Henry Ekwuruke asks
Is money an important vehicle for invention and innovation in science and technology research?He asserts that there is :
the need to adequately fund research without unfairly compromising invention and innovation,this is why money is such a complicated component of any scientific and technological development.
Zeky Al Drobe writing SciDev:
Syrian academics are hailing a scheme to nurture inventors a success following a string of patent applications and international prizes for their students' work.The Science of Invention and Development (SID) Team in Syrian Universities has been running for more than a decade and aims to train Master's students and graduates on how to be inventors in their chosen fields...Osama Alchiekh, one of the team's main trainers, said that the 2010 course was the eighth since the initiative began in 1997. He said that SID is a mentoring programme rather than just a training course. "The trainers work hand-in-hand with the trainees to develop their inventions, as we are all science researchers."Fikrat Almahdi, manager of the invention office in Albaath University, said the SID team focuses on breaking the students' stereotypical thinking, which builds up from accumulating information but not using it...[continue reading]
"Most investment funds that have been set up in the social/impact spaces (i.e. Impact50) are focused on mezzanine and growth stage investments (in other words: if you are already making money, we may invest our money; if you are not, then you are too early)"- Laurie Lane-Zucker
If you combine that fact with the undeniable requirements for investments in risky endeavors, especially when challenges require invention and innovation, you can see not just the Ponzi scheme but a nearsighted lens on executing the hard stuff. Hard stuff is not just collecting information on a mobile phone about health, it's about creating that diagnostic or treatment device for you to do something about it in the first place. Hard stuff is not just creating a super mashed up version of a business model that assumes social entrepreneurs actually enjoy a strange lifestyle that combines exotic conference locations with a struggle-pay-their-student-loan lifestyle. Hard stuff is investing in the SE startup facing the reality that the co-founders have 10 different options in the non-SE space that will be meaningless, yet investible. The hard stuff makes an impact and it's a road worth travelling. We're just going to have to find better vehicles than Cinderella pumpkins.More here
Speaking at the Pan-African Women Invent and Innovative (PAWII) Exhibition Hajia Alima Mahama stated that "...Several trends in global restructuring present challenge for African women in particular, challenges of competitive pressures of globalisation, rapid changes in technology and emerging dominant pressures of IT...it is most appropriate as it (GWIIN) provides a platform to showcase and market ideas, innovations and inventions initiated and implemented by women in Africa who contribute immensely to the socio economic development of their countries...This potential is largely constrained and their ingenuity mostly go unnoticed and un-rewarded..."
iPadApps-DigitalLearningFarm.jpg
Incredible resource to find apps. This is from Silvia Tolisano as a digital apps farm for learning. It includes apps, websites, tools. Pretty ubiquitous tools but some specifically ipad/iphone.
FutureMe.org: Write a Letter to the Future
Email letters to yourself to remind you do to things. You can also write a letter to the future. All kinds of fascinating uses for this app and website.
Academic Earth | Online Courses | Academic Video Lectures
Named a top website in education, academic earth aggregates open content of all kinds into courses. Of the best use, I think, are the ratings that let you see the best lectures, etc. To subscribe to the best lectures in your field as a sort of podcast would be powerful.
So, now the best professors have the potential to have their message taken around the world.
behindEars: Education Resources
Very nice listing of open education resources for those of you looking for opencourseware. How long till schools start using these sites as their curriculum?
Rethinking How We Learn To Play Music With Innovative Software @PSFK
So many things are being rethought in teaching including how we teach music. The new "playground sessions" from Zag invention is a system that uses gaming, popular songs, and the idea of play to improve musical ability. It sounds great but we'll have to see how well it is implemented. Never underestimate the power of a powerful app.
Five free Kindle Fire apps everyone should sideload | ExtremeTech
Dropbox tops this list from extremetech of the 5 free Kindle fire apps that owners of the hot new tablet should download. Dropbox rocks every platform because it is the glue that links us together -- much more ubiquitous than icloud, they must just have the killer app.
100 best Android apps (hat tip to Theresa Allen) if you have android, take a look here.
New RockMelt socializes Chrome's Omnibox, new tabs | The Download Blog - Download.com
Rock melt is still there. The social web browser with all kinds of sharing and Facebook goodness is now at Beta 5. rockMelt as a browser is used an overage of 7 hours per day and 60% of the users are under 25. I only use it when I'm feeling social as chats come up all the time. Interesting browser and worth a try if you stay up on this. It will be blocked for most schools that limit access to social media sites but what if you could have a built in portal like this linking you to your education networks?
Gube Curates Kid-Safe YouTube Videos for iOS
Another website (this one reviewed by lifehacker) for giving kid-friendly access to Youtube. There is a cost. Gube is $3.99 one time. (Some services have monthly costs.)
A new website that matches events with your personality type. Of interest is how you can find self improvement events. what happens when such a site takes educational activities and recommends matches. Interesting concept.
New Dropbox for Android improves productivity - AGBeat
Nice tour of dropbox for android which has a lot of new features Android users will love.
Cell and Cell Structure | Educational iPad App for Middle-School
The website for cell and cell structure. This looks like a phenomenal app. How long till textbook companies will start grabbing these apps and integrating them into their books? This is an ipad only app. It is not free but because of the strong review is being included for you to review.
Cell and Cell Structure by Punflay.
This reviewer says that it is an "essential app for high school and university level life science classes." Costs $1.99 but got a 5 star rating.
Easy Classroom Polling For Teachers and Students | ClassPager
This is an easy, private, free, polling system used by cell phone expert Liz Kolb. With her thoughts on this, I'm willing to plan it in during January.
From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning: ClassPager for SMS and Polling Students!
Liz Kolb is using Class pager, a free tool that lets you create class alerts. There is no limit of students or parents for this private service. What is so cool is that you can also have free text polls. If you have an ipod touch you can use one of their free texting apps to interact with it as well. Here is Liz's review of the app.
15 Free Charlie Chaplin Films Online | Open Culture
Charlie Chaplin was a film icon of the silent film era. I grew up watching these films when they were really films on a reel in the dining room. Now you can download these 15 free films from online. I showed some of these to my children just so they'd understand this small part of culture.
When I taught digital film, I had the students create their own silent film and then add sound effects and musical scores so they could see the impact that sound has on their film.
Tizi app turns your iPhone into a pricey iPad remote, enlists Siri for channel surfing -- Engadget
Further reinforcing the fact that ipads are becoming screens of choice. the Tizi app is a remote control for your ipad. So, if you have an ipad in your room hooked up to the projector, and want to control your ipad via your ipod touch or iphone, this app is for you. (We really don't know how these things will be used, do we?)
The last time our nation had such a progressive President was back when FDR ran the US through the Great Depression, and not surprisingly, that's the last time we had a recession last this long and this deep. It was during the 1930's that communism and fascism were popular around the world. And it was during this time when the Republicans were discredited by the trauma of the stock market collapse and the start of the Depression, and so Democrats under FDR could put in place all of their progressive policies.
At one time, I thought the 1930's were at the root of all that is wrong about America, and compiled a list of all of the laws and taxes and liberal decisions passed during that time. For history's sake, here is that list:
Unemployment Compensation Tax (MI), 1936
Oil and Gas Severance Tax (MI), 1929
Horse Race Wagering Tax, (MI), 1933
Sales Tax (MI), 1933
Use Tax (MI), 1937
Beer Tax (MI), 1933
Wine Tax (MI), 1933
Intangibles Tax (MI), 1939
Commercial Forest Tax (MI), 1925
Gasoline Tax (MI), 1925
Diesel Fuel Tax (MI), 1947
Motor Carriers Privilege Tax (MI), 1923
Aviation Gasoline Tax (MI), 1929
Aircraft Weight Tax (MI), 1923
Employment Security Act (MI), 1936
Social Security Act (USA), 1935
Wagner-Peyser Act (USA), 1933
Fair Labor Standards Act (USA), 1938
US v Miller (US Supreme Court), 1939
National Firearms Act (USA), 1934
Federal Reserve Act (USA), 1913
Motor Carrier Act (MI), 1933
Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act (USA), 1930
Crime Control Laws (USA), 1934
Hoover Tax Hike (USA), 1932
Amendment 16 (USA), 1913
Amendment 17 (USA), 1913
Baron-Davis Act (USA), 1931
National Labor Relations Act (USA), 1935
Walsh-Healy Act (USA), 1936
Copeland Act (USA), 1934
Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (USA), 1938
Michigan Labor Unions, Act 176 of 1939 (MI), 1939
Private Schools, Act 302 of 1921 (MI), 1921
Insurance Regulation, Act 66 (MI), 1933
Regulation of Hospitals, Act 108/109 (MI), 1939
Roosevelt moves traditional Thanksgiving Day, 1939
Regulating Firearms, Act 373 (MI), 1927
Liquor Control Act, PA 8 (MI), 1933
Sidewalk Regulation, Act 246 (MI), 1931
Government ownership of sewers, Act 316 (MI), 1931
US moves off gold standard, 1933
Ownership of private gold now a crime, 1933
State Printing Act, Act 153 (MI), 1937
Look through that list and think of how much America was changed by one generation, by one President, by one party, by one decade (mostly). What the heck happened to allow that? The rise and influence of communism and fascism? Trauma from WWI? Some sort of generational cycle? Did something happen to the children in 1900 so they were fools when they came to power in the 1930's? Was it just Great Depression freak out? The lack of expansion of our borders? The rise and feminization of society? Some new invention? A religious movement? Something in the water? Email me if you have any theories.
In SciDev Linda Nordling asks "Does Africa really need new idealism?" in its innovation policy.Commenting on a recent 'Knowledge Swaraj' manifesto which:
...suggests countries establish 'innovation fora' to debate technology investments and choices more broadly. And it wants funding for scientific 'centres of excellence' to give way to support for science that addresses local needs.In addition it:
...will go a step further in promoting the 'domestication' of science in Africa, says ATPS executive director, Kevin Urama.He says that Africa's confidence in its own science — traditional knowledge — dropped with colonialism and the arrival of Western science traditions. He argues that this cultural loss underpins Western-sponsored science's inability to improve the lives of ordinary Africans.More here
Tyler Perry's dependency dig at Spike lee "We do not have to wait for someone to green light our projects, we can create our own intersections."(echoes of Nollywood vs FESPACO?) via TechMasai
How Menes Zenawi continues to strangle Ethiopia-Economist
Senegal plans first bond offering-WSJ
Contributions to Science, Invention and Technology-Africa Within via African Executive
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Dibussi Tande writes in African Path about the impact of educational systems that do not foster ingenuity,resourcefulness and invention amongst other things.Quoting the World Bank:
The ability of a society to produce, select, adapt, commercialize, and use knowledge is critical for sustained economic growth and improved living standards. Knowledge has become the most important factor in economic development.And comparing Cameroon to India
Today Cameroon is where India was some two decades ago – and it has the potential to become what India (or even Mauritius) is today. However, unlike India, Cameroon is crippled by the “civil service mentality”, and it lacks a crop of creative economic and political visionaries similar to those who transformed Bangalore from a sleepy backwater Indian town into an IT outsourcing and software Mecca.He alludes to a point made in the The Entrepreneur
Nowhere has that absence of vision been most manifested than in the country’s higher education system which was established primarily to train administrators for the post colonial government. Time has not changed the focus of Cameroon’s higher education system even as the world has moved on.
The deficit of knowledge and learning is killing Cameroon and Africa softly. Despite a proliferation of schools and colleges, the lack of true learning and creativity has held the African captive to underdevelopment. In Cameroon we have graduates who are just producing what they were taught in school, instead of producing new things…This has left Cameroon with millions of qualified illiterates and graduates who are failures as far as life and service is concerned. A Master's degree holder moves with little or no creativity. Thousands of poorly educated Cameroonians only wait for opportunities to work where others have worked. Few are involved in the creation of new things. The outdated education they received then gives birth to confusion.And brings to our attention a critical piece of analysis by Jeremy Weate on his observations about Nigeria.
The longer I live here, the more I realize that technological interventions or money pumped in by donors will do little to transform, unless there is a primary focus on business processes (whether in the commercial or the public sector)… Nigerians enjoy the benefits of cars, laptops, mobile phones and other modern technology, but live in a society which does not understand the discipline and rigour it takes to produce such technology. This creates an alienated culture where technology and modern industrial processes are seen as a mystery. No one seems to be able to solve the aviation crisis. No one seems to be able to create value-added manufacturing processes; no one seems to stem the tide of an import-economy, turning into an export-economy. So few technological interventions (in any sector) meet with any kind of success.
U.S. judge feels that Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 infringes on Apple patents | PhoneDog
Galaxy tab infringes on Apple's patent, a judge says as she holds up the two devices from 10 feet away and asks Samsung lawyers to identify which is their client's product.
RIP, Flash (and Sliverlight, too) | TechPinions
Microsoft leaves Flash and Sliverlight in IE10 - the browser for Windows 8 in lieu of HTML 5. I guess Microsoft is now following Apple's lead.
Hellotxt -- Organize your life online...
Interesting service that pulls together all of your networks and posts to them. Just remember that Facebook and some other services make posts from third party services to lower priority and they don't go on as many streams.Interesting service.
Open source microblogging platform intended to be an alternative to Twitter. Looks like schools or businesses could install this for internal use. Somefascinating applications.
Can a Lack of Sleep Set Back Your Child's Cognitive Abilities? -- New York Magazine
Please tell parents that even losing an hour of sleep will impair their children.
"The performance gap caused by an hour’s difference in sleep was bigger than the normal gap between a fourth-grader and a sixth-grader. Which is another way of saying that a slightly sleepy sixth-grader will perform in class like a mere fourth-grader. “A loss of one hour of sleep is equivalent to [the loss of] two years of cognitive maturation and development,” Sadeh explains."
Suzie Nestico is our project manager for this semester's Flat Classroom project and is doing an incredible job. She is a history teacher and is doing work at her Pennsylvania school to align everything with common core.Here,you can see her transparency with her students about each aspect of the FlatClassroom project, what they are doing, and how those things are aligned with what they need to know. While she very humbly pointed out to me that her blog is just beginning and still a work in process with some things to iron out - it is a great example of how global collaboration, common core, and core courses can go hand in hand.
Scott Shane's research on university spin-offs highlights their criticality to the entrepreneurship-innovation space:
Drawing from his seven years of research, Shane—who is also Case's academic director for the Center for Regional Economic Issues, a group that ignites new ideas to boost at economic development—defines the university spinoff as a company founded to exploit the intellectual property created in the academic setting.As he tracked the rise of these ventures, Shane found that university spinoffs are remarkably high-performing companies. His research shows that a spinoff from a typical university is 108 times as likely to go public as the average new company.
He also uncovered that most university inventions are embryonic stage, or what he describes as two stages before the traditional venture capital seed stage. He found that transforming the invention into a commercial new product or service takes an average of $4 million in investments—and as much as four years of additional development beyond the university findings.The spawning of these companies has impact on local and national economies, benefits to society and the university's ability to raise income and move forward its teaching and research missions...[continue reading]
On the right sidebar of my blog (under a 'Donate' button) I have a description of Bizarro World, also known as Htrae, which is a fictional planet in the DC comics universe. Htrae is home to Bizarro and his companions, who are ruled by the Bizarro Code, which states that you should do the opposite of everything.
For example, if a past US President was actually a forward-thinking President who embraced new technology, a resident of Bizarro world would give a speech suggesting that this President was the opposite of that. Like President Obama just did:
President Obama got a laugh out of a Maryland audience on Thursday when he mocked the Republican Party in a speech, comparing their skepticism of alternative energy to the “Flat Earth Society” in Christopher Columbus’ day and President Rutherford B. Hayes’ apparent dismissal of the telephone. But while Obama thinks the GOP is in need of a science lesson, he may need to bone up on history himself.President Obama was suggesting that Republicans are anti-technology for opposing windmills and not supporting railroads and and for denying that the globe is rapidly rising in temperature because of actions of mankind, and attempting to make his point by comparing the Republicans of today to past backwardness. But as usual, the reality is the exact opposite of everything that he said.
In mocking the GOP, Obama cited an anecdote about Hayes in which, upon using the telephone for the first time, he said, “It’s a great invention, but who would ever want to use one?”
But Nan Card, curator of manuscripts at the Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center in Ohio, told TPM that the nation’s 19th president was being unfairly tagged as a Luddite.
“He really was the opposite,” she said. “He had the first telephone in the White House. He also had the first typewriter in the White House. Thomas Edison came to the White House as well and displayed the phonograph. Photographing people who came to the White House and visited at dinners and receptions was also very important to him.”...
....“He was pretty technology-oriented for the time,” Card said. “Between the telephone, the telegraph, the phonograph and photography, I think he was pretty much on the cutting edge.”...
This app lets you control cad and 3d environments like Google Sketchup. Really, the Ipad is now an interface with your regular computer and it is only beginning. The Maide video is definitely worth a watch and if you do anything with 3D design or CAD, this is worth a look.
Bjork releases an album along with 3D images in an app for the ipad. This is how artists and music are evolving. It is the first of its kind. Interesting. I'm sending this to our Flat Classroom students as they study how technology is impacting arts, entertainment, and leisure. This would make a fascinating video.
"...When men are free to develop their self-interest, when they are free to use their minds in pursuit of what will make them happy, better their lives the wonderful creativity of the mind glows...the mind is the incubator of prosperity it is a costly ignorance to subject it to any form of coercion, as such coercion will paralyse productivity. The system of free minds, freemen and free market is a system of prosperity, growth and wealth creation...Wealth is actually created when enterprising individuals discover new ways to use existing resources. Since the possibilities of human creativity is infinite, then wealth too must be limitless. One idea leads to the next so one invention leads to the other.via IPPA
The amount of wealth a nation has or produces does not depend mainly on the availability of natural resources, instead it is dependent upon human resources, the self-determined thoughts and creativity of its populace. The realization that natural resources does not limit creation of wealth is a very liberating one. For instance Switzerland and Japan have little or no mineral resources, while Nigeria and Mexico are greatly endowed with mineral resources, yet people in Switzerland and Japan are more comfortable that those in Nigeria and Mexico..."
In a Guardian review of Richard Dowden's Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles John Ryle calls for a halt to generalizations:
People shouldn't write books about Africa. Not the whole of Africa. When was the last time you read a book about Eurasia? Never. The vastness of the European-Asian landmass precludes useful generalisation. And Africa is just as various, if not quite as huge. There are almost as many countries, rather more languages and a comparable degree of environmental diversity...In an important sense, "Africa" is a western invention. Despite attempts by visionaries to promote unity among the states that inherited dominion from Europe's retreating empires, African politicians have never paid anything more than lip-service to the pan-African ideal. African writers have an uphill task reclaiming the term "Africa" from the mythic associations it has in western literature. Most of these writers don't write about continental aspirations but about the worlds within a single country, leaving generalisations to World Bank experts, grandstanding politicians and Hollywood stars...[continue reading]
So what's holding back all these African innovations?Continuing:
One thing is ideology. There is a general assumption, mostly informed by some economic theories, that, if the market is right, innovations will simply emerge and diffuse without requiring government support. And so the focus has been on liberalising economic systems and markets in the hope that innovations would just emerge on their own.
But we know, in fact, that innovations don't just emerge — they are a product of deliberate private and public support systems which help them to move from the lab to the market place. They include institutions such as venture capital, technology development agencies to improve the technologies, and institutions that guarantee that those innovations are safe.
Who should be creating those institutions?
That's something that has to be done by African governments themselves by legislation...We wanted to promote a culture of creativity so young people could see what had been patented and be inspired to develop their own ideas.
Report calls for investments in STEM education, broadband - The Hill's Hillicon Valley
New report just released from the US Commerce Department this past Friday. You can expect even more investment in STEM.
“Underinvestment in sectors like STEM education, high-tech research, and 21st century infrastructure has diminished the nation’s competitive edge. Sustained federal investment in these sectors will not just help grow today’s economy, but it will also lay the groundwork for generations to come.”
Seth's Blog: Simple thoughts about fair use
Seth Godin writes about fair use. Whether you claim fair use or not, give credit. That is the right thing to do.
I'm glad all of these organizations have received money to recruit and retain women in computing and technology fields of studies, but I sure would like to see some online initiatives, campaigns, and social media type things being done. This approach seems a bit traditional to me.
35% of Child Sex Abuse Caused by Minors - TIME
We have a hidden problem. Is it lack of supervision? How is it that 1/3 of sexual abuse of children is by other children?
"Recent high-profile cases of child sex abuse have roused national revulsion against the adults who perpetrated them. Rarely mentioned is the sobering statistic that more than one-third of the sexual abuse of America's children is committed by other minors."
Time Magazine
The Human Anatomy, Animated With 3-D Technology - NYTimes.com
NYU Medical students wear 3-D glasses and dissect a virtual cadaver projected on a screen. The professor says "it's like a living digital textbook." I do, however, really hope my doctors have experience with the human body and don't do like a kid who has practiced basketball and never played in the game - bumble the ball as they start. No one wants to be a practice dummy - in this case a practice cadaver.
Yet, do you realize that we could now add human dissection to anatomy class? In 3D you could dissect the human body? There are very exciting things coming in this area.
CBAL ELA Competency Model and Provisional Learning Progressions - home
This is interesting. ETS has launched a website about:
"Educational Testing Service (ETS), the world's leading measurement and research organization, has launched a new website to stimulate discussion, debate, and promote empirical research to help teachers and students meet the goals of the English language arts (ELA) Common Core State Standards." but this is most definitely a wiki (looks like wikispaces.) I find it fascinating that a company would use a wiki because so many have resisted this. I wonder who can join and who can edit. Interesting.
It says you can join. It will be interesting to see what they are doing with this. Perhaps some of you common core experts should join.
Mystery Apple event to focus on education, iTunes U, digital publishing? | ZDNet
The end of this month we'll get a new kind of Apple for the teacher. Apple has a big event planned in New York (publisher central) that is rumored to talk about iTunes University, and textbook publishing. It willbe big news as this is a topic that is said to have been "dear to Steve Jobs."
Kno Adds 15 Publishers to its Catalogue -- THE Journal
Textbook app, Kno, adds more publishers to the app.
The publishers include a range of diverging specialties, from humanities publisher Hackett to scholarly publishers such as The MIT Press, University of Nebraska Press, and Indiana University Press as well as more general publishers and Norton Publishing, producers of the long-time campus standby Norton Anthologies. Other recent additions include Morton Publishing, Oklahoma Career Tech, Berrett-Koehler Publishers, and AVA Books.
Alfie Kohn: The Risks and Potential of Required Community Service
Requiring community service. I do this in National Honor Society. They have a certain number of hours to earn, however, they choose what they do. Serving and helping others is part of what we do. However, I see the points he makes in this article, particularly if a competition or reward is put in place.
Tom Vander Ark: How Intelligent Scoring Will Create an Intelligent System
Yesterday a competition to improve automatic scoring of essays kicked off and computer scientists are invited to join the competition to "best well known testing firms including AIR, CTMMcGraw-Hill, ETS,and Pearson." The Open competition runs through april.
This is an effort to grade essays without a human grader involved.Personally, to me, writing implies audience and to not have a human read the writing of these students is problematic to me.
Here we go again: Congress considers blocking government's open access policy
Publishers don't like the Federal government's open access policy that requires that research funded by government-sponsored grants be released to the general public a year after publication. I cannot believe how the publishers are continuing to try to shut down the flow of information. This is as infuriating as SOPA.
Make a Local Backup Of Your Gmail Account - Wired How-To Wiki
How to make a backup of your gmail account. (I may have to do this to archive old emails as I am beginning to get a full inbox. Just don't know that I need things from 2007.)
