Ireland's Martin Hynes Appointed as Chief Executive of the European Science Foundation. Galway Science & Technology Festival. Michio Kaku on the next 100 years: "The Matrix" cometh. TEDxKC - Michael Wesch - From Knowledgeable to Knowledge-Able CIT to offer world's first degree in cloud computing. 31/05/2011 - 07:13:33Back to Ireland Home Cork Institute of Technology is to offer a world first in third-level education with a new degree in cloud computing. It is hoped the course, which has been prepared in consultation with many top IT companies like EMC, Cisco and Microsoft, will boost Ireland's bid to become a global leader in the sector. A recent report predicted cloud computing could employ over 8,500 people in Ireland, potentially bringing in €9.5bn by 2014. The announcement comes just 24 hours after the latest cloud computing investment as leading Silicon Valley firm Marketo yesterday selected Ireland for their European hub, citing our "large talent pool of skilled people".
The course, which will be taught remotely on a full- or part-time basis, will begin in September with an intake of 20 masters students. It will be officially launched in Dublin today by Education Minister Ruairi Quinn. The problem with girls and maths « The Anti Room. Jun 13th, 2011 by Aoife McLysaght There’s a problem with girls and maths. If this year is like previous years, then fewer female students will be taking higher level maths today than their male peers. What is happening here? Is this the problem we have heard about for years? – that well-known stereotype that says girls just aren’t good at maths? Well, yes. But not in the way you think. It is the stereotype that is the problem, not the difference between boys and girls. We all know the common cultural stereotypes concerning the ability of the two sexes in maths.
In an ingenious set of experiments, Steele and colleagues selected male and female students who were high performers in school maths and invited them to participate in a study. The students were split into two mixed-gender groups. The two groups were given the same test. So ditch the old prejudices and presumptions, roll up your sleeves, sharpen your pencil, and have some fun with maths! The #edtech20 project Daily.
News: Plan to Restructure British Higher Ed. Study Shows Technology Boosts Performance for Educators and Students. [1107.5298] Teaching introductory undergraduate Physics using commercial video games. Employers call for 'enterprise curriculum’ Mr Smith, who previously held a senior position at Oracle, said employers had no right to “moan” unless they “can show they are involved in turning it around”. Education Secretary Michael Gove wants the education system to move away from an “obsession” with tests and targets, which could be leading to students taking “soft courses” to raise schools’ positions in league tables.
Pupils will be expected to score A* to C grades in the five core GCSE subjects of English, mathematics, science, languages and humanities. Sir James Dyson, the vacuum cleaner entrepreneur, also warned that an emphasis on core academic subjects could be to the detriment of practical skills: “Britain has 37,000 engineering vacancies but produces just 22,000 engineering graduates each year. Young people should be encouraged into practical subjects like design and technology, which is at risk of being taken off the national curriculum – if we want a generation of problem-solvers this is a mistake.” Smartphone and tablet stats: what's really going on in the mobile market? | Technology. The mobile phone market is deluged with data. Four times a year there is a spike in market share estimates just after quarterly financial results are released, while the time in between is filled with analyst forecasts and surveys from market research firms trying to get to the bottom of changing market trends.
July has been a particularly big month, with a number of studies, surveys and predictions. Individually they're of varying interest and credibility, but there is some value for app developers in pulling the data together and poring over the likely implications. So that's what we've done. Global mobile shipments IDC's estimates for global shipments of mobile phones is a good place to start. IDC says that sales of feature phones actually fell 4% year-on-year in the latest quarter: the first time it has done so since the third quarter of 2009. Smartphone shipments That's for all phones, but many app developers are focusing purely on smartphones. Source: ABI Research Source: Nielsen. Facebook acquires Push Pop Press for tablet design. Digital book creator Push Pop Press announced Tuesday that it has been acquired by Facebook. Terms of the deal have not been disclosed. Push Pop Press was founded last year by Mike Matas and Kimon Tsinteris, former Apple employees that had together worked on the iPhone’s Maps app.
As with many of the Apple flock, Matas and Tsinteris together have a brilliant eye for design; leaving the Cupertino company, they took that eye and started Push Pop, which aimed to usher in a new generation of beautiful digital books. The company’s first (and only) product was Al Gore’s “Our Choice.” Naturally, the book lends itself to the use of multimedia--photos, videos, interactive maps, infographics and beyond. Though neither Push Pop nor Facebok has said this specifically, one can imagine that this acquisition is all about making the social network look and work spectacularly on tablet computers. According to Push Pop: Altimeter Roundtable: Mobile Discussion on “Enrich, Engage, and Entrust”
Altimeter hosted our second roundtable lead with our newest hire, Chris Silva (blog/Twitter) who’s our newest analyst at Altimeter focused on Mobile Strategy. Chris also stems from Forrester, and was an analyst there focused on mobile, he was actually one of the trainers in my new hire orientation. Above: Mobile Proud! Roundtable attendees show off their personal devices at the Altimeter Hangar. Attendees consisted of representatives from startups, mobile app vendors, large device manufactures, brands, social web companies, and media creator: Almost Savvy, Appconomy, Ascentium, Avere Group, Box, DoubleDutch, FrontRow Antics, Janrain, LiquidSpace, Logitech, Mekanism, MIT/Stanford Venture Lab, Moxie Software, nvidia, Oracle, Pansonic, Quantinto, Ready to Go Information Technologies, Responsys, Retailigence, Rocket Fuel Inc, SAP, Seesmic, Social Guides, Sony Electronics, SPdL Marketing Strategies, Stanford University Dept. of Athletics, Tagwhat, The Estuary, LLC, and [wire]stone.
It's war: Google+ gets a gaming platform. It’s well-known to many that gaming and social media, today, go hand in hand. In fact, some would go so far to say that social gaming is largely responsible for the meteoric rise of social media into the mainstream consciousness. That’s why it’s such a big deal that Google announced on Thursday that its new social network, Google+, now has a social gaming platform, just a month and a half into the network’s life. It’s not just any gaming platform, though. On this gaming platform, the host (Google) is only taking a five percent cut of virtual good sales. This social media battle just turned into all-out war. “Today we’re adding games to Google+,” writes Vic Gundotra, SVP of Engineering. “That means giving you control over when you see games, how you play them and with whom you share your experiences.
In those two short paragraphs, Gundotra makes a couple not-so-subtle jabs at the biggest, most obvious competitor to Google+, Facebook. The State of Digital Education Infographic - #edtech #edutech #edchat. Knewton tells us: Education's Internet moment is now - Shareables. As connection speeds increase and the ubiquity of the Internet pervades, digital content reigns. And in this era, free education has never been so accessible. The Web gives lifelong learners the tools to become autodidacts, eschewing exorbitant tuition and joining the ranks of other self-taught great thinkers in history such as Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Paul Allen and Ernest Hemingway.
The world’s encyclopedia is as weightless, free and instantly accessible as Wikipedia, which is quickly gaining legitimacy in the education sphere. Using the Internet, you can learn a new language or delve into the depths of metaphysics with just a click of a mouse. The Web has unlocked the keys to a worldwide virtual school, potentially leveling the playing field for students around the world. It’s clear that the world is moving faster than it ever has before. Why the iPad has and will continue to dominate the tablet market - TNW Apple. The iPad was announced in January of 2010 to a greek chorus of ‘meh‘s’ from a tech community that was expecting something incredible, something revolutionary, something…more. Cut to almost two years later and the iPad has not only succeeded but has dominated the category that it helped redefine. Four major competing tablet manufacturers, along with countless other minor efforts, have failed to gain the traction needed to register as much more than a blip on the iPad’s radar.
But what are the factors that have contributed to its dominance? Does it have a chance of continuing its dominance? And what about the recent spate of stories surrounding the iPad’s loss of market share to Android? Shipments aren’t sales to customers I love these stories about how Android shipments have ‘stolen’ market share from the iPad. It’s easy to see why these stories appear so often.
The iPad has shipped 28.7 million iPads since April of 2010 and 9.25 million iPads in the last quarter alone. Profit Manufacturing.
Gaming and how to solve real world problems. Riz Khan - Schools killing creativity - 10 Sep 08 - Part 2. Inkling - Interactive textbooks for iPad. Clifford Stoll: 18 minutes with an agile mind. #edtech20. Sir Ken Robinson: Bring on the learning revolution!
Sir Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity? Reforming education: The great schools revolution. Huckabee - Sir Ken Robinson, Author of The Element (01-31-2009) Adaptive Learning Roundtable, Part 5: Understanding How Students Learn Over Time [VIDEO] The transformation of the book industry: Disappearing ink. Ken Robinson - Differentiated Teaching - Riz Khan - Ken Robinson - 3 March 09 - Part 1. Riz Khan - Ken Robinson - 3 March 09 - Part 2. Ken Robinson | Profile on TED.com. Do Schools Destroy Creativity? - Ken Robinson. Max Levchin And Peter Thiel: Innovation In The World Today Is Between ‘Dire Straits And Dead’ Peter Thiel and Max Levchin are busy guys. Thiel, aside from being on the Board of Directors for companies like Palantir Technologies, Geni, and Asana, an early investor and former board member at Facebook, and also happens to be founder and president of hedge fund Clarium Capital as well as Managing Partner of his VC firm, Founder’s Fund.
Levchin was founder and CEO of Slide (which was acquired by Google), which he recently left when Google deadpooled all but one of Slide’s products. Thiel and Levchin both famously steered PayPal (which they co-founded) through tricky waters during the crazy dotcom days, building it into the company we know today. Now, Thiel and Levchin are back working together, but this time on a different enterprise: A book. According to Levchin, the basic premise of the book is, of course, “majorly controversial”, in that, despite what the popular media might tell us, innovation in the world today is actually “between dire straights and dead”.