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75 Coolest iPhone Apps for Lifelong Learners

In today’s technology age, man’s best friend has a QWERTY key pad instead of four legs. For the academic, an iPhone can be a foe just as easily, with its various interesting but distracting capabilities. In order to use the iPhone to its fullest potential, learners should use it for work as well as play, and thanks to these application creators, that task is not only possible, it is fun as well. From reading worldwide news to creating budgets, from learning foreign languages to appreciating the arts, these applications contain everything you need to feed your superior intellect.
News
Know the market like the back of your hand…or the face of your phone! Keep up with today’s business news here:
  1. Reuters: Get the official Reuters mobile site on your iPhone or iPodTouch. Get news, sports, entertainment, business information and tons more.
  2. WashingtonPost Mobile: Read breaking news as soon as it’s released with WashingtonPost Mobile.
  3. Marketing Forecast: Marketing Forecast provides a continuous stream of forward-looking marketing and consumer insights from Ad-ology Research and other top research firms.
  4. iActu: iActu allows user to access the world information in only one touch. Discover more than 500 newspapers and pass from New York Times to Japan Times.
  5. One News Page: One News Page is a leading global news portal offering live news with more than 20,000 news headlines being added each day.
  6. NPR: This application gives you the option to hear audio podcasts like the NPR Hourly News and your local NPR Radio station news. Additionally you can browse all news stories by category including local news, most SMSed stories, story of the day, song of the day, politics, business, and science.
  7. CBS News Mobile: Read breaking news, and developing stories from CBS News.
  8. AP Mobile News: The Mobile News Network, powered by the Associated Press, helps you keep up-to-date with what’s happening anywhere, from your hometown to your favorite locale.
  9. ESPN iPhone: Get the most comprehensive sports coverage on your iPhone from ESPN Mobile Web for free, including breaking news and analysis, up to the minute scores, and more.
  10. NYTimes Mobile: The NYTimes application allows you to enjoy the professional journalism of The New York Times on your iPhone, wherever you are.
Travel
Don’t let anything go unnoticed when you leave town. To stay in-the-know, all you need is your phone and these applications.
  1. Speeek!: Contains over 1,500 useful phrases while traveling overseas. By simply talking into your iPhone in English, Speeek! will find the phrase and speak it in Chinese.
  2. Events Finder: Provides events from multiple event sources, such as Upcoming, Eventbrite, and TicketStumbler, all in one application.
  3. iSayHello: Speak German, English, French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish or Polish. Choose your language course and off you go with the language travel guide. This easy-to-use talking travel dictionary with superb audio output is more of a vocabulary trainer and dictionary than a translation program.
  4. New York on Tap: New York on Tap was designed to help people find great bars in New York City. It’ll also help you locate the nearest subway and help you figure out where to go next.
  5. Payless Car Rental: Rent a Car using your iPhone. Travelers can view, modify, or cancel their reservation using the iPhone. "Call to Book" button connects the customer directly to Payless Car Rental’s call center.
  6. Bell Hop: Find photos, information, rates and more on this fast, easy-to-use lodging mobile search.
  7. London Travel Guide: Packed full of cool features our London Travel Guides are everything you that would expect from an electronic tour guide, only it’s free.
  8. Good Food: GoodFood by Goodrec is the best way to find great places to eat! See what other users love and hate.
  9. TripIt: Use your iPhone to access your TripIt itineraries whether you’re online, offline or in airplane mode. TripIt is the best way to organize and share your travel plans. Forward your travel confirmation emails to plans@tripit.com, and TripIt automatically creates a master itinerary for your trip, with detailed information about flights, hotels, rental cars and much more. It also includes maps, driving directions and local weather.
  10. SushiGuru: Take SushiGuru with you to sound like a pro when you order sushi. SushiGuru provides you with a searchable database of over 200 entries of Japanese and English names of sushi and sushi rolls.
Arts
The following apps range from learning about famous paintings by the masters to creating art through a variety of media.
  1. Art. Learn all about great artists and their works with this factbook app that also lets you quiz yourself to see how much you are learning.
  2. Art Gallery Premium. With over 7,500 works of art in their database, you can bring up your favorite famous work of art on your iPhone or browse to learn about artists you might not know.
  3. Art Envi Deluxe. Like having a giant museum in your phone, this app contains works by famous artists as well as specialized categories such as Japanese art.
  4. Kaleido. While not high on boosting knowledge, any art lover will appreciate taking photos and creating kaleidoscope effects with them.
  5. Photo Lab Daily. This free version allow you to take a photo with your iPhone and once a day you can use the Photo Lab tools to enhance your photos. There is a version available for a fee if you want to do more than one a day.
  6. MyPaint Free. Finger paint on a blank canvas or use one of your photos from your photo roll to find your artistic talent with this app.
  7. Pencil Pusher. This app allows you to draw as if with a pencil. Write, erase, choose from a variety of backgrounds, choose colors, and more.
  8. Bonsai. Learn the traditional art of bonsai care with this app that provides you the opportunity to adjust water, trim the tree, and monitor its overall health.
Medicine
Whether you are a medical professional or just want to expand your personal knowledge, these apps are sure to provide plenty of knowledge.
  1. Taber’s Medical Dictionary. Touting 30% more medical terms than other medical dictionaries, this one offers definitions, photos, Patient Care Statements, and more.
  2. Registered Nurse. Any nurse studying for the NCLEX exam will love this app that provides a practice exam that tests you in over 20 different subjects.
  3. Normal Lab Values. Medical professionals or anyone interested in learning more about laboratory results will appreciate having normal values readily available.
  4. Medical Drugs. This app provides detailed information on hundreds of pharmaceutical medications.
  5. Diagnosaurus DDx. With over 1,000 diagnoses, anyone can perform differential diagnosis quickly and easily with this app.
  6. MedCards. This app replaces the laminated cards physicians carry around and also allows anyone interested in learning to have instant reference to such things as EKG values, Mental Status Exam guide, Snellen chart, and more.
  7. MedAbbreviations. Get over 13,000 medical abbreviations with definitions, explanations, a search feature, and more.
  8. Skyscape Medical Resources. Find all kinds of medical information such as drug information, evidence-based clinical information, medical calculator, and a med-alert based on a specialty of your choosing.
  9. Human Atlas. Geared for medical professionals, patients, and consumers, get a 3D explanation along with over 150 common medical treatments and conditions.
  10. Medical Exam. Whether you are studying for your medical exam or just want to have a profound knowledge of medicine, this app helps you learn from 14 different categories.
Fun
Don’t take life so seriously! Have a little fun with your phone here:
  1. Where to Golf: Gives golfers all the information about a golf course and how to get there. Whether on business, on vacation or in your home town, you’re only a touch away from finding the course you’re looking for.
  2. Tetris: Take Tetris for a spin on your iPhone and iPod Touch to experience new twists and enhanced graphics. Drag, Flick and Poke your way through 15 challenging levels.
  3. Sudoku: This application has more than 10,000 puzzles. So enjoy one of America’s favorite games, but try to get some work done, too.
  4. Crossword: This is a very thorough Crossword application with various levels of difficulty.
  5. Word Warp: Make words out of the six jumbled letters provided at each game’s start.
  6. Cube Runner: Think eSnakei for current generation telephones. Boatloads of fun, just don’t run your boat into the cubes.
  7. Topple: Topple is a quick, tower building game that is theoretically simple yet surprisingly addictive.
  8. Trism: A little bit like Bejeweled meets Tetris, Trism stands alone as a distinctive, fun and brain-taxing challenge.
  9. Wurdle: a Boggle-like word game available in the iTunes app store. The game is jammed-packed with features, challenging, and most of all, it’s fun.
  10. 400 Free iPhone Games: The perfect cure for boredom. This go-to site has 400 free games, from logic cames to old-school arcade games.
Reference
Keep these reference tools close so that you’re prepared to discuss constellations, the periodic table, or world facts.
  1. USA Factbook Free: This reference packet is great for anyone in a civics, history or political science course that covers the U.S. Access key documents, lists of the flags, state capitals and other stats.
  2. Stars: Anatomy students can use this tool as a resource when studying constellations.
  3. The Chemical Tough: Lite Edition: View the periodic table when you download this free app.
  4. Formulas Free: This app brings you free calculus formulas.
  5. iQuotations: Look up quotes to use in papers or just as general inspiration.
  6. Math Ref Free: Get free reference packs for geometry, algebra, trig, derivatives and more.
  7. AllTheCountries: Get facts about literacy rate, economy, population, area and more for every country.
  8. Your Rights: Use this app for political science courses or just as backup when you get into trouble at school.
  9. iTranslator: Study abroad students and panicked foreign language students can use this tool to connect to Google Translator, Babel Fish or Free Translation.
  10. Quickpedia Lite: This app makes it easier and faster to use Wikipedia.
Foreign Languages
Whether you are planning to travel or just love learning languages, these apps will help you learn to speak whatever language your heart desires.
  1. Jourist Visual PhraseBook English. Use this visual aid with 20 different languages to help you show the person what you mean. It also include the written phrase in both English and your target language.
  2. iTranslate Ultimate. Translate words between English, Spanish, German, French, and Italian, then have the words repeated back to you in the target language with this app.
  3. Translator with Voice. Get translations in 34 different languages with voice support on most of them.
  4. DragonDian. Use this dictionary to draw Chinese characters to quickly and easily find an English translation.
  5. WordPower Lite – Italian. This free app gives you one Italian word a day to practice and master by listening to audio, recording and playing back your own voice, and using flashcards.
  6. iSpeak Spanish. Translate between Spanish and English with this app that also allows you to hear words spoken in high quality English and Spanish voices.
  7. Gengo Flashcards – French. This app uses visual cues and the voices of native French speakers with flashcards to help you learn French. Take a picture of any object, then add the French and English words to it, and you have created your own flashcard to add to the stack.
  8. Lonely Planet Japanese Phrasebook. Whether traveling or learning Japanese, use this app to get over 600 written and spoken Japanese phrases.
  9. Byki German. Learn German in no time with this app that includes native speakers, quizzes, and a phrasebook.
  10. WordPower – Thai. Listen to 2000 Thai words for proper pronunciation and see the words and phrases in three versions–original Thai, Romanized, and English.
Search
Let your iPhone guide you in general searches, job hunts and more.
  1. Inquisitor: This super fast search tool also makes suggestions for your searches.
  2. Last.fm: Search music, artists and more with Last.fm for the iPhone.
  3. Repairpal: This app will help you find auto repair shop and support.
  4. Job Search: Indeed.com’s search application lets you find jobs by location and job description.
  5. SearchMe: SearchMe is a new way to search the web on your phone. Unlike all other search engines that return a bunch of links, SearchMe lets you see a "coverflow" of pages that match your search results.
  6. U.S. Historical Documents: U.S. Historical Documents contains over 100 of the most influential documents in U.S. history and they will be stored directly on your iPhone/iTouch. Quickly and easily find any text from any document with the fastest and most powerful search engine available on the iPhone.
  7. 3GPS OS 3.0: 3GPS OS 3.0 tells you how fast, high and where you are. Whether you’re climbing a hill, touring or running a marathon, with 3GPS OS 3.0 your iPhone shows your current altitude, speed and course.
Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
This post is from Amber Johnson, who also writes for OnlineDegreePrograms.org, an accredited online college resource. Link to original article: http://onlinedegreeprograms.org/blog/2009/75-coolest-iphone-apps-for-lifelong-learners/




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The 10 Biggest Breakthroughs in the Science in Learning

When it comes to human organs, none is quite so mysterious as the brain. For centuries, humans have had numerous misconceptions and misunderstandings about how the organ works, grows, and shapes our ability to learn and develop. While we still have a long way to go before we truly unravel all the mysteries the brain has to offer, scientists have been making some major breakthroughs that have gone a long way in explaining both how the brain functions and how we use it to organize, recall, and acquire new information. Here, we list just a few of the biggest and most impactful of these breakthroughs that have contributed to our understanding of the science of learning.

  1. More information doesn’t mean more learning.


    The brain is equipped to tackle a pretty hefty load of information and sensory input, but there is a point at which the brain becomes overwhelmed, an effect scientists call cognitive overload. While our brains do appreciate new and novel information, as we’ll discuss later, when there is too much of it we become overwhelmed as our minds simply can’t divide our attention between all the different elements vying for it. This term has become a major talking point in criticisms of multi-tasking and in the modern information-saturated online sphere, but the discovery of this cognitive phenomenon also has major implications for education. In order to reduce mental noise, teachers have had to take new approaches to presenting material, using techniques like chunking, focusing on past experiences, and eliminating non-essential elements to help students remember a large body of information.
  2. The brain is a highly dynamic organ.


    Until the past few decades, people believed that the connections between the neurons in your brain were fixed by the time you were a teenager, and perhaps even earlier. One of the biggest breakthroughs in understanding the science of learning happened when scientists began to realize that this just wasn’t the case. In fact, the brain’s wiring can change at any age and it can grow new neurons and adapt to new situations, though the rate at which this happens does slow with age. This phenomenon is called neuroplasticity, and it has had major ramifications in our understanding of how the brain works and how we can use that understanding to improve learning outcomes.
  3. Emotion influences the ability to learn.


    The ability to learn, retain, and use information isn’t just based on our raw IQs. Over the past few decades it has become increasingly clear that how we feel and our overall emotional state can have a major impact on how well we can learn new things. Educational situations where students feel stressed, shamed, or just uncomfortable can actually make it more difficult for them to learn, increasing negative emotions and sparking a vicious cycle that may leave some children reluctant to attend class. Research is revealing why, as the emotional part of the brain, the limbic system has the ability to open up or shut off access to learning and memory. When under stress or anxiety, the brain blocks access to higher processing and stops forming new connections, making it difficult or impossible to learn. It may seem like common sense that classrooms should be welcoming, non-stressful environments, but different students have different triggers for negative emotional states, making it key for educators to watch for signs that indicate this in students.
  4. Mistakes are an essential part of learning.


    Failure is a dirty word in most aspects of modern American society, but when it comes to the science of learning, research shows that they’re essential. A recent study found that students performed better in school and felt more confident when they were told that failure was a normal part of learning, bolstering a growing body of research that suggests much of the same. Much like it takes multiple tries to get the hang of riding a bike or completing an acrobatic feat, it can also take multiple tries to master an academic task. Neuroscience research suggests that the best way to learn something new isn’t to focus on mistakes but instead to concentrate on how to do a task correctly. Focusing on the error only reinforces the existing incorrect neural pathway, and will increase the chance that the mistake will be made again. A new pathway has to be built, which means abandoning the old one and letting go of that mistake. This idea has formed the basis for a growing debate about education in American schools, which many believe doesn’t allow children to embrace creativity and problem solving as they are too focused on memorization and test scores.
  5. The brain needs novelty.


    Turns out boredom really can kill you, or at least your will to pay attention and learn. Repetition may have its place in learning, but what the brain really craves is novelty. Researchers have found that novelty causes the dopamine system in the brain to become activated, sending the chemical throughout the brain. While we often regard dopamine as the “feel good” chemical, scientists have shown that it actually plays a much bigger role, encouraging feelings of motivation and prompting the brain to learn about these new and novel stimuli. This breakthrough has led to some major changes in how we think about learning, and has motivated many schools to embrace learning methods that cater to our brains’ need for new and different experiences.
  6. There are no learning styles.


    What kind of learner are you? Chances are good that at some point during your educational career someone labeled you as a particular type of learner, either visual, auditory, or kinesthetic. This idea that there are distinct types of learners who learn best with certain assortment of stimuli has been showing up in education and brain science for decades, but recent studies have shown that this idea really doesn’t hold much water. Students may have preferences for how they learn, but when put to the test, students were found to have equivalent levels of learning regardless of how information is presented. Attention to the individual talents, preferences, and abilities of students, which helps to cater to the emotional and social needs of students and improves their ability to learn, is more important than styles (of which there have been 71 different models over the past few decades).
  7. Brains operate on the “use it or lose it” principle.


    There’s a reason that you forget how to speak a language or work out a trigonometry problem if you don’t use those skills on a regular basis. Information in the brain that isn’t used is often lost, as neural pathways are weakened over time. Research has found that the brain generates more cells than it needs, with those that receive both chemical and electrical stimuli surviving and the rest dying off. The brain has to receive regular stimulation through a given pathway in the brain to sustain those cells, which is why lifelong learning is so important to brain health. These findings also have implications for vacations in K-12 education as well, as students who don’t get intellectual stimulation over the summer are much more likely to forget important skills in reading and math when they return to class.
  8. Learning is social.


    While some select individuals may learn well cloistered in a library with a stack of books, the majority of people need a social environment to maximize their learning. Research has found that from infancy on, people learn better through social cues, much more easily recalling and emulating the actions or words of another human. Aside from social cues, socialization has been shown to have other learning benefits. Peer collaboration offers students access to a diverse array of experiences and requires the use of nearly all the body’s senses, which in turn creates greater activation throughout the brain and enhances long-term memory. Group work, especially when it capitalizes on the strengths of its members, may be more beneficial than many realize, both for teachers and their students.
  9. Learning is best when innate abilities are capitalized on.


    All of us, from the time we are born, possess innate abilities to see and hear patterns, something that psychologists doubted was true for decades but that we now know to be the case. Research suggests that reinforcing those innate capabilities by teaching patterns early on may actually help kids learn more and sharpen their brains. Aside from being able to see and hear patterns, the human mind has a number of innate abilities (the ability to learn a language, for instance) that when capitalized on in the right way, can help make learning any concept, even one that is abstract, much easier. Combining these innate abilities with structured practice, repetition, and training can help make new ideas and concepts “stick” and make more sense.
  10. Learning can change brain structure.


    Brain structure and function are intertwined, and you can’t improve one without taking the other into consideration. Yet, in years past, most ideas about learning ignored ways that the brain’s structure itself could be modified, instead focusing on brain function or the brain’s output. The reality is that brain function can only be changed through changing brain structure, which is actually less complicated than it sounds. For example, brain cells fired up during both perception and action overlap in people, and lessons that engage both allow students to more easily identify with their teachers and to learn concepts more quickly, as their brain cells are getting twice the attention and workout. In fact, any new information, if used enough, can modify the structure of the brain, something educators and neuroscientists are just starting to fully explore. 

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
Hazel Taylor wrote and published this article on http://www.onlinephdprograms.com/the-10-biggest-breakthroughs-in-the-science-of-learning/.  She invited me to share this very interesting article with my blog readers - Thank you, Hazel!  Hazel can be reached at hazel.taylor6@gmail.com




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Effective E-Learning Techniques for Business Training

Business training programs constantly need to be updated in order to keep employees up-to-date on the latest techniques and research in their field. The right training program can quickly teach current employees and new hires the skills they need to know in a short period of time. Additionally, they should be easily accessible and offer detailed explanations that can allow employees to retain the information they learn. Currently, e-learning programs are becoming one of the most frequently used training programs in businesses as they offer a convenient way to teach a wide variety of information to employees in a way that is innovative and fun. Therefore, the following techniques should be used by any company that wants to offer the most effective e-learning programs to their employees.

1.  Easy Access – Employee training programs should always be easy for them to access in order to participate in the program. Most programs require a log-in ID as well as a password. Because these are usually generated by the company, they should be simple enough for an employee to remember while also protecting their security. 

2.  Ability to Track Progress – E-learning programs are most effective when employees are able to document their progress through the program. Therefore, each component of the training should include some form of quiz or test in order to make sure that the information has been mastered. 

3.  Sensory Experiences – Many e-learning programs offer the opportunity for lessons to be viewed in a variety of formats. This can help to enable people with different learning styles to be able to use the same courses in different ways. Additionally, most people learn best when a variety of senses are used. Therefore, e-learning courses that offer videos, voice chats and other interactive methods are best for teaching new concepts. 

4.  Computer Training – When first introducing e-learning programs into a company, it is important to make sure that everyone knows how to use a computer and the related software. Therefore, a brief training on how to access course materials, store work and send information online is important for making sure that every employee will be capable of using the training program. 

5.  Plan Meetings – E-learning programs work best when they are completed in conjunction with public meetings that review the information that the employees have learned. These can be informal meetings held throughout the training program at certain progress markers. This way, the information can be reviewed to make sure that everyone is benefiting from their training. 

E-learning offers many powerful benefits for companies who would like to find an innovative technique for training. However, it is important that online learning is backed by the support of company meetings and hands-on training. In order to make the most of e-learning within a company, it is important to make sure that employees are able to access their materials while keeping track of the new skills that they have learned.
 
Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
Heather Smith is an ex-nanny. Passionate about thought leadership and writing, Heather regularly contributes to various career, social media, public relations, branding, and parenting blogs/websites. She also provides value to www.nanny.net/ service by giving advice on site design as well as the features and functionality to provide more and more value to nannies and families across the U.S. and Canada. She can be reached at H.smith7295 [at] gmail.com.




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3 Types of e-Learning Courses That Benefit Most New Hires

You may already provide your new hires with some sort of technical training to help them perform their specific jobs according to your standards. You may not, however, provide them with any sort of training that will enhance their general performance as staff members. There are numerous e-learning courses and online training options available to employers that help employees gain the essential professional skills they sometimes lack. If you're deciding or re-evaluating which e-learning courses you invest in for your new hires, you may want to consider these useful types of courses:

1. Business Writing
Numerous recent studies indicate that employees often lack crucial business writing skills. In fact, one study indicates that around a third of employees don't meet their employers' expectations when it comes to written communication. Knowing how to write memos, emails, and technical documents is a critical part of what most people do at work. If they can't successfully execute these basic writing tasks, they simply can't perform their jobs as well as they should. As an employer, you can help equip your new hires with the written communication skills they need by providing them with access to business writing e-learning courses and training.

2. Interpersonal Communication
Employers frequently lament the fact that their employees lack certain important soft skills, including interpersonal communication skills. While most workers start a new job with basic interpersonal skills, not all are prepared for the amount of teamwork and collaboration that will be expected of them at a truly innovative business.

The more professional communication skills your employees have, the better they'll be able to work together to meet your business's needs. Interpersonal communication training and courses can definitely inspire your new hires to think meaningfully about the ways they communicate with each other on the job. Investing in interpersonal communication education for your new hires often just makes sense.

3. Leadership
You probably aspire for all of your employees to become business leaders. A staff that's comprised of talented leaders with vision is inarguably the best kind of staff to have. Even if your new hires aren't taking on leadership roles, online leadership courses and training will prepare them to act as leaders on their teams and allow them to inspire other staff members to produce their very best work. Plus, leadership training often boosts morale and is an indication to new employees that you're dedicated to their career development.

E-learning courses that help your employees become better writers, communicators, and leaders may seem like superfluous expenses, but they can have a huge impact on how effectively your business runs. So, consider the types of e-learning courses listed above, and remember that investing in your employees' professional development almost always pays off!

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
Kate Willson is a professional writer and blogger. Well-versed in all topics pertaining to e-learning, Kate frequently contributes to top online education sites, including collegecrunch.org. Please leave your comments and questions for Kate below!




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15 Free Learning Sites You Haven’t Heard of Yet



It can be hard to keep up with the ever-growing list of free educational sites out there, much less distinguish which ones will best meet your needs and help you learn skills you really need without shelling out big bucks. New sites are always being launched and even those that have been on the scene for a while sometimes don’t garner enough attention to make it onto your radar, often getting overshadowed by more high-profile sites. As a result, even those who are in the ed tech loop can miss out on some seriously helpful free learning sites. Here we highlight just a few of these under-the-radar free learning sites, that run the gamut from providing full degree programs to simple job-skill training tools, offering a little something for every kind of learner. 
  1. Scitable:

    Scitable, created by NatureEducation, is an online collaborative space for science learning. Visitors to the site can browse or search through science articles and ebooks, ask experts science-related questions, build an online classroom, or even share their own content. Materials on the site are focused on the life sciences, but there are also numerous resources that can help learners start or accelerate a career in science.
  2. TVO:

    Similar to PBS, the Ontario-based television station offers many of the same educational resources and opportunities for learning. Even if you can’t tune in live, you can take advantage of dozens of videos on topics like science, nature, business, tech, education, and culture. Connected to TVO is Big Ideas, a site that offers videos that touch on important and engaging topics like mathematics, economics, and even urban design. Other resources include educational tools for parents and kids, civics education on Canadian government, and access to loads of compelling documentaries.
  3. Saylor:

    While sites like Coursera and Udacity have been drawing the most attention on the free education front these days, Saylor has largely flown under the radar. Created in 2008, the site offers nearly 250 free courses online, with topics centered on the 10 highest enrollment majors in the U.S. In addition to taking classes, learners can participate in discussion forums (organized by topic), track courses and print transcripts, and may soon even be able to access free textbooks.
  4. GCF LearnFree.org:

    This North Carolina-based site is produced by Goodwill Industries and focuses on helping people from all walks of life build skills in technology, literacy, and math that will help them find work. All classes offered by the site are entirely free, and even come complete with mobile apps that make it possible to learn on-the-go. Currently, there are over 750 free lessons that teach everything from how to use Microsoft Office to basic addition and subtraction.
  5. University of the People:

    The brainchild of educational entrepreneur Shai Reshef, University of the People is a tuition-fee, nonprofit, online academic institution that offers access to undergraduate degree programs in business administration and computer science. It maintains relationships with Yale, NYU, Hewlett-Packard, and the Catalyst Initiative to supply students with opportunities for research, future study, and internships. While the site focuses on helping learners in developing nations, students from nearly 130 different nations have been accepted (tuition is free, but you still have to apply).
  6. Engineering for Change:

    Engineering for Change isn’t a traditional learning site with videos, courses, and lessons. Instead, it’s a live, interactive webcast that allows participants to learn and interact with others in engineering. It’s also a chance to play an active role in helping to solve humanitarian engineering issues. A new topic is addressed every month, and anyone interested in becoming more involved or learning more about engineering is encouraged to sign up.
  7. The Faculty Project:

    Through The Faculty Project, learners can get access to professors from prestigious schools like Dartmouth, Vassar, Duke, and Northwestern, to name just a few. There are dozens of courses and lectures to choose from, covering a broad spectrum of topics. Launched just this year, the site is slowly building up a great collection of resources that can help students learn through video, PDF, PowerPoint, discussion boards, and educational articles.
  8. Textbook Revolution:

    There are a growing number of sites out there that are dedicated to providing users with access to free textbooks. Textbook Revolution is among them, and while it hasn’t received as much attention as some others, it’s still a solid place to look for free educational resources. Currently, the site offers up access to dozens of textbooks, ranging in topic from accounting to chemistry.
  9. Learnthat:

    Learnthat is an excellent place to explore tutorials that cover business, technology, and finance. Visitors to the site can learn how to improve their skills in Excel, digital marketing, or even management, through hundreds of helpful articles, videos, and photos.
  10. University of Reddit:

    Most web-savvy individuals have heard of Reddit, but many may not be familiar with the University of Reddit. The site offers anyone the chance to share their expertise through class lectures and videos with others in the web. Currently, the site is home to educational materials in art, computer science, general studies, language, math, music, philosophy, science, and social studies, which means most things are covered. If they’re not, learners are always welcome to add their own educational content.
  11. MentorMob:

    MentorMob doesn’t supply any educational content of its own, but is an excellent tool for bringing together resources from other sites, organizing them, and sharing them with others. Users can create their own “playlists” of educational material or browse through existing collections compiled by other users. While it has been featured in a number of major publications, the site doesn’t have the widespread attention that others generate, but that could change as the Pinterest-like functionality helps users to create incredibly useful lists for learning.
  12. Memrise:

    Memrise promises to help users learn through a combination of brain science, fun, and community. Much of the content is game-based and highly visual, offering visitors to the site the chance to boost their skills in a variety of languages, or even to learn more about topics like cheese, herbs, and fish.
  13. LearnersTV:

    LearnersTV brings together videos, audio lectures, science animations, lecture notes, online tests, presentations, and publications to offers visitors a wide range of material with which to learn. Those looking for an in-depth experience can find entire courses, while those just doing cursory research can browse through short articles and PowerPoints.
  14. Grovo:

    Knowing how to use technology is an essential skill in today’s job market, but with so many new technologies popping up all the time, it can be hard to keep up with them all. That’s where Grovo can help. The online learning site specializes in offering video lessons on top Internet products. Visitors to the site can expand their knowledge of sites like Twitter, Gmail, Facebook, and WordPress, or just learn a bit more about netiquette and online marketing.
  15. Alison:

    Alison offers free online courses and certification through 400 different courses in 10 different course categories. Launched in 2007, the site helps people from around the world earn certification in topics like legal studies, psychology, health studies, project management, and human resources. All content is free but to get a copy of your certification, you’ll have to shell out about $20.
  16.  
This post was originally published on OnlineCollege.org:  
http://www.onlinecollege.org/2012/09/18/15-free-learning-sites-you-havent-heard-yet/.  Thank you Online College for sharing this great information with us!




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Why Cloud Based Learning is the Next Big Hit in Corporate Training

Smartphones can do an amazing amount of things, and educating employees is only one thing on that long list. Since nearly everyone has a smartphone, more employers are choosing to offer education to their employees through this medium. M-learning, the trend of education via mobile devices, has really taken off in recent years, and it’s no wonder why.  M-learning utilizes the cloud to distribute information to employees, and an increasing number of businesses are eager to jump on this innovation.

Excellent Savings

Cloud based learning is far more cost effective than traditional training. Instead of having to hire a trainer, print up tons of training materials, and work out schedules to get everyone together at the exact same time, cloud based learning eliminates many aspects of this process. All you have to do is establish one set of training material, upload it to the cloud, and have your employees access it. You’re not going to incur any additional costs along the way.

Enable Remote Learning

Training doesn’t have to be scheduled around business trips. With cloud based learning, your employees have equal access to the material, no matter where they are. They’ll be able to reference the material if they need clarification in a business situation, and that will streamline processes. Everyone is able to get on the same page at the same time with remote access.

Instantaneous

As soon as you compile your training material, you can place it on the cloud. Cloud Learning Management systems are simpler than traditional systems. The cloud host manages everything you upload to it, and you won’t have to deal with any technical aspects. In the blink of an eye, everyone will have immediate access to their learning materials. Should any maintenance be required or any technical hang ups occur, the cloud staff will handle them immediately. No one’s learning experience will be interrupted due to any down time.

Full Integration

The materials can be accessed on any device. HR, upper management, and all other employees can access the same material across any device. Whether it’s their personal smartphone or tablet or their work computer, the lessons will exist on all platforms. No one will have to bounce back and forth between systems to get the most of their lesson.

Size Flexibility

Not every employee will need the same training, and cloud learning takes that into account. Whether you’re attempting a small and generalized training lesson, a series of moderate lessons, or specific lessons for certain types of employees, the cloud can accommodate it. Even if a single employee needs extra help in a certain area, cloud learning makes the process easier. Small or large, simple or complex, the cloud can handle anything you throw at it.

Simplicity of Learning

When corporate learning systems are on the cloud, the process is made infinitely easier. Having that wealth of information at your employees’ disposal will ensure that they’re adequately informed. Training is one of the most important things you can offer to your employees, and no employer can pass up the opportunity to educate their employees. If everyone is adequately trained, they’ll be able to do their jobs with maximum efficiency, which will lead to a boost in productivity.



With cloud learning, innovation is on your side. Taking advantage of technological advances to better your workplace is a no-brainer. Educated employees are more likely to succeed, and your business will go where your employees take it.



Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
Jasmine Cooper is a tech-savvy marketing specialist working at Get Qualified Australia, a company providing skill recognition & RPL services. In her free time, Jasmine enjoys self-improvement literature. 




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6 Tips for Designing Effective M-Learning Apps for Your Corporate Training

Mobile learning makes everything a little easier. Schedules are more navigable, and you don’t have to plan for an instructor to deliver real-life training. This new standard changes the playing field. With the advent of mobile training, employees are able to learn from anywhere, and have easy access to information if they need to look something up. As long as the app is designed properly, you’ll get more from mobile learning than you ever could from traditional training.

1. Know what you want to cover
It’s useless to have a corporate training app just for the sake of having one. If the information is too general, no one is gaining anything. If it’s too specific, employees may lose sight of the big picture. Break down the elements of your training into blocks. Each block should have a main point that shows its relationship with smaller points. Breaking things into thorough but bite sized pieces is the best way to go.

2. Figure out how you’re making it available
What platforms do you need to reach with your app? If everyone has a company phone, you’ll want to design your training app specifically for that platform. If your employees use their personal phones, you’ll have to adapt your app for a variety of platforms. The content should read the same on every app. While there may be some aesthetic differences, the key is to make everything cohesive across the board. Everyone should have access to the same info.

3. Add some social elements
The only downside to m-learning is that users typically work within the apps independently. You’re losing the element of discussion you could get at a face-to-face training table. Discussions promote knowledge and are necessary for exchanging ideas. People may have questions and no one to answer them. Work social elements into your app to build a sense of community among employees and instructors.

4. Create video content
There’s more to mobile learning apps than fun graphics and comical sound effects. Working video content into your training app can help people understand complex processes, such as how to work certain pieces of equipment or software that may be pertinent to their jobs. Whether you want to utilize videos of real people or cartoon animation, having a moving representation of what you’re trying to explain will help visual learners perfect their knowledge.

5. Let the learner become the instructor
Role playing exercises are common in corporate training, especially when it comes to customer service situations. We use these techniques because they work by giving everyone a chance to showcase and strengthen what they’re best at. Utilizing features such as user submitted quizzes and polls in your app is great for engagement, and it allows everyone to showcase just how much they know.

6. Encourage feedback
If your app isn’t working for someone, they may not speak up – and that’s especially true if they believe everyone else understands it just fine. Always seek feedback from your employees about how your mobile learning programs are working for them. If you find people are having difficulty, it may be time to redesign the interface or simplify the information. People are willing to tell you how they want to learn, as long as you’re willing to listen.

It can seem overwhelming and confusing at first to throw away a traditional method in favor of an innovation, but the results are worth it. Once you implement mobile learning in your workplace, you’ll never want to go back to training the old way. 


Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
Monique Craig is interested in digital marketing and branding. She’s part of the team at Oneflare [https://www.oneflare.com.au/], Australia’s online marketplace for local service providers.




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Benefits of Mobile Learning Programs for Your Employees

Employee training is a non-negotiable factor in reaching your business goals. An organization cannot grow if its workers aren't growing themselves – and there's no better stimulus for professional development than workplace education. Today's difficult economy motivates many enterprises to cut down on employee training expenses, but they're clearly unaware of the value of employee education to the health of an organization.

The National Center of the Educational Quality of the Workforce reveled in a recent study that a 10% increase in workforce education level results in an 8.6% percent gain in total productivity. (http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/higherprod.htm) This statistic proves that employee productivity is directly connected to the amount of training they receive. Employers who want to grow and efficiently operate their businesses simply must invest in employee training.

Fortunately, today's ever-present mobile devices offer many interesting opportunities for flexible and cost-effective worker education. Here are some key benefits of mobile learning for your employees and organization.

Employees find it easy to learn on mobile

To put it simply, employees like to use their mobile devices and once they see that learning can be as easy as glancing at a smartphone or tablet in a free minute, they'll be motivated to do it on a regular basis. Mobile learning allows learners to access content from any device and any corner of the world. Some mobile learning apps work in offline, so access to the internet is not even an issue. Mobile learning provides a great user experience and it's definitely user-friendly.

Mobile learning delivers key data whenever needed

It's clear that mobile devices are constantly on, connected to the web and within easy reach of employees, helping them to access relevant information at any time. Mobile learning is great for just-in-time (JIT) training – it can be refresher modules on product specifications, pricing details, and other kinds of time-sensitive information. By having all this information at their fingertips, employees can easily boost their performance, improving their decision making processes and ensuring better customer satisfaction. Additionally, mobile learning empowers people – just as stated in the 2012 report Mobile Learning: Driving Business Results by Empowering Employees in the Moment: "Putting learning in the palm of people’s hands — exactly what they need, when they need it — can have an immediate positive effect on the bottom line". (http://www.slashdocs.com/mukrvy/mobile-learning-driving-business-results-by-empowering-employees-in-the-moment.html)

Mobile devices can quickly distribute learning

The mobile age brings greater mobility of your staff and this impacts the ways in which enterprises train their employees. Investing in training opportunities onsite is rapidly diminishing. Many employees frequently travel or work on the move – this means that they spend lots of time without access to laptops or desktop computers. mLearning is a great solution here because it allows companies to easily spread learning materials to employees, full of practical knowledge about many areas of business. The power of mobile learning lies in the fact that it connects employees to all the knowledge and expertise they need, exactly when and where they need it. It addresses any potential learning need at any time.

Mobile learning is flexible

This is a key benefit brought by mobile learning. Flexibility offered by mobile learning solutions can be interpreted in different ways. First, there's the flexibility of time and space, where workers can choose the location and time of learning themselves. Moreover, they're also free to choose the device for their learning, as long as it can correctly display learning materials. The learning itself is also more flexible because it can integrate a wide variety of formats, including podcasts or videos.

Mobile learning helps to save time

This kind of learning will fit into the busiest schedules. It requires less time than instructor-led training or long eLearning programs. Instead of taking an entire course, learners can access training modules themselves to learn exactly what they need to know. This reduces the time which needs to be dedicated to training, minimizing productivity losses. Employees should be equipped with appropriate skills and knowledge as quickly as possible – and this is something that only mLearning can offer. Learners can consume small amounts of content every time, and study it whenever they like.

Improved completion rates and higher retention

Already in 2007, the Mobile Learning and Student Retention Report showed that mLearning brings higher retention rates. (http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ800952.pdf) And no wonder – with its bite-sized or micro-learning approach, mLearning offers a learning environment which makes it easier for learners to initiate learning and motivates them to complete it, fostering their knowledge retention.

Mobile performance support

Today, mobile learning is recognized as a beneficial approach for providing performance support intervention. It's safe to say that mobile devices are a part of every employee's work environment. Delivering performance support solutions directly into their mobile devices, employers are facilitating easy access to information while at work and improving the probability of its usage and retrieval.

Higher engagement in mobile

The 2010-2011 Horizon Report has already shown us the value of mobile learning in fostering learner engagement with the learning materials. (http://www.nmc.org/pdf/2011-Horizon-Report.pdf) Mobile learning experiences are more immersive and countless statistics reveal that a higher number of learners complete courses through mLearning than through traditional training or even cutting-edge eLearning solutions.

Well-defined learning path

Mobile devices offer an excellent measure to help learners see and update their learning path, showing learning as a continuous process. Many employees organize their lives through their mobile devices and by integrating links to these apps, mLearning solutions help learners to save time and accurately plan their learning. This is also relevant to alleviating the impact of the so-called Forgetting Curve which defines the exponential nature of forgetting. According to experts, we tend to forget 80% of what we've learned during the last 30 days. A short training period once a year cannot be expected to hold real impact over employee performance for a long time. Having regular access to a variety of mLearning materials works against the Forgetting Curve and helps employees to make the most from the learning opportunity.

Mobile learning is a solution which brings lots of benefits to companies that decide to invest in learning programs organized on mobile devices. It improves knowledge retention rates, boosts learners' engagement with materials, empowers employees to develop new job skills and appeals to all those talents who are constantly looking for non-traditional learning opportunities to help them grow. mLearning creates a swift learning process which is bound to positively affect employee productivity at an enterprise.

Guest Blog Contributor By-line:
Carol Williams is a team member at Honeybells - a fruit shipping firm from Florida. She has an intense background in mLearning which she combines with her passion for anything tech and mobile related.





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7 Steps to an Effective E-Learning Training Strategy

E-learning creates endless possibilities for new ways to help our team to upskill. In a world where business practice constantly evolves all of us need to be on our toes and up to date with the latest trends and technology relevant to our industry. It’s no use management being on trend if our staff are left behind.

Below we will set out 7 steps which will help guide you towards creating an effective e-learning training strategy to ensure that your staff are getting the most out of their training and development program at work.

1.  Decide On Your Objectives & Plan Accordingly
Planning is essential in ensuring that the resources you put into e-learning are well spent. Identify what type of training is most needed within your organization at this time. Is the training required uniform across the board, or do you have a need for various types of training?

Take into consideration what skills the course will develop, how it will do this and what theoretical frameworks it will be based upon. Next, you need to consider the learners themselves, what are their requirements? We all learn in different ways and to ensure that your staff get the most value out of the e-learning training, you should aim to personalize the training insofar as possible.

By setting out your objectives in advance, it will be easy to measure the success of the program at the end.
       
2.  Make It User-Friendly
Above all else an e-learning environment must be user-friendly. If the learner has difficulty in navigating around the website or accessing the webinar then everything else becomes secondary. Pay close attention to making the material accessible to all staff and giving an introductory tutorial to make sure that everyone knows how to access their course.

The language used should be clear and concise, learners want and need to be able to extract the relevant information without having to wade through extra academic style details which do not pertain to how they will use the skills they are developing.

3.  Give Students a Plan
Many learners feel more secure when they are given a clear overview of the course syllabus. Knowing what material they will cover in the coming weeks allows them to do preparatory work if they wish and relieves stress that may arise out of the unknown. This course overview should also outline what is expected of the students, and how they can expect to be assessed.

4.  Get Them Talking
Group interaction and collaborative learning is sometimes seen as not particularly relevant to an e-learning syllabus. However, overlooking this aspect of training may leave students feeling isolated leading to a lack of interest in the training. Not everyone enjoys group work, but it is a feature of most workplaces and even those who don’t enjoy it will probably expect some degree of collaboration during their training. Collaborative activities where students work together to solve a problem create a wonderful learning opportunity for everybody involved. Each learner can contribute the skills that they have been developing, contributing to the good of the whole, and students can identify different ways of approaching tasks.

Social media is useful for collaborating, as are forums where ideas can be exchanged.

5.  Set Up an Assessment Strategy
Any training program requires an element of assessment to ensure that the learners are processing and retaining the relevant information. It also allows the students to put what they have learned in the e-classroom to practical use. Some people will prefer to assess the students at the end of each module with a simple multiple choice quiz, while others opt for a collaborative group project at the end of a unit.

How the learners will be assessed should be agreed upon before they begin their course, and outlined to them so that they can prepare for it as they progress. Assessment not only gives you as the e-learning coordinator the chance to see how staff are progressing with their training, but it also gives the learners a sense of achievement which will drive them forward and keep them motivated.

6.  Solicit Feedback
It is important to ask for feedback to check that your e-learning program is actually delivering what you hoped it would. Be sure to discuss the learning outcomes with both the learners themselves and their team leaders, this will allow you to see if the both parties have derived benefit from the training. Where the learner feels that they have, but their team leader is not seeing it, then perhaps the training needs to be tweaked to ensure that it is more relevant to the worker’s daily workload.

You can solicit feedback using online surveys, face to face chats or online chats where the learners come together for a session.

7.  Keep the Learning Going
Many learners, and indeed, instructors can tend to see training and development as having a set start and finish date. While this may be strictly true, training within an organization should be approached as ongoing. Life itself is a constant journey on the path of learning, why should work be any different. Encourage your staff to engage with their career development in this light. Set up structures by which they can approach you with regard to continuing their learning once they have completed one e-learning course. Perhaps there is an advanced course you could run or a course of study which will complement the first one. Every time your staff upskill in a way that improves their productivity and sense of purpose at work you will see the return in spades.

I hope that this overview has given you a few ideas on how to get started implementing your own corporate e-learning training strategy. With adequate planning and a positive approach, you may find that e-learning can make a huge difference to staff morale in your workplace.


Guest Blog Contributor By-line:

David Grover is a Communications Manager at Timeo, a useful tool for businesses in the UK. He’s also a freelance career coach, who’s always eager to share his experience. In his free time, he enjoys traveling.




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Creating E-Learning Content: How to Personalize Your Course's Content

When most people think of e-Learning, they think of clicking through a boring PowerPoint slide, watching a dated video, and then taking a short 10 question quiz with a pass/fail outcome. People see “mandatory training” and groan inwardly, knowing they get to sit through one more course hoping to pass so that they can forget about it and get on with their day. Which, as it happens, is the exact opposite of what you want in a training course. If you take the time to personalize your e-Learning content, you will find your employees more engaged, more interested, and more likely to retain the information presented during the training.

Why Personalize?

The short answer is because people are unique and all have different learning styles. The issues surrounding learning styles are complex and as different as individuals are. While one person may do fine with reading information, another may absorb the information better while participating in a hands on activity, and still another needs information repeated in order to make it stick. When you throw the same lesson plan at 25 different people, you’re going to have 25 different outcomes. When you find ways to personalize the course content for each person, you can greatly increase the effectiveness of the course.

So Where Do We Start?

When you’re looking to begin personalizing your training, you need to take a look at your audience (your employees) and determine the variables. You may have a few employees that are experts in the subject matter, while some need a refresher course, and still others really do need an introduction to the basics. One of the ways that you can begin each training module is to begin with a pre-test. This can help you determine which employees need the most training, so that you can tailor the content to them. Mid-performing people could use a “light version” to reinforce key points, and those that did well may be able to test out of the training. This can boost morale by not making proficient workers go through the drudgery of taking a course that they don’t need. It can also help you as an employer figure out where to best invest your time and resources in your team.

Software Considerations

If you’re a large company with a strong budget, investing in quality e-Learning software can really help your business meet training goals. Each employee is given a record, and you can keep up with what they have done, what they need to do, and how they have progressed throughout their time at your company. Having an easy to use, interactive program that welcomes people by name is a great way to eliminate some of the dullness from training. It allows them to see their past training history, as well as see what other training might be available to them, to sign up, and to see where their weaknesses are. This type of program can also identify those weaknesses, and tailor training paths to suit individuals.

Ways to Personalize

There are any number of ways that you can personalize e-Learning programs. Aside from the content issues addressed above, you can also allow users to personalize their learning style by giving them options. This allows them to choose everything from fonts and color-schemes, to the voice used to deliver audio content, and even how they choose to interact with the program. Are they using a tablet with a touchscreen? A computer with a standard mouse? All of these things can be altered by individuals to give them a more comfortable learning environment without altering the course content. Many programs even turn the learning process into a game, where you earn rewards for reaching certain milestones or getting a certain number of points.
Using Personalized e-Learning Content will help to improve retention, and empower employees to take an active interest in their training and education. It can streamline your training processes, and help you as an employer identify those employees that are in need of some more focused training, ensuring that your full staff is well-qualified for the job.


Guest Blog Contributor By-line:


Mary Frenson is a Marketing Assistant at Checkdirector.co.uk, a new source of information on UK companies. Mary is always happy to share her marketing ideas and thoughts on business issues. In her free time she enjoys handicrafts.




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Learn How to Have a Fantastic Backyard Fish Pond

How to have the fish pond you've always dreamed of and make sure your fish are livin' the good life - GUARANTEED!



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Learn To Read Piano Music With Fun Piano Software for Children, Adult Beginners And Piano Teachers

Discover The Easy Way To Learn To Read Piano Music That Is Helping Children And Adult Beginners Around The World



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Unique eBooks help you to learn interior decorating faster than ever!

You'll learn interior decorating by using step-by-step techniques and clear examples. This unique set of 4 interactive eBooks will change your home in ways you never imagined.



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Learn Photoshop Today In 2 Hours Or Less

Now you can learn Photoshop in less than 2 hours thanks to newly released, interactive video tutorials that play on your computer screen. You don't even need to own the Photoshop software to use these videos. Everything you need to learn Photoshop is included



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Create A Product - Teleseminar.  Learn About Creating Your Own Internet Information Product, Without Leaving Your Home!

WRITING ARTICLES SHOULD BE YOUR #1 FORM OF PROMOTION! But once you've put your masterpiece together, who should you send it to? Now there's a list of Ezine Editors who are simply crying out for your quality articles.




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Altconf 2018 – Machine Learning on iOS: Integrating IBM Watson with Core ML

This Wednesday I’ll be speaking at AltConf on Machine Learning on iOS: Integrating IBM Watson with Core ML. Here’s the abstract I submitted: Apple recently announced a partnership with IBM to integrate Core ML with Watson, allowing visual recognition to run locally on iOS devices. The ability to use machine learning while offline opens up […]

The post Altconf 2018 – Machine Learning on iOS: Integrating IBM Watson with Core ML first appeared on Tom Markiewicz.




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Video: Machine Learning on iOS, Integrating IBM Watson with Core ML at AltConf

Earlier this year I attended AltConf in San Jose, a community-driven and supported event held alongside Apple’s WWDC. IBM sponsored the event and offered numerous workshops to attendees. In addition to assisting with the workshops and manning the booth, I had a talk accepted on Machine Learning on iOS: Integrating IBM Watson with Core ML. […]

The post Video: Machine Learning on iOS, Integrating IBM Watson with Core ML at AltConf first appeared on Tom Markiewicz.




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All I needed to Know about being a Manager I learned in Hebrew School

Management wisdom was not found in some human resources manual or executive self-help book it was all right there in Mr. Gefter's Torah class. And it's still there for all the people to look. These are the things I learned from my teachers in Hebrew school




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Two Things Learned

3 great days in Nashville. 2 lousy days in airports. But it was a great getaway.

After taking the listing I had of that side of the family, I realized a couple of things:

(1) The research I have done and questioning of older ancestors many years ago was quite comprehensive. There was not much our relatives were able to add to that. I guess that's both good and bad.

(2) It is hard in the Behold listing to easily find siblings in the same generation when they are far from each other because of their descendants intervening. There is not much indentation for generation levels, and there's nothing on the paper that can help you find the next sibling.

That latter point is something I have thought about for awhile. My original concept was to draw lines on the left margin to connect parents with their children. But implementing that was non-trivial, especially when I wanted it to appear the same when printed and when exported to HTML or RTF. But I think I will want to try to implement that before beta if I can.




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Nigeria: Bayelsa Launches Audacious Project to Keep Children Learning During Flood Break

[This Day] In line with the vision of the Governor of Bayelsa State, Senator Douye Diri to make Bayelsa a model for basic education reform and transformation, the Ministry of Education and Bayelsa State Universal Basic Education Board (Bayelsa SUBEB) have launched BayelsaPRIME@Home, an initiative designed to keep primary school children learning during the flood break.




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Watch: Ambitious robot learns to clean bathroom sink by watching

From washing urinals to tidying up the beach, we can already see a future where our robot servants help keep our world a little cleaner. Now, a robotic arm has mastered the surprisingly complex task of sink washing, showing off its ability to learn.

Continue Reading

Category: Robotics, Technology

Tags: , , ,





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♦ Determination to Learn

About a year ago, Daniel, a 19-year-old New Zealander, gave me a call, and asked if he could just come by our office and hang out and learn things quietly on his own. He wasn’t sure what to do for university, or if he even wanted to study at all. He was aware we had … Continue reading Determination to Learn




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Learn to make parottas like a pro at this culinary school in Madurai

Selfie Parotta Coaching Centre helps chefs fluff up the flakiest parottas to soak up the perfect amount of salna




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Learn about the Delhi-Alwar RRTS route map, stations, important information, and most recent updates in 2024

The Delhi-Alwar Regional Rapid Transit System (RRTS) is currently under construction and will link Delhi with the outlying satellite towns of Manesar, Rewari, and Alwwar. It will also link Delhi Metro’s four lines. Ten kilometers of the route are currently … Continue reading



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AI System Learns to Detect Pain in Goats

University of Florida researchers develop AI system that detects pain in goats through facial expressions, marking significant advance in animal care with potential human applications.




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Watch: Ambitious robot learns to clean bathroom sink by watching

Michael Franco, New Atlas, Nov 13, 2024

The depth and detail in this paper (8 page PDF) are daunting, but the gist, as summarized in this post, is straightforward: provided only with observations of a human cleaning (" using a so-called instrumented tool, which is a standard tool equipped with additional sensors") the front of an ordinary sink, a robot arm learn to clean entire sinks with varying surface topology. "The model implicitly learned the correct
tool orientation and position w.r.t. the freeform 3D surface." Michael Franco speculates, "a fleet of robots could learn the basic moves from each other through what's known as 'federated learning' and then they could apply those moves to their individual, specified tasks."

Web: [Direct Link] [This Post]




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Learn Printer Friendly CSS Tricks

Gilbert Jorgensen from ITS will demonstrate at this month's eDG meeting how to set up a Web page so that it can be automatically reformatted as a printer friendly page. Several agency pages will be used as part of the demonstration. The eDG meeting provides a venue where State Web Developers can learn about State development standards and new initiatives. This eDG meeting will be Wednesday, Jan 21, 2004, 2 - 4 PM in State Office Building, Rm. B110.




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Get 'An Introduction to Optimization: With Applications to Machine Learning, 5th Edition' for FREE and save $106!

Fully updated to reflect modern developments in the field, the Fifth Edition of An Introduction to Optimization fills the need for an accessible, yet rigorous, introduction to optimization theory and methods, featuring innovative coverage and a straightforward approach. The book begins with a review of basic definitions and notations while also providing the related fundamental background of linear algebra, geometry, and calculus. With this foundation, the authors explore the essential topics of unconstrained optimization problems, linear programming problems, and nonlinear constrained optimization. In addition, the book includes an introduction to artificial neural networks, convex optimization, multi-objective optimization, and applications of optimization in… [Continue Reading]




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The Poor, Debts and Your Enemies: Learning to Forgive

Fr. Stephen Freeman looks at the "burden" created by the emotional and spiritual debts of things that others have done to us and how they can be forgiven.




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Learning to Sin

In this podcast Fr. Stephen looks at the importance of "learning to sin," meaning the importance of learning what it is as a Christian that keeps us from the Kingdom of God.




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18 Lessons I’ve Learned about Blogging

The post 18 Lessons I’ve Learned about Blogging appeared first on ProBlogger.

In November 2002 I first heard the word blog after a mate e-mailed me a link and said I should consider starting one. Within 24 hours I’d created my first blog (a blogspot blog that doesn’t exist today). Since that time I’ve run 20+ blogs (most have survived, some have ...more

The post 18 Lessons I’ve Learned about Blogging appeared first on ProBlogger.

     



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What Can Bloggers Learn from Pickleball?

The post What Can Bloggers Learn from Pickleball? appeared first on ProBlogger.

I may be late to the party but I’ve just discovered Pickleball! And after playing almost daily since my first hit, I have to admit I’m a little bit addicted… Pickleball, a sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong, is not just a pastime with a quirky name—it’s ...more

The post What Can Bloggers Learn from Pickleball? appeared first on ProBlogger.

     




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What Christians Can Learn From CrossFit

As Christians seek to form a community, the fitness phenomenon, CrossFit, has a great deal to teach us! Join Christian this week in exploring how CrossFit can show the Church what it means to be a community.




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Learning How to Stay Awake

Jesus confronts the people and the disciples when they can't heal a little boy!




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Learn to Discern




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The State of Link Building 2016: What I Learned Manually Analysing 1,000 Search Results

Do private blog network’s still work? Does a higher word-count help your pages rank better? Did Glen really spend 60 hours on this article? I hope to answer all of these questions and many more in my new behind the scenes report on the current state of link building. I can clarify I did spend […]

The post The State of Link Building 2016: What I Learned Manually Analysing 1,000 Search Results appeared first on ViperChill.




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Learning About Spirituality from the Celtic Saints

Learning About Spirituality from the Celtic Saints (w/ Fr. Seraphim Aldea)




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Learning from A Monastery's Kitchen

In this podcast we discover wonderful wisdom from A Monastery's Kitchen to bring Christ into everything we do.




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20 Years of Being Orthodox: 6 Things I've Learned

Reflecting on the 20th anniversary of his reception into the Orthodox Church, Fr. Andrew Stephen Damick talks about 6 things that he's learned along the way, most of them things he couldn't quite imagine 20 years ago.




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Learning to Say “No”

Many priests have a problem with committing themselves at a pace that is unsustainable. In this podcast Fr. Anthony and Fr. Gregory Jensen talk about why priests have a hard time saying no and why it is important that it make its way into our vocabulary.




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The People's Faith - what we learn when we listen to the people

Listen as Fr. Anthony talks with Dn. Nicholas Denysenko, the Emil and Elfriede Jochum Professor and Chair at Valparaiso University, about his 2018 book The People's Faith; the liturgy of the faithful in Orthodoxy. Among other things, they discuss why it is important to listen to - and not just teach - the people and what can be learned when we do so (hint: it's more than an opportunity to figure out how to improve our catechesis). Enjoy the show!




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Justin Coyle on Learning from Atheists

Justin Shaun Coyle, PhD, (Mount Angel Seminary, outside Portland, OR; Ukrainian Catholic) and Fr. Anthony talk about life in New England, the joy of NC BBQ, and how studying the works of serious atheist philosophers can help develop an instinct for charity and pastoral evangelism. You can see Justin's work at: https://mountangelabbey.academia.edu/JustinShaunCoyle/Ephemera. Enjoy the show!




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Learning the Prayer of the Heart

In 1851, an anonymous monk on Mount Athos wrote a book on prayer. The title of the book has been translated as The Watchful Mind: Teachings on the Prayer of the Heart. It is a book that I cannot recommend for most people because, like much classic Orthodox spiritual writing (the Philokalia, The Ladder of Divine Ascent, The Ascetical Homilies of St. Isaac the Syrian, to name a few), it was written for people pursuing the spiritual life, a life in communion with God, in a very specific monastic setting, a setting that exists in very few places in the world today, or some might say—indeed have said—in a setting that does not exist at all in the world any more. And yet, these texts are nonetheless compelling for us because they bear witness to a relationship with God, an intensity of relationship with God, that many people in the world today long for.




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Learning from Martyrs, Confessors, and All the Saints

Like the Saints, our path to holiness will be through the daily struggle to be faithful in small ways that few will notice or celebrate.




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Learning to See and Serve Outsiders as Neighbors

Even as Jesus showed mercy by tangible actions such as healing a Samaritan from a dreaded and isolating disease, we must take the actions available to us, no matter how seemingly small or imperfect, to manifest His love to our neighbors, regardless of who they are. Find the book Syria Crucified at store.ancientfaith.com/syria-crucified.




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Learning to See Ourselves and Our World in the Light of Christ

If we want to know Christ’s peace, which conquers even the fear of the grave, we must become radiant with His Light, which means that we must unite ourselves to Him in faith, hope, and love from the depths of our souls.




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We Must Learn to Mourn and Rejoice with the Widow of Nain

I am sure that many people today reject or have no interest in the Christian faith because they have not seen in others the healing of the human person brought by Jesus Christ. Perhaps they have heard Christians speaking primarily about morality, politics, emotion, or a view of salvation that has nothing to do with the realities of life in the world as we know it. Or they may have seen many examples of hypocrisy on the part of those who identify themselves with the Lord, but who live their lives in opposition to His teachings even as they look for opportunities to condemn their neighbors. Regardless, many today have concluded that there is nothing in the Christian life worthy of their devotion.




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The Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross - Learning Obedience

As we approach the Sunday of the Adoration of the Cross during Great Lent, Dr. Humphrey reviews the scriptural passages which will be read and reflects on the obedience of Christ and our own obedience.




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Continue in the Things That You Have Learned! The Sunday of the Publican and the Pharisee

After completing our analysis on the troparia, kontakia, and theotokia, we turn to reading the epistles for Divine Liturgy, beginning with this week’s section from 2 Timothy. The Apostle Paul’s words to this young leader are applicable to everyone, not simply to those who lead the Church, since the Scriptures, Old and New Testament, are for all. We seek to understand the Apostle’s instructions by reference to Psalm 118 (MT 119), and by remembering those who have suffered for their faithfulness—most especially our Lord Jesus himself.