Technology Makes It Harder To Save

A survey conducted for the American Institute of CPAs discovered that technology makes it more difficult to save money. The survey also reveals that technology has made it easier to spend money. Their research has found that subscription to digital services such as cable TV, home internet access, mobile phone services, satellite radio and streaming video costs an average of $166 each month. That is the equivalent of 17 percent of the average monthly rent or mortgage payment. If you download songs and apps you can add an additional $38 per month.

Asked to choose one action they would most likely take to save more money, most people chose not eating out. So, there you have it...Americans would rather give up food than their favorite techno fix.

You can read the entire survey at: AICPA Survey: Technology Has Made it Easier to Spend, Not Save 

Ideas the Spur Innovation

Several years ago Kimberly-Clark, maker of paper products "Kleenex and Huggies", drove the morale of its employees into the ground after massive firings and outsourcing. It was a disaster that resulted in the rehiring of hundreds of old employees and engineers while continuing to outsource others.

Trust had been broken, low morale and very low employee engagement was the result.  The infrastructure organization circled it's wagons. People were in a self-preservation mode.

When Kimberly-Clark hired a new VP of Infrastructure four years later to turn things around, he implemented a program to spur innovation. The VP took a venture capitalist approach where any employee could submit an idea and if accepted, make a pitch in 30 minutes or less. If the idea had merit, it received first, then second rounds of funding. If not, the employee's idea still got lauded on the company's internal Sharepoint site. He stated, 'Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. It's about what we learn from the failure. Not the failure itself. We celebrate that learning.'

Since then things have massively changed for the better.

Read the entire article  at: Creating culture of IT innovation includes rewarding failure

TED - ED

TED, the nonprofit organization, (Technology, Entertainment, Design), based on "ideas worth sharing", launched its latest initiative last week. TED-ED aims to engage students with unforgettable lessons. Mind-blowing lessons from world renowned educators are offered to anyone with an internet connection.

TED-ED is the latest in a wave of online education. Other contributors are the Kahn Academy and MIT.

Here are  links to the nine videos that were initially released:

Introducing TED-Ed: Lessons Worth Sharing

1. How simple ideas lead to scientific discoveries
2.  How containerization shaped the modern world
3. Symbiosis: a surprising tale of species cooperation
4. How pandemics spread
5. The cockroach beatbox
6. Evolution in a big city
7. Deep Ocean Mysteries and Wonders
8. The Power of Simple Words
9. Stories: Legacies of Who We Are

DARPA Mentor Award

A new project, announced on the Makezine blog, aims to bring low cost innovation and alternative manufacturing processes to schools in hopes of turbo-charging the next generation of inventors in the U.S.  Very cool stuff!

Dale Dougherty of MAKE and Dr. Saul Griffith of Otherlab, through an award received from The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), will integrate online tools for design and collaboration with low-cost options for physical workspaces where students may access educational support to gain practical hands-on experience with new technologies and innovative processes to design and build projects.

Their goal is to reach 1000 high schools over the next four years. They are starting with a pilot program of 10 schools in California during the 2012-2013 school year. The Manufacturing Experimentation and Outreach (MENTOR) program is part of the DARPA’s Adaptive Vehicle Make program portfolio and is aimed at engaging high school students in a series of collaborative distributed manufacturing and design experiments. We are hoping to bring them to Riverside Virtual School.

Read the article at : http://blog.makezine.com/2012/01/19/darpa-mentor-award-to-bring-making-to-education/

College Choices and the Job Market

Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce has a new report out called "Hard Times: College Majors, Unemployment and Earnings: Not All College Degrees Are Created Equal" and it analyses unemployment by major. It shows that students and their families that take on student loans aren't asking what their college major is worth in the workforce.

Too many students aren't getting on-the-job training while they're in school or during summer breaks. As a result, questions about employment opportunities or what type of job they have the skills to attain are met with blank stares or the typical, "I don't know." Worse yet, what they choose might lead to increased challenges in hiring after college.

The reports found that the unemployment rate for recent graduates is highest in architecture (13.9 percent) because of the collapse of the construction. Unemployment rates are generally higher in non-technical majors, such as the arts (11.1 percent), humanities and liberal arts (9.4 percent), social science (8.9 percent) and law and public policy (8.1 percent). Click on the link to learn more...

The Georgetown Report

News from Apple

Apple will announce, on January 19th, its new e-book creation and social interaction tools at their media event taking place in New York. New York happens to be the heart of the publishing industry. The world will be watching.

Steve Jobs believed that the textbook publishing industry was ripe for digital takeover. At present it has the potential of an eight-billion-dollar-a-year paycheck for Apple and its new technology. Insiders at Apple say that Jobs was directly and intimately involved with Apple's efforts in the area right up until his death.

The company states that the tools help create interactive e-books— a "GarageBand for e-books," if you will —and expands its current platforms to distribute them to iPhone and iPad users.

Frustrated e-book authors and publishers have complained about the current state of software tools and openly expressed their desire for a simple app that makes the process "as easy as creating a song in GarageBand."

Apple heard their call and is now claiming to have the product. This has the potential of revolutionizing the industry, leveling the playing field for everyone, and being the first substantial new product for CEO Tim Cook in a post-Jobs era.

To read more about this go to: Apple to announce tools, platform to "digitally destroy" textbook publishing.

UCR Students Link Learning to Future Success

A group of innovative University of California Riverside students has come up with an idea that they believe will solve the problem of high tuition and college debt that plagues the average college student in the present California University system.

Their idea is to let students get their education first and then pay after they graduate, when they are earners, rather than pay for school during the years they are at the university.

The plan requires graduates to pay five percent of their salaries every year for 20 years to repay the state for their education.

UC Riverside students propose new tuition payment plan