Call for Papers: 9th EDC - Education and Development Conference 2014

March 5^th-7th 2014, Bangkok, Thailand
Bangkok, Thailand

The conference topics include, but are not limited to: Adult Education, Arts Education, Anthropology and Education, Curriculum, Early Childhood Education, Educational Systems and Policy, Educational Psychology, Environmental Education, Gender and Education, Guidance and Counseling, Health Education, Higher Education, History of Education, IT and Education, Language Education and Literacy, Lifelong Learning, Mathematics Education, Mentoring and Coaching, Multicultural Issues in Education, Philosophy of Education, Physical Education, Primary Education, Quality in Education, Race, Ethnicity and Education, Research and Development, Rural Education, Science Education, Secondary Education, Sociology of Education, Special and Inclusive Education, Teacher Education, Values and Education, Vocational Education and Training, Other areas of Education.

Papers presented at the conference will be published in a dedicated ISBN publication of EDC2014 Conference Proceedings.

Web address: http://www.ed-conference.org

Gaia Space Probe Seeks to Map a Billion Stars

The European Space Agency launched on Thursday the Gaia space probe into the darkness to discover worlds still unknown. Its mission is to discover, record, detail movement and determine the potential substance of a billion stars in the Milky Way (1). Over the next five years it is believed that the probe will create a census of our solar system in a way no other ship has yet been able to complete. 

The Gaia is also equipped with a digital camera. This is not a normal camera you may find on your Android Phone. It is a billion pixel camera that can scan great distances to take pictures with significant clarity (2). This will help researchers determine what they are seeing in space and where planets are located. 

The amount of data processing is huge. Gaia will find a place out in space where gravitational pulls will allow it to sit still and take pictures of the galaxy around it. At a cost of a billion dollars it will be able to beat out the abilities of the Kepler system by cataloging many large worlds (3). The program will run for five years. 

It is appears that the sequence of recent flights that the space race has heated up again. From China’s soft landing on the moon to the potential colony on mars the technology has rounded a corner. Google’s purchasing of robotic companies and other innovative developments have created more opportunities in mutual technological advancement.

Google Cloud Hits the Market

Google’s Compute Engine (GCE) is now available to customers. It comes with a 99.95% service guarantee to ensure it is up and running most of the time. It is a cloud computing program that is available for commercial and personal customers. As a latecomer against Amazon, Google hopes to make their way into this potentially lucrative market that will likely impact engineering, higher education, government, and many other market sectors. 

The advantage of such systems is that they hedge the computing power of companies. Instead of buying lots of software and hardware it is possible to use the system at a cheaper price. It allows for collaboration with other companies for product generation and development.  One of the advantages will be the lower lead time to generate new products. 

As the price and functionality of the system improves more entrepreneurs will likely use the product to develop their own products and services.  You may play with and explore the system for free. Services and processing power will require entering billing information. You may watch the video below to learn more about the service.

Check out Cloud Google for Free!

Other Reading:

NYTimes

Venture Beat

The Economic Development of Society

Production and economic structure have a level of association when attempting to develop stronger economic growth. According to a paper by Tvaronaviciene & Lankauskiene (2013), a review of economic history finds that many of the main theories associated with economic growth are about platform growth. They propose in their literary study that economic growth often puts pressure to change the economic structure of society. 

Most researchers measure economic growth through GDP. As a benchmark, a large percentage of countries use natural resources to create wealth. Yet this approach is not sustainable in the end. The development of knowledge based societies and innovative sectors are more likely to maintain growth into the future. This growth improves upon the livelihoods of those within the workforce. 

Adam Smith produced the famous book An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of Wealth of Nations (1776). Market forces are seen as the invisible hand and are generally better regulators than government (Willis, 2005). Societies that seek to gain wealth begin to improve upon their production and then export that production to other areas of the world. 

 John Maynard Keynes published the General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money (1936).  In Keynes argument, the free market could be a positive or a negative force and that investment was the real key to overall growth (Willis, 2005). Continually investing in newer infrastructure projects helps adjust the structure and maintain higher levels of growth. 

One method of increasing development was the mobilization of domestic and foreign savings in order to generate sufficient investment to accelerate economic growth (Todaro & Smith, 2011). Economies move from subsistence agriculture, to modern urbanized centers and into more industrial diverse manufacturing and services.  In order for an economy to develop, it must move transit from one economic structure to a higher structural platform. 

The paper discusses the movement from a primarily agricultural society to one an urban society with products and services. It does not really move beyond this point but does hint how social structure can advance through advancements in technology. If we look at the pace of technology development as seen in portable computers, social media, micro manufacturing, etc. the next level of development is not yet clearly defined. True sustainability is based in the high capacity development generated from the advanced technologies of modern times. These technologies create a higher platform where various entities can help form profound new products and services through the contribution of interconnected societal elements. 

Willis, (2005). Theories and practices of development. Routledge, Taylor & Fracis group: London and New York. 

Todaro, M. & Smith (2011). Economic development (Eleventh edition). Pearson Education limited: England.

Tvaronaviciene, M. & Lankauskiene, T. (2013). The impact of production factors and economic structures on economic development. Business Theory and Practice, 14 (1).

Free Webinar-Faculty Attitudes on Technology

Inside Higher Ed's 2013 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology -- conducted with Gallup -- aims to understand how college and university faculty members and campus leaders in educational technology perceive and pursue online learning and other emerging opportunities for delivering course content. Highlights of the survey findings include:

• Few faculty believe that online courses can achieve student learning outcomes as well as in-person courses.
• Whether an online program is offered by an accredited institution tops the list of factors that contribute to quality in online education according to faculty members. Technology administrators are far likelier to associate quality with academic credit.
•  Faculty members feel strongly that institutions should start MOOCs only with faculty approval, and that MOOCs should be evaluated by accrediting agencies.
• Of faculty who have never taught an online course, 30 percent say the main reason they haven't is because they've never been asked.
• Faculty members and technology officers alike agree that their institutions fail to reward teaching with technology in tenure and promotion decisions.

On Thursday, September 12 at 2 p.m. Eastern, join Inside Higher Ed editors Scott Jaschik and Doug Lederman for a free webinar. Scott and Doug will lead a lively discussion sparked by the results of the survey and questions/comments from participants.

Click to Register

Read up before you participate! Check out Inside Higher Ed's article on the survey and download the complete report at: www.insidehighered.com/news/survey

The Inside Higher Ed Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology was made possible in part by the generous financial support of Deltak, McGraw-Hill Higher Education, Pearson and Sonic Foundry. Your registration information will be shared with these companies.