Affichage des articles dont le libellé est students. Afficher tous les articles
Affichage des articles dont le libellé est students. Afficher tous les articles
mardi 10 avril 2012
Intel Releases Rugged Education Tablet for the Developing World
The Intel studybook is built to be both a rigorous education tool and a sturdy playmate. It comes loaded with Intel’s Learning Series software, including an interactive ereader and LabCam applications. The rugged water and dust-proof design is constructed from a single piece of plastic, with shock absorbers surrounding the screen. It’s also drop tested from 70 centimeters, the height of a child’s desk, onto concrete.
“Students today live in a virtual world and this device can give a valid scientific experience for students in emerging economies, ” says Wayne Grant, director of research and planning for Intel’s Education Market Platforms Group, as he throws the tablet across the table to demonstrate its robustness. “Representations of knowledge are changing. Tools are now based in tablet environments.”
The tablet has a 7-inch screen, 1060 x 600 pixel resolution, and can run either Windows 7 or Android Honeycomb software. Some additional features include front and rear-facing cameras, a microphone, multi-touch LCD screen, light sensor support and mobile learning environment. It runs on an Intel Atom Z650 processor.
“The tablet is not prescriptive,” Grant says, “Here’s the tool, go discover the world.”
More than 7 million children in more than 2,000 classrooms in 36 countries around the world currently use Intel classmate PCs.
“An Intel studybook offers students limitless opportunities to enhance their learning experience,” says Kapil Wadhera, general manager of Intel’s Education Market Platform Group. “Expanding the Intel Learning Series portfolio of affordable, purpose-built educational devices brings us closer to our vision of enabling more students and teachers to participate in high quality education.”
To improve the classroom environment, the Intel Learning Series also added Teacher PC criteria for Ultrabook and Notebook systems. The criteria is created with the goal of keeping teachers up to speed with the new tools.
A recent study showed that One Laptop Per Child, another rugged classroom PC innovator, did not increase language and math test scores in the classrooms where laptops were used. This gap, the study found, is due to insufficient teacher training with the new technologies.
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mercredi 29 février 2012
Use Facebook While Studying, Get Lower Grades
The study — which controlled for demographics, high school GPA, internet skills and amount of study time — asked 1,624 students at a four-year university about their multitasking habits.
The study included questions about how often students IM, email, search and talk during study time, but only Facebook and texting ultimately correlated with a lower GPA. There was no relationship between grades and using other technologies while studying.
Scientists already know that the brain isn’t capable of successful multitasking. “Human information processing is insufficient for attending to multiple input streams and for performing simultaneous tasks,” write the study’s authors Reynol Junco and Shelia R. Cotton.
Previous studies have determined, for instance, that driving while talking on a cell phone can have more of an impact on driving performance than alcohol does. Even simply walking and talking on the phone at the same time can throw our brain off of its game.
In other words, one would think that any multitasking during study time — not just using Facebook and texting — would have a negative impact on grades.
Junco suggests the difference might have something to do with how students are using different technologies. Students may be more likely to email professors and search out of academic curiosity than to socialize through email or search, while they’re unlikely to text message their teaching assistants for homework help.
“It could be that students with lower grades just happen to do more Facebook and texting,” Junco tells Mashable. “But I think this study in the context of other research does seem to show that it is about what they’re doing while they study and not the other way around.”
On average, students in the study sent 97 text messages and spent 101 minutes on Facebook every day. Junco doesn’t think that they’ll leave either technology behind, but in his own classes at Lock Haven University he encourages students to think about how they use them.
“What I tell them is, ‘look, you’re going to sit down to study anyway,” he says. “You might as well make it the most efficient use of your time.’”
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vendredi 10 février 2012
9 Ways Students Can Use Social Media to Boost Their Careers
If you’re a Generation X-er or older, you likely use social media to cut it in the real world. You may also use social networks for personal reasons, but it’s always with the understanding that you’re a professional.
But newer generations of college graduates began their social media experience as a very personal one. And the shift to using social media for career development may seem optional. But it’s a necessary evil at the very least, and can actually be quite beneficial to your future at the very best.
Here are a few things students should consider when starting to use social media professionally.
1. It’s Not the Same
Most teens and young adults have used social media to connect directly to friends and share personal experiences casual conversations with their networks. Yet interacting on social networks with an eye toward your career is different than doing so for purely personal reasons.
Using social media for professional purposes doesn’t mean you have to give that up. In fact, oftentimes it makes a person come across as more genuine and more approachable. But refining your language, highlighting content and information that’s more career-focused, and connecting and conversing with more people outside your immediate group of friends signifies that you’re interested in more than just the personal.
2. Power in Connections
Social networks offer endless ways to connect with a wide-range of people with little effort and to organize those connections — through lists, circles or groups — so you can use them more effectively.
Build each network to create relationships that can be nurtured through interaction and conversation. By cultivating and organizing the network you create, you’ll be more effectively able to act upon professional opportunities.
3. It Can Help You Find a Job
Beyond the ability to connect and converse with people and groups from a professional standpoint, social media can actually help you find that job. Nearly every social networking site posts loads of job opportunities.
Less obvious, but perhaps more effective, is the ability to connect directly to the brands you’d love to work for, as well as the people behind those brands. While you keep your eyes peeled for job postings, take some time to engage with these brands and people, and establish a relationship with them.
4. Learning Is Still Good for You
By interacting with professionals, industry media outlets and experts in your desired field of work, you’ll be able to deepen your own level of knowledge of that field and stay on top of trends and current issues. It’s an excellent supplement to your in-class work and good preparation for the continuing learning you’ll need to do when you graduate.
5. You Can’t Hide Behind the Curtain
The speed and virtual aspect of social networks can tempt people to act less than professional. For instance, sometimes harsher or more sarcastic interactions are acceptable on social media. And some people believe that because social media is generally a public forum, they should be able to speak freely and openly.
No matter your stance, disrespectful interactions with others (strangers or colleagues) is a huge no-no. If you wouldn’t say something to a person face-to-face, it probably means it isn’t appropriate for social media either. The same social norms apply whether online or offline, and the same level of respect and collegiality is expected on these channels.
6. It’s Not Just About You
Constant self-promotion is almost always frowned upon in social media. Keep most of your posts (I suggest at least 80%) to conversation, third-party content, general comments and questions, and keep the sales pitches at a minimum. David Armano, EVP of global innovation and integration, discusses the overuse of the #humblebrag hashtag. You get the point.
Instead, think about what types of content will give your audience the most value, especially when it also suggests you’re open to educating yourself on a wide-range of ideas.
7. Strut Your Stuff
Social networking is a fantastic way to showcase your knowledge on your field of interest. Using many of the tactics suggested above shows you’re paying attention to your target industry and demonstrating a certain level of critical analysis.
By tweeting relevant articles, or commenting on industry trends on a personal blog, you can show your own level of interest and personal development outside of classwork and internships.
8. You Will Get the Once-over
Employers, future colleagues, industry leaders and other professionals do look at your social media activities. That being said, it’s a great opportunity to show your interpersonal skills, in addition to your own level of knowledge and interest in the field. College students sometimes get a bad rap, but by engaging with professionals, you can demonstrate your skill set and level of maturity.
9. What You Do Now Will Pay Off Later
Much like searching for a job, if you start curating your social media presence after you graduate, you’re already behind. By thinking about how to use social media professionally while you’re still in school, you can position yourself as forward-thinking, forge stronger industry connections, and strengthen your on-paper credentials, making you a much more attractive candidate to your future employers.
What other tips do you have for students to improve their professional social media presence? What can they work on and where do they excel?
Image courtesy of iStockphoto, atreides64, eyeidea
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