Following closely on the heels of some previous posts on Open-Source education, I stumbled upon the Khan Academy http://www.khanacedemy.org/ this morning. The work of just one man (Salman Khan), it numbers some 1600 lectures in YouTube video format which cover subjects ranging from Calculous to Economics. It is an impressive body of work, and one that is sure to change the way people are educated around the world.
While not one to condone or encourage celebrity endorsements, I will point out tha Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has not only publicly referred to the Khan Acedemy a number of times, but he has also enrolled his own children. Take that for whatever you wish.
I for one am pleased to see that the notion of Open-Source education is really taking root - I checked out the Khan Academy this morning, and there was ~4500 individulas logged in. How inspiring is that ?
The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Where are the Leaders ?
A fellow I know on FaceBook asked the question "Where is the official opposition ?". I offer this as my response -
Effective opposition is only one part of the problem. Where is the effective Government ? It is squandered on a Parliamentary system which allows for the creation of successive Minority Governments.
But it is made even worse by the "milquetoast" (Thanks MS - I shamelessly borrow it from you !) candidates put forth by the parties. We haven't had a solid "leader" in decades. Seems we are, as a people, incapable of breeding true Statesmen. It is _MY_ humble opinion that the last true Statesman Canada had was Trudeau.
Look at the current crop of lame ducks:
1) the Right Honourable Stephen Harper - ( the title goes with the post, so leave it alone !) I will start by admitting I voted for him. I am a conservative by nature (note the small "c"), so it is the most reasonable path... But seriously, the best the Conservative Party could come up with is a policy-wonk from Red Deer ? A house-plant has more personality !
2) Michael Ignatieff - the man is sooo far out of touch with the Canadian populace, he may as well have stayed in Cambridge, MA. The last think Canada needs is an elitist intellectual in high office ! His predecessor was Stephane Dion - OMG, I felt bad for the Liberal Party those days...
3) Jack Layton - is charismatic & down-to-earth. Too bad he's a Socialist ! Many of his ideas are solid - I liked the CONCEPT of "kitchen table politics", but in reality he should stay in Toronto. His politics have no place in Western Canada. And I suspect he is almost as welcome in Quebec ! LOL
4) Gilles Duceppe - seriously, how can the leader of a Party whose ENTIRE raison d'etre is to separate from Federation be a NATIONAL party ?!? But I will give the guy one small point - during a pre-election Town Hall, he was asked what his first priority would be if elected Prime Minister. He had the guts to respond that he had ZERO expectation of EVER being elected to that position. But if he was elected to the Official Opposition... LOL
5) All the rest - Valueless lobbyists who server only to further subdivide the vote !
So as a Canadian electorate, we are left with the option of voting for the LESSER of three (or four, or five) evils !
It is even WORSE if you live outside of Ontario & Quebec. Those of us who don't WANT to live in Toronto or Montreal are left without a voice in Government. By the time it is 08:00 PM in Sault Ste Marie, the election is effectively over. There are simply not enough seats left in Western Canada to sway the vote.
Every day, as I drive in to Calgary, I pass a billboard sign which reads "Less Ottawa & More Alberta", with a web-site endorsing the Western Cessation from the Nation. I am NOT a Separatist, but I have learned to understand where those sentiments come from !
I will now withdraw from my soap-box & listen to you all discuss the merits of the Liberal Gun Registry !
The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !
Effective opposition is only one part of the problem. Where is the effective Government ? It is squandered on a Parliamentary system which allows for the creation of successive Minority Governments.
But it is made even worse by the "milquetoast" (Thanks MS - I shamelessly borrow it from you !) candidates put forth by the parties. We haven't had a solid "leader" in decades. Seems we are, as a people, incapable of breeding true Statesmen. It is _MY_ humble opinion that the last true Statesman Canada had was Trudeau.
Look at the current crop of lame ducks:
1) the Right Honourable Stephen Harper - ( the title goes with the post, so leave it alone !) I will start by admitting I voted for him. I am a conservative by nature (note the small "c"), so it is the most reasonable path... But seriously, the best the Conservative Party could come up with is a policy-wonk from Red Deer ? A house-plant has more personality !
2) Michael Ignatieff - the man is sooo far out of touch with the Canadian populace, he may as well have stayed in Cambridge, MA. The last think Canada needs is an elitist intellectual in high office ! His predecessor was Stephane Dion - OMG, I felt bad for the Liberal Party those days...
3) Jack Layton - is charismatic & down-to-earth. Too bad he's a Socialist ! Many of his ideas are solid - I liked the CONCEPT of "kitchen table politics", but in reality he should stay in Toronto. His politics have no place in Western Canada. And I suspect he is almost as welcome in Quebec ! LOL
4) Gilles Duceppe - seriously, how can the leader of a Party whose ENTIRE raison d'etre is to separate from Federation be a NATIONAL party ?!? But I will give the guy one small point - during a pre-election Town Hall, he was asked what his first priority would be if elected Prime Minister. He had the guts to respond that he had ZERO expectation of EVER being elected to that position. But if he was elected to the Official Opposition... LOL
5) All the rest - Valueless lobbyists who server only to further subdivide the vote !
So as a Canadian electorate, we are left with the option of voting for the LESSER of three (or four, or five) evils !
It is even WORSE if you live outside of Ontario & Quebec. Those of us who don't WANT to live in Toronto or Montreal are left without a voice in Government. By the time it is 08:00 PM in Sault Ste Marie, the election is effectively over. There are simply not enough seats left in Western Canada to sway the vote.
Every day, as I drive in to Calgary, I pass a billboard sign which reads "Less Ottawa & More Alberta", with a web-site endorsing the Western Cessation from the Nation. I am NOT a Separatist, but I have learned to understand where those sentiments come from !
I will now withdraw from my soap-box & listen to you all discuss the merits of the Liberal Gun Registry !
The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
An Open-Source Battery ?
In the some of my early posts, I spent a considerable amount of time discussing open-source in terms of renewable-energy and some of the projects associated with it. While many people would argue that I am "Going Green", I once again assert that my interest has little to do with reducing my carbon-footprint. While that is a wonderful by-product, it is not the focus.
In most instances, I look at renewable-energy in terms of the small scale application. I am keenly interested in the so-called "off grid" applications. These are becoming more viable as commercial enterprise, and many companies crop up every day offering wind and solar energy-generation solutions. But my curiosity lays in the Do-It-Yourself (DIY), or shade-tree engineer side of the equation.
A comment that came back to me that pointed out one of the issues I could face was not necessarily in the generation of electricity, but in its storage. As have been seen in many projects, the electricity is often stored in deep-cycle lead-acid batteries. While these tend to have long lives, measured in years, the eco-friendliness of the battery is called into question. What happens to the batteries when they can no longer chemically store the electrical energy ? The answer can't be that good !
So this raises an interesting point - how DOES one store electricity without the use of chemical batteries ? One of the most promising methods is a technology that dates back thousands of years - the flywheel. The principle is straightforward: electrical energy is converted to kinetic energy when it is applied to the flywheel. The flywheel spins up, and then requires only a small amount of energy to keep it spinning. Then, once the energy-input is removed, the kinetic energy is re-converted back as the flywheel slows down.
This brief YouTube video shows the basics of how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV_b5oMqc2M
OK - the science is somewhat more complicated, and the efficiency of such a battery is affected by such factors as friction at the bearing or friction of the air around the flywheel. These can be overcome, but require additional complexity be added to the solution. The use of magnetic-levitation bearings and vacuums are likely outside the abilities of most shade-tree engineers !
In the USA, a company called Beacon Power ( www.beaconpower.com ) has received a grant to build a 10MW battery in Stephentown, New York. The whole point is to provide a "smoothing" effect on the supply vs. demand curves of electricity in a state who is annually plagued by blackouts & brownouts.
But on a smaller scale, the use of a series of smaller flywheels could handle the storage of electricity for a reasonable amount of time. As we saw in the video above, the tiny flywheel kept the flashlight lit for a number of minutes. If we expand the solution to a reasonable limit, it should be possible to create an effective storage medium for smaller applications - say a home or a commercial building.
And the solution is thousands of years old.
The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !
In most instances, I look at renewable-energy in terms of the small scale application. I am keenly interested in the so-called "off grid" applications. These are becoming more viable as commercial enterprise, and many companies crop up every day offering wind and solar energy-generation solutions. But my curiosity lays in the Do-It-Yourself (DIY), or shade-tree engineer side of the equation.
A comment that came back to me that pointed out one of the issues I could face was not necessarily in the generation of electricity, but in its storage. As have been seen in many projects, the electricity is often stored in deep-cycle lead-acid batteries. While these tend to have long lives, measured in years, the eco-friendliness of the battery is called into question. What happens to the batteries when they can no longer chemically store the electrical energy ? The answer can't be that good !
So this raises an interesting point - how DOES one store electricity without the use of chemical batteries ? One of the most promising methods is a technology that dates back thousands of years - the flywheel. The principle is straightforward: electrical energy is converted to kinetic energy when it is applied to the flywheel. The flywheel spins up, and then requires only a small amount of energy to keep it spinning. Then, once the energy-input is removed, the kinetic energy is re-converted back as the flywheel slows down.
This brief YouTube video shows the basics of how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mV_b5oMqc2M
OK - the science is somewhat more complicated, and the efficiency of such a battery is affected by such factors as friction at the bearing or friction of the air around the flywheel. These can be overcome, but require additional complexity be added to the solution. The use of magnetic-levitation bearings and vacuums are likely outside the abilities of most shade-tree engineers !
In the USA, a company called Beacon Power ( www.beaconpower.com ) has received a grant to build a 10MW battery in Stephentown, New York. The whole point is to provide a "smoothing" effect on the supply vs. demand curves of electricity in a state who is annually plagued by blackouts & brownouts.
But on a smaller scale, the use of a series of smaller flywheels could handle the storage of electricity for a reasonable amount of time. As we saw in the video above, the tiny flywheel kept the flashlight lit for a number of minutes. If we expand the solution to a reasonable limit, it should be possible to create an effective storage medium for smaller applications - say a home or a commercial building.
And the solution is thousands of years old.
The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !
Monday, August 2, 2010
Open Source in Education
As many of you know I am a big fan of a website called slashdot ( www.slashdot.org ). They act as a news aggregation point for news that would be of interest to techies everywhere. Further, there is a great system for driving comments. But that's not the point of this blog....
While reading slashdot, I came across an article that describes a foundation which focuses on open-source education. But not in the typical sense - they are not interested in building computer labs using linux, or switching the productivity suites (MS-Office, etc.) to Open Office dot Org. Interestingly, they are interested in providing open-source textbooks ! Check them out at www.ck12.org
Consider the venerable old textbooks we all used when we were younger. Some 400 pages of paper dedicated to providing instruction on quadratic equations or the Battle of Waterloo. These things weighed a ton, and the information contained within didn't change very often. To quote Scott McNealy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems), "10+10 has been 20 for a long time" ! That's not to say that sometimes the information does change - remember, Pluto is no longer considered a planet in our solar system !
The use of textbooks has been a sore spot in educational circles for years. One side of the debate argues that the textbooks can become out of date before they are even delivered to the students. But these textbooks can cost in the hundreds of dollars, which can overburden an School Division.
Who then is responsible for them ? As municipal governments try to stretch their budgets, many costs of education get passed on to the parents. Textbooks & school supplies are a very lucrative (and expensive) market. I have two children, and every August we download the list of supplies from the School Division, and trudge of to Wal-Mart to stock up. Last year, we were north of $200 per child ! Oh, and that didn't include textbooks !
The other side of the debate posits that we not use textbooks, and rely more on the teacher's abilities to convey the material, often photocopied from workshop materials ! Remember the mimeograph machine ? Blue-inked copies of hand-written notes, created by the teacher. But these are created as one-off solutions, without the benefits of any standards or governing bodies.
Many school divisions rely heavily on the re-creation of their own content. Provided the material follows the Provincial guidelines, they are acceptable for use. But then WITHOUT a standard textbook, how am I as a parent supposed to help my child with their homework ? I will be the first to admit, that I do not keep up with Algebra & Earth Sciences. Without the original textbook to refer to, I cannot be much help in my child's education.
But now we are in an age of digital everything. We can view beautiful works of art in high-definition on devices like the iPad. We listen to music in MP3 format, downloaded from iTunes. We have eReader technology that allows us to download books & novels from Chapters, Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Google has even applied open-source principles by publishing literally thousands of classics in ePub format.
So why NOT do this with textbooks ? Why can't the information be open, just like the contents of OpenCourseWare ? This is a collective of higher-education institutions making their courseware freely available for download. Check out http://www.ocwconsortium.org
If these same kids were outfitted with some form of eReader (Kindle, Nook, Sony eReader, etc) then the kids could carry not only their textbooks for this year, but they could store past year's texts for reference ! teachers could publish their notes in PDF format, and these too could be loaded on the eReader.
I am very excited about this project, and the promise it carries for the education of our world's children. Please take the time to browse their web-site, and understand the tremendous value this brings to humanity.
The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !
While reading slashdot, I came across an article that describes a foundation which focuses on open-source education. But not in the typical sense - they are not interested in building computer labs using linux, or switching the productivity suites (MS-Office, etc.) to Open Office dot Org. Interestingly, they are interested in providing open-source textbooks ! Check them out at www.ck12.org
Consider the venerable old textbooks we all used when we were younger. Some 400 pages of paper dedicated to providing instruction on quadratic equations or the Battle of Waterloo. These things weighed a ton, and the information contained within didn't change very often. To quote Scott McNealy (co-founder of Sun Microsystems), "10+10 has been 20 for a long time" ! That's not to say that sometimes the information does change - remember, Pluto is no longer considered a planet in our solar system !
The use of textbooks has been a sore spot in educational circles for years. One side of the debate argues that the textbooks can become out of date before they are even delivered to the students. But these textbooks can cost in the hundreds of dollars, which can overburden an School Division.
Who then is responsible for them ? As municipal governments try to stretch their budgets, many costs of education get passed on to the parents. Textbooks & school supplies are a very lucrative (and expensive) market. I have two children, and every August we download the list of supplies from the School Division, and trudge of to Wal-Mart to stock up. Last year, we were north of $200 per child ! Oh, and that didn't include textbooks !
The other side of the debate posits that we not use textbooks, and rely more on the teacher's abilities to convey the material, often photocopied from workshop materials ! Remember the mimeograph machine ? Blue-inked copies of hand-written notes, created by the teacher. But these are created as one-off solutions, without the benefits of any standards or governing bodies.
Many school divisions rely heavily on the re-creation of their own content. Provided the material follows the Provincial guidelines, they are acceptable for use. But then WITHOUT a standard textbook, how am I as a parent supposed to help my child with their homework ? I will be the first to admit, that I do not keep up with Algebra & Earth Sciences. Without the original textbook to refer to, I cannot be much help in my child's education.
But now we are in an age of digital everything. We can view beautiful works of art in high-definition on devices like the iPad. We listen to music in MP3 format, downloaded from iTunes. We have eReader technology that allows us to download books & novels from Chapters, Amazon or Barnes & Noble. Google has even applied open-source principles by publishing literally thousands of classics in ePub format.
So why NOT do this with textbooks ? Why can't the information be open, just like the contents of OpenCourseWare ? This is a collective of higher-education institutions making their courseware freely available for download. Check out http://www.ocwconsortium.org
If these same kids were outfitted with some form of eReader (Kindle, Nook, Sony eReader, etc) then the kids could carry not only their textbooks for this year, but they could store past year's texts for reference ! teachers could publish their notes in PDF format, and these too could be loaded on the eReader.
I am very excited about this project, and the promise it carries for the education of our world's children. Please take the time to browse their web-site, and understand the tremendous value this brings to humanity.
The opinions expressed are purely those of the author. Opinions are like noses - everyone has one, and they are entitled to it !
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