Education
Debating how to draw talent into technical fields
The US is graduating fewer and fewer scientists and engineers, and concern is growing about how to deal with the falloff. TechCrunch has posted a debate between two experts on the best approach to attracting more talent.
While many people agree this is a problem, not everyone agrees on what should be done about it. [...]
Princeton report card on Kindle in the classroom
Princeton University has been using Amazon’s Kindle in the classroom as an experiment. An assessment has been posted and the results are mixed:
Managers of Princeton University’s semester-long pilot of the Amazon KindleDX electronic reader are calling the project a success, with results showing that student participants reduced the amount of paper they used to print [...]
University lectures on the Internet
You can stay right at home and still enjoy hearing lectures from some of the best minds in the world. Many top-ranked universities are placing material on the Internet. I mention this from time to time because I think it is an opportunity you shouldn’t miss. Here are some more links:
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)One [...]
Lectures by Richard Feynman
This post hasn’t much to do with computers and I hope you’ll forgive me this personal indulgence. It’s about some online lectures by the famous physicist Richard Feynman. Feynman was already a legend in scientific circles when I was a graduate student. He wasn’t a personal acquaintance but I did attend several of his presentations [...]
Site for bird lovers
When I was young I was an avid bird watcher. Limited mobility now puts a crimp in such activity but I can still enjoy birds through Web sites such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. You can enjoy the sounds of birds at a number of sites but Cornell has an extensive collection of clips [...]
The world of learning at your fingertips
One of the rich resources on the Internet is the collection of free university courses that are available. Open Culture lists 250 Free Online Courses from Top Universities. This is only one example of the revolution in the availability of knowledge. In his Computerworld blog, Mike Elgan discusses how the spread of knowledge is changing [...]
The dangers of tailoring your news
A lot of people use some form of aggregator to collect Internet stories and posts on those subjects that concern them. And that’s all they read. At first it sounds like a good idea; tailor your searches and news sources to reflect your particular interests. There’s just too much information on the Internet so aggregating [...]
Internet safety to be taught in British schools
In a move that other countries should follow, the British are going to teach Internet safety to school children. Neowin reports:
Lessons in how to use the Internet safely are to become a compulsory part of primary school education in England from 2011. Drawn up by the new UK Council on Child Internet Safety, the plans [...]
How your CPU works
This won’t be everybody’s cup of tea but, if you are curious about how a computer does what it does, here’s a link that explains how the arithmetic unit of a CPU works.
In simplest terms, a computer is an adding machine together with simple logic functions that can choose different operations depending on whether [...]
Attenborough nature films online
The naturalist David Attenborough has been making excellent TV programs for BBC for years. Now his selection of 50 of his most memorable natural history moments is available on the Web. A description of some of the material is at this BBC blog.
Free eBooks
Do you like to read or download books in digital format? Maybe you have a Kindle but then maybe you prefer free books. For free books, here is a TechSupportAlert site with a list of 193 sites that legally offer free books (eBooks) for download or for online viewing.
