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Online 'nanodegrees' boost your career without requiring time off
Climbing the career ladder can be daunting. You frequently need new skills to move ahead, but it's not always practical to take time off just to get some new credentials. However, AT&T and Udacity may have just solved this conundrum by unveiling "nanodegrees:" short online courses that are designed to boost your talents without disrupting your life. The upcoming programs teach subjects like app development and data analysis over the course of six to 12 months, assuming you devote 10 hours per week; you won't have to use up vacation time just to earn a certificate. You'll even get career help in the field you're studying, so you should have a better sense of how any new talents will apply in the real world.
Visual encyclopedia builds itself by scouring the internet
Crowdsourced knowledge bases like Wikipedia encompass a lot of knowledge, but humans can only add to them so quickly. Wouldn't it be better if computers did all the hard work? The University of Washington certainly believes so. Its LEVAN (Learn EVerything about ANything) program is building a visual encyclopedia by automatically searching the Google Books library for descriptive language, and using that to find pictures illustrating the associated concepts. Once LEVAN has seen enough, it can associate images with ideas simply by looking at pixel arrangements. Unlike earlier learning systems, such as Carnegie Mellon's NEIL, it's smart enough to tell the difference between two similar objects (such as a Trojan horse and a racing horse) while lumping them under one broader category.
Robotics kit steers kids away from complex code, toward fun projects
You''ve likely come into contact with one of the many wondrous robots with an Arduino brain, but actually building one yourself? That's hard enough for adults, let alone young kids. BirdBrain Technologies, the brains behind the Hummingbird Arduino Kickstarter project (along with Carnegie Mellon University) feels the same way and has just launched the Hummingbird Duo, a robotics Kickstarter project for kids "10 to 110." It's designed to ease the robotics learning curve with two boards: the original Hummingbird kit to help younger kids start making projects, and a "Leonardo" board for when they've gathered some experience. You'll get the same building blocks like LEDs, vibration motors, servers and sensors from the original kit, along with an integrated motor/servo shield and improved connectors on the second board.
Twitter pledges $1 million to help poor SF families learn tech skills
Twitter has just announced that it will set up a technology learning center for homeless San Francisco families called the "Twitter Neighborhood Nest." The company told the SF Chronicle that it will partner with the Compass Family Services non-profit organization, and donate north of $1 million over several years. It's currently looking for space near its home base on Market Street for the project and has already donated 81 computers along with tech support to Compass. Aided by Twitter employees who will donate their time, the center will teach students how to seek jobs online and other basic computer skills. However, as the Chronicle noted, Twitter's motivations aren't strictly altruistic.
The Daily Grind: What real-world lessons have you learned from MMOs?
Back in January, a Lifehacker op-ed chronicled six things the writer had learned from playing World of Warcraft -- useful, real-world things, not just how to spec out a frost Mage. For example, he learned that things you like can feel like a grind, and he learned how to quit something wonderful with grace. I've learned even more practical things than that from my years in MMOs. I've learned leadership skills, honed math and spreadsheet skills, and worked on mastering the art of patience -- OK, so I'm still working on that one. I've also watched ESL guildies perfect their language and writing skills and seen still others parlay this hobby of ours into careers in gaming and coding and journalism. What about you? What real-world lessons or skills have you learned thanks to MMOs? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
How to learn what you're doing on a boosted 90
Look, it's okay to admit that in some cases, players who've pre-ordered Warlords of Draenor or even bought the level 90 boost are on level 90 characters that they don't actually know how to play. In some cases, this isn't the case -- if I used the boost, for instance, I'd probably know how to play that 12th warrior I boosted to 90. But if I were to boost my hunter, there would suddenly be 29 levels of huntering to absorb and take in, and if I were to use the boost on a rogue I'd hate myself for it and quit playing in a storm of recriminations. Also, I would have zero idea what I was doing on a rogue for the ten seconds before I realized what I'd done. Now that I've had my fun, let's get serious - how would I play a rogue at 90? Or a mage, or a priest, or another class that I'd never played before? Well, there are resources out there -- WoW Insider has a rookie guide, for starters -- and there are other sites like Wowhead and Icy-Veins that can and do give you an overview of what your new class does. There's also a very useful resource built into the game itself. Your spellbook has a great deal of information for you about what your class can do and how to go about playing it, that can get you pointed in the right direction to begin play. We're assuming you're a returning player who has not played in a while or a new player just getting started with this article - established players starting a new alt may already know much of this.
EdX expands range of institutions that can offer free online courses
EdX's open online education system has drawn a lot of interest -- enough interest that the non-profit has just loosened up its membership structure to allow for more participants. The revamp lets 12 additional organizations offer free internet-based courses, including schools as well as non-academic outlets like the International Monetary Fund, the Linux Foundation and the Smithsonian Institution. Details of the new programs aren't available beyond the Linux Foundation's plans for an introductory Linux course, but edX's move is bound to improve the diversity of things you can learn without spending a dime on tuition. [Image credit: TU Delft, Flickr]
Daily App: Slice Fractions helps your child visualize fractions in a puzzling way
Slice Fractions is a new learning game from Ululab that was designed in collaboration with a team of learning experts from the University of Quebec in Montreal. As its name implies, the app focuses on fractions and presents the math concept in a series of slicing puzzles that are part Cut the Rope, part Fruit Ninja. The goal of Slice Fractions is to break up chunks of ice and lava as you clear a path for a wooly mammoth that is walking in the forest. Slicing up the chunks is not as easy as it first appears. You must use hanging blocks that are suspended on ropes to blow up the ice and lava on the ground. The challenge is to figure out which ropes you need to cut in order to get the blocks to fall so they demolish the obstacles in your mammoth's path. The puzzles start off easy and gradually increase in difficulty. As the mammoth meanders in the forest, he encounters new creatures and collects wild-looking hats that he wears on his walk. The animation is top-notch -- each character is incredibly adorable and the background music is delightfully catchy. Even as an adult, I found the game to be endearing and enjoyed playing myself. Slice Fractions is a great puzzler, but you may be wondering how the concept of fractions fits into the game. For better or worse, the teaching of fractions within the app is subtle. There are no lessons on fractions or any concrete explanation on how fractions fit into the breaking up of ice and lava. In fact, most of the early stages of the game are meant to introduce your child to solving the puzzles. It's only in the middle to latter stages that you see any mention of fractions, and even then it's up to the child to figure out (or the parent to point out) how the chunks on the ground represent a small part of a whole. For example, the game may show four blocks of lava on the ground that are contained in a box with six parts, as shown above. Your child would have to notice that the blocks represent four out of six or 4/6. In my experience, my children focused on the puzzle part and completely missed the learning part, even when the fractions were written on the blocks. Slice Fractions would work well if you had a parent or teacher who used the app as part of a formal lesson on fractions. The instructor could point out the math concepts to the child as he or she progressed through the game. The app is suitable for guided instruction, but it is not an independent learning app that you hand to your children with the expectation they will become a fraction whiz by the time they are done with all the levels. Slice Fractions is an enjoyable game that challenges your child to solve complex puzzles, while teaching fractions on the side. It's a universal app that'll work on the iPad and iPhone and is available for US$2.99 from the iOS App Store. There are no ads and no in-app purchases.
The Summoner's Guidebook: My goals in League of Legends
Whenever I enter a League of Legends match, I have a few goals set in mind. Of course, winning is a goal, but that's not the only goal. My agenda tends to be a lot more long-term, relative to other LoL players. We've talked a lot about meta lately, and it tends to be a hot topic with Season 4's preseason patches shaking up the meta quite a bit. There are a lot of reasons to justify not playing meta. There are also a lot of reasons to take risky decisions that might not pan out.
Yes, there are real life lessons to be found in World of Warcraft
If you read Lifehacker, you probably read it for information on getting stuff done in the real world -- which is why it's surprising to see an article about World of Warcraft headlining. But the article makes a good point: there are real life lessons you can learn in virtual life. We've written before about how WoW can be a teaching tool in schools (on more than one occasion), but it can help teach you, too. No, you won't learn calculus by slaying virtual dragons and playing WoW instead of washing the dishes won't get your chores done, but paying attention to the game can teach you some useful life lessons. So just what lessons can you learn? We won't recount the whole post, but definitely appreciate this point: even things you like can be a grind. We may enjoy WoW, but dailies are only fun for so long before they become tedious -- and the same can hold true for real life, too. The things that we love, when turned into do-every-day job-like tedium can be just as un-fun as things we don't even like. But because we like getting paychecks (or gold or valor or reputation), we persevere. For more, read the post on Lifehacker.
Chaos Theory: How The Secret World makes you learn
Maybe it's my age or maybe it's just a little bit of laziness about me, but I'm finding myself a little peeved whenever someone or something wants to make me learn a new system. I mean, I'll be the one constantly reading Wikipedia to all hours of the night because I like soaking up info, but if a game asks me to go through a two-minute tutorial, I'm like, "Forget that!" and upturn my computer desk while I go to the other room to calm down. It's not that I don't like learning -- I end up really enjoying myself when I do, in fact -- but that the energy and attention required to absorb a new lesson can often be a tad daunting. This is what drives me back into familiar gaming arms again and again, and why I'm more than a little apprehensive about all of the sandbox tools that will be coming to MMOs near us. That's why I have to hand it to The Secret World -- here's an MMO that pushed me out of my comfort bubble and made me learn, sometimes kicking and screaming, and sometimes with a giddy and joyful heart. This is an MMO that isn't content to spoon-feed you the same mush you've been downing for years; it's one that operates under a practical mission statement of teaching through gameplay.
The Daily Grind: Do you bypass MMOs with learning curves?
I might be getting less patient with new things as I age, because I have found myself becoming frustrated with MMOs and video games that require actual research and learning to play. If I can jump into a game and figure things out, well, great. If I'm going to have to work slowly through a two-hour tutorial while referencing guides on forum posts, I might just shy away. MMOs that go outside of the norm may have a lot more to offer, but the requirement to learn a new way to play or how all of these confangled systems work can be an obstacle to enthusiasm and engagement. I know it makes me sound a little wussy, but it's the truth. I really had to push myself to get into The Secret World and Fallen Earth before falling in love with both of these games due to the learning curve present. So am I alone? Do you bypass an MMO if it just takes too long to learn how to play it? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
Carnegie Mellon computer learns common sense through pictures, shows what it's thinking
Humans have a knack for making visual associations, but computers don't have it so easy; we often have to tell them what they see. Carnegie Mellon's recently launched Never Ending Image Learner (NEIL) supercomputer bucks that trend by forming those connections itself. Building on the university's earlier NELL research, the 200-core cluster scours the internet for images and defines objects based on the common attributes that it finds. It knows that buildings are frequently tall, for example, and that ducks look like geese. While NEIL is occasionally prone to making mistakes, it's also transparent -- a public page lets you see what it's learning, and you can suggest queries if you think there's a gap in the system's logic. The project could eventually lead to computers and robots with a much better understanding of the world around them, even if they never quite gain human-like perception.
Five iOS apps to help you get educated online
In our connected world, there are a growing number of sites and services that you can use to get an education online. Here are five resources that have iOS apps, so your learning doesn't have to slow you down. iTunesU [iOS Universal; Free] iTunesU is Apple's educational resource. The app gives you access to growing digital catalog of courses from leading universities and other schools. There are over 600,000 free lectures, books and videos available at your fingertips. Khan Academy [iOS Universal; Free] Khan Academy offers free courses that cover math, science, humanities and more. There are over 4,200 videos and more are being added on a regular basis. TED [iOS Universal; Free] TED offers talks from some of the brightest minds and top thinkers of our day. Though not courses per se, the TED video collection will challenge you in ways you never would have never imagined. Lynda.com [iOS Universal; Free, subscription required) Lynda.com has a wealth of video courses to help you learn how to program, use your camera, create an image in photoshop and more. Requires a Lynda.com subscription to access the content on the iPad and iPhone. Pluralsight [iOS Universal; Free, subscription required) Pluralsight is a developer- and IT-focused training site that offers courses in Microsoft technologies like Sharepoint, web technologies like HTML5, iOS programming and more. Requires a Pluralsight subscription to access the content on the iPad and iPhone.
Google+ Connected Classrooms offers virtual field trips with the help of Hangouts
Field trips are usually restricted to points of interest that can be easily reached by bus during regular school hours. Now, Google has a tool for enabling virtual visits to educational stops near and far via Hangouts. The folks in Mountain View have launched Connected Classrooms through Google+: a project that brings destinations students may never have the chance to experience in real life within reach inside their classrooms. Trips to the Seattle Aquarium, Minnesota Zoo and Solar Impulse hangar are the first three stops for the program, and soon enough, teachers will be able sign up for virtual tours with over 20 partners. There's also the ability to collaborate with fellow educators and access content all within the confines for Google+. For a glimpse at the potential, head on past the break for a quick video teaser.
Udacity launches Open Education Alliance to help modernize university curriculums
Udacity's first partnership with an institution of higher learning might not have turned out as well as it hoped, but a setback at San Jose State University won't cause the online learning portal to call it quits on college campuses. Quite the contrary, in fact. Today, Udacity announced the creation of the Open Education Alliance to "bridge the gap between the skills employers need and what traditional universities teach." The alliance is comprised of both Silicon Valley heavyweights like Google, AT&T and NVIDIA and educators including Georgia Tech and Khan Academy. The OEA's goal is to enlist the help of both companies and educators in building a new curriculum to help students learn what they need to choose and succeed in a modern career. Here at TechCrunch Disrupt SF 2013, Udacity CEO Sebastian Thrun and California Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom discussed the need for a shift in our educational system, and consequently the OEA. "It's important to be creative about this," said Thrun, "we need to move away from an 'industry of drones' by enabling students to learn at their own speed." Naturally, accomplishing this task requires a combination of Udacity's online learning tools to give folks on-demand access to learning materials they need and a physical classroom environment to keep students on task. According to Newsom, "It's not mass education anymore, it's personalized."
Teachers on Pinterest initiative could make lesson planning halfway enjoyable
Oh, education. So necessary, but so grueling. Particularly for oodles of grade-school instructors who are forced to swallow their fresh-out-of-college ambitions and fall into the system if they ever hope to level up in academia. We've seen glimmers of hope here and there, with certain schools getting outside of their comfort zones long enough to try new methodologies, and Pinterest's latest project certainly holds a lot of promise. Teachers on Pinterest is a hub that showcases a variety of lesson plans and teaching tools, and through a partnership with Edutopia, it's hoping to build out a full-bodied community for instructors. Hit up the source link below for a closer look, and remember: teachers rule.
Insert Coin: the ixi-play robot owl monitors toddlers, helps them learn (video)
In Insert Coin, we look at an exciting new tech project that requires funding before it can hit production. If you'd like to pitch a project, please send us a tip with "Insert Coin" as the subject line. Isn't a baby monitor effectively a waste of technology? With a bit more thought and an operating system, couldn't it do much more with its components than just scope your infant? That's the premise behind Y Combinator-backed ixi-play, an Android-powered robot that just launched on the Crowdhoster crowdfunding platform. On top of Android 4.2, a dual-core ARM Cortex A9 CPU, 1GB RAM and a 720p camera, the owlish 'bot has face, card and object detection, voice recognition, a touch-sensor on the head, eye displays for animations, a tweeter/woofer speaker combo and child-proof "high robustness." For motion, the team adopted a design used in flight simulators, giving ixi-play "agile and silent" 3-axis translation and rotation moves. All that tech is in the service of one thing, of course: your precious snowflake. There are currently three apps for ixi-play: a baby monitor, language learning and animal-themed emotion cards. As the video shows (after the break), the latter app lets your toddler flash cards to the bot to make it move or emote via the eye displays, matching the anger or happiness shown on the card. In baby monitor mode, on top of sending a live (encoded) video stream to your tablet, it'll also play soothing music and sing or talk your toddler to sleep. The device will also include an SDK that includes low-level motion control and vision programming, providing a way for developers to create more apps. As for pricing, you can snap one up starting at $299 for delivery around July 24th, 2014, provided the company meets its $957,000 funding goal (pledges are backed by Crowdtilt). That's exactly the same price we saw recently for far less amusing-sounding baby monitor, so if you're interested, hit the source.
My Beastly ABCs comes to the iPhone
My Beastly ABCs debuted in the App Store at the end of last year and was an instant hit. The interactive storybook teaches kids their ABCs as they follow a boy (and some monsters) throughout a day. Available initially for the iPad, Duncan Studio recently released an update that brings this educational tool to the iPhone. The iPhone version of My Beastly ABCs mirrors the iPad version, but is scaled for the iPhone's smaller landscape screen. The illustrations in My Beastly ABCS are eye-catching and the narration by Jim Dale is top notch. Some of the navigation elements are a bit small, especially on the iPhone, and the letters sometime take a back seat to the story, but that's what the parents are for. Sit down with your child, help them learn as they make their way through the tale and enjoy some quality time together. My Beastly ABCs is available as a universal app and costs US$2.99 from the iOS App Store.
San Jose State University suspends Udacity online course trials
San Jose State University's online education pilot held the promise of real course credit without the hassles of attending class in person. It hasn't worked that way in practice, however, and both SJSU as well as its partner Udacity have suspended their plans for fall courses. Quite simply, there have been too many flunkies so far -- while 83 percent of students completed their sessions this spring, no more than 44 percent of any given class earned a passing grade. SJSU and Udacity will use the break to learn what went wrong and retool the program, although it's not clear just when (or if) internet-based classes will resume. Online education is far from finished when similar for-credit trials have yet to begin; for now, though, SJSU students will have to drag themselves to the lecture hall.
