Written by Angelina Weir on February 28, 2012.
By Stacy Jannis
Exciting things are happening in 21st century classrooms all over our country. Teachers and students are using cutting-edge technology, working in teams, and connecting and sharing projects with classrooms all over the world. Innovative groups like the Concord Consortium , Promethean World , Project Lead the Way and Epals are at the forefront of creating the curriculum, software, tools and environment of tomorrow’s classroom, today. A rich and exciting mix is brewing, one that combines multimedia, digital simulations, games, computer programming, inquiry and project-based learning, to accelerate our children’s skills to think creatively, work collaboratively, and train to tackle 21st century problems.
Can we save the world through science and engineering? We think so! We are inspired by the excellence and passion for science and science education that takes place in innovative classrooms all over the country, every day.
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Written by Gabrielle Batchelor on February 27, 2012.
Whether you are single-handedly building the next pyramid or simply studying for a CLEP test, overcoming the obstacles to starting is half the battle.
In the programming world, scope creep is the term for a project that continually grows more and more complicated. Perhaps it started as a basic web app, but continual ideas for new features are turning into a fully-featured product… while doubling or tripling the production time. Focus on doing as little as possible the first time (software developers call this the minimum viable product), then adding the extras.
In college, this is particularly useful when writing essays. Rather than laboring over each individual paragraph, finish a decent essay first and then improve each paragraph. Hopefully you will be able to polish the entire essay, but it is better to turn in a fairly good essay than an amazingly perfect paragraph.
Working on five or six projects at once might sound excitingly productive, but the results are generally the opposite. N
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Written by Jade Nowland on February 26, 2012.
There’s plenty of information now out in public spaces about how much is knowable about a person’s online wanderings and searches. There’s a lot to be said about the electronic doppelganger that people have—with people assiduously grooming what they can see, piling on personal information, but being barely able to make changes at the margins for the invisible electronic identities they have cultivated by their actions (often in other spheres of life). We already know that there is no real hiding in the vast streams of information, and if one comes to the attention of a dedicated researcher (particularly in law enforcement), there’s really no hiding at all.
In that light, it would seem counterintuitive to suggest that one has to assume (in general) that one has pseudonimity (persistent anonymity). To assume otherwise is to really lurk in one’s own shadow. To constantly be aware of all the various online tripwires and meta-meta-meta perspectives about one’s online life is to use undue cognitive load in ways that are not particularly helpful.
To not engage online is not a real option. The Internet
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Written by Angelina Weir on February 24, 2012.
The money would be in the form of vouchers for high-quality childcare
UK parents should be able to spread the cost of childcare over as many as 20 years, according to a think tank.
The Social Market Foundation wants the government to offer up to £10,000 up front, which families would pay back in monthly contributions.
All working parents with children under school age would be eligible.
Report author Ian Mulheirn said: “The high cost of formal childcare effectively locks thousands of parents out of work each year.”
Mr Mulheirn said the poorest families would benefit most from the proposal, as recent research showed that a quarter of parents on the lowest income brackets had given up their jobs because the cost of childcare was too high.
“Childcare costs impose a huge burden on families for a relatively short period of time.
“This has a real impact on families household budgets and can mean that its simply not viable for some parents to go to work, despite the real benefits to both their earning power and their childrens development offered by formal childcare,” he said.
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Written by Jade Nowland on February 23, 2012.
UPDATE (9:30AM Feb 21): An important typo in the % of existing mobile solutions was fixed in the report.
A few weeks ago I conducted the second survey about the State of Mobile Web in Higher Ed to provide the community with some insights on the mobile web in our industry. The first survey was run last year at about the same time.
This year again, this online survey was a big success as a total of 281 professionals working mainly in the marketing, communication and web offices of 267 institutions of higher education completed it from January 9, 2012 to February 13, 2012.
Youll find details about the following survey findings (as well as others) in the 10-page executive summary (PDF) including results and charts. This open and independent research work is supported by Higher Ed Experts (when you buy a webinar series like our upcoming Higher Ed Mobile Summit or you sign up for our Responsive Web Design online course, this is the kind of work you help fund 
.
The Mobile Web is on the agenda in higher ed
- 59% (37% in 2011) of the survey respondents provide a solution (mobile website, accessible website, native mobile device applications etc.) targeting and serving owners of mobile devices.
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