We were looking for something unique to view over the weekend and we found it in the Blue Springs Manatee Festival. Hundreds of manatees in the stream below the springs because of the cold weather (for Florida). Lots to see.
For more including the manatee cam, the park hosts a web site save the manatee. More of our pictures.
I just used screen time and obesity in my intro psych class as an example of correlational research. Cause and effect can be tricky.
Today the NY Times has a piece on screen time and the type of content that is viewed. The summary seems to be that as elementary-aged children spend more time viewing television, a lower proportion of the time involves “educationally beneficial” content. Perhaps an important related question is how much “educational content” is available. Still, if the proportion shifts because there are few productive options, parents should know that this is the case.
Is the Internet making us stupid (with apologies to Nicholas Carr). This article from the Atlantic offers data on the reading of books. It reports that 23% did not read a book in any format (hard copy or ebook) last year. Reading books is related to education and if there is a positive in the analysis it is that there seems to be little recent decline in the reading of those leaving college. I guess that is supposed to be a positive.
Here is a study from the Chronicle of Higher Education indicating the number of students who presently take online courses.
I have read Friedman’s books on the flat world and buy the concept. He argues education is part of the problem/solution. I agree. He has a new comment on the position he would like the President to take on education. Many have already criticized, but I think it is important for all to at least review. I expect all will find something to support and oppose.
This interesting post by Horace Dediu offers an analysis of factors responsible for the obvious recent shifts in the popularity of hardware and OS. While focused mostly on the decline of Microsoft and the rise of Apple, the most interesting insight for me was the claim that the shift in decision making from company executives to individuals has driven a large portion of the change. Standardization is less important as individual choice in what it takes to get a job done is now allowed.
I assume that the focus on Apple and Microsoft can be generalized. How will issues of cost and openness play into future decisions?
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