Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Monday, August 20, 2012
Saturday, August 18, 2012
Friday, August 17, 2012
EDUCATION AND INNOVATION: Report urges Canada to double down on foreign students to fuel innovation
Canada should double the number of international students studying here by 2022, a new report commissioned by the federal government says.
The task force responsible for the report, headed by Western University president Amit Chakma, wants Ottawa to boost the number of international students from about 239,130 to 450,000 in 10 years – from kindergarten through Grade 12 and post-secondary institutions – without taking away seats from Canadians.
The 122-page report entitled International Education, a Key Driver of Canada’s Future Prosperity, released on Tuesday, makes a connection between attracting international students and filling labour market shortages.Calling the report’s recommendations ambitious, Dr. Chakma said he anticipates most of that recruitment will go to the growing economies of Western Canada.
“Our larger institutions may not have as much capacity to take on [additional] international students ... because they already have been recruiting aggressively, but there is a lot of potential room in our northern institutions and Western provinces,” Dr. Chakma said.
International students spent a total of $8-billion in Canada during 2010, up from $6.5-billion in 2008.
“There aren’t too many sectors that have shown that degree of growth, especially during the economic recession,” said Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada.
The Conservatives put aside $10-million in their 2011 budget for the advisory panel on attracting the top young talent globally and catching up with countries such as the United States, Britain and Australia.
But aside from the immediate boost to the economy, international students are often seen as prime candidates to immigrate, with the established Canadian credentials and work experience for successful application. Even if these students return home, the panel report said, their ties to Canada might develop into business opportunities and diplomatic relations, and generally raise Canada’s profile abroad.
The University of Alberta’s international student population has already doubled to 10 per cent for undergraduates, and president Indira Samarasekera says there is room to grow.
“Especially in Alberta, parents like to hear that the return on investment is almost immediate with so many job opportunities,” she said.
The competition was already fierce for international students.
Countries such as India and China – Canada’s top suppliers of international students – are trying to reverse the brain drain. In 2011, India increased higher education spending by 30 per cent while the Chinese government aims to enroll 500,000 international students by 2020, twice the number it now hosts and more than it sends abroad.
“It’s dangerous to rely on international students to bring in income for Canadian universities, especially since India and China are expanding rapidly,” said Dru Marshall, provost at University of Calgary. “We might not always have access to those students.”
Paul Davidson, president of the Association of Universities and Colleges of Canada also said the costs of marketing abroad and ensuring international students’ needs are met once they arrive in Canada will likely offset much of the potential revenue generation for cash-strapped universities.
Both, however, said the real advantage is in exposing young Canadians minds to other cultures.
That’s why the task force also recommended creating 50,000 opportunities per year for Canadian students to go abroad for study and cultural exchanges. About nine in 10 Canadian students go to university in their home province.
Other countries are also trying to buck that trend. Over the next four years, the Brazilian government will spend $2-billion to help send more than 100,000 of its best students to universities globally to help forge future economic ties. Canada will receive about 12,000 of them, the second-highest total of all recipient countries.
The panel, however, shied away from asking Ottawa to commit to a dollar figure on international education investments, saying individual provinces and institutions will have unique needs.
Ottawa will consider these recommendations and possibly incorporate them into a global commerce strategy due in 2013.
Dr. Chakma said Western is prepared to earmark $1,000 and raise another $1,000 from alumni and donors per travelling fellowship, if Ottawa also commits $1,000.
“Unfortunately, the strategy ignores the skyrocketing costs faced by international students,” said Adam Awad, national chairman of the Canadian Federation of Students.
Many recruiters say that while Canada has a generally positive name abroad, they have difficulty articulating exactly what its brand is. And considering that education in Canada is primarily a provincial jurisdiction, developing a national brand is a challenge.
Some provinces, such as B.C., have already announced province-specific plans to recruit international students. Even so, Dr. Chakma said a “united front” is needed. That’s because research indicates that while students will always seek out well-known schools like Harvard, Oxford and McGill, most choose their international education destination based on a country’s reputation.
“Several university presidents went to Brazil, and while we were all promoting our individual institutions, we got much better access and coverage because it was a Canadian mission under a Canadian banner,” Dr. Chakma said.
Ms. Samarasekera agreed, adding that “people get confused when you talk about provinces with international students.”
“It doesn’t mean anything to them ... students don’t necessarily want to go to California or Massachusetts; they want to go the United States,” she said. “We need to do the same for Canada.”
Thursday, August 16, 2012
740 ESTRELLAS CREADAS CADA 12 MESES: Científicos descubren uno de los cúmulos de galaxias más grande del universo
En el grupo de galaxias, apodado "Fénix", se han estado creando a una gran velocidad alrededor de 740 estrellas cada año.
16/08/2012 - 09:27
© X-ray: NASA/CXC/MIT/M.McDonald; UV: NASA/JPL-Caltech/M.McDonald; Optical: AURA/NOAO/CTIO/MIT/M.McDonald; Illustration: NASA/CXC/M.Weiss El Centro Harvard-Smithsonian de Astrofísica dijo en una nota de prensa que las observaciones del cúmulo, que ha mostrado un ritmo prodigioso de formación de estrellas, podrían obligar a los astrónomos a replantearse cómo evolucionan en el tiempo estas estructuras colosales y las galaxias que albergan.
Conocido oficialmente con el nombre de SPT-CLJ2344-4243, el coloso ha recibido el apodo de "Fénix" por el pájaro mitológico que volvía de entre los muertos.
El mote se debe en parte a la constelación en la que se encuentra. Pero Michael McDonald, miembro de la cátedra Hubble del Instituto de Tecnología de Massachusetts, dijo que la figura del fénix también es una buena forma de ver esta última maravilla astronómica.
"Mientras que las galaxias del centro de la mayoría de los cúmulos llevan miles de millones de años dormidas, la galaxia central de este cúmulo parece haber vuelto a la vida con un nuevo brote de formación de estrellas", dijo McDonald, autor principal del estudio sobre el Fénix, que apareció en la edición del 16 de agosto de Nature.
UN RITMO "ENORME"
Basándose en observaciones del observatorio de rayos-X Chandra de la NASA, el telescopio del polo Sur de la Fundación Nacional de Ciencia de EEUU y otros ocho observatorios, los investigadores señalaron que el centro del cúmulo está relacionado con la creación de unas "740 masas solares" o estrellas cada año.
En comparación, el cúmulo Perseo forma estrellas a un ritmo unas 20 veces menor.
"Esto es simplemente un ritmo enorme", dijo Marie Machacek, astrofísica del Observatorio Astrofísico del Smithsonian. La experta explicó que se cree los cúmulos grandes como Fénix albergan miles de galaxias, y aún hay mucho que aprender sobre lo que ocurre dentro de ellas.
Desde hace tiempo se asocian los agujeros negros supergigantes de la galaxia central de un cúmulo con ritmos bajos de formación de estrellas, ya que inyectan energía al sistema e impiden el enfriamiento de gases necesario para la creación de las mismas.
Sin embargo, los investigadores dijeron que la "enorme producción de estrellas" del Fénix, donde nacieron unas dos estrellas al día, sugiere que el agujero negro de su galaxia central no ha interferido con un flujo de frío extremadamente fuerte.
"Se están formando estrellas en el cúmulo Fénix al ritmo más alto jamás observado para el centro de un cúmulo de galaxias", afirmó en su nota de prensa el Centro Harvard-Smithsonian de Astrofísica
"El objeto es también el productor de rayos X más potente de cualquier cúmulo conocido y está entre los más grandes. Los datos sugieren además que el ritmo de enfriamiento de gas caliente en las regiones centrales del cúmulo es el mayor jamás visto", añadió el texto.
A DREAM JOB IN AN MIT RESEARCH LAB: MIT's laboratory environment through a four-week January course called 5.301 Introductory Lab Techniques
Each year, groups of MIT freshmen are introduced to MIT's laboratory environment through a four-week January course called 5.301 Introductory Lab Techniques.
In January 2012, a film crew followed 14 students as they struggled to complete experiments required in the class. The stakes are high—students who pass the class are guaranteed a job in an MIT research lab.
This fall, MIT OpenCourseWare will share videos that follow these students as they face the challenges of learning chemistry the MIT way through a unique series called ChemLab Boot Camp.
The episodes will be released each week starting in September, and announced on the ChemLab Boot Camp e-mail list.
Watch the ChemLab Boot Camp trailer.
The 2-5 minute episodes, shot in a style that mixes the geek fun of open educational resources with the immediacy of reality TV, brings viewers closer to the experience of being an MIT student than ever before. The videos follow the students as they try to master lab techniques such as growing crystals and synthesizing antibiotics. The videos are part of a broader effort at MIT funded by The Dow Chemical Company to foster interest in science and engineering careers.
If you'd like to receive updates about each episode, please sign up for the ChemLab Boot Camp e-mail list or you can like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter. We hope you'll enjoy this unique and engaging series.
The MIT OpenCourseWare Team
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
Tuesday, August 14, 2012
Sunday, August 12, 2012
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Friday, August 10, 2012
Thursday, August 9, 2012
Wednesday, August 8, 2012
UNO News Net: LONDON 2012: Adam van Koeverden and Mark Oldershaw have always shared plenty in common, Now they’re both Olympic medallists. On the day that saw Oakville’s van Koeverden win silver in the K-1 1,000 metres, his fourth career Olympic medal, Burlington’s Oldershaw claimed his first such honour
Monday, August 6, 2012
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Saturday, August 4, 2012
Friday, August 3, 2012
CYBERCLASSROOMTV GLOBAL PROJECT: Indiana University is conducting a study titled, "Collecting Stories of Extreme or Informal Learning"
MIT OpenCourseWare supports research in the field of open educational resources to help us and others better understand the value of the materials we publish. Please help further the cause of OER research by responding to the short survey described below.
Sincerely,
The MIT OpenCourseWare Team
A message from Dr. Curtis Bonk:
My research team and I from the Instructional Systems Technology Department at Indiana University are conducting a study titled, "Collecting Stories of Extreme or Informal Learning." This study explores how people learn (and teach) with technology in unique and nontraditional ways. One strand of this research is on the use of open educational resources, OCW, and popular learning portals like MIT OpenCourseWare and the MIT OpenCourseWare Highlights for High School. My team believes that users of the MIT OpenCourseWare Website as well as the MIT OpenCourseWare Highlights for High School are ideal participants for this study and invite them to take our survey.
Across this research, we hope to find out more about how online technology can motivate someone to learn outside of traditional educational settings. Participation will mainly entail responding to a set of online survey questions. A few of the survey respondents will be asked to participate in follow-up online interviews and focus group discussions. Our goal is to collect stories of how informal and extreme forms of online learning significantly impact or changes someone's life. Such stories might offer inspiration to other people. Your Web resources and programs have been highly successful in facilitating learning for a large number of people. We are fairly certain that some of these individuals have unique stories and learning experiences to share.
The survey link is below. Individuals must be at least 13 years old to participate.
The Extreme and Informal Learning Survey - MIT OpenCourseWare and Open Educational Resources: http://www.surveyshare.com/s/AQAM4CC
After clicking on the above link and agreeing to our informed consent form, participants will complete 26 survey questions. Next, they will be asked if they want to answer a series of open-ended items. If they answer "no," the system will take them to the end of the survey for a few final quick questions.
Thanks so much for any support you might lend to our research project. Please do not hesitate to ask us any questions that you may have.
Sincerely,
Professor Curtis J. Bonk, Ph.D.
Department of Instructional Systems Technology
Indiana University, School of Education: Room 2238
201 N. Rose Avenue
Bloomington, IN 47405-1006
Email: cjbonk@indiana.edu
Extreme Learning Website: http://www.extreme-learning.org/
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