Martin has founded the USC-Lockheed Martin Quantum Computation Center (QCC), home of D-Wave One, the world's first commercial adiabatic quantum optimizer and by far the largest functional quantum information processor ever built.
Internet Access and Poverty
Why It Matters
"... one-third of Americans don’t have wired Internet access at home. Their “non-adoption is tightly correlated with income and education level.” In other words, people who most need a digital boost can’t afford to get it. Crawford adds that the United States is a nation of communications monopolies. “For more than 80 percent of Americans, their only choice for world-class Internet access will be their local cable monopoly. And 19 million Americans can’t buy a wired connection at any price–it’s not available where they live.”
"In Hong Kong, I’m told you can get 500 megabits-per-second Internet service for $25 a month. In my Massachusetts neighborhood–which happens to be served by Verizon FIOS fiber service–getting one-tenth that speed will set you back $80 (plus taxes and fees). And whereas in Hong Kong uploads are as fast as downloads, the Verizon service gives me half-speed on the uploads.Crawford concludes: “We have a highly-concentrated yet second-rate picture in America, because we’ve both deregulated this sector and allowed sweeping consolidation. By contrast, in many countries, the policy is to get everyone connected to fiber to their home … at a reasonable price.” The relatively high costs of service at my house are typical of the American market. There are a few notable exceptions (see “When Will the Rest of us get Google Fiber?”). But we’ve got a long way to go to empower most Americans with communications technologies.
Much of the United States has far slower Internet-access connections than are available in Asian and European countries.
"In Hong Kong, I’m told you can get 500 megabits-per-second Internet service for $25 a month. In my Massachusetts neighborhood–which happens to be served by Verizon FIOS fiber service–getting one-tenth that speed will set you back $80 (plus taxes and fees). And whereas in Hong Kong uploads are as fast as downloads, the Verizon service gives me half-speed on the uploads.Crawford concludes: “We have a highly-concentrated yet second-rate picture in America, because we’ve both deregulated this sector and allowed sweeping consolidation. By contrast, in many countries, the policy is to get everyone connected to fiber to their home … at a reasonable price.” The relatively high costs of service at my house are typical of the American market. There are a few notable exceptions (see “When Will the Rest of us get Google Fiber?”). But we’ve got a long way to go to empower most Americans with communications technologies.
Much of the United States has far slower Internet-access connections than are available in Asian and European countries.
Wednesday, March 20, 2013
Saturday, March 16, 2013
The Most Important Education Technology in 200 Years
Students anywhere are being offered free instruction online.
Why It Matters
Free, advanced education over the Web is a step forward for civilization.http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506351/the-most-important-education-technology-in-200-years/
CNN Documentary - Escape Fire - The Fight to Save American Healthcare - March 16th
ESCAPE FIRE re-airs on CNN on March 16th at 8:00pm ET. It will re-air at 11pm & 2am ET.
CNN's Visionary Documentary on Health Care
... aside from the white-hot question of how we pay for medical care, there is no avoiding the cold reality that Americans exorbitantly overpay.
Stripping away the hysteria that has hijacked our discussion of this problem was the task facing two filmmakers, Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, whose superb documentary Escape Fire, re-airs Saturday March 16 on CNN (8pm and repeated 11pm & 2 am ET).
Description of the CNN documentary:
CNN Documentary - Escape Fire - The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
Watch a video trailer at:
http://vimeo.com/27450676
"Like a backfire, it works by depriving an approaching primary fire of fuel so that when the primary fire reaches where the escape fire started the primary fire cannot continue; there is nothing there to burn."
CNN's Visionary Documentary on Health Care
... aside from the white-hot question of how we pay for medical care, there is no avoiding the cold reality that Americans exorbitantly overpay.
Stripping away the hysteria that has hijacked our discussion of this problem was the task facing two filmmakers, Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, whose superb documentary Escape Fire, re-airs Saturday March 16 on CNN (8pm and repeated 11pm & 2 am ET).
Description of the CNN documentary:
CNN Documentary - Escape Fire - The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
Watch a video trailer at:
http://vimeo.com/27450676
"Like a backfire, it works by depriving an approaching primary fire of fuel so that when the primary fire reaches where the escape fire started the primary fire cannot continue; there is nothing there to burn."
"The technique had been described in James Fenimore Cooper's 1827 novel The Prairie but became well-known only after the Mann Gulch fire. On this occasion, (Robert) Wagner "Wag" Dodge came up with the same idea independently, and successfully put it into practice. He cleared an area large enough for him to survive unharmed when the main fire was less than one minute away."
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_fire
How MOOCs Could Meet the Challenge of Providing a Global Education | MIT Technology Review
Possible Alternative Education Resource usable by the Chester Community?
In the Developing World, MOOCs Start to Get Real
In the Developing World, MOOCs Start to Get Real
Putting free U.S. college courses online is only the first step to filling higher education needs around the world.
view MIT Review Article
Sunday, March 10, 2013
CNN Documentary - Escape Fire - airs tonight March 10th 8pm
CNN is airing the full documentary this evening at 8pm.
CNN's Visionary Documentary on Health Care
... aside from the white-hot question of how we pay for medical care, there is no avoiding the cold reality that Americans exorbitantly overpay.
Stripping away the hysteria that has hijacked our discussion of this problem was the task facing two filmmakers, Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, whose superb documentary Escape Fire, premieres Sunday March 10 on CNN (8pm and repeated 11pm ET).
Description of the CNN documentary:
CNN Documentary - Escape Fire - The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
CNN's Visionary Documentary on Health Care
... aside from the white-hot question of how we pay for medical care, there is no avoiding the cold reality that Americans exorbitantly overpay.
Stripping away the hysteria that has hijacked our discussion of this problem was the task facing two filmmakers, Matthew Heineman and Susan Froemke, whose superb documentary Escape Fire, premieres Sunday March 10 on CNN (8pm and repeated 11pm ET).
Description of the CNN documentary:
CNN Documentary - Escape Fire - The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
Escape Fire: The Fight to Rescue American Healthcare
Watch a video trailer at:
http://vimeo.com/27450676
"Like a backfire, it works by depriving an approaching primary fire of fuel so that when the primary fire reaches where the escape fire started the primary fire cannot continue; there is nothing there to burn."
"The technique had been described in James Fenimore Cooper's 1827 novel The Prairie but became well-known only after the Mann Gulch fire. On this occasion, (Robert) Wagner "Wag" Dodge came up with the same idea independently, and successfully put it into practice. He cleared an area large enough for him to survive unharmed when the main fire was less than one minute away."
Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escape_fire
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