Free Online Higher Education seems an emerging trend that offers education from top-notch Universities to anyone with Internet access.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=SA6ELdIRkRU
This may have started after the success of open source Linux project, MIT offering courses OpenCourseWare (http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm). Then Academic Earth (http://www.academicearth.org), Khan Academy(http://www.khanacademy.org), Udacity (http://www.udacity.com) started to offer courses and tutorials. Now Harvard and MIT are collaborating to start edX (http://www.edxonline.org).
Monday, June 4, 2012
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Microsoft
Reading interesting article by William Baldwin -
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/1024/investing-value-stocks-apple-cool-products-bad-investment-greenwald-william-baldwin.html
Baldwin claims - "software inertia"..." Computer users can't be bothered to unlearn Excel and pick up some other spreadsheet..." shall help Microsoft. That is true, however what about Open Office products? They are free and not that much different or hard to learn than MS Office. It was Linux that first challenged MS Windows dominance, now there is also "Ubuntu" beautiful, free, easy to use OS that is becoming more prevalent.
http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2011/1024/investing-value-stocks-apple-cool-products-bad-investment-greenwald-william-baldwin.html
Baldwin claims - "software inertia"..." Computer users can't be bothered to unlearn Excel and pick up some other spreadsheet..." shall help Microsoft. That is true, however what about Open Office products? They are free and not that much different or hard to learn than MS Office. It was Linux that first challenged MS Windows dominance, now there is also "Ubuntu" beautiful, free, easy to use OS that is becoming more prevalent.
Friday, October 7, 2011
"The Rational Optimist"
I enjoyed reading "The Rational Optimist" by Matt Ridley. I think he has done great job analyzing how prosperity evolves - specialization and trading.
Couple of interesting observation about his book are -
(1) He seems to be thinking Gandhi and Waldo Emerson way of Self-Sufficiency may lead to poverty as population and globalization grows. Also he doesn't seem to think "green energy" is practical.
(2) Interesting data about "Innovation is like a bush fire" - ..."At 50,000 years ago, the hottest-spot was west Asia (ovens, bows-and-arrows), at 10,000 the Fertile Crescent (farming, pttery), at 5,000 Mesopotamia (metal, cities), at 2000 India (textile, zer0), at 1,000 China (porcelain, printing), at 500 Italy (double-entry book keeping, Leonardo), at 400 the Low Countries (the Amsterdam Exchange Bank), at 300 France (Canal du Midi), at 200 England (stream), at 100 Germany (fertiliser); at 75 America (mass production), at 50 California (credit card), at 25 Japan (Walkman). No country remains for long the leader in knowledge creation..."
(3) At the end mentions two major challenges to one who wants to be Optimist. (1) Africa (2) Climate. That's fine however isn't "Terrorism" another one of the challenge that we face?
Couple of interesting observation about his book are -
(1) He seems to be thinking Gandhi and Waldo Emerson way of Self-Sufficiency may lead to poverty as population and globalization grows. Also he doesn't seem to think "green energy" is practical.
(2) Interesting data about "Innovation is like a bush fire" - ..."At 50,000 years ago, the hottest-spot was west Asia (ovens, bows-and-arrows), at 10,000 the Fertile Crescent (farming, pttery), at 5,000 Mesopotamia (metal, cities), at 2000 India (textile, zer0), at 1,000 China (porcelain, printing), at 500 Italy (double-entry book keeping, Leonardo), at 400 the Low Countries (the Amsterdam Exchange Bank), at 300 France (Canal du Midi), at 200 England (stream), at 100 Germany (fertiliser); at 75 America (mass production), at 50 California (credit card), at 25 Japan (Walkman). No country remains for long the leader in knowledge creation..."
(3) At the end mentions two major challenges to one who wants to be Optimist. (1) Africa (2) Climate. That's fine however isn't "Terrorism" another one of the challenge that we face?
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Education Bubble
While I am learning graduate school/higher education is about transitioning from "knowledge consumer" to "knowledge producer", also think there is some truth to "Education Bubble" may be next bubble to burst after real-estate. And following was good thought provoking blog I read on the Economist.
http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2011/04/higher_education?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/isitreallythenextbubble
http://www.economist.com/blogs/lexington/2011/04/higher_education?fsrc=scn/fb/wl/bl/isitreallythenextbubble
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