ZDNet iGeneration Blog RSS | ZDNet http://www.zdnet.com/blog/igeneration/rss en-us <![CDATA[MIT launches first free online course]]> Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has unveiled its first prototype course that will be available on its new MITx platform.

The electronics course ‘6.002x: Circuits and Electronics’, available in March for students to enroll, is the first of its kind launched on the MITx platform. Announced in December, the interactive platform will offer a range of free MIT courses based on distance learning and the philosophy of extending education to a wider audience — ‘breaking down the barriers to education’.

Interested students can currently enroll for the course. It will officially begin on March 5 and finish June 8, 2012. MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif says:

“We are very excited to begin MITx with this prototype class. We will use this prototype course to optimize the tools we have built by soliciting and acting on feedback from learners.”

Support for learners will be available through the discussion board and a ‘wiki’ designed specifically for those signed up for 6.002. Anyone is able to sign up, but it is expected that those taking this course possess either an advanced secondary-education or college level in electricity and magnetism in order to succeed.

The course’s summary states:

The course introduces engineering in the context of the lumped circuit abstraction. Topics covered include: resistive elements and networks; independent and dependent sources; switches and MOS transistors; digital abstraction; amplifiers; energy storage elements; dynamics of first- and second-order networks; design in the time and frequency domains; and analog and digital circuits and applications.

6.002x is built on content created by MIT professors Anant Agarwal and Jeffrey H. Lang for 6.002, the traditional campus-based, paid alternative. There are four instructors and several teaching assistants who will be working with students on the course.

After enrolling, students are given a course schedule, an e-textbook learning guide, and a discussion board to promote communication among distance-learner classmates. Each week, students are expected to watch video demonstrations, complete practical exercises and homework, and participate in online interactive lab sessions.

Everything will be done online; including completing exams, accessing study materials and a system for students to check their grades as the course progresses. MIT expect that students will have to spend approximately 10 hours per week on the course.

As part of the launch of this prototype, students who ‘demonstrate their mastery’ — in other words, pass — will receive a free certificate of completion. In the future, MITx students can be issued certificates for a small fee.

Additional courses are expected to be announced in fall 2012.

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]]> <![CDATA[Landmark case? University Vs Former student, cadaver 'Bernie']]> A former University of Minnesota science student’s appeal to the Supreme Court has resulted in the university defending their decision to discipline the student over Facebook status messages.

The Minnesota Supreme Court heard arguments last week concerning how much freedom of speech a student is entitled to on social networks — and therefore whether the academic institution was justifiable in its actions of disciplining the student Amanda Tatro after she posted about her lab cadaver on Facebook.

Statements were written on her Facebook profile in 2009. Among the remarks were:

“Who knew embalming lab was so cathartic! I still want to stab a certain someone in the throat with a trocar though.”

A trocar is an instrument used to drain body cavities before it goes under the embalming process, and ‘a certain someone’, in the frequent practice of indirect and emotional Facebook statuses, was apparently a former boyfriend who had broken up with her the night before.

Among other messages, Tatro referenced her cadaver as ‘Bernie’, that she took out ‘aggression’ on the corpse, and she was ‘updating her Death List #5′ whilst hiding the instrument ‘under her sleeve’ during lab sessions. She expressed sadness at ‘losing her best friend Bernie’ and also implied she had stashed away a lock of his hair.

Once the university viewed the messages through another mortuary student’s reports, they disciplined her. Tatro’s grade dropped from a C+ to an F, she was made to enroll in an ethics course, write an apologetic letter and also has to undergo a psychiatric evaluation. Tatro was also placed on academic probation in the last year of study as an undergraduate.

The former student took the matter to the Court of Appeals, and after losing the case, asked the state Supreme Court to review it. The university wishes to defend its decision to discipline her; Tatro views the matter as a violation of her rights to free speech.

Tatro’s attorney, Jordan Kushner, stated that the student was off campus when the remarks were made, the cadaver was not identified by its true name, and no procedures were described in detail — something that student rules forbid. Therefore, “It would not be constitutionally reasonable for the university to restrict that speech,” according to Kushner.

It may have begun with a simple Facebook status update, but social networks are finding themselves more frequently being discussed in courts across the West. This is the first Facebook and First Amendment case that the Minnesota Supreme Court has reviewed, and has the potential to become a landmark case that could alter the current, blurred rules concerning social media and free speech rights.

This goes beyond academic prerogatives and Facebook — instead, this ruling could set a standard for how universities are able to punish students for activities off-campus. Due to this, both civil liberties and higher education groups have joined the battle, adding momentum to the fight. Filing support for each side, each viewpoint believes the case will have damaging side effects if the other wins.

To the former student and supportive civil liberty organisations, the case may define free student speech of campus — although in any terms, attempting to regulate every form of speech while a student is contractually bound to a university would be extremely difficult. Currently, no higher education groups have stated their support for the student.

The university and their backing higher education groups are more concerned over safety and professional standards, no matter where a code of conduct has been violated. If the academic institution lose the battle, it could mean that students cannot have their grades lowered or be punished for what is considered to be breaking codes of conduct if they are not on campus grounds.

The case will be decided within the next few months.

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]]> <![CDATA[15 niche search engines every student needs]]> While Google remains in a dominant position within the search engine market, and Amazon entices students with a user-friendly search for products, there are other services that can be useful tools for those currently studying.

Sometimes, it can be difficult to find something specific like an academic article on general search platforms, so consider using the roundup of search engines below to find particular content you need on the web.

1. Google Scholar

Google Scholar is a well-known and popular tool for students. By using this specialist search engine, students can find thousands of academic articles that can be read and cited for use in research papers and projects.

2. WorldCat

WorldCat connects online users to the collections and services of over 10,000 libraries worldwide. If your local library doesn’t have the book you desperately need for your essay, search here and see if there is a copy available nearby.

3. Highbeam

A nice addition to Google Scholar, this subscription service allows users to search through the web to find the article you’re looking for. It contains an online archive of academic articles, journals, magazine and newspaper excerpts.

4. iSeek

A resource aimed at students, teachers and education professionals, iSeek searches editor-reviewed content from universities, governments and noncommercial sources. It also includes a user rating system and dictionary to further refine your results.

5. Wikipedia

If you’re uncertain about a term or wish to find a particular piece of information quickly, then Wikipedia is a user-friendly and vast tool to use. It is a user-content based encyclopedia so references and citations should be found elsewhere to ensure validity.

5. Ojose

A science-based journal search engine which allows you to scan multiple databases using a single search query. The layout can take a while to get used to — but it remains a handy tool for researchers attempting to find somewhere to purchase a specific publication.

6. MetaGlossary

Stuck for the meaning of a word or acronym? You can use this free service to look up millions of phrases, and it comes with a Firefox plugin for quick access.

7. VADLO

This search engine is designed for those within the life sciences and biomedical industries. A user can search for protocols, products, Powerpoint presentations or bioinformatics on their chosen search term.

8. Dogpile

This search engine compiles Google, Yahoo and Bing results in to one search function. Dogpile collects the results returned from individual search engines, decides which are most relevant to your search, eliminates duplicates and reveals them to you.

9. Fandango

Fandango is a tool which indexes real-time updates concerning film times and movie slots in cinemas near you. It’s a popular search facility with over 1m likes on Facebook, and comes with a free app if you’d like to check times or book tickets online while mobile. It also hosts movie blogs, trailers and commentary on films.

10. Creative Commons

By using this Creative Commons search, a student can find images that hold the correct licenses for reproduction or editing. When plagiarism is on the rise and universities are taking the offence seriously enough that your degree could be in jeopardy or you may even be taken to court, it is a must to use a tool like this for your academic work.

11. YouTube

YouTube, the popular streaming service, can be used to find any number of media clips. Whether you are looking for an animated explanation of how online data is held, a ‘how-to’ guide in Adobe Creative Suite, or attempting to find information about an academic institution’s research project, it remains an excellent search and streaming service.

12. Shopzilla

Browse through this price comparison website by topic, or search directly for a particular item you wish to buy. To narrow your search results, you are able to select particular fields like the store brand and price range.

13. LastFM

Available free or on a subscription basis, this online music provider allows you to search for tracks that suit your tastes, or be able to listen through the ‘Audioscrobbler’ function, which recommends music based on previous account activity.

14. Technorati

Technorati is a real-time search engine that allows online users to search the blogosphere in particular by interest or phrase for news and stories. It also provides popularity ratings based on each piece of user-generated content.

15. BPubs

BPubs is a search facility that concentrates on business-related content and publications.

Image credit: C.Osborne, ZDNet

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]]> <![CDATA[How much are your skills worth in social media careers?]]> Social networks have permeated both digital industries and business in general; from finding a job through Twitter and LinkedIn, to using Facebook to promote a product or in order to broadcast news stories.

It is unsurprising that due to this change in the market, which is likely to be here to stay, that new job roles have been created to accommodate social media and maintain a competitive edge in business settings. Not only this, but you can now make a long-term career out of your knowledge of these networks — from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Google+ and Pinterest to name a few.

But what roles are currently available, and how much can you expect to earn? This infographic, produced by OnwardSearch, explores just how sharing and having knowledge of SEO, social networks and blogging can earn you a good wage in the future.

Based on your own experience, do you agree? Do you think the salaries, ranging from 14k to 177k are justifiable for a job role in social media?

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]]> <![CDATA[Apple joins forces with art college to provide student iPads]]> Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, have teamed up with Apple to provide their students with iPads to be used in the classroom.

In order to try and assist their students in preparing for an art and design industry which increasingly requires both creative and digital skills, the college has recently announced a new initiative for new students enrolling in fall 2012.

According to the press release, each student will be equipped with their own iPad 2 model, pre-equipped with a number of applications for use in their art and design classes. The students that will receive these devices must be enrolled on a BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) course.

“The iPad 2 will be a pivotal learning tool in the new Foundation curriculum where the integration of digital media and tools will be taught and used in tandem with traditional drawing and design media. We are proud to be the first art and design college to partner with Apple to provide iPad devices to all new BFA students,” says Moore President Happy Craven Fernandez. “This is an exciting opportunity to increase interactivity within the classroom and Moore community.”

The iPad 3 is currently under heavy speculation about the soon-to-be launch, however, it is unlikely that the college would opt for the newest model so soon after its release — which is likely to cost far more than the iPad 2 depending on the deal that has been struck between supplier and academic institution.

However, in conjunction with Apple’s recent updates to iTunes U and iBooks 2, we are likely to see more Apple technology being utilized in schools and colleges. It is not known exactly what the terms of bulk purchasing or the pricing agreements were between Apple and the college, but these kind of negotiations are what can bring the late Steve Job’s wish to revolutionize education to fruition.

Image credit: PR newswire

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]]> <![CDATA[Five memes that describe the student experience]]> Memes have risen in popularity of late; and a number of college-focused ‘meme groups’ have consequentially sprung up on Facebook and blogging platforms including Tumblr.

As a means of impersonal and satirical communication, you need only search the for the subject you want to view a meme for in Google to have pages spring up. Memes can be text-based; but generally follow a visual format of an image — or series of 4, known as ‘rage comics’ — and several words of text to tell a story.

However, which memes are currently popular among college students, and comment on their current lifestyles or prospects?

See the full collection: Gallery: Top picks in College memes

1.) Forever a loan


Image source: Leicester University memes

Whether it’s a short-term dip in to your student account’s overdraft, or the realization you now owe thousands of pounds to the government, loans are part and parcel of studying at university.

It’ll be a while before you’re back in the clear.

This image has been inspired by the ‘Forever alone’ Internet meme.

2.) Everyone has budget cuts.


Image source: University of Alberta memes

Academic institutions across the globe are facing budgetary restrictions, and students within the U.S. and UK are feeling the pinch by an increase in tuition fee levels. Yet, the increase in what students have to pay does not remove the need to tighten up many academic institutional budgets.

Even Hogwarts is having to cut back.

3.) Occupy? Anthropology students, rejoice!


Image source: Tumblr

If the global Occupy movement has achieved one thing, according to ‘Anthropology major fox’, many Anthropology majors now do not have to look far to find a topic worthy of their final year projects.

One university is even offering a course in the Occupy movement.

4.) Save money, and pirate a copy?


Image source: University of Sydney memes

Students often look for ways to cut corners and lower the expenses required of studying at university. One of these methods, perhaps gaining popularity as torrent software is used by a wider audience, is to download copies of academic publications rather than rent or buy them.

See also: Academic file-sharing spurred on by e-reader use?

5.) Troll face is pleased about tuition fee rises.


Image source: University of Concordia memes

Troll face is probably one of the most recognizable Internet memes. If you know you’re not going to be hit with yet another tuition-fee increase, you can indulge in some trolling and make sure everyone knows it.

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]]> <![CDATA[Can i(Pod) get you anything else?]]> A graduate from the University at Buffalo, New York has turned entrepreneur through one of the jobs many students turn to in funding their studies — waiting on tables.

Ansar Khan, who graduated in 2011, co-founded the company Refulgent Software with James O’Leary, a former UB student, in an attempt to make the job students often love to hate a little easier. The firm, based at the university’s Technology Incubator, now sells a restaurant management system that uses Apple technology to remove the need for paper tickets when serving.

The Ambur application is ‘designed for people who actually work in restaurants’ — making the often high-pressure job a little easier for many a waiter.

‘Ambur’ is an iPod, iPhone and iPad compatible app which serves as a ‘point of service’ system. The app was piloted while the creators both worked in Khan’s family restaurant.

“I didn’t like carrying around a notepad, and to have to constantly read what I scrawled,” Khan said. “Sometimes, I had to go back to the customer and ask what they had ordered because I wasn’t sure what I had written.”

By using the app, waiters are able to take an order through an iPod device and route them instantly to an iPad, which in turn transfers the information directly to a kitchen printer. By directing orders in this way, the waiting staff are able to save time as they do not have to visit a computer in order to log table orders.

The application is also able to split checks and process credit cards. Sales reports can be exported from the iPad in a variety of formats which can be read by accounting programs such as Quickbooks.

There is no monthly fee to use the Ambur app, and it costs $999 to purchase. So far, the reviews have been positive.

“People often say that starting a successful business at our age is impressive, but to us, it’s surprising how easy it was,” said O’Leary, who, like his business partner, is in his early 20s. “As long as you have an idea that fills a need for a group of people, and you execute that idea and get feedback on it, anyone can do it. We hope other students will see our example and try it themselves.”

Image credit: Refulgent Software

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]]> <![CDATA[UL, Drexel University partner to establish research hub]]> The University of Louisiana at Lafayette and the iSchool at Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pa. are coming together in order to open a high-tech research centre.

The collaboration has resulted in a national research centre designed for Visual and Decision Informatics (CVDI), officials from UL announced on Wednesday. The project has received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF), industry partners, and various governmental figures who are members of the CVDI. Matching university funds have also been awarded.

The CVDI will be one of only 16 current Computer Information and Engineering centres in the United States.

According to the release, the CVDI will “serve as a research hub in developing visual and decision support tools and techniques to enable decision makes in government and industry to fundamentally improve the way their organizations’ information is interpreted and analyzed.”

The centre’s goal is to promote, research and develop the next generation of visual tools, and also to assist governmental and industry bodies to improve information interpretation and analysis techniques — which is rapidly becoming more important in light of big data.

The scheme aims to promote a new kind of ‘decision making environment’, which will help those involved in commercial systems to gain and analyze data in particular ways. This applies to many industries — from computer science and heathcare, to finance and business analysis.

By focusing on research in the fields of Information Visualization, Visual Analytics and Automated Analysis, CVDI aims to be one of the specialist organisations that delivers state-of-the-art developments to relevant industries.

The individual goals of the centre are as follows:

  • To accelerate the creation and transfer of knowledge and technology to commercial products;
  • To research the technologies and resources required by those in the field of Visual and Decision Informatics;
  • To educate students in this field, and provide a future workforce of students qualified to work in informatics.

“Together, we are solving problems that will address our national priorities in innovation, entrepreneurship, economic development and workforce development,” Robert Twilley, UL’s vice president for research, said within the release.

Solutions are likely to become welcome in light of the emergence of big data, and assist industry players in how businesses can learn to harness and cope with the concept. This partnership will be the first time that a Louisiana university has been designated as a NSF Industry / University Cooperative Research Center, and is the only one currently that will focus specifically on visual and decision informatics research.

Image: CNET

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]]> <![CDATA[Columbia University excludes Google Docs]]> Columbia University is unable to adopt Google Docs when it makes the transition from outdated CubMail to Gmail services.

According to the Columbia Spectator, the focal issue that is preventing the university from making a full transition to the document reader service is that Google Docs is incompatible with certain screen-reading technologies that are used to assist the blind or individuals with limited sight.

An email sent from Melissa Metz, director of systems engineering, email, and databases with Columbia University Information Technology said:

“Google Docs uses advanced HTML that does not function well with most screen reader applications. While using Docs might be possible for students with disabilities, it would be challenging compared to, for example, opening desktop documents like Microsoft Word or using collaboration tools like New CourseWorks.”

The infrastructure behind CubMail, Gmail, and Google Calendar are all fully compatible with other systems that can be used with screen reader devices; including Outlook and Thunderbird.

However, screen readers often pose a difficulty for Google Documents due to the nature of the service — to allow realtime collaboration, it reloads itself continually, and so the toolbars and text cannot be read correctly by these sight aids. The reader may not be able to voice elements such as checkboxes, or give the user enough information about the contents of a button.

The new email system will be gradually rolled out and Columbia University expects that its undergraduate students will have access by December — without the addition of Google Docs. There is also speculation that this incompatibility may mean that the program itself is not compliant with the  1990s Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).

There have been previous cases of complaints filed against academic institutions that utilize Google Docs on campus, citing that the adoption of technology which will be inaccessible to groups that are visually impaired can be seen as discriminatory.  New York University is one of the institutions that were filed against last year.

Metz says that the software’s current level of compatibility is not high enough for Columbia to accept, but the academic institution is open to the possibility of integrating it in the future if the issue is resolved to a high enough standard for its visually impaired students and staff:

“We will continue to evaluate Google Docs’ accessibility, and if it changes, we will consider adding Docs to our environment, as the application would certainly add some great functionality.”

Image credit: C.Osborne

(via The Columbia Spectator)

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]]> <![CDATA[Father puts .45 through teen daughter's laptop over Facebook post]]> After a 15 year-old U.S. teenager wrote an angry note about her parents but hidden from them on a social networking site, the girl’s father took matters into his own hands to teach her a lesson in online etiquette.

The teen’s father managed to take the ‘To my parents’ note off his daughter’s Facebook wall. Reading it, the note ranted about how she ‘was not their slave’ and ‘we have a cleaning lady for a reason’. She should also not have to get a job, and ‘you could just pay me for all the s*** I do around the house’.

The father, Tommy Jordan, who apparently works in Information Technology, decided to take a novel approach to parenting after his daughter wrote this letter on her Facebook profile and attempted to hide it from his notice.

To skip to the punishment, jump to 7 minutes in.

The YouTube video’s description states:

“My daughter thought it would be funny/rebellious/cool to post on her Facebook wall just how upset she was and how unfair her life here is; how we work her too hard with chores, never pay her for chores, and just in general make her life difficult [..]

Maybe a few kids can take something away from this… If you’re so disrespectful to your parents and yourself as to post this kind of thing on Facebook, you’re deserving of some tough love. Today, my daughter is getting a dose of tough love.”

After finding the note, and having warned his daughter over a previous incident, the enraged father pulled out his .45 gun and blasted a round of bullets in to the machine.

In reponse to the media and various reactions this video has caused after going viral, Jordan posted on his own Facebook profile concerning what his daughter will learn from this experience:

The last time she did something completely inappropriate, she was grounded from the Internet for three months. The very day she got it back we had a nice long amicable talk about what was and was not acceptable and that I wanted her to have a chance to prove she was responsible enough to utilize the internet unsupervised.. by exercising her renewed freedom in a responsible way.

The point of this being that proving you can be trusted to be responsible in one venue can lead to increased freedoms in other venues. I ended that conversation with a warning. I told her if no uncertain terms that we had already taken it away from her once. The next time, there wouldn’t be the same chance. If it happened again, “I’ll put a bullet through it.”

For the Facebook reactions, click here.

Whether the YouTube video, titled ‘Facebook Parenting: For the troubled teen’ is real or not, it’s certainly an interesting way to teach your children about what is acceptable to post online.

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