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The Internet Makes It Possible To Earn A Health Care Degree Online

Many people enjoy working in the health care field, the career being an attractive one for many reasons. After all, you’re helping others, the job opportunities abound and the field of medicine is an exciting one that’s developing constantly. A career in health care is an exciting one, with hands-on experience and being personally satisfying. However, individuals wanting to break into the medical world need strong credentials and up-to-date training to have good employment opportunities with hospitals, private practices and ambulatory care centers. Finding that training can be difficult, but there are options available, thanks to technology and a widening recognition of virtual instruction. Obtaining a health care degree online is a smart choice for landing satisfying employment.

 

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Online education is transforming the way individuals receive instruction for top careers. The fields of opportunities are expanding and being able to earn your health care degree online is a perfect example of just how far education has come. Accredited universities and colleges provide high-quality instruction, leading to Bachelors and Masters Degrees that are recognized by employers. The training has a leading reputation amongst hospitals and health care facilities of all kinds, making individuals valuable assets to the medical field.

Obtaining your health care degree online can help with upward mobility on the ladder of success and increase job opportunities in the medical field. Expanding your education can improve communication skills and promote individual value to the mid-level management section, allowing students to respond to ever-widening community diversity. Interpreting and analyzing data as well as identifying human values, moral choices and fundamental beliefs are just part of what a health care degree online can provide to individuals. Courses within this field of online education touch on varied subjects, such as anatomy, legal issues, the aging process and research methods.

There are other reasons why pursuing a health care degree online is advantageous. Education in the virtual world allows students to easily balance studies with employment, meaning that individuals can continue to work and earn income while earning credits towards a degree in their own time. Home life, education and employment blend very easily, allowing students to combine all three areas of their lives without needing to take time off work to study or put off raising children to obtain an education. Also, pursuing an online degree allows individuals to save money on costs of transportation and commuting to educational facilities or having to pay for lodgings on or near a campus.

Employment opportunities in the health care field are continually broadening as the world’s population ages. Research and technology allow people to live longer, providing ample careers to those who pursue a profession in the medical field. As our population of senior citizens continues to expand, the needs for skilled professionals able to tend to individuals increases and finding employment is usually easy, for those who have the qualifications and credentials of accredited educational facilities. Top schools and universities have responded to the demands and offer excellent, recognized training to students in a manner that matches the technological revolution of today’s computer-based world.

Government offices continually demand high-quality workers and their predictions claim that having solid training is a must for those entering the health care world. Consumers and clients of hospitals, private practices, ambulatory care centers and home health agencies are also asking for better-quality care from those who tend to their needs. The advantages to earning a health care degree from a reputable educational facility are many and the long-term results will provide individuals with solid, satisfying and exciting careers.

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Microsoft’s SQL Server 2012 to launch on March 7

Microsoft’s SQL Server 2012 database will launch on March 7.

The launch date for SQL Server 2012 is out of the bag: It’s March 7.

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On the SQL Server 2012 Launch site, Microsoft is featuring the agenda of the Webcast timed to coincide with launch.

(Launch, as Microsoft historians know, may or may not equate to general availability. RTM, or release to manufacturing, also may precede or follow product launches at Microsoft these days. In the case of SQL Server 2008 R2, Microsoft’s release to manufacturing (RTM) of the product preceded by about a month the date on which most customers could actually get the bits.)

Microsoft Server and Tools chief Satya Nadella revealed last fall that SQL Server 2012 (codenamed “Denali”) would launch in the early part of 2012. Microsoft delivered the final public test build of SQL Server 2012 in November 2011.

The March 7 launch event topic list includes everything from big data, to StreamInsight complex event processing, to the new data-visualization and analysis tools that are part of the SQL Server 2012 release.

Microsoft already has revealed much of its SQL Server 2012 pricing and licensing plans, including availability of a new business-intelligence (BI) SKU.

Microsoft gives details on mobile broadband improvements in Windows 8

Microsoft has given details on a variety of ways in which the upcoming Windows 8 operating system does a better job than its predecessors at letting users manage their connections to Wi-Fi and mobile broadband networks.

 

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“We looked at the fundamentals of wireless connectivity and re-engineered Windows 8 for a mobile and wireless future, going beyond incremental improvements,” reads a blog post published on Friday.

Windows 8 has been designed to simplify the process of connecting to mobile broadband networks and of managing those connections, including monitoring data usage and controlling costs.

“We knew that if we were to give you true mobility, that Wi-Fi alone would not be enough. Therefore, for Windows 8, we fully developed and integrated mobile broadband (MB) as a first-class connectivity experience within Windows — right alongside Wi-Fi,” wrote Billy Anders, a Microsoft group program manager and the blog post’s author.

Windows 7 allows users to connect to mobile broadband networks, but it’s up to users to find and install required drivers and software, including searching for them online at times.

Windows 8 comes with a common mobile-broadband class driver that works with devices from a variety of mobile operators and vendors, eliminating the need for users to install device driver software. “You just plug in the device and connect. The driver stays up to date via Windows Update,” Anders wrote.

Another enhancement in Windows 8 is that it provides native management within a single console of mobile broadband device functions, such as turning on and off their radios and configuring their connection settings. Previously, users had to perform these tasks in the individual management application for each device.

“Prior to Windows 8, you needed these applications to compensate for functionality not provided natively in Windows. This additional software confused and frustrated users by conflicting with the Windows connection manager, showing different networks, network status, and a separate user interface,” he wrote. “Windows 8 eliminates this confusion by providing simple, intuitive, and fully integrated radio and connection management.”

Wi-Fi and Bluetooth device functions can also be managed centrally from within Windows 8. The operating system’s network settings console also lets users establish connection priorities, so that their machine will automatically opt to, say, connect to a Wi-Fi network as the first option if available, and, if it’s not, then seek a mobile broadband connection.

Windows 8 also “learns” about the user’s connection priorities based on their actions. As a result, when returning from “standby” mode, a Windows 8 machine is able to reconnect faster than Windows 7 — in about a second.

“You do not have to do anything special for this — Windows just learns which networks you prefer and manages everything for you. This work was a major part of the architectural work we did in the networking stack and with our hardware partners,” Anders wrote.

Windows 8 has also been designed to help users be aware of mobile broadband data limits and costs. “Prior to Windows 8, we maintained consistent behavior on all types of networks relative to bandwidth usage. With Windows 8, we now take the cost of the network into consideration: we assume that mobile broadband networks have restrictive data caps with higher overage costs — vs. Wi-Fi –, and adjust networking behavior with these metered networks accordingly,” the post reads.

To help with managing mobile broadband data usage and costs, the Windows 8 task manager lists how much data specific applications have used up, so users are aware of which applications consume more data.

Microsoft is rated third most-valuable brand in the world, but there are dangers signs ahead

Microsoft was just rated the third most-valuable brand in the world by Interbrand, but there are trouble signs ahead. The company’s brand value dipped 3%, the only top-tend brand to lose value in 2011. And both Apple and Google’s value surged during the year, with Apple’s value jumping 58% and Google’s 27%. At this rate, Google will soon surpass Microsoft and Apple won’t be far behind.

 

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Interbrand rates the value of the top 100 global brands, and publishes that list every year. The value of Microsoft’s brand, Interbrand found, was nearly $59.1 billion in 2011, down 3% from the year previous. It ranked behind Coca Cola, which was at number 1, and IBM at number 2.

Google came in at number 4, with a value of $55.3 billion. Its value surged 27% over last year. Its relative ranking is unchanged from last year.

Apple’s value, meanwhile, skyrocketed 58% in the past year, to nearly $33.5 billion, jumping to number 8, up from 17 a year ago.

Microsoft has been the number 3 most valuable brand since 2008. From 2000 to 2007, it had been ranked number 2, so its value relative to IBM has dipped slightly in the past decade, which supplanted Microsoft at the number 2 spot in 2008.

If Google and Apple keep growing at the same rate in 2011, and Microsoft slips 3% again, next year Google will beat out Microsoft at the number 2 spot, and Apple won’t be far behind.

Interbrand includes notes about each brand, and what it says about Microsoft accurately captures the company’s dilemma. After noting that Microsoft dominates operating systems, server software, and office suites, Interbrand notes:

This is both a blessing and a curse as the future of computing moves to the mobile space. Competitors continue to lure customers with mobile applications that turn individual devices into ecosystems. Google’s no-cost model will continue to put pressure on Microsoft’s profit margins, and Google Apps could threaten the Microsoft Office business with its competing cloud integration and collaborative tools.

I don’t agree that Google Apps will threaten Microsoft Office any time soon, but otherwise, I think Interbrand is on target. Interbrand also correctly rightly out that the Nokia deal, Windows 8, Kinect, and Xbox may help Microsoft in 2012.

Windows 8 is a big risk to the consumer PC industry

Windows 8 represents the biggest change between versions of the operating system on most consumer PCs, and for better or worse it is going to be very important for that industry.

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The consumer PC industry is in the doldrums, with sales down at bothersome levels and a near-tangible lack of enthusiasm in the air. The Ultrabook is launching in full force, and while that is intended to reignite consumer passion it alone is not going to do the trick. Windows 8 will launch in the consumer market with great fanfare this year, and how the average PC buyer will react to an OS that is such a radical departure from past versions of Windows is a big question mark.

Adopting the Metro interface in Windows 8 is a major effort by Microsoft to make the PC OS appeal to the average consumer, but it’s not a given what that reaction will be. Fact is, some consumers have an aversion to new things that are radically different from what they are used to, and that may be especially the case with PCs that many already find intimidating.

One risk Microsoft has taken with the move to such a radically different interface in Metro is the message it sends about current versions of Windows. In a way, it is an admission to consumers that Windows 7 and older versions are too outdated, and not good enough for today’s PC user. This may bite them if the reaction to Metro in the mainstream market is not positive at launch.

PC makers depend on new versions of Windows to jumpstart sales, as most consumers upgrade the OS by buying new systems. Systems with Windows 7 will still be available for a while, but Windows 8 is going to be needed to really get systems flying off the shelves. Windows 8 is so different, if buyers are reluctant to make such a big change then system manufacturers are going to be in a real pickle. They won’t sell new systems with Windows 8 due to the radical changes, and they might not be able to continue selling PCs with the older Windows if it’s viewed as too outdated.

Microsoft has a lot riding on the market acceptance of Windows 8, but it’s not alone. PC makers have even more to lose if the market has a knee-jerk reaction to the Metro style.

The marketing message from Microsoft better be well-thought out for Windows 8. Consumers need to believe it is so much easier, so much better that they have to have it. This is critical to market acceptance for something so different. If this is left up to the OEMs, the message will end up being confusing at best and negative at worst. It is the most important marketing campaign Microsoft has ever undertaken, and it better already be under careful construction.

If Microsoft and OEMs begin the Windows 8 message to address how it not only covers “regular” PCs but fancy tablets and other forms, massive confusion will follow. Consumers don’t want to run the same Windows on PCs and tablets, they are likely only in the market for one or the other at a given time. Multiple device support, Intel and ARM support, touch and non-touch support is not the message for consumers. Just show what the buyer can do with Windows 8, nothing else.

Windows 8 is a big risk to the consumer PC industry, and a lot is riding on it. Microsoft better get it ready like no other Windows before, and sell it the right way. I am excited by Windows 8 and the Metro interface, but I’m not who they need to sell. It’s all the people who haven’t even seen Windows Phone yet that they need to convince how good Windows 8 will be, and that’s most everyone.

IBM Research Determines Atomic Limits of Magnetic Memory

Punctuating 30 years of nanotechnology research, scientists from IBM Research (NYSE: IBM) have successfully demonstrated the ability to store information in as few as 12 magnetic atoms. This is significantly less than today’s disk drives, which use about one million atoms to store a single bit of information. The ability to manipulate matter by its most basic components – atom by atom – could lead to the vital understanding necessary to build smaller, faster and more energy-efficient devices.

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While silicon transistor technology has become cheaper, denser and more efficient, fundamental physical limitations suggest this path of conventional scaling is unsustainable. Alternative approaches are needed to continue the rapid pace of computing innovation.

By taking a novel approach and beginning at the smallest unit of data storage, the atom, scientists demonstrated magnetic storage that is at least 100 times denser than today’s hard disk drives and solid state memory chips. Future applications of nanostructures built one atom at a time, and that apply an unconventional form of magnetism called antiferromagnetism, could allow people and businesses to store 100 times more information in the same space.

“The chip industry will continue its pursuit of incremental scaling in semiconductor technology but, as components continue to shrink, the march continues to the inevitable end point: the atom. We’re taking the opposite approach and starting with the smallest unit — single atoms — to build computing devices one atom at a time.” said Andreas Heinrich, the lead investigator into atomic storage at IBM Research

How it Works

The most basic piece of information that a computer understands is a bit. Much like a light that can be switched on or off, a bit can have only one of two values: “1” or “0”. Until now, it was unknown how many atoms it would take to build a reliable magnetic memory bit.

With properties similar to those of magnets on a refrigerator, ferromagnets use a magnetic interaction between its constituent atoms that align all their spins – the origin of the atoms’ magnetism – in a single direction. Ferromagnets have worked well for magnetic data storage but a major obstacle for miniaturizing this down to atomic dimensions is the interaction of neighboring bits with each other. The magnetization of one magnetic bit can strongly affect that of its neighbor as a result of its magnetic field. Harnessing magnetic bits at the atomic scale to hold information or perform useful computing operations requires precise control of the interactions between the bits.

The scientists at IBM Research used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to atomically engineer a grouping of twelve antiferromagnetically coupled atoms that stored a bit of data for hours at low temperatures. Taking advantage of their inherent alternating magnetic spin directions, they demonstrated the ability to pack adjacent magnetic bits much closer together than was previously possible. This greatly increased the magnetic storage density without disrupting the state of neighboring bits.

Writing and reading a magnetic byte: this image shows a magnetic byte imaged 5 times in different magnetic states to store the ASCII code for each letter of the word THINK, a corporate mantra used by IBM since 1914. The team achieved this using 96 iron atoms − one bit was stored by 12 atoms and there are eight bits in each byte.

IBM and Nanotechnology Leadership

In the company’s 100 year history, IBM has invested in scientific research to shape the future of computing. Today’s announcement is a demonstration of the results garnered by IBM’s world-leading scientists and the company’s continual investment in and focus on exploratory research.

IBM Research has long been a leader in studying the properties of materials important to the information technology industry. For more than fifty years, scientists at IBM Research have laid the foundation of scientific knowledge that will be important for the future of IT and sought out discoveries that can advance existing technologies.

Critics accuse Google of unfairly promoting Google+ in search results

The long-standing and persistent accusation that Google unfairly uses its search engine to promote its other online services is once again in the spotlight, triggered by new social search functionality the company is rolling out this week that more tightly links its search engine with its Google+ social networking site.

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The complaints have come from different quarters, including competitors and industry experts, and have focused on various arguments, but at bottom all charge Google with using its dominant search engine to deliberately boost Google+’s popularity, by giving Google+ pages and profiles an artificially prominent position in result pages.

One of the strongest arguments made so far comes from search engine expert Danny Sullivan, who described on Wednesday in his technology news site Search Engine Land how Google is now suggesting Google+ business pages that companies and public figures have set up on the site in a way that makes the Google+ pages much more prominent than similar pages these public figures and organizations have set up on competing social media sites.

Sullivan shows a variety of examples in which Google, via new query auto-complete suggestions for Google+ profiles and via the new Google+ People and Pages sidebar suggestions column, favors Google+ business pages over alternative ones that have more “fans” on Facebook and Twitter.

Sullivan ran his queries without being logged into his Google Account, and even using the Chrome browser’s “incognito” mode, to make sure that the Google search engine treated his queries as coming from a fairly generic user, and not tailored to him specifically.

“Is there anyone out there who still wants to say that being on Google+ doesn’t matter? Anyone? Because when being on Google+ means that you potentially can have your Google+ page leap to the top in those sidebar results, Google+ matters. It matters more than ever before,” he wrote, adding that Google is clearly “taking its weight in search and leveraging it to boost Google+ in a big way.”

Google, after many missteps in the social networking market, launched Google+ in mid-2011, and has made it clear, from CEO Larry Page on down, that Google+ will be a key, unifying product for the company, providing social sharing features and an identity layer across most Google online services.

However, there has been skepticism regarding the adoption and engagement level for Google+, especially when compared with social networking leader Facebook, which has more than 850 million active members who spend a lot of time on the site.

Google+ is also a rival to Twitter because Google+ can be used in similar ways as the microblogging phenomenon.

In fact, among the first to cry foul this week was Twitter. Its General Counsel Alex Macgillivray, who previously worked at Google, posted on his Twitter account that Tuesday was “a bad day for the Internet” after Google announced the new search functionality.

“Having been there, I can imagine the dissension @Google to search being warped this way,” he wrote. Twitter later followed Macgillivray’s post with a more formal statement, in which it reiterated and expanded on his complaint.

Meanwhile, Google answered back with a post on its main Google+ page, saying it was “a bit surprised by Twitter’s comments” because Twitter “chose not to renew their agreement with us last summer,” a reference to the now lapsed two-year deal which gave Google special access to Twitter’s “firehose” of real-time tweets.

However, as Sullivan and others have pointed out, Google has continued indexing Twitter posts and has a massive collection of them in its index, including links to the official accounts of public figures, celebrities and organizations.

Throughout the two-day flap, Facebook officials have remained mum. Facebook has its own special search arrangement with its partner Microsoft, which gives the Bing search engine access to certain data that is out of Google’s reach. While Facebook keeps most personal profile content off limits to search engines, its business profiles are public, as well as some other content, and thus available to Google. In fact, for a while Facebook has let individuals tag status updates as “public” and made those available to search engines — a good example of this is the site Your OpenBook, devoted exclusively to this type of personal, public status update.

In its announcement on Tuesday of the new social search features, described by the company as “Search, Plus Your World,” Google focused on new things its search users will be able to do when signed into their Google accounts: find Google+ posts and Picasa Web photos they and their contacts on those social media sites have shared not only publicly on the Web but also privately with each other.

This new functionality builds on the existing Google social search features, which let users logged into their Google Accounts see links in search results that their specific social media contacts tagged with the Google +1 button or shared publicly using a social media service.

Google didn’t respond to a request for comment about the controversy surrounding the new social search functionality.

Windows ultrabooks: What’s Apple response?

With a glut of “ultrabook” announcements slated at this week’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Apple watchers have one question: How will the Cupertino, Calif. company respond?

 

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Backed by Intel, the big PC manufacturers are expected to launch or show ultrabooks, the chipmaker’s term for thin, lightweight notebooks that rely on solid-state storage (SSD) in lieu of a traditional platter-based hard disk drive and forgo an optical drive, at CES this week.

According to Intel, more than 75 different ultrabooks will appear during 2012.

But as two analysts who cover Apple noted today, the category isn’t new. In fact, Apple was the company that kicked it off.

“They started the ultrabook trend four years ago with the MacBook Air,” noted Brian Marshall, an analyst with International Strategy & Investment Group (ISI ), in an interview Monday.

“Apple set the form factor and the bar,” agreed Ezra Gottheil of Technology Business Research.

Both experts were referring to the MacBook Air, which Apple introduced in 2008. Sales of the Air, however, took off only after October 2010, when Apple dropped the price and revamped the line to include not only a 13-in. model, but also a lower-priced 11-in. laptop. Four months ago, Apple refreshed the MacBook Air line, equipping the notebooks with faster processors and Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion.

But Apple’s lead in the thin-light laptop class — last year, it owned an estimated 89% of that market, said Marshall — is threatened by an expected wave of ultrabooks from big-name PC makers, including Acer, which trotted out its Aspire S5 Monday.

Late last year, Marshall forecast a significant drop during 2012 for Apple’s share because of the new competition from Windows-based ultrabooks.

“There will definitely be a lot more attention paid to ultrabooks this week,” said Marshall. “And that points out that Apple could be vulnerable here.”

So what’s Cupertino to do?

Tweak the MacBook Air, said Marshall and Gottheil.

“They can add a little bit more functionality and some more features,” said Marshall, ticking off such natural evolutions as higher resolution screens, faster processors and more ports, the latter of which the Air lacks in large numbers.

“Apple can proliferate the Air concept into larger [screen] sizes,” said Gottheil, echoing his take last November when rumors of an impending 15-in. MacBook Air began circulating.

“Frankly, it’s tough to see how Apple can make the Air all that much better,” said Marshall, who called that laptop his favorite Apple product of all time.

Another possible move by Apple, agreed both analysts, would be to reframe the iPad, or at least a version of it, as an ultrabook rival by designing a keyboard and case integrated with the tablet and its iOS operating system.

Third-party vendors, notably Zagg — which also designed the $99 Bluetooth-based keyboard and case sold by Logitech — have had limited success with such an accessory.

But Apple should be able to do those designs one better, thought Gottheil.

“Apple hasn’t filled the gap that others may exploit with a tablet that also offers a keyboard,” said Gottheil, referring to expectations that later this year PC makers will launch devices that function as either a tablet or as a lightweight notebook. “Their little [wireless] keyboard doesn’t have a nice carrying case, but I think they will find a way to fill [that gap].”

Gottheil sees Apple tackling the tablet-plus-keyboard issue not as a discrete package but as an add-on, along the lines of the approach it took last year when it launched the Smart Cover accessory for the iPad 2.

But although Apple will face increased competition from ultrabooks this year or next, analysts highlighted the enviable position the company finds itself in.

“It’s kind of ironic that it’s taken PC OEMs four years to come up with a viable alternative to the MacBook Air,” said Marshall.

“If ultrabooks are only thin, light MacBook Air knockoffs, they won’t be very successful,” chimed in Jack Gold or J. Gold Associates, in an email last week. “They need to be more.”

Top 5 Ed Tech predictions for 2012

Here’s hoping I’m more accurate than I was last year.

Earlier this week I wrote about five major technologies that should have had real impacts in education this year, but which never amounted to much. I called more than one of them out a year ago, when all signs pointed to their potential for disruption and transformation in 2011. I can’t resist giving it another shot this year, though. Here are my top 5 predictions for the state of the art in Ed Tech in the coming year.

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Analytics and BI will go mainstream
In a former life, I was a SAS programmer doing data management and statistical analysis for clinical trials. SAS is still going strong in large-scale, mission critical statistical programming, but much of its business focus is now on analytics and business intelligence (BI). IBM just launched an initiative to promote education, training, and research at the university level in the fields. For those not familiar with them, BI and BA apply complex business rules and enable decision-making based on the analysis of very large data stores.

Both companies (and many others, although SAS and IBM are arguably the market leaders) have products geared towards making these tools available, relevant, and usable in the education space, where the amount of data we now collect on our students is growing exponentially, both because of federal and state requirements and because most educators realize that data-driven instruction is a powerful tool for improving outcomes. In education, these tools can pick out at-risk students based on wide-ranging data before they ever hit the radar of a guidance counselor.

The data are in place, the technologies are in place, and NCLB and RTTP have conditioned educators to think about data (no matter what else, good or bad, you may think of them). 2012 will see an explosion in the real use of analytics to assist schools and districts in improving quality and outcomes. I’m not talking about reviewing yearly standardized test scores here. I’m talking about the confluence of formative and summative assessments, demographic data, and many other bits of information, all of which are now available electronically and ready to be mined. It’s worth noting that EDUCAUSE was filled with vendors holding up the latest and greatest tools for data mining, aggregation, management, and analysis and Oracle resorted to showgirls standing next to geeks demoing software at both BBWorld and EDUCAUSE.

Google’s tablet will NOT be the holy grail of 1:1
A reader emailed me the other day and asked me if I thought that Google’s tablet, expected for release before fall 2012, would finally make tablet-based 1:1 initiatives a reality. The answer was no. Although I’m sure the tablets will be great pieces of hardware and software and I’m sure that I’ll get one, the predicted $500 price point is just too high. Sure, Google Apps integration will be very strong, as will the management features that go with it, but at that price, you could have an iPad.

While I’m not saying that iPads are better for education than other tablets, I am saying that they have a major foothold in the growing market. Even iPads, though, are only making it into well-funded districts at scale. The only thing that could disrupt the current market and current trends in 1:1 would be a very inexpensive tablet (<$300) with all the management features and a content ecosystem that would finally make the ideal of a “tablet in every backpack” a reality.

Google’s move to drop the price of Chromebooks this year and provide enterprise, web-based management consoles for the slick little laptops suggests, as well as innovative rental models for schools and businesses, however, suggests that they may have a few tricks up their sleeves. The Google tablet won’t be the holy grail of 1:1, but I’m hopeful that it will be a step in the right direction.

BYOD will make 1:1 possible in a big way
In the face of miserable budgets and no end in sight to a stagnating economy, school/state-funded 1:1 will not be sustainable in the majority of school districts. Worldwide sales of Classmate PCs to education ministries remain strong, but this relies on a very different educational model than that employed here in the States. At the college level, where a computer is a necessity for students, only a tiny fraction of schools supply a laptop as part of a student’s tuition. Instead, students bring their own, often selecting from specially negotiated prices with major OEMs. It’s time K12 schools followed suit.

Again, there is a confluence of factors that will make BYOD the 1:1 model of choice for 2012 (a model, by the way, that will get devices onto a lot more desks and into a lot more student hands in the classroom this year). The emergence of inexpensive devices like the Kindle Fire, despite its lack of manageability, means that tabets will become increasingly commonplace for for students, making instant access to the Internet and a variety of content easily achieved. AMD is promising inexpensive alternatives to Intel’s ultrabooks and prices continue to fall on remarkably usable laptops.

Similarly, great platforms for e-learning, ranging from Moodle 2.3 to the new and improved Google Apps, to a growing ecosystem of tablet apps mean that schools have more reason than ever to leverage all of those devices that are sitting in student bedrooms but often aren’t allowed in classrooms. Finally, robust security and filtering solutions (including tablet integration) from companies like LightSpeed mean that the risks formerly posed by outside devices are increasingly being mitigated both on- off-campus.

Khan Academy, et al, will give publishers and mainstream educators a run for their money
Many teachers and students have leapt at the opportunities provided by Khan Academy, MIT OpenCourseWare, and other free and open educational tool available online, assigning them as homework, using them for flipped classes, suggesting them as resources for study and remediation, and even integrating them into their curricula just as they would multimedia tools that come with their textbooks. Others struggle with the idea that Khan and others represent competition. For the latter group, rest easy…no video can replace an awesome teacher in class. Awesome teachers, though, use whatever resources they can find to ensure that their students “get it”, whatever “it” might be. The teachers who should be worried are those who aren’t, for lack of a better word, awesome. Awesome teachers are engaged mentors to whom students will look for guidance as they navigate the muddy waters of information on the Internet, among other places.

The real moral of this story, though, is that enough teachers are turning to the Internet and open resources (including great open source texts available from organizations like CK12.org) that traditional publishers have no choice but to stand up and take notice. This will be a battle of Darwinian proportions (i.e., survival of the fittest); open resources will no doubt coexist for years to come with proprietary resources from mainstream publishers. But we’re talking about a multibillion dollar industry here. It doesn’t take much of a dent to start shaving millions off of profit margins.

We will say goodbye to a lot more libraries and hello to a lot more information
A local prep school dumped its library about two years ago in favor of a media center replete with computers, Kindles, and an espresso bar (yes, an espresso bar – it’s a prestigious school). Administration took a lot of flack, not because the library was well-used (it wasn’t) but because a lot of people didn’t like the idea that the notion of a library was changing. Now, with far less controversy, Johns Hopkins University is closing its historic medical library in a few short days. Library staff had already transitioned from traditional librarian roles to that of so-called “informationists.” Modern library science degree programs are far more concerned with accessing information than the Dewey Decimal System.

Add to that growing space constraints, emerging 1:1 programs that are far easier to justify if they can reduce reliance on dead trees, and nearly ubiquitous availability of journals and books in electronic formats and you have a recipe for converting libraries as we know them now to anachronisms. This isn’t a bad thing as long as the misson of school libraries can be to make students discerning seekers and users of information. In fact, moving to information-based rather than book-based models could cause a renaissance for libraries. This renaissance simply doesn’t need to involve acquiring larger expensive collections of paper; it needs to involve drastically increasing the amount of time students spend in libraries developing their critical thinking and information access skills.

Outsource PHP Developer From PHP Web Development Company

Outsourcing is the most prominent field of modern business era as it provides several benefits that we can get in terms of cost savings, focus on core business, Cost restructuring, Improve quality, Operational expertise, Access to talent, Risk management, Reduce time to market and Tax Benefit. Outsourcing is become the essential part of all modern businesses.

 

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Now days outsourcing of software industry is really at boom as it provides several mutual benefits to outsourcing company and the company who hire the outsourcing company. Outsourcing the php developers for web development is also a most common part of software outsourcing as in the outsourcing countries php development is being done on major scale because it provides several benefits.

Here are some benefits of php web development :-

1) Open source language:- Php is an open source language as it is free of cost. This is the best feature of php as web development is being completed at very low cost.

2) Straight-away and secured language:- The web application developed in php language are very fast and immensely secured and this should be the basic requirement of a php web application development, hence php web development company are generally more concentrating on php web development.

3) High usability and friendly language:- Php has the great usability among many web developing languages and this feature is originated because of its friendly nature as it is easy to learn, and adaptable.

4) Compatible with many operating systems and web servers :- Php is compatible with many operating systems and web servers, this feature lead it to say most common web development language.

5) Support various databases:- Php support almost all databases like Mysql, Oracle, Sybase and others. Thus provides great functionality in web development.

6) Consistently updating language:- Php is not a sleeping language it is always updating by global experts according to need of modern web development and thus always provides better and better benefits in web development.

Thus we have known the several most important benefits of php web development that avails a php web development company in php outsourcing.

Now the question that arises in our mind is what are the guidelines on which we can decide a company is good for php development or not.

Here are some points that we have to keep in mind while choosing an outsource php development company:-

1) First of all find out a company which has the dedication and business ethics which you have in your organisation as these are really important things in terms of outsourcing a php web development company.

2) Is the company has the expertise that your company required?. For accomplishing this task you can also take help of a company for choosing the talent pool that you need.

3) Look the company should be flexible enough in terms of services and harnessing the talent.

4) Identify the organisation and people who have taken the service benefits from outsourcing php development company.

5) Updated with latest technology is also an important point as far as considering the outsourcing php web development company.

6)In last, demo of services and product will also help you in choosing the right php web development company.

In summary, we have known the several benefits that an organisation can get by hiring an outsource php web development company for php web development. And also the key points that help us in choosing the right php web development company.

Expertsfromindia.com is a very reliable and fast growing php web development company. It has great specialisation in php web development. EFI has very talented pool of php developers which provides very customised and prompt services. You can also outsource php developers for full time, part time or salary basis.