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  • 17
    May
    google EDUCATION learning EdTech Editors Choice
    Google Play for Education The Google I/O conference took place in San Francisco this week and one of the most interesting announcements is a dedicated Play Store for Education. Google Play for Education will contain educational apps that are recommended by teachers and will be integrated with Google+ groups. Teachers will be able bill their schools for app purchases (instead of using their own credit cards) and in addition to apps, students and teachers will be able to access books and videos.  (via Google Play for Education Launched | Good E-Reader - eBooks, Publishing and Comic News)
    Google Play for Education

    The Google I/O conference took place in San Francisco this week and one of the most interesting announcements is a dedicated Play Store for Education. Google Play for Education will contain educational apps that are recommended by teachers and will be integrated with Google+ groups. Teachers will be able bill their schools for app purchases (instead of using their own credit cards) and in addition to apps, students and teachers will be able to access books and videos. 

    (via Google Play for Education Launched | Good E-Reader - eBooks, Publishing and Comic News)

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  • 17
    May
    Mobile collaboration awards Pearson
    Pearson’s myCloud wins Ovum award for innovation Double fist pumps and air guitar action abound in our myCloud team this week, as they celebrate landing the prestigious ‘Best Implementation of Infrastructure Transformation’ On the Radar award at the Ovum Industry Congress. myCloud allows our people to use their own devices for work, either at home, in the office or on the move - now, if you can get online, you can be at work. myCloud team, we salute you. (via myCloud wins industry accolade for innovation « The Pearson blog)
    Pearson’s myCloud wins Ovum award for innovation

    Double fist pumps and air guitar action abound in our myCloud team this week, as they celebrate landing the prestigious ‘Best Implementation of Infrastructure Transformation’ On the Radar award at the Ovum Industry Congress. myCloud allows our people to use their own devices for work, either at home, in the office or on the move - now, if you can get online, you can be at work. myCloud team, we salute you.

    (via myCloud wins industry accolade for innovation « The Pearson blog)

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  • 16
    May
    EDUCATION Technology india IT
    A look inside India 2.0 British broadsheet The Telegraph has been visiting India’s ‘temple of technology’ in a bid to understand how the country’s huge information technology ambitions are thriving in amongst its poverty problems. In a land where one third of the population is illiterate, how might technology help to lift millions above the poverty line? In this first part of three in-depth pieces, Mick Brown explores the industry that now accounts for 7.5% of India’s GDP and 20% of its exports. (via India 2.0 by Mick Brown - Part one - Telegraph)
    A look inside India 2.0

    British broadsheet The Telegraph has been visiting India’s ‘temple of technology’ in a bid to understand how the country’s huge information technology ambitions are thriving in amongst its poverty problems. In a land where one third of the population is illiterate, how might technology help to lift millions above the poverty line? In this first part of three in-depth pieces, Mick Brown explores the industry that now accounts for 7.5% of India’s GDP and 20% of its exports.

    (via India 2.0 by Mick Brown - Part one - Telegraph)

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  • 16
    May
    EDUCATION learning EdTech Pearson
    Pearson grows higher ed online learning program partnershipsPearson has partnered with Columbia University’s Center for Economy and Ecology in Society to extend its teacher professional development program. The program was orginally designed for middle-school teachers in New York, but by taking it online, the program will be available to teachers across the US.“By partnering with Pearson and Columbia’s Teachers College, we are able to reach thousands of more educators, while most importantly, maintaining quality — a critically important factor that cannot be underestimated when growing an online program,” said Rebecca Johnson, Director of Education, Professional Development, and Outreach, Columbia University. (via Pearson Grows and Expands Higher Ed Online Learning Program Partnerships | EdTech Times)
    Pearson grows higher ed online learning program partnerships

    Pearson has partnered with Columbia University’s Center for Economy and Ecology in Society to extend its teacher professional development program. The program was orginally designed for middle-school teachers in New York, but by taking it online, the program will be available to teachers across the US.

    “By partnering with Pearson and Columbia’s Teachers College, we are able to reach thousands of more educators, while most importantly, maintaining quality — a critically important factor that cannot be underestimated when growing an online program,” said Rebecca Johnson, Director of Education, Professional Development, and Outreach, Columbia University.

    (via Pearson Grows and Expands Higher Ed Online Learning Program Partnerships | EdTech Times)

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  • 14
    May
    Technology kickstarter learning EdTech
    Driver’s ed for the social webHomepage is a new Kickstarter project that educates both children and parents on a child’s first foray into the social web. The online curriculum focusses on online safety, to counteract issues such as cyberbullying, academic dishonesty as well as promoting best practices. It’s “the first step in creating a comprehensive content and technology solution for families living in a highly social, ever-changing, increasingly plugged-in, documented and transparent world.” (via Online ‘Driver’s Ed’ Course Preps Kids for the Social Web)
    Driver’s ed for the social web

    Homepage is a new Kickstarter project that educates both children and parents on a child’s first foray into the social web. The online curriculum focusses on online safety, to counteract issues such as cyberbullying, academic dishonesty as well as promoting best practices. It’s “the first step in creating a comprehensive content and technology solution for families living in a highly social, ever-changing, increasingly plugged-in, documented and transparent world.”

    (via Online ‘Driver’s Ed’ Course Preps Kids for the Social Web)

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  • 13
    May
    learning EdTech MOOC
    TechCrunch and Udemy join forcesTechCrunch and Udemy have created a new online learning platform, CrunchU, which will offer 30 courses from great minds in the tech and startup space. Courses range from web design, to sales skills and raising money for startups. Ned Desmond, COO at TechCrunch said, “Whether for professional development or personal enrichment, CrunchU offers tech-driven learners around the world an exciting opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds in today’s tech and startup world.” Head over www.crunchu.udemy.com for a full list of courses available. (via More MOOCs: TechCrunch and Udemy Partner to Form CrunchU | Getting Smart)
    TechCrunch and Udemy join forces

    TechCrunch and Udemy have created a new online learning platform, CrunchU, which will offer 30 courses from great minds in the tech and startup space. Courses range from web design, to sales skills and raising money for startups. Ned Desmond, COO at TechCrunch said, “Whether for professional development or personal enrichment, CrunchU offers tech-driven learners around the world an exciting opportunity to learn from some of the greatest minds in today’s tech and startup world.” Head over www.crunchu.udemy.com for a full list of courses available.


    (via More MOOCs: TechCrunch and Udemy Partner to Form CrunchU | Getting Smart)

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  • 8
    May
    innovation learning Start Up EdTech
    Africa’s tech hubsBusiness Insider recently named Uganda, Ghana, and Tanzania among the world’s fastest growing economies, with developing countries joining the ranks of “industrialised” nations within the next decade. Take a look at this digital map of Africa’s tech hubs, innovation hubs and hackerspaces. (via Hubs in Africa)
    Africa’s tech hubs

    Business Insider recently named Uganda, Ghana, and Tanzania among the world’s fastest growing economies, with developing countries joining the ranks of “industrialised” nations within the next decade. Take a look at this digital map of Africa’s tech hubs, innovation hubs and hackerspaces.

    (via Hubs in Africa)

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  • 6
    May
    EDUCATION IBM Technology Pearson
    Doug Schmidt on using technology to make education more effective After a rousing introduction from IBM Fellow and wonderful compere Jerry Cuomo, Doug Schmidt, chief enterprise architect here at Pearson, took the stage on the Technology in Motion day of the all-singing, all-dancing mega IBM Impact conference in Vegas. We’re not kidding about the dancing either - the video kicks off with a neon-clad dance crew, but click straight to 12.33 on the video to get Jerry’s intro and Doug’s talk. Doug gave a whistlestop overview of how technology can make education more accessible, more open, more affordable and more effective, including how we’re doing that at Pearson. Doug’s talk will take you to 25.06 on the video - it’ll be 13 minutes very well spent, but if you just want the two minute overview of the day’s presentations, it’s on YouTube. (via Impact2013 General Session Day 3: Technology. In Motion. Wednesday, May 1st, 2013on Impact TV - live streaming video powered by Livestream)
    Doug Schmidt on using technology to make education more effective

    After a rousing introduction from IBM Fellow and wonderful compere Jerry Cuomo, Doug Schmidt, chief enterprise architect here at Pearson, took the stage on the Technology in Motion day of the all-singing, all-dancing mega IBM Impact conference in Vegas. We’re not kidding about the dancing either - the video kicks off with a neon-clad dance crew, but click straight to 12.33 on the video to get Jerry’s intro and Doug’s talk. Doug gave a whistlestop overview of how technology can make education more accessible, more open, more affordable and more effective, including how we’re doing that at Pearson. Doug’s talk will take you to 25.06 on the video - it’ll be 13 minutes very well spent, but if you just want the two minute overview of the day’s presentations, it’s on YouTube.

    (via Impact2013 General Session Day 3: Technology. In Motion. Wednesday, May 1st, 2013on Impact TV - live streaming video powered by Livestream)

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  • 3
    May
    Technology big data Hackathon Pearson plug and play
    Reporting back from AngelHackWe’re bringing you another guest post from our omnipresent Plug and Play team, this time from the Pearson co-sponsored London leg of AngelHack, the biggest hackathon competition in the world. Involving 6,000 hackers in 30 cities, the London hack ran from April 27 to 28.                                                               ***Part of a series of hack events spread throughout time and space (well, multiple hack events in different cities around the world), the London event was held at Bloomsberg’s fabulous offices on the weekend of April 27-28. Great organization ensured that no-one was short of food, drink, power, WiFi or indeed advise for the whole weekend (I think this is the first hack I have attended where there were no network problems!!).There were an impressive 200-250 people creating around 40 hacks by the end of the weekend, all of which were of an exceptionally high standard, and covering a broad range of solutions. The diversity of the hacks was very impressive, including Raspberry Pi’s controlling projectors, charitable donations website, chicken-egg incubator app (really !), mobile virtual golf game and many, many more. A heartfelt congratulations for all the teams for some truly amazing results after just over a day of solid hacking!Pearson APIsOf course, we were particularly interested in the hacks that made use of our Pearson APIs, and we were not disappointed. As part of our sponsorship of the event, we also had two prizes of a place on the TechMeetup Guru program - a ten week mentoring course to help startups with advice and mentoring - so we were looking forward to seeing what would be produced over the weekend. The hacks that leveraged Pearson APIs were as follows:Womble Positioning System - a mobile app used to determine where you are in the London underground, and tell you when you arrive at your destination station. Ideal for people using their headphones while on the tube !! The hack made use of our Eyewitness API to give travelers additional information about places of interest at their destination station.English for Aliens - teaching game (think of a mashup of MoshiMonsters and RosettaStone) for young children to teach them English in a fun way. Coded in flash, they made use of our Dictionaries API to add audio for words to the game. Lots of great graphics and colours, this is sure to capture the imagination of children, and should make a great learning aid.Wintern - a website to make it easier for interns and potential employers to meet up. Hiring of interns is an area of recruitment that lacks a good solution, and the team hopes that their solution will fill this hole. The hack made use of our Brilliant API to provide suggested reading for interns, and could be seen as a way to provide direct purchasing links to publications that could help interns find placements. Very polished webapp.Nibbli - realtime rating of restaurants. Use a mobile app to rate a restaurant while you are there, based on four criteria, and have your ratings reflected back in realtime. People can see how a restaurant is rated now, rather than some comments for 6 months ago. Incentives to get people to rate, and business model to work with restaurants to identify when/why business is slow. Uses the Eyewitness API to get geo-location information on restaurants in London.Advistro - like a stackoverflow, but for legal, tax and accounting. People could ask questions, and then professionals could provide answers. Also used the Brilliant API to get recommended reading. Again, very polished web app for 24 hours work, and are going to try to take to market.Startstrap - automate the setup of project resources, such as Github/facebook/twitter accounts, so you don’t have to go through the same manual process each time.Used the Dictionaries API to get synonyms for words to create twitter feeds, and DKImages to setup background pictures. All done by a one-man team! Impressive stuff.Spot PrizesOur ‘spot’ prizes of the places on the TechMeetup Guru programme did seem to be well received by the teams that entered. While it would have been nice to give an award to all the teams using our APIs, we had to pick two, so we ended up awarding them to: Wintern and Advistro. In both cases, they looked like they may progress with our APIs in the future, and both had commendably polished apps at the end of the hack.WrapupA great weekend with diverse solutions to diverse problems, held in a great venue with a relaxed and fun atmosphere. It was really fun to work with the various different teams using our APIs and seeing how they could make best use of them.                                                              ***Lawrie Nichols is a developer in our Future Technologies team’s Plug and Play crew. (via AngelHack London @ Bloomberg (Spring 2013 hackathon) - Eventbrite - Image source)
    Reporting back from AngelHack

    We’re bringing you another guest post from our omnipresent Plug and Play team, this time from the Pearson co-sponsored London leg of AngelHack, the biggest hackathon competition in the world. Involving 6,000 hackers in 30 cities, the London hack ran from April 27 to 28. 

                                                                  ***

    Part of a series of hack events spread throughout time and space (well, multiple hack events in different cities around the world), the London event was held at Bloomsberg’s fabulous offices on the weekend of April 27-28. Great organization ensured that no-one was short of food, drink, power, WiFi or indeed advise for the whole weekend (I think this is the first hack I have attended where there were no network problems!!).

    There were an impressive 200-250 people creating around 40 hacks by the end of the weekend, all of which were of an exceptionally high standard, and covering a broad range of solutions. The diversity of the hacks was very impressive, including Raspberry Pi’s controlling projectors, charitable donations website, chicken-egg incubator app (really !), mobile virtual golf game and many, many more. A heartfelt congratulations for all the teams for some truly amazing results after just over a day of solid hacking!

    Pearson APIs

    Of course, we were particularly interested in the hacks that made use of our Pearson APIs, and we were not disappointed. As part of our sponsorship of the event, we also had two prizes of a place on the TechMeetup Guru program - a ten week mentoring course to help startups with advice and mentoring - so we were looking forward to seeing what would be produced over the weekend. The hacks that leveraged Pearson APIs were as follows:

    • Womble Positioning System - a mobile app used to determine where you are in the London underground, and tell you when you arrive at your destination station. Ideal for people using their headphones while on the tube !! The hack made use of our Eyewitness API to give travelers additional information about places of interest at their destination station.
    • English for Aliens - teaching game (think of a mashup of MoshiMonsters and RosettaStone) for young children to teach them English in a fun way. Coded in flash, they made use of our Dictionaries API to add audio for words to the game. Lots of great graphics and colours, this is sure to capture the imagination of children, and should make a great learning aid.
    • Wintern - a website to make it easier for interns and potential employers to meet up. Hiring of interns is an area of recruitment that lacks a good solution, and the team hopes that their solution will fill this hole. The hack made use of our Brilliant API to provide suggested reading for interns, and could be seen as a way to provide direct purchasing links to publications that could help interns find placements. Very polished webapp.
    • Nibbli - realtime rating of restaurants. Use a mobile app to rate a restaurant while you are there, based on four criteria, and have your ratings reflected back in realtime. People can see how a restaurant is rated now, rather than some comments for 6 months ago. Incentives to get people to rate, and business model to work with restaurants to identify when/why business is slow. Uses the Eyewitness API to get geo-location information on restaurants in London.
    • Advistro - like a stackoverflow, but for legal, tax and accounting. People could ask questions, and then professionals could provide answers. Also used the Brilliant API to get recommended reading. Again, very polished web app for 24 hours work, and are going to try to take to market.
    • Startstrap - automate the setup of project resources, such as Github/facebook/twitter accounts, so you don’t have to go through the same manual process each time.Used the Dictionaries API to get synonyms for words to create twitter feeds, and DKImages to setup background pictures. All done by a one-man team! Impressive stuff.

    Spot Prizes

    Our ‘spot’ prizes of the places on the TechMeetup Guru programme did seem to be well received by the teams that entered. While it would have been nice to give an award to all the teams using our APIs, we had to pick two, so we ended up awarding them to: Wintern and Advistro. In both cases, they looked like they may progress with our APIs in the future, and both had commendably polished apps at the end of the hack.

    Wrapup

    A great weekend with diverse solutions to diverse problems, held in a great venue with a relaxed and fun atmosphere. It was really fun to work with the various different teams using our APIs and seeing how they could make best use of them.

                                                                  ***

    Lawrie Nichols is a developer in our Future Technologies team’s Plug and Play crew.

    (via AngelHack London @ Bloomberg (Spring 2013 hackathon) - Eventbrite - Image source)

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  • 2
    May
    EDUCATION Mobile Technology brazil Social enterprise South America
    The Brazilian entrepreneurs taking mobile-focused, pragmatic approach to disrupting education For all the razzmatazz of big tech events in the West, some of the most exciting bits of innovation are to be found in emerging markets, as entrepreneurs and tech heads get together to address systemic issues. In Brazil, the executive director of Village Capital Ross Baird reports a flurry of pragmatic activity to tackling issues in health, education and financial services, with education standing out ‘as the strongest in terms of potential pure disruption.’ The near-ubiquity of both mobile phones and broadband amongst Brazil’s urban poor means that the education sector is ripe for innovation, especially with impact investment to drive it through.  (via Village Capital | Village Capital in Brazil: Pragmatic Idealism)
    The Brazilian entrepreneurs taking mobile-focused, pragmatic approach to disrupting education

    For all the razzmatazz of big tech events in the West, some of the most exciting bits of innovation are to be found in emerging markets, as entrepreneurs and tech heads get together to address systemic issues. In Brazil, the executive director of Village Capital Ross Baird reports a flurry of pragmatic activity to tackling issues in health, education and financial services, with education standing out ‘as the strongest in terms of potential pure disruption.’ The near-ubiquity of both mobile phones and broadband amongst Brazil’s urban poor means that the education sector is ripe for innovation, especially with impact investment to drive it through. 

    (via Village Capital | Village Capital in Brazil: Pragmatic Idealism)

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