YouTube. Online university giant gets bigger. 25 February 2013Last updated at 10:50 ET By Sean Coughlan BBC News education correspondent Penn State University is among the latest to join an online university network One of the emerging giants among online universities has announced that it is signing up a further 29 universities, including institutions in the US, Europe and Asia. Coursera, set up by academics from Stanford University, will now offer online courses from 62 universities. There are 2.8 million online students registered, says Coursera. Co-founder Andrew Ng said this was helping universities to "raise their impact both on and off campus". Coursera, set up less than a year ago, has become one of the pace setters in the rapidly expanding field of online universities - often described as MOOCs (massive open online courses).
It provides an online platform for universities to offer courses for people to study from home. Global reach US universities joining the online platform include Northwestern, Penn State and Rutgers, Future Learn Coursera Edx. Coursera.org. EdX. CES 2013 - Panasonic 4K 20-Inch Tablet.
The coolest technology you've never seen | Mobile apps. Here's one you have to see to believe. Autonomy, the largest British software company -- best known for its enterprise search and compliance technology -- has applied its intellectual horsepower in meaning-based computing to visual recognition for smartphones. Soon you'll be able to download its Aurasma iPhone/iPad app, which enables you to point your camera at static real-world objects that, once recognized, magically come to life on the smartphone screen, similar to the way pictures in the Daily Prophet newspaper animated themselves in Harry Potter. Check the video demo.
The amazing thing is that the video mapped into the real-world scene stays within the bounds of the recognized object, even as you pan the camera around. According to Autonomy, the app will be able to recognize up to half a million images. The technology has its limitations. But think of the possibilities. The Aurasma app will be available for free download in the App Store next month.
Peartrees: Multi-dimensional Curation. A few weeks ago now, I posted an opinion piece on Technorati titled, 'Why Social Media Curation Matters'. Following this I received quite a lot of feedback and it’s thanks to one of these comments – posted by on my blog – that I was led to Pearltrees. In addition to this, I was also motivated to re-evaluate my position on the subject of curation and take a closer look at what I perceived that to be.
At first I made the rather naïve assumption that the difference between Pearltrees and the services I’d discussed in my previous articles both here and on my blog, was purely aesthetic – Pearltrees has a beautifully designed Flash interface. However, as I delved further into the service, and further contemplated readers' feedback, I began to realise that there were actually some fundamental differences both in the approach of the developers and in my perception of curation. Nonetheless, they are just lists. The answer can be summed up in one word, depth. 15 Free Tools for Web-based Collaboration. No man (or woman) is an island – and this statement can’t be any truer if you’re a designer or developer. Though paid/subscription services like Basecamp and Zimbra are great, individuals strapped for cash have a ton of alternatives that provide similar (if not better) features.
In this article, you’ll find 15 free tools to help you facilitate remote/web-based collaboration. Whether you need basic whiteboarding/brainstorming tools or fully-featured project management applications – you should be able to find a tool or two that’s worth checking out. Google Docs Google Docs is an excellent application for collaboration. Stixy Stixy is a flexible, online “bulletin board”/drawing board. Project2Manage Project2Manage is a fully-featured, free, hosted solution for project management and collaboration (similar to Basecamp). Bubbl.us bubbl.us is a free, web-based application for collaborative brainstorming. Dabbleboard Dabbleboard is a robust, online whiteboard that’s easy to use. Protonotes Twiddla.