Google machine learning is smart, but not intelligent (yet)

Google's Senior Vice-President of Search John Giannandrea explains to us why true Artificial intelligence is still far away.
Artificial Intelligence has been the holy grail of Computer Science for over a hundred years and we are finally starting to scratch the first layer of this incredibly complex system. Currently, all the major players in the Technology business are investing heavily in the R&D of AI systems, but it would seem we are still very far away from the development of a true AI.

To truly get a good grasp on where the industry stood in its quest for intelligent machines, we sat down with John Giannandrea, the former Head of Machine Learning and currently the SVP Search at Google, for a one-on-one. From the conversation, it became clear that we have had the latest developments in automation all wrong, and here is the real picture.

John was quick to clarify that there are three distinct levels of Machine Intelligence; Machine Learning, Machine Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence. Machine Learning is what we have just started to get right and it’s a system where an algorithm can be written to train a machine to behave in a certain way, given certain kinds of inputs.

Machine Learning, a higher version would be where the machine is able to take what it has learnt and adapt it to a new concept and a true AI would be the kind which is able to teach itself new concepts and evolve, just like humans. We have just started to be able to get really good at generating Machine Learning algorithms, but John said we are still very far from having a system that can take what it has learnt, and adapt it to a new situation.

We’re Not in the AI Age, but the Machine Learning Era

John was quick to clarify that there are three distinct levels of Machine Intelligence; Machine Learning, Machine Intelligence and Artificial Intelligence. Machine Learning is what we have just started to get right and it’s a system where an algorithm can be written to train a machine to behave in a certain way, given certain kinds of inputs.

Machine Learning, a higher version would be where the machine is able to take what it has learnt and adapt it to a new concept and a true AI would be the kind which is able to teach itself new concepts and evolve, just like humans. We have just started to be able to get really good at generating Machine Learning algorithms, but John said we are still very far from having a system that can take what it has learnt, and adapt it to a new situation.

At the very core of any machine resembling the simplest levels of intelligence, is “training.” Every machine has to first be “trained” to process information a certain way.

Neural Networks, the Digital Training Grounds

At the very core of any machine resembling the simplest levels of intelligence, is “training.” Every machine has to first be “trained” to process information a certain way. For example, if you show a machine a photo of a Dog, it should be able to correctly label it as a dog. To be able to get that result, Google runs thousands upon thousands of training material through a neural network. A neural network is essentially multiple layers of digital filters that mimic the human brain.

Each layer has “ports” of sorts and they connect with corresponding ports just like the neurons in our brains, depending on the stimulus they carry. So on the input side, they will feed the neural network hundreds of thousands of images of dogs (and only dogs) and check that the output is “dog” for all images. Every instance there is an error, it is sent backwards into the neural network so it can “learn” from the mistake and adjust the recognition pattern. Google has managed to get some really great results from this and the proof lies in the Photos app, which is able to segregate photos based on their content.

You can type “cat” in the search bar in the Photos App and it will show you all the photos in your library with cats in them. That is Machine learning, and it is fairly limited as John pointed out that while you will get all the photos of cats, the “machine” would not be able to segregate them based on breed.

The True Limits of Machine Learning

While it may seem “really intelligent” for a piece of software to be able to separate your photos into albums based on their content, or suggest when you should leave for work based on traffic conditions (and the time by when you need to clock into work), Machine Learning at this stage, is extremely limited.

As pointed out by John, it may be able to distinguish cats from dogs, but it cannot identify breeds of cats yet. Machine Learning works only in a very limited scope of variables and the minute even a single variable changes, it will fail to execute perfectly. For example, if you were to dress up a cat as a dog, would the Photos app consider it a dog or a cat?

The Current State of Intelligent Affairs

Google’s Machine Learning API are, as per John, in their nascent stages, but are developing at a rather rapid pace. Google is using Machine Learning to augment their Search (auto complete), YouTube (suggested videos), Inbox and Allo just to name a few. Inbox has a feature where it generates automatic responses for emails based on its contents and as per John, 10 per cent of mails being sent out using Inbox are using auto-responses.

Allo takes this one step further where the machine learns the way you communicate and then makes suggestions for responses based on what it has learnt. The pinnacle of this technology, however, is the Google Assistant which is able to detect language and even separate commanding voice from ambient noise. Google Now uses Machine Learning to generate relevant information for you, based on your usage patterns.

The Privacy Issue

It is no secret that Google is collecting a lot of user data, and one way it uses this data to it train their Machine Learning APIs. When asked just how secure this was, John said that all data that is used for training, is aggregated into one large pool and is hence anonymised. None of that can really be traced back to where it came from. However, once the API is trained and implemented into a service, then it is able to read the information you have agreed to share with Google and make suggestions based on that.

The information sharing here is twofold, one to train the API itself, wherein your data is anonymised and then once the service is ready, it makes suggestions to you based on your activity. This is how Google is able to give us traffic information on Maps. It collects data from thousands on users who are commuting and displays it on the app, but you cannot identify which pixel on that red line corresponds to your car.

Future Prospects

While Google uses the ML algorithms across various of its products, it has also made various APIs available to many businesses and developers. What is interesting, however, is the medical potential the system holds. For example, if a voice assistant is able to identify extreme stress or depression in the voice of the speaker, it may be able to help by either automatically connecting the user with a loved one or suggesting various counsellors in the area.

The next step, which would be Machine Intelligence, is where the phone itself is able to offer suggestions for things even before you think of doing them. For example, if you’ve just managed to land a new job, the machine intelligence in your phone should be able to suggest that you buy a new wardrobe. If you are planning on hosting a party, it could generate a suggested guest list based on the people you’ve been interacting with, factoring in how you truly “feel” about them.

The best part about Google efforts is that they have made their Machine Learning resources available for free under the name of Tensor Flow and anyone can start using the tool to train machines for specific tasks.

Google truly is trying to make significant efforts into providing us a convenience that can have far reaching consequences in our daily lives. With the hectic lifestyles that have become commonplace, having a digital assistant who can keep track of your daily affairs is a rather helpful tool.

We take hundreds of photos every month and it is nice to see them get separated and organised into various categories by themselves. The most exciting thing is that we are just starting to scratch the surface of the convenience this new technological breakthrough can bring to our lives and better products are not very far into the future.

Access Link | http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/google-machine-learning-is-smart-but-not-intelligent-yet/

Nine email service providers that offer more features than Gmail

Even though instant messaging apps like WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger have gotten immensely popular, Email still remains the preferred choice when it comes to proper communication. And when it comes to email services, Gmail is undoubtedly the most popular out there.
Gmail offers numerous features such as smart search, label support, tight integration with other Google services like Drive and Hangouts, as well as a large amount of storage. But as powerful as it is, Gmail is not the only email service out there. In fact, there are quite a few email service providers that are almost equally (or at times, even more) feature-laden as Gmail.

Interested to know more? Here are 9 hot Gmail alternatives that we think are definitely worth trying out.
Outlook.com

If you're heavily invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, Outlook.com is a no brainer. It is granularly integrated with other Microsoft products such as OneDrive and Office Online and thus, provides a seamless experience. It comes with advanced calendar, tasks and contacts sub-modules for easy management of your daily workflow.

Outlook.com also has features like Sweep, Pin, Aliases and built-in Chat that help in better collaboration and organization of email. It can automatically sort email based on user-specified parameters. The availability of apps across all platforms ensures that you can manage your email effectively regardless of the OS you use. There's unlimited storage as well.

Zoho

Although Zoho has quite a few features, what makes it stand out from the rest is that the email service doesn't display any ads in the interface at all, not even in the free account. It provides a minimalistic user interface with multiple layouts that let you configure the display as per your preferences.

Zoho mail fully supports all modern email protocols such as IMAP and Exchange ActiveSync. It even comes with a full-blown online productivity suite that can be used to create/edit documents, spreadsheets and presentations. It was co-founded by India-based Sridhar Vembu.

At the free level, Zoho provides 5GB of email storage and 5GB of document storage space. These can be easily upgraded through one of the paid plans.

Yandex

While its name might seem a little unfamiliar, the fact is that Yandex mail is backed by its namesake company, which operates the largest search engine in Russia. The service provides 10GB of free email space. Interestingly, the company claims that the email storage automatically increases by 1GB everytime the free space falls below 200MB.

Among the many features of Yandex mail are the ability to group messages into conversations, labels, file preview/playback support and antivirus scanning for incoming messages. It also supports email protocols such as POP and IMAP. Oh, and creating a free account also gives you access to the companion Yandex Disk cloud storage service, which offers 10GB of free cloud storage.

Mail.ru

Another popular email service coming from Russia, Mail.ru is backed by its namesake internet company, which operates numerous other websites that are claimed to have the largest audience in Russia. The email service itself is pretty feature laden, with everything from folders to rule-based message sorting to themes included in the package.

Mail.ru supports popular email formats and can pull emails from other email services like Gmail as well, making transition even simpler. Its companion cloud storage service provides 25GB of free cloud storage space, and companion apps exist on all major platforms. Some other important features of Mail.ru include two factor authentication, multiple aliases and calendar support.

ProtonMail

If you're looking for a secure email service, ProtonMail is arguably one of the best you can find. Created by scientists and researchers from institutions as renowned as MIT and CERN, ProtonMail is an encrypted email service that's hosted in Switzerland, which has strict privacy laws.

It features end-to-end encryption and is based on open-source code. ProtonMail achieves bi-layered security by associating not one, but two passwords with user accounts - one for logging in and another for encrypting/decrypting the email contents. Its mobile apps are available on iOS and Android as well.

Tutanota

Want a secure email service that does the basics right without becoming too complicated? Tutanota might just be what you need. All of the emails sent or received between Tutanota email addresses are end-to-end encrypted, and those sent to regular email addresses can be optionally encrypted with user specified passwords.
Even the email subject and attachments are encrypted. Tutanota is open-source and thus enables security experts to fully verify the code that's used to protect email messages. Tutanota has native apps available on both iOS and Android, and is based in Germany.

Scryptmail

Scryptmail is another really good secure email service that features end-to-end encryption. It doesn't store any data (not even metadata) on its servers. Its code can be verified by anyone and no third party scripts are allowed. The company claims that all communication is secured with a user-specified passphrase that stays on the source machine only.

It comes with strong HTTPS encryption and is fully compatible with standard protocols to exchange public encryption keys among users. Regular messages sent to common email services can be encrypted using PIN codes. You can create disposable email accounts as well.

Vivaldi

Vivaldi mail comes from its namesake Vivaldi Technologies, a company founded by Jon Stephenson von Tetzchner, who also happens to be the co-founder and former CEO of Opera Software (yep, the developer of popular Opera browser).

What's interesting about Vivaldi is that it has a really clean and minimal user interface, devoid of extra things like chat, ads or anything like that. The contacts sub-module lets you easily manage all your contacts, and there's a calendar sub-module for managing appointments included in the mix too. You can also manually create and manage folders.

iCloud

Do you use one or more Apple devices (eg iPhone, iPad) on a regular basis, iCloud mail is definitely worth giving a shot. It comes with companion Apple services such as Contacts, Calendar, iCloud drive and of course, iWork suite of web-based productivity applications.

An advantage of iCloud mail is that it doesn't contain any ads in the interface and is quite minimal. However, there are some disadvantages too. iCloud is quite bare bones and doesn't have many advanced features. Moreover, you need to have your iCloud email account set up on an Apple device in order to access it on web.
Link | http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/magazines/panache/nine-email-service-providers-that-offer-more-features-than-gmail/articleshow/54508166.cms

How to choose the best password

Use a password generator app or software

Passwords generating apps or software are especially designed to create highly secure passwords that are difficult to crack or guess. Users are given the option to select from the criteria they want and the passwords are generated automatically. The number of options you choose from the criteria can be increased for tougher security of passwords.

Use passphrases and convert them to passwords

Users can even consider generating their passwords from a sentence or pass phrase. For example, one can select a book, a page number and a sentence of up to 8 words or more. The best part about pass phrases is that they are easy to remember and only unique to the individuals that select them.

Use non-English passwords where possible

Translate the least expected language for example Sanskrit, into English and use them as passwords. The chances of hackers predicting your password is minimized.

Never use the same passwords for all accounts

It can get annoying to keep a track of different passwords for different accounts but it is most advisable to do so. The reason is fairly simple; if the hacker is able to figure out the password for one account, he/she will be able to access all the other accounts, as well.

Extracted from | http://www.asianage.com/technomics/what-should-you-change-your-password-999

Why is it that most institutions are reluctant to spend on faculty development and teaching competencies?

The government of India has been encouraging the growth of tertiary education institutions across the country to facilitate accessibility. However, establishing quality institutions has become a missed focus. With 55,000 doctors graduating from 426 medical colleges in the country, the demand for medicos is far above the ground considering the doctor-patient ratio. Though there is urgency on the part of the government to establish more medical colleges, curbing dilution of quality is a big challenge. Vacant seats, in he last few years, in engineering colleges show failure in establishing effective quality standards and assessment systems. The outcomes of other university courses are also not fully gratifying. While there are many factors that play a role, the area of faculty development is central and requires immediate attention. Here are a few areas where we are in dire need of quality teachers to educate youth.

Meaningful outcome-based teaching and learning:

The focus of guiding private engineering colleges to define outcomes in concurrence with national goals, has been a persistent failure over the last few decades. Most private players intentionally remain ignorant of the accountability of producing employable and responsible citizens. Even if government machineries are established with the best intent, if the representing officials monitoring bodies are weak, all efforts are in vain. Such cases are quite prominent in Tier II and III towns.

There is reluctance on the part of these institutions to spend money on faculty development. Only stringent regulations will place such private players on quality track. Faculty must have a deeper understanding of the expected programme and course outcomes and facilitate learning, keeping in mind learners’ profile. The outcomes have to be clearly defined. Orienting the faculty to the same will help them appropriately design the teaching-learning processes.

Emphasis on teaching competencies:

Due to unprecedented proliferation of institutions, the demand for teachers is significant across the county. The need for the establishment of professional faculty development in medical education was strongly felt in 1974 and National Teacher Training Institute Centre was established, though the need for the same was spelt out by the Bhore committee as early as 1946. UGC and other councils have taken a number of measures in this area.

Through Medical Education Units (MEUs), continuous education of doctors, most of the time is spent on developing clinical competencies rather than competencies for teaching. While the number of engineering college is 3,470, there are only four National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTRs) and the functioning of their nodal centres is feeble and not clearly defined.

M.Phil and PhD degrees familiarise teachers on research. However, they don’t contribute to developing teaching competencies. In such a scenario, the government must evolve a definite policy for faculty development. Newly establishing institutes must fulfil the criteria of having full-fledged in-house faculty development centres and allocation in the annual budget must be made mandatory.

Platforms for intellectual capital:

The diversity in the type of institutions hampers effective pooling and use of resources to create strong intellectual capital. With regulations diverse for different types of institutions, they are caught up in their own compartments, forgetting the need of the overall-perspective and purpose.

Private institutions may not appreciate the same as they think that their USP is lost. Though one school of thought encourages complete commercialisation of education where only the fittest survive, the lesson from history is that in the race for profit-making, the purpose has gone astray. The recent sharing of knowledge through MOOCs by IITs and IISCs is a historic development in the country. The private players who encourage development of common platforms for education sector empowerment need to be identified and encouraged.

Though PhD is made mandatory at a certain level of teaching, the number and quality of PhDs are dwindling. The outcome of research is supposed to have some definite contribution to industries and society around. While there is fund shortage on one prong, there is complete lack of interest to siphon fund for research is at another prong.

Teaching tech-savvy and first generation graduates:

The interest of Indian youth for gadgets is high compared to their counterparts in the world. Learning inside a classroom where the teacher is ill- equipped with contemporary knowledge, trends, technology, teaching-learning methods and research and instead delivers lessons through highly teacher-centered lecture method, elicits least interest. There is a chasm between teachers and students in the knowledge of handling IT gadgets. Though many IT companies have ventured into academia and reached students in an impressive manner, leveraging the same inside classes for faculty members remains an unachieved agenda.

India is in the 120th position among 144 countries on tech-readiness as rated by World Economic Forum in 2015-2016. Even when internet users in India is the second largest in Asia (28percent), only six percent use the internet for learning management. Though digitalisation is at a nascent stage in education, its is significant with its current pace of adoption. Faculty development and empowerment will play a pivotal role in the Make in India, Digital India, Swachh Bharath and Smart cities projects.

Source| http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-educationplus/faculty-matters/article9148794.ece

Readers listen to audiobooks as e-book sales slip

Sales of paperback books are up. Independent bookstores are thriving again. The threat of a digital apocalypse has subsided, as e-book sales have tumbled.

So why did publishers have a wobbly first quarter of 2016? Revenue was down 2.7 per cent in the first three months of 2016, compared with the same period in 2015, according to a recent report from the Association of American Publishers, which tracks sales data from more than 1,200 publishers.
Sales of adult books fell by 10.3 per cent in the first three months of 2016, and children's books dropped by 2.1 per cent. E-book sales fell by 21.8 per cent, and hardcover sales were down 8.5 per cent. The strongest categories were digital audiobooks, which rose by 35.3 per cent, and paperback sales, which were up by 6.1 per cent.

Though the numbers look bad, they're not all that surprising. For many publishers, the first quarter is often the weakest period of the year. Publishers often save their biggest books for the summer, timed for vacation reading, and the fall, for the holiday shopping period. Typically, publishers make about 20 per cent of their profits during the first quarter of the year, according to Michael Cader, a book industry analyst and the creator of Publishers Marketplace.

But there are several factors that might have made book sales at the beginning of this year slightly worse than those in the same period last year. Like the movie business, publishing depends heavily on a few outsize hits each season to drive profits. In the early part of this year, there wasn't a huge, breakout best-seller, certainly nothing like 2015's The Girl on the Train, which came out in January and sold two million copies in just over four months.

The adult colouring-book fad, which provided a huge boost to publishers and booksellers last year, has started to fizzle, possibly driving down sales this year. (In 2015, some 12 million colouring books were sold in the US, up from one million in 2014.) And the surge in downloadable audiobook sales might account in part for the decline in hardcover and e-books, if more people are listening to books instead of reading them.

But perhaps the biggest factor affecting publishers' revenue, and one that is not likely to go away soon, is the decline in e-book sales, Cader said. While publishers once fretted that digital book sales were eroding more profitable categories like hardcover, they now are finding that e-books - which cost next to nothing to produce and zero to ship and which can't be returned as unsold merchandise by retailers - are critical profit engines. But e-book sales have fallen precipitously for months, in part because many publishers have raised their prices after negotiating with Amazon and gaining the ability to set their own prices.

The decline of digital sales and stabilisation of print may have also led to higher returns of unsold merchandise from booksellers, reducing revenue. And while some book buyers may have traded e-books for print books, others may be buying cheaper, self-published e-books on Amazon.

Source | http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/readers-listen-to-audiobooks-as-e-book-sales-slip-116092500746_1.html

A library Kindles students’ interest in e-readers

Visitors to Vizianagaram library get to use 20 of the gadgets funded by MP.
Libraries in Vizianagaram and Srikakulam are attracting visitors in droves, as job-hunting candidates prepare for tests and interviews advertised by government, banks and public sector organisations.

At Gurajada Library in Vizianagaram, there is an added attraction for those doing such intensive preparation: Kindle e-readers with downloaded books and resource material.
The Andhra Pradesh government recently supplied 20 Kindle e-readers to Gurajada Library to help candidates prepare for job recruitments using books and other literature. Union Minister for Civil Aviation P. Ashok Gajapati Raju sponsored the devices using his MP Local Area Development Fund. E-readers can store a large number of books, offering a wide choice.

The e-readers have become popular with candidates who aspire to become constables and Sub-Inspectors, with the A.P. government recently launching a recruitment drive for 1,300 of these posts. Traditional books are already in demand, as banks have announced recruitment to fill 16,700 posts. Some candidates are also preparing for 1,032 Group-2 posts in the Telangana government.

To many of the aspirants, the APPSC notification for Group-A, Group-2 posts is a challenge and they spend over 8 hours in libraries for study and data collection using both books and the internet. The government then decided to try out the e-readers to help candidates access the most relevant material readily.

Pre-downloaded books

In the normal course, the aspirants would spend considerable time on the Internet to locate and collect the literature. That task has already been handled by the library, and they have taken to the e-readers readily. The gadgets also make reading easier since the display is in black and white.

Looking at the response, the authorities say they plan to supply e-readers to all libraries in a phased manner. “We may get a concession for bulk orders, as each gadget costs around Rs. 6,000,” said Gurajada Memorial Vizianagaram District Library secretary K. Kumar Raja.

The candidates and students are thrilled. “Normally, we would have to depend on the Internet for information. But it is not possible for all of us to use computers at the same time, given the limited number of systems available to the public. The e-readers are handy and help us study in a smart way,” said Y. Rajkumar, a degree student.

Source | http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/andhra-pradesh/a-library-kindles-students-interest-in-ereaders/article9147698.ece

Birth of the device-age librarian

Armed with a handheld device, Mohammed Salim scans the book rack to record books available in his library. The young librarian feeds the details about new members in the computer and issues an RFID (radio frequency identification) card. Students pick books of their choice by making an entry in the electronic self-service kiosks using the card without any intervention of the librarian.

Digital technology has transformed the traditional librarian into a tech-savvy professional handling a range of machines, replying to queries through emails, apart from his daily chores. Several private educational institutions and corporate offices have modernised their libraries to give the reader a new experience. At the touch of a button, readers visiting these libraries can check the availability of their preferred titles through online public access catalogue. They need to just swipe the book to borrow it.

Mohammed Salim, an alumni of the University of Madras and employed in a college in Malappuram in Kerala, says new libraries use sensors to prevent book thefts. At the same time, he says the automated system has reduced the interface between the users and librarian.

Former librarians argue that dialogue between users and librarians is essential. Former director of the American Library in Chennai M K Jagadish said librarians in the bygone years knew the "highways and byways" of all the subjects. "Libraries have the advantage of authentic information.An interaction with the librarian would help you get the right book that has the information you are looking for," he said.

Browsing through the pages his 36-year career as a librarian, he recollects the fond memories of dealing with a variety of queries. "The circulation librarian, who sits at the desk lending books, is the first contact point for the users. Some librarians were extremely sharp in getting the right book even as the user will approach them with vague information about the book," he said.

Source | http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/chennai/Birth-of-the-device-age-librarian/articleshow/54494208.cms

Education as commodity

Thousands of students pay hefty fees for a seat in a private college, only to have their dreams shattered

An angry parent barges into the room of the director of a large private institute of higher education. She flings her son's grade sheet on the director's desk and wants to know why the grades are so low. The director begins by explaining the student could have worked harder, but is rudely cut short. “Did we not pay the fee? How dare you mess with the grade?“ The parent is seething, even as the director remains conciliatory. The ugly face of marketisation and commoditisation of education is on full display.

Market forces are not the answer to all human problems. But market mechanisms have crept into so much of our lives that we don't question ethics or effects. Educational institutions are run like corporations, applying management techniques to make them profitable. In theory, being exposed to market forces would compel an enterprise to be efficient with resources, innovative, competitive and tuned to the needs of the customer. But converting students (and parents) into customers alters how education as a service is delivered, and how institutions are set up and managed.

Markets require a definition of the product or service. Education, which should be seen as fostering creativity , innovation, leadership and critical thinking, is reduced to a commodity that ensures a job. Students enrol for a qualification, and since they want to “have“ the degree, stamp, marksheet or qualification, they narrow the definition of what is expected for the fee paid. The cost is thus reduced to the present value of the future earning potential of the degree.Mushrooming of engineering and medical colleges serve the “demand“ for this qualification from the market. In this market, whether there is a job at the end of the course is all that matters.

Second, the commodification of education leads to a proliferation of measurable standards of performance. Educational institutions use metrics such as pass percentage, placement track record, ranking in league tables and student approval ratings to compete with one an other. These measurements then drive the internal performance of teachers and administrators. The communication and marketing tactics of educational institutions also focus on these metrics, which soon become the narrowly defined standards for evaluating an institution. There are severe limits to quantifying attributes that are fundamentally qualitative.

Third, treating the parent who typically pays and the student who enrols, as “customers“ modifies the relationship from one of authority to one of defensive appeasement. Research on how this transformation impacts student-teacher relationship shows alarming trends: grades are not strict; teachers work with an eye on student ratings; examinations are simpler; curricula is not rigorous; recommendations are sugar-coated and flattering of students is unabashed.

Fourth, the market for education attracts players with profit-making motives and administrative skills, since delivering a commodity at a price is not an industry with high entry barriers.The proliferation of private educational institutions in India, where steep fees are collected to churn worthless graduates is testimony to the harmful effects of marketisation of education.

Hoards enrol into programmes paying a high fee, acquiring qualifications that do not serve much purpose. Young men and women leave villages to pursue degrees that do not get them jobs, and are unable to return to farmlands to earn as much as an unlettered labourer. Many are burdened with loans they are unable to pay. Of what use is a job that pays `15,000 a month after a 5-year course in dentistry , that costs `50 lakh to complete?

The commoditised market-oriented educational model that is so rampant is a scam, as it systematically milks customers of money and offers little in return.

But there is hope. The biggest dichotomy is the conflicting objectives of the parent and the student. The parent pays and therefore chooses course and college on behalf of the student, who may not always have enough information or resources to make an independent choice.However, the consequences of the worthless degree are borne by the students who have begun to protest. Many youngsters modify professional pursuits after their first few thankless jobs, while a courageous few venture to become entrepreneurs. Engineers take up organic farming; software professionals take up music and art--small but useful beginnings.

There is no denying the failure of the market for education. Given the amount of money made by the sharks in the name of higher education, it will be a tough breaking the back of vested interests. Before the cycle turns, we may have suffered severe damage and costs. When I walked out of the director's office to address the seminar I was invited to, I saw the bright faces of young men and women and worried about who was fooling them--parents? teachers? or society itself ? Then one of them asked me if markets were efficient.

Source | Times of India | 19 September 2016

Five museums from India among top 25 in Asia: Report

Leh’s ‘Hall of Fame’ has topped the India list as a "must-visit" place by travellers in a survey.
Five Indian museums feature among the best 25 in Asia while Leh’s ‘Hall of Fame’ has topped the India list as a “must-visit” place by travellers in a survey.

The other top four most rated museums of India are — Bagore Ki Haveli (Udaipur), Victoria Memorial Hall (Kolkata), Salar Jung Museum (Hyderabad) and Jaisalmer War Museum (Jaisalmer).

Darshan Museum (Pune), Don Bosco Centre for Indigenous Cultures (Shillong), Heritage Transport Museum (Taoru), Siddhagiri Museum (Kolhapur), and Gandhi Smriti (New Delhi) also figure in the top-10 list for India.

TripAdvisor will honour the ranked museums with its Travellers’ Choice awards.

The list was determined using an algorithm that took into account the quantity and quality of reviews and ratings for museums worldwide, gathered over a 12-month period, it said.

No museums from India feature in the top 25 world list, which is topped by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. It is followed by Art Institute of Chicago, State Hermitage Museum and Winter Palace, Musee d’Orsay, Paris and National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico.

The Museum of Qin Terracotta Warriors and Horse in China topped the Asia list.

“Museums provide a passageway into the history and culture of a place and the Travellers’ Choice awards for Museums are a ready reckoner for travellers keen to enrich their knowledge about the cities they travel to,” said Nikhil Ganju, the company’s country manager in India.

Source | The Hindu | 19 September 2016

Lessons beyond the classroom

Kalam Libraries all over India including Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh,”
Author Srijan Pal Singh begins his book What Can I Give: Life lessons from My Teacher by saying, “Throughout the rest of 2008, and till my graduation from IIM-A in April 2009, I was in regular touch with Dr Kalam over email and occasional phone calls. We would discuss the topic that we had chosen for research during class —providing Urban Amenities in Rural Areas (PURA).” Srijan’s inspiration behind the book is to bring forth the values of Dr Kalam as seen from the inside — and let readers discover what made him the person we adore.

His philosophy of always asking — ‘What Can I Give’ inspired the title and much of the content of the book. “His humility, impeccable dedication to integrity, and his ability to let go of short term opportunities for lifelong values influenced me the most. It is a composition from personal experiences I had with Dr Kalam — working with him, learning from him while travelling to many different places across the world,” states Srijan.

Dr Kalam always gave a mission to everyone — that of a home library. “He made people take an oath about this — and stressed on the emphasis of it. He told the youth about the importance of reading. His philosophy was that a great society is built upon knowledge-driven citizens. Hence, to take forward his mission to give every youth access to the best of books, my team and I started the Kalam Library Project. This mission strives to start community-driven libraries across the nation, especially in villages and in urban under-developed economic zones. These libraries are completely free and operate in multiple stages — Trishul, Prithvi and Agni. With the resources from the book What Can I Give and a few friends of the Project, we have established 25 Kalam Libraries all over India including Gujarat, Delhi, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttar Pradesh,” shares Srijan.

An ardent believer of Kalam’s works, Srijan has penned three books with Dr Kalam. Talking about his three books, he adds, “Target 3 Billion (Penguin, 2011) is based on our research work on rural development and innovative solutions to address issues of poverty across the world. Roughly half of the world (3 billion people) is living in moderate or extreme poverty, hence, the name of the book. Reignited (Penguin, 2015) was targeted towards younger readers. It was an account of how the world will shape in terms of science of technology, and how can the youth position their careers in a changing world. Advantage India (2015) was Dr Kalam’s final book. It was an account of our ideas on the path India needs to take in its quest to become an economic superpower and a socially equitable nation.”

When Srijan is not writing or researching on his books, he likes to let his hair down by spending time with kids, who are the future of our nation. “I enjoy interacting with children and sharing their ideas. I also love playing the drums and reading about history and science,” he shares.

Source | http://www.asianage.com/life-and-style/lessons-beyond-classroom-521
3D printers are changing the way kids learn

Whether it's printing a prism to understand geometry or a skateboard to figure out friction, students can now bring lessons to life

On a Wednesday morning at Maurya School in Palam Vihar, Gurgaon, eighth grader Kunal Arora is busy creating a three-dimensional model of a human cell. “We just learnt cell structure in science class and I want to see it in 3D to get an idea of how it really looks,“ says Arora.

In the lab where he's working, other materialized `printouts' are scattered around -a beyblade, a keyboard, the Taj Mahal, a turbine engine and an octopus.

Goodbye cardboard cutouts, hello 3D printing. The model-making technology that allows anyone to create anything, has finally made it to Indian classrooms. The elite variety, of course, since though the prices of 3D printers have fallen ¬ most now start at around Rs 1 lakh -they're still not for your average school.

But a few like Kunskapsskolan and Maurya in Gurgaon, Pathways-Noida and the Global Indian International School in Pune are training students to apply 3D printing to both curricular and extra-curricular subjects. Alfred Philips, a trainer with 3Dexter, a company that has designed the 3D printing curriculum for Maurya School, says 3D printing can help kids understand their class lessons better. It lets them create three-dimensional solid objects from digital models with the help of a printer that lays down layer upon layer of a special material. “For example, to see a practical demonstration of a physics concept like friction, we ask students to make a skate-board. To understand `sound', they can make a musical instrument like guitar,“ he explains.

Given a choice, most children would rather use this technology to bring their favourite fairy-talecartoongaming character to `life'. Ten-year-old Anvi Sehrawat created a tiny Angry Bird using the 3D printer at her school in Gurgaon. Explaining the various steps involved, she said she started with drawing the character on the computer using a modelling software. To create the bird's beak, she drew a triangle on the computer screen and pulled it up with a tool so that it became a three-dimensional beak. Sehrawat, who studies at Kunskapsskolan, is planning a dinosaur head next.

Unlike France where schools are making an innovative use of 3D printers by using a printable clitoris to teach children sex ed, Indians are playing safe with science and maths.
Kunal Bhadoo, CEO Kunskapsskolan, says the technology is especially useful for grasping scientific and mathematical concepts. “They can actually see how a cube is a 3D square, prism a 3D triangle or `hold' the earth's crust in their hands to understand its various layers,“ he explains. It's not schools alone that are keen on the new technology , but parents too. “The push is also coming from parents who are tech-smart and want their children to be too,“ adds Bhadoo.

Raunak Singhi, marketing head, 3Dex er, says the company is working in six schools this academic year and 15 more across India are in the pipeline.

Novabeans, a 3D printing solutions irms, has already set labs in Kunskapsskolan and Pathways, schools in Pune and Chandigarh are next. While middle and high school students work on more complex 3D printing software, younger children are encouraged to use 3D pens. A 3D pen has a plastic `ink'. Once connected to a power source, the pen heats up the plastic ink turning it to a viscous gel. You squeeze it out, it cools down and solidifies into any shape.For example, to make a cube, draw a square with the pen and keep adding more squares on top of it. It's exciting to see a three-dimensional object taking shape, just like a vase on a potter's wheel. The trick lies in controlling the movement of the pen.
At Global Indian International School, Chinchwad-Pune, kindergarten students use the pens to create simple objects like flowers and necklaces. “We have three printers and plan to get a chocolate and food grade printer next,“ says Reshma Shaikh, activity head at GISS Pune.

Source | Times of India | 18 September 2016

Harvard launches evidence library for imaging

A new resource from Harvard Medical School aims to help doctors make more informed decisions on imaging tests.

The school has launched its Library of Evidence, a publicly accessible digital repository of data outlining when to use which test. Initially focused on imaging, plans call for expanding the library to support other evidence-based tools, including lab tests and other medical procedures.

“The Library of Evidence is an important step toward organizing what is known to help advance the goal of evidence-based practice in a concrete way," Ramin Khorasani, Harvard professor of radiology and vice chair of the Department of Radiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, said in an announcement.

The healthcare industry spends as much as $11.95 billion on unnecessary imaging every year, according to one survey. And it’s not just about cutting unnecessary spending, but also ensuring that patients get the most appropriate tests.

While the HITECH Act requires the use of clinical decision support tools as part of certified electronic health records, a federal statute known as the Protecting Access to Medicare Act of 2014 requires ordering providers to consult physician-developed appropriateness criteria when prescribing advanced imaging procedures for Medicare patients. That requirement goes into effect Jan. 1.

In the library, recommendations from professional societies, local best practices and peer-reviewed literature are incorporated to develop scenarios that are then translated into HIT-friendly clinical logic that can be integrated into various clinical information systems.

The free library is available to clinicians worldwide.

Announcement Link | http://hms.harvard.edu/news/image-or-not

The secret libraries of history

After news emerged about an underground reading room in Damascus, Fiona Macdonald discovers the places where writing has been hidden for centuries.

Beneath the streets of a suburb of Damascus, rows of shelves hold books that have been rescued from bombed-out buildings. Over the past four years, during the siege of Darayya, volunteers have collected 14,000 books from shell-damaged homes. They are held in a location kept secret amid fears that it would be targeted by government and pro-Assad forces, and visitors have to dodge shells and bullets to reach the underground reading space.

It’s been called Syria’s secret library, and many view it as a vital resource. “In a sense the library gave me back my life,” one regular user, Abdulbaset Alahmar, told the BBC. “I would say that just like the body needs food, the soul needs books.”

Religious or political pressures have meant that books have been hidden throughout history – whether in secret caches or private collections. One of those is now known as ‘the Library Cave’.

The Library Cave

On the edge of the Gobi Desert in China, part of a network of cave shrines at Dunhuang called the Thousand Buddha Grottoes, it was sealed for almost 1000 years. In 1900, Taoist monk Wang Yuanlu – an unofficial guardian of the caves – discovered the hidden door that led to a chamber filled with manuscripts dating from the fourth to the 11th Centuries.

Provincial authorities showed little interest in the documents after Wang contacted them; but news of the cave spread, and Hungarian-born explorer Aurel Stein persuaded him to sell about 10,000 manuscripts. Delegations from France, Russia and Japan followed, and most of the ancient texts left the cave. According to The New Yorker, “By 1910, when the Chinese government ordered the remaining documents to be transferred to Beijing, only about a fifth of the original hoard remained.”

Despite that, many of the original manuscripts can now be seen: an initiative to digitise the collection was launched in 1994. The International Dunhuang Project – led by the British Library, with partners worldwide – means that, as The New Yorker says, “Armchair archive-divers can now examine the earliest complete star chart in the world, read a prayer written in Hebrew by a merchant on his way from Babylon to China, inspect a painting of a Christian saint in the guise of a bodhisattva, examine a contract drawn up for the sale of a slave girl to cover a silk trader’s debt, or page through a book on divination written in Turkic runes.”

No one knows why the cave was sealed: Stein argued that it was a way of storing manuscripts no longer used but too important to be thrown away, a kind of ‘sacred waste’, while French sinologist Paul Pelliot believed it happened in 1035, when the Xi Xia empire invaded Dunhuang. Chinese scholar Rong Xinjiang has suggested that the cave was closed off amid fears of an invasion by Islamic Karakhanids, which never occurred.

Whatever the reason they were originally hidden, the cave’s contents have altered history since they were revealed just over a century ago. One of the Dunhuang documents, the Diamond Sutra, is a key Buddhist sacred work: according to the British Library, the copy in the cave dates back to 868 and is “the world's earliest complete survival of a dated printed book”.

It’s a reminder that paper and printing did not originate in Europe. “Printing began as a form of prayer,” says The New Yorker, “the equivalent of turning a prayer wheel or slipping a note into the Western Wall in Jerusalem, but on an industrial scale.”

A wing and a prayer

The location of another hidden stash of religious texts has been known since it was founded in 1612 – yet that hasn’t stopped it being the subject of conspiracy theories. The Vatican Secret Archives feature papal correspondences going back more than 1000 years, and appeared in Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons, as a Harvard ‘symbologist’ battled the Illuminati. The rumoured contents of the collection include alien skulls, documentation of the bloodline of Jesus and a time machine called the Chronovisor, built by a Benedictine monk so that he could go back in time and film Jesus’ crucifixion.

In an attempt to dispel the myths, access has been opened up in recent years, and there was an exhibition of documents from the archives at the Capitoline Museums in Rome. Pope Leo XIII first allowed carefully vetted scholars to visit in 1881, and now many documents can be viewed by researchers – although browsing is prohibited. The word ‘secret’ in the name comes from the Latin ‘secretum’, which is closer to ‘private’; yet areas of the archives remain off-limits.

Scholars aren’t allowed to look at any papal papers since 1939, when the controversial wartime Pontiff Pius XII became Pope, and a section of the archives relating to the personal affairs of cardinals from 1922 onwards can’t be accessed.

Housed in a concrete bunker, part of a wing behind St Peter’s Basilica, the archives are protected by Swiss Guards and officers from the Vatican City’s own police force. They reinforce the power of the words held within. As well as correspondence between the Vatican and figures such as Mozart, Erasmus, Charlemagne, Voltaire and Adolf Hitler, there is King Henry VIII’s request to annul his marriage to Catherine of Aragon: when this was refused by Pope Clement VII, Henry divorced her and sparked Rome’s break with the Church of England. The archives also contain Pope Leo X’s 1521 decree excommunicating Martin Luther, a handwritten transcript of the trial against Galileo for heresy and a letter from Michelangelo complaining he hadn’t been paid for work on the Sistine Chapel.

Another brick in the wall

Not defended by armed guard but by centuries of forgetting, one collection in Old Cairo (Fustat), Egypt was left alone until a Romanian Jew recognised its significance. Jacob Saphir described the stash in an 1874 book – yet it wasn’t until 1896, when Scottish twin sisters Agnes Lewis and Margaret Gibson showed some of its manuscripts to fellow Cambridge University academic Solomon Schechter, that the trove became widely known.

Hidden in a wall of the Ben Ezra synagogue were almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments: what has come to be called the Cairo Genizah. According to Jewish law, no writings containing the name of God can be thrown away: those that have fallen out of use are stored in an area of a synagogue or cemetery until they can be buried. The repository is known as a genizah, which comes from the Hebrew originally meaning ‘to hide away’, and later known as an ‘archive’.

For 1000 years, the Jewish community in Fustat deposited their texts in the sacred store. And the Cairo Genizah was left untouched. “Medieval Jews hardly wrote anything at all – whether personal letters or shopping lists – without referring to God,” says The New Yorker. As a result, “we have a frozen postbox of some two hundred and fifty thousand fragments composing an unparalleled archive of life in Egypt from the ninth to the nineteenth centuries… No other record as long or as full exists.”

Ben Outhwaite, the head of genizah research at Cambridge, told The New Yorker how important the Cairo Genizah collection is for scholars. “It is not hyperbole to talk about it as having rewritten what we knew of the Jews, the Middle East, and the Mediterranean in the Middle Ages.”

The fragments reveal that Jewish merchants collaborated with Christians and Muslims; that Jews were treated more tolerantly than previously assumed, and anti-Semitism was less common than thought. Their importance is increasingly being acknowledged. In 2013, the libraries of Oxford and Cambridge Universities joined together to raise funds to keep the collection intact – the first time they have worked together in this way.

At the time, David Abulafia, author of The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean, said: “The Cairo Genizah documents are like a searchlight, illuminating dark corners of the history of the Mediterranean and shedding a bright light on the social, economic and religious life of the Jews not just of medieval Egypt but of lands far away. There is nothing to compare with them as source for the history of the 10th to 12th Centuries, anywhere in Europe or the Islamic world.”

Between the lines

In 2013, the Dutch Medieval book historian Erik Kwakkel described ‘a remarkable discovery’ made by students in a class he taught at Leiden University. “While students were systematically going through the binding remains in the library,” he says in a blog post titled A Hidden Medieval Archive Surfaces, they found “132 notes, letters and receipts from an unidentified court in the Rhine region, jotted on little slips of paper. They were hidden inside the binding of a book printed in 1577”.

Rather than being ‘sacred waste’ too important to throw away, the fragments were examples of rubbish recycled by bookbinders. “Recycling medieval written material was a frequent occurrence in the workshop of early-modern (as well as medieval) binders,” writes Kwakkel. “When a printed book from 1577 was to be fitted with its binding, the binder grabbed the 132 paper slips from his equivalent of a blue recycling bin and moulded them, likely wet, into cardboard boards.”

The process means that words never intended for posterity can still be read today. “The slips are first of all remarkable simply because such small written objects rarely survive from medieval society… There are few places where such objects can slumber undisturbed for centuries,” he says. “This is when their long journey to our modern period started, as stowaways hitchhiking on 16th Century printed matter.”

Including receipts, requests to servants and shopping lists, it’s a collection that’s rare for historians. “Messages like these bring us as close to real medieval society as you can get,” writes Kwakkel. “They are the medieval voices we normally don’t hear, that tell the story of what happened ‘on the ground’.”

And it’s a collection that could be far bigger than first thought. Using an X-ray technology created to look beneath the surface of paintings and detect earlier stages of composition, Kwakkel has developed a way to see through fragile book bindings. In October 2015, he began scanning early printed books in Leiden University Library.

“The new technique is amazing in that it shows us fragments – medieval text – that we could otherwise never see because they are hidden behind a layer of parchment or paper,” wrote Kwakkel in a blog post about his Hidden Library project. While the technology needs to be improved, it hints at a process that could reveal a secret library within a library. “We might be able to access a hidden medieval ‘library’ if we were able to gain access to the thousands of manuscript fragments hidden in bindings.”

Source | http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20160819-the-secret-libraries-of-history

Even as many countries, barring India and China, have moved away from the print to the Internet, the latter may confuse us and constrict our thinking

We live in exciting times. Marshall McLuhan would have termed this as a brand new world of allatonceness — a world where time has ceased, space has vanished. We now live in a global village…a simultaneous happening. What McLuhan wrote in 1967, seems to be true today. The onset of digital media has metamorphosed our lives, especially the way we find, consume and use news.

It is a common belief that the age-old print media — newspapers, magazines, books — is faced with unprecedented threats from new-media vehicles, especially the Internet which is a whirlpool of information. In his book, The Vanishing Newspaper, Philip Meyer calculates that the first quarter of 2043 will be the moment when newsprint will die in America as the last exhausted reader will toss aside the last crumpled edition.

Delivering a lecture a few years ago at the Graduate School of Journalism of Columbia University, former Editor-at-Large of Time Inc, Daniel Okrent professed, “Twenty, thirty, at the outside 40 years from now, we will look back on the print media the way we look back on travel by horse and carriage, or by wind-powered ship.” He advanced numerous arguments to support this dictum.

Technology evolves — we have fast moved from main frame computers to laptops — which for Okrent, was his professional life's ‘locus, library and liver'. The speed is enthralling and captivating, making us all subservient to it — our crave for processors' speed today is as pressing as nomads hunt for leafs! The hurried prose of the daily newspapers, what many be called the first rough drafts of history, is giving way to ever-modifiable contents of the web.

The rhetoric is backed by empirical evidence as well. The Newspaper Association of America had found that the number of people employed in the print industry fell by 18 per cent between 1990 and 2004. Tumbling shares of listed newspaper firms have attracted ire of investors. In 2005, a group of shareholders in Knight Ridder, the owner of several big American dailies, got the firm sell its papers and thus end a 114-year history. In 2006, investment bank Morgan Stanley attacked the New York Times Company, the most august journalistic institution of all, because its share price had fallen by nearly half in four years.

More recently, the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, in its World Press Trends Survey 2016, found that barring India and China, newspaper circulation in most developed countries were on a decline. Print unit circulation increased by +4.9 per cent globally in 2015 from a year earlier and showed a five-year growth of +21.6 per cent. This is largely the result of circulation growth in India, China and elsewhere in Asia as expanding literacy, economic growth, and low copy prices boost newspaper consumption. India and China together accounted for an astonishing 62 per cent of global average daily print unit circulation in 2015, up from 59 per cent in 2014. According to this report, available on the Internet, circulation rose +7.8 per cent in Asia in 2015 from a year earlier; it fell -2.4 per cent in North America, -2.7 per cent in Latin America, -2.6 per cent in the Middle East and Africa, -4.7 per cent  in Europe and -5.4 per cent in Australia and Oceania.

The instant cause of beneficiary of this has been the Internet. The Businessweek, in an April 2010 article, ‘The Print Media Are Doomed', captured the marketing logic for the continued demise of newspapers: “It's not that print is bad. It's that digital is better. It has too many advantages (and there'll only be more): Ubiquity, speed, permanence, searchability, the ability to update, the ability to remix, targeting, interaction, marketing via links, data feedback. Digital transcends the limitations of-and incorporates the best of-individual media.” Do we jump on to conclude that the print is dead, or it is the beginning of the end of print? I shall be circumspect, yet. Especially given that the reading habits of newspapers are ingrained culturally into many of us including our younger generation. The speed and the ceaseless chaos the Internet has caused is another factor that will push many away from Internet.

The abyss-like character of the Internet, I am afraid, may turn us into blind crawlers, meandering endlessly, constantly exposed to the vulnerability of information overload. Internet will confuse us, constrict our thinking, corrupt our senses. We may resort back to print, for all you know. Okrent may take a leaf out the new-found obsession of modern civilisation with ancient practices such as yoga and ayurveda. Only the form of the print may change in the context of the rise of the Internet. It shall not be the death of print yet, but birth of in-print.

Source | http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/death-of-print-not-in-the-near-future.html

The secret libraries of history

Best ebook reader apps

If you want to carry a collection of books with you, you don’t necessarily need an ebook reader thanks to a selection of free-to-download ebook apps for mobile devices.
For book lovers who don’t fancy picking up a dedicated ebook reader, we’ve rounded up some of the best apps for reading ebooks on a smartphone or tablet. Read on for the details.
Best Buy ebook readers – not tempted by apps? Grab an ebook reader instead
The best apps for reading ebooks
1. iBooks
Price: book prices vary (free books also on offer)
Available for: iOS
Apple’s own app for reading ebooks, predictably named iBooks, is a great place to start for iOS users. The stock reading app is compatible with iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and you can turn your device landscape to view two pages at a time. The free iBooks app (with over 2.5 million titles) also lets you adjust the appearance of the screen so that text is displayed on a black background, great for readers that like to relax with a book in the evening.
The iBooks experience is also available on Macs running OS X Yosemite or later. There are a selection of free books on offer, but the majority of content is paid-for.
2. Google Play Books
Price: book prices vary (free books also on offer)
Available for: iOS, Android
Google’s own ebooks app lets you bookmark pages, highlight text and make notes. Some titles support text-to-speech, and there are over four million books in total. Some books on the store are free, while others can be rented or purchased to keep for good.
Books are synced to your Google account, so you can start reading a book on your tablet then carry on from where you left off on your smartphone the next morning.
3. Kindle
Price: book prices vary (free books also on offer)
Available for: iOS, Android
Just like iBooks, the Kindle app for iOS and Android is free to download, and you don’t need a Kindle ebook reader of your own to use it. Kindle for smartphones and tablets has a range of free titles to flick through (including Pride and Prejudice and Treasure Island), and it arrives with a built-in dictionary that makes looking up complicated words and phrases hassle-free.
There are over 1.5 million books to choose from, and the app also supports popular magazines and newspapers. According to Amazon, over 650,000 titles on the Kindle app are on sale for £3.99 or less. There are also 200,000 Kindle-exclusive titles.
4. Kobo Reading App
Price: book prices vary (free books also on offer)
Available for: iOS, Android
Kobo’s own mobile ebook app is home to over five million paid-for and free titles, covering magazines, comics and books suitable for kids. Kobo’s Night Mode will reduce eyestrain during those late-night reading sessions, and the app can sync your bookmarks, notes and highlights so you can continue reading a book across different devices.
We’ve tested a range of Kobo ebook readers in our test lab. Head over to our Kobo ebook reader reviews page for more.
5. 50,000 Free eBooks
Price: Free
Available for: iOS, Android

This mobile app from Oodles is packed with free ebooks, so whether you’re an English literature student or a commuter looking for a new read, there’s plenty of choice. Books can be downloaded right to your mobile from the app, and you can read them without an internet connection. Font style and size is customisable, and you can also download audiobooks for your offline collection.

It’s worth noting that Oodles is better for classic novels than modern bestsellers, but the app is free after all.

Link | https://blogs.which.co.uk/technology/app-review/best-ebook-reader-apps/

Teacher education needs a structural change

Practising teachers will need an enabling and empowering environment where they are treated as valued professionals

Another Teachers’ Day has gone by on 5 September. Newspapers and social media have, as every year, reported speeches extolling the virtues of the profession and expressions of gratitude. Some companies have used the occasion to sell their wares, tapping into the warm and fuzzy feeling about teachers that all this evokes. This admiration for the profession is strangely absent the rest of the year. Teachers are more often than not seen as the cause of the problems in education, deserving of derision. Securely employed, often absent, and not committed to their jobs—so goes the popular narrative about
teachers.

This contradiction arises from a mix of three kinds of factors, and their interaction. First, the expression of goodwill is intended for specific teachers. These are often “my teachers” and “teachers of my children”, the bad ones are the large numbers who teach the vast masses, mostly in government schools. Second, some of the goodwill is a homage to the notion of the ideal teacher, and a lament for what should be, but is not. Third, teachers as a group are assigned the primary blame for the ills of the education system.
Let’s look at the third factor more closely. Public advocacy has certainly succeeded over the past 15 years in elevating quality as the most important issue in education in India. The simple (perhaps simplistic) analysis of the issue begins by noting that children in schools are not learning what they should, i.e., to read, write and do basic math. From the statement of this problem, most people jump quickly to what seems to them to be logical, unfortunately using information selectively.

The first step in this analysis is the idea that since most children are in school across India and have teachers, the reason for poor learning outcomes can only be ineffective teaching and teachers. Why so? The rough and ready explanation is: The people involved must not be working adequately and perhaps are not competent enough for the job. This is a faulty and largely false diagnosis. Why is it then so influential?

There are media stories, studies and popular anecdotes that convince people about the validity of their analysis. All reports, studies and arguments counter to this narrative are ignored completely. This is the classic phenomenon of selective cognition to confirm a theory, while discounting and rationalizing facts that don’t fit the theory. This particular theory is deeply satisfying because it has a sense of closure, and a group to hold responsible for the mess in our school education. A phenomenon called scapegoating.

The reality is that teachers are not any different from any large workforce group. With eight million teachers, it cannot be any other way, unless they are particularly chosen with great care to be shirkers, which they certainly are not. Much like the workforce groups of IT professionals or accountants, their effort in their role is distributed along a curve. Some put in enormous amount of effort, some not at all, and most will try to do an honest day’s work every day. If anything, teachers work harder, and that too under more trying circumstances. This is simply because they deal with children for whom deep down they feel responsible, and that is a feeling most cannot ignore. Their efforts are also certainly influenced by their local and systemic conditions.

Capacity is also distributed along a curve for teachers. But here lies one of the key issues. Our deeply flawed teacher education system doesn’t prepare our teachers with the capacities needed for their roles. So this whole capacity curve is below what is required. The very design of our teacher education system ensures such a perverse outcome. This obviously is not the fault of the teachers. In fact, practising teachers often want to learn and develop themselves since they frequently encounter situations where they find themselves inadequately prepared. Blaming teachers for this overall situation in capacity is not just wrong but unjust. Those who have determined the course of teacher education are responsible for this deep systemic inadequacy.
But this counter-analysis (as it were) cannot give the sense of satisfaction that comes from scapegoating. And so people, including the average person on the road, businesspeople, many ministers and officials, and the talking heads on television, find it easier to blame the teachers. And this scapegoating feeds a spiral of negativity against teachers, who, far from feeling valued, feel under siege.

Teachers’ capacity and their effectiveness need to improve. But that will happen only with structural and systemic changes in teacher education and professional development. Practising teachers will need an enabling and empowering environment where they are treated as valued professionals. And organizational changes in school systems and curricular reform will also need to happen. Till then, the least we can do is to not scapegoat teachers and stop repeating stories that confirm our biases. And that will really give teachers their due on Teachers’ Day.

Source | http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/oTIGTSJtiTF05R2VIqudlM/Teacher-education-needs-a-structural-change.html

Shaping an education system for tomorrow

The problem with our education policy is not just of funding, standards, and more. It’s one of a severe identity crisis

The national policy on education, since independence, has gone through various acts of commission and omission. Indeed, for anything to be called a ‘policy’, it has to be formally so stated by an agency which is charged with the responsibility of framing the document. There can be no policy by default.

This is not the best place to get into a chronological narrative of the approach of the Parliament or indeed the Indian Government towards an ‘education policy’. Education is something on which many people have some opinion. Therefore, it is not surprising that so many committees and commissions have been appointed on this subject.

Further, like in many domains, in the field of education too, post-independence institutions have had a huge shadow of the British legacy. To begin with, we created a University Grants Commission (UGC), perhaps for no better reason than that Britain had such an entity. Imitation is the best form of flattery. But it’s dangerous when it happens blindly in the domain of knowledge management.

The result of this kind of institutional framework is not only worrisome, but also pernicious. The distribution of funds for education have got hugely eschewed. It will be useful to remind ourselves that education is a concurrent subject. However, the business of granting recognition for the so-called ‘maintenance of standards’ made the UGC almost the sole arbiter of the fate of higher education.

When this was put on a base of higher secondary and secondary education on which the Centre had much less say, the fit did not quite work out. The response was not clear, though, through some quirk, the Central Board of Secondary Education finally emerged.

The result is there for all to see. Examination after examination, sometimes mutually exclusive if not competitive, dominates the scene. This is besides the competitive entrance tests from everything — medicine to engineering. Parents are confused, children are bewildered, and employers at a loss to make sense of all this.

The result is that several employers have begun installing there own competitive examinations. The series appears endless. The truth of the matter is that the escape route came — as it always does — for the resourceful and those who were networked.

Almost every two of three so-called influential families have their wards studying outside India. Indeed, this decision had lent them a huge status in many ways: From marriage to employment.

The dream of every Indian mother continues to be to get a son-in-law or a daughter-in-law who is either placed abroad or is at least an NRI. From a Government company to a multinational firm operating in India, a clear pattern of recruitment is discernible.

The effective career path is to float in at a lateral level with foreign credentials. Well might one ask: To whom does this country belong? Is it just a pasture for those from outside India?

However, to continue with the narrative on education, it is not only a problem of funding, standards, intake, focus on output and more, but one of a severe identity crisis. This is a terrible story to narrate as few ever seem to attempt a way through it with the political and the social will it requires.

Hopefully, the national policy on education should be a canvas to clear much of this confusion. The truth of the matter is: Every attempt to do a national policy on education has an overlay of a confusion which is best stated as framed in the statement, ‘Eminence is not omniscience’.

Somebody may be very distinguished in his field, but it does not necessarily make him an expert in education too. In fact, an analysis of the composition of the search committees of key functionaries of educational bodies such as the All India Council for Technical Education and others will show that, those who chaired these committees were members who had little notion of the subject matter of the education domain, or for that matter, even of the issues.

Casual familiarity with issues of education cannot be a substitute for a deep scholastic insight into the subject matter. That can only happen after decades of concentrated development of expertise. That day is still awaited.

Source | http://www.dailypioneer.com/columnists/oped/shaping-an-education-system-for-tomorrow.html

How to enhance knowledge and skills

How to enhance knowledge and skills
We are all familiar with the refrain: Management finds employee performance to be slacking off while certain routine matters are flagging. What are the common responses to an issue and what are needed to provide or revive knowledge and skills within an organization? The typical answer, of course, is training. While effective, if designed and implemented right, one would think at some point whether training is the only solution, and how does it really impact on the business strategy.

Many companies, especially the more progressive ones, now look at learning solutions as an integral part of their business strategy. They adopt a broader perspective and approach for assessing and meeting their organizational requirements. Based on my experience with some of these organizations and their leaders, I have chosen three key principles, which I now put forward to other companies for consideration and, if deemed appropriate, apply them. They are:

Make the Learning & Development (L&D) group your internal business consultants

The L&D group is often looked at in an organization as just a provider of training and seminars. This calls for a change in mindset, from being a training provider to an internal consultant. As consultants, their value comes from them being able to understand the “business” of the company, including how it operates, its product and service offerings, its constituents, its business strategy, etc.

Thus, when a problem that is initially identified as a training issue is given to the L&D group, they should first find out what the business and performance requirements are, determine the issues and the root causes of such problems, and only then recommend the appropriate solution. In some cases, it may turn out to be outside the scope of L&D. This should be fine. But thinking only like trainers, on the other hand, would often limit them to the discussions they have with you and their solutions might just be too focused on the training needs. That will prevent them from seeing the bigger, truer picture.

So, how do you make them consultants? Make the L&D group your business partners, and encourage the group to ask questions; the right questions. Typically these questions are open-ended at first, so that they will encourage a broader discussion of the issue. Questions like, what keeps you awake at night, what is the problem you are trying to solve or what does success look like, may seem to be simple and trite, but it really opens up the discussion to explore the different areas that may be contributing to the needs or even beyond.

Provide a variety of learning solutions, not just training

Learning solutions, unlike training, provide a broader perspective that considers a wider array of learning approaches—experiential, social, and structured programs—typically referred to as the 70-20-10 Principle that were introduced by the Center for Creative Leadership, to enhance organizational competencies. In this model, training is just one of, but not the only, solution.

So how do you apply the 70-20-10 Principle? Consider ways by which your organization can enhance the learning experience. You can implement on-the-job programs through secondment, cross-team postings, or individual swaps/exchanges. These assignments can even extend to clients or external organizations. You can also cascade a coaching and mentoring process where constant feedback and knowledge sharing is done across all levels. It’s about building a culture and structure where your employees seek and are able to learn by application and from others, through programs or ad-hoc opportunities.

Align the learning strategy with the business strategy

Learning can be strategic as well as tactical. A major difference between the two is that strategic learning focuses on supporting the organization’s vision and strategy, while tactical learning focuses on addressing performance gaps. Strategic learning is long-term and tied up to organizational metrics while tactical learning is short-term and measured through team or individual performance indicators, typically around productivity, quality, and timeliness. Training done across the organization is not necessarily strategic unless it is aligned with organizational outcomes and goals.

So what do you do to start aligning your learning programs into strategy? A useful first approach is auditing your learning initiatives. Determine which of those initiatives support your strategy and which address specific team or individual performance needs. It’s a simple method to see where the gaps are, but it really challenges you to evaluate whether the effort and resources are being channeled to where they make the most impact and sense.

As we strive to direct our organization forward, there has to be a deliberate effort to realign our learning perspective and paradigms. Positioning L&D closer to the business core, and providing a wider range of learning experiences, will help increase organizational effectiveness, improve employees’ morale as well as the company’s chance of success.
Mon San Jose is a director with the knowledge management group of P&A Grant Thornton, a leading audit, tax, advisory, and outsourcing firm in the Philippines, with 21 partners and over 700 staff members.

Source | http://www.manilatimes.net/how-to-enhance-knowledge-and-skills/284380/

Bonding over books: Library launches ‘family reading time’

Bonding over books: Library launches ‘family reading time’
The move, aimed at encouraging parents and children to spend quality time reading together, has been received with 'great enthusiasm'.
THE Children’s Section at the Sector 34 Divisional Library (South) is abuzz with activity and the excitement in the air is hard to miss, as parents and children get together to bond over books, share stories, explore and devour the world of words, away from the humdrum of life and technology. To encourage reading among children and make parents a part of this effort, the library has introduced an interesting concept ‘Family Reading Time’, twice a month over the weekends.

According to librarian Parveen Khurana, it has been received with great enthusiasm. The library is open to the public seven days a week and Khurana says the need of the hour was to involve parents in making reading a fun-filled and sustainable activity, and also encourage families to spend productive time together. Apart from story-telling, which is a regular and popular activity, parents and children select a few books for reading, followed by informal conversations and discussions.

“The idea is to make this time interactive, so many parents take the initiative of selecting a word and then everyone gets together to create more words, and also these words in different ways,” adds Khurana. There are regular workshops on reading, creative writing, vocabulary, and as one parent mentioned, it’s a great way to spend time with children, encourage them to read a variety of book, understand their world and be a part of it. “Reading together is a tradition that is fast disappearing, as technology has consumed our life, and we hope we can make it absorbing for our children and us, for reading gives our personality so many new dimensions,” smiles Vinay Sharma, a teacher and parent.

The library, which is completely digital, and eco-friendly, is involving readers in many ways, and has set up clubs for English and public speaking, encouraging debates and discussions for confidence building and improving communication skills. The IAS club here has aspirants choose a topic, meet, discuss it, with an expert coming once a week to substantiate it all. A library, believes Khurana, is a space for community development, where people from all walks of life come together, read, share, discuss. So now, every Saturday members can enjoy a movie show together and can also use libribox, a blog created for e-books, where readers can choose from lakhs of books online. “We want more people to get the benefit of the facilities at the library,” sums up Khurana.

Google brings Trans-Pacific fiber optic link to Asia for faster Internet

Google brings Trans-Pacific fiber optic link to Asia for faster Internet
Who wants faster Internet? Of course we all do, unless you’re a masochist, waiting forever for your videos to buffer, your photos to upload, or even your browser to load. Google is aiming to deliver faster Internet to Asia by bringing a new high-speed undersea cable online. In fact, they have already started applying their new investment to the region, so you should be experiencing faster loading of Google products in the next few months.

A few months ago, in June to be specific, the six-member FASTER consortium started beaming light to the world’s “fastest fiber optic undersea cable”, called the FASTER cable. It enabled faster connection between the United States and Japan, but Google wanted to spread the love to other countries in the region. They invested in bringing a FASTER link from Japan to Taiwan, because the latter is where Google’s largest data center in Asia is located.

Google said that a connection this fast should give you speeds of up to 26 terabits per second when using Google’s tools and services. The illustration they used is that every 15 seconds, every person in Taiwan can actually send a selfie to their friend in Japan, resulting in 138 billion selfies per day. Of course thats’s just an illustration of what that speed means and not to be taken literally.

Google has also built two data centers in Asia, the aforementioned Taiwan and another one in Singapore, and has expanded their Singapore facilities as well. This is due to the fact that there are more people in Asia who are going online every day than anywhere else in the world. Hopefully, it’s more than just a ton of selfies.

Source |  https://androidcommunity.com/

DNA is the future of data storage

DNA is the future of data storage
Some 50 years from now, optical, magnetic and flash drives will become obsolete and deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) will be used for large-scale data storage. In July 2016, a team from Microsoft Research and the University of Washington along with Twist Bioscience, a San Francisco start-up, reached a milestone by successfully storing 200 MB of digital data in DNA. The size of this synthesized DNA containing data was comparable with the tip of a pencil.

DNA possesses some of the attractive properties important for storing data, firstly, it is very stable; synthetic DNA can remain intact for thousands of years. Secondly, DNA is never going to become obsolete as it holds blueprint of the living system. Thirdly, it has high packing density — 1 kg of DNA is enough to store all the data available in the world.
DNA consists of nucleotides, and each nucleotide, in turn, contains a phosphate group, a sugar group, and a nitrogen base. There are four nitrogen bases, namely (A)denine, (T)hymine, (G)uanine and (C)ytosine. The sequence of base is a kind of genetic code that is passed from parents to children. Oligonucleotides are short DNA molecules, these small bits of nucleic acids can be synthesized in the laboratory as single strand molecule with any user specified sequence. This fact is used by engineers and biologist to store information.

The concept of storing data is not new to DNA. In fact, much before the advent of semiconductors, DNA has been carrying genetic data for generations. The only difference is in the format of data. DNA carries data in form of sequence of nitrogen base pair, for example, GATCAG, whereas semiconductors carry data in form of binary digits, for example, 11010.

Let's understand the mechanism. Suppose we wish to store an image in DNA. The image is broken down into pixels. The brightness value of each pixel, available in form of binary number is uniquely mapped to nitrogen base pair sequence, for example, 11010 is mapped to GATCAG. Once the complete DNA map is ready, DNA can be artificially synthesized in a laboratory. This process is analogous to writing data in DVD. Once synthesized, DNA can be stored in test tubes for hundreds of years. When we wish to retrieve the data we just have to read the synthesized DNA using a DNA sequencing machine. This process will generate the exact sequence of base pair, which can be translated back into binary data and, in turn, the image can be regenerated.

But, there are few bottlenecks too, semiconductor memories read and write data in microseconds and they are very economical, on the other hand, encoding and decoding data in DNA is a complex task, it requires more time and money. In 2013, researchers at European Bioinformatics Institute (EBI), Hinxton, UK estimated the cost of encoding and decoding data in DNA as $12,400 per MB and $220 per MB respectively. Of course, the cost is high when compared with conventional semiconductor memories, but technology is rapidly advancing and cost of DNA synthesis is falling.

About 2.5 quintillion bytes of data are generated every day. While storing data in digital format is easy, data archival is a complex task requiring continuing maintenance and regular transferring between storage media. Ideally, DNA provides an alternative to conventional semiconductor for secure and long-term data storage.

Source | The Hindu | 5 September 2016

Towards quality education for all

Towards quality education for all

Pravesh Jain
| 05 September, 2016

Every day there is construction. Every day there is destruction. Every day we see India the progressive and positive. Every day we see India the narrow and negative. Every day we move up. Every day we go down. Every day the future looks bright. Every day the future looks dark. Every day we see new hope. Every day we feel helpless.  Every day we have dreams. Every day we have nightmares.
Contradictions abound. We cannot say confidently whether our country is in progressive or regressive mode. Chaos is more pronounced in our educational system. Like a double-edged weapon it seems to be producing catalysts for construction and agents of destruction at once. I feel a chill as I wonder if a glorious nation aspiring to lead the new age would end up being pushed into the Dark Ages.
We have the largest student population in the world, with over 315 million youngsters in schools. Within a few years of joining primary classes, 10 million drop out because of poverty or to join family work or for other reasons. They do little that is meaningful or get employment, and thus run the risk of becoming agents of destruction.
A close at the state of education can be shockingly revealing. There are just about 20 per cent who possibly get the blessings of quality education. This means there are about 80 per cent who are still far away from the real values of education. These two sets of people grow up and evolve so differently that while some finally become catalysts of construction, many emerge as agents of destructions, thus force the country to march one step forward and four steps backward at the same time. That puts a big question mark on our ability to reach the cherished destination on time.  We all know a little about this pitiable reality, but surely we are not giving it a serious thought.
On the one hand, there is the well-developed English medium, privately managed public school system of education and on the other is the under nourished government-school system of education. The differences start at the primary level, and over time become drastic.
Public schools start with good infrastructure, quality teachers, power-packed teaching methodologies and of course high costs. All modern, scientific and psychologically tested formulas are applied here to spot the best in any child and to get the very best out of him or her.
Experimental processes of play-based and experience-based learning, and skill-based empowerment formulas are explored to ensure a child’s wholesome and rhythmic growth backed by a very supportive environment. The child evolves through stages of growth and a coherent superstructure of growth of personality and knowledge is built. By the time a 2-year-old child grows to six, he or she knows unimaginable things.
By the time the child reaches the middle stage of school, he or she already has a well-developed core personality with a distinct outlook, knowledge attributes and an attitude that would go a long way to build a value citizen. This is the set of people who choose their higher education and career paths carefully. These are the people who contribute value as the finest of engineers, doctors, planners, scientists, lawyers, judges, IT wizards, NASA or ISRO researchers or business men and entrepreneurs, people who help build their life as well as the nation in a constructive way.
Now let’s come to the education that our 80 per cent get. They are mostly from the rural areas and from the low income and working classes of urban areas, people who find it a strain to just be able to send their children to nearby sarkari schools where primary education comes free or with just a small fee.
These are the schools packed with the children of lesser gods,  many of whom go to schools more to eat, thanks to the mid-day free meal, than to study. There is more hunger for food than for knowledge and unfortunately the kids here get less of both by quality as well as quantity. If the food called midday meal comes adulterated, at times many fall sick too.
The education they are fed is also of low quality and of far less value. Majority of our primary schools in rural areas start class with either no black board or no books or no teachers. Some reports say there are over 100,000 single-teacher schools in our country where the teacher has to play the  roles of a cook, a nurse, a clerk, a peon and of course a teacher.
The majority of teachers don’t have the required training to deliver quality education. Many of them even do side business for extra earning and hardly care for students’ learning. The whole system is so mired with recklessness that there is hardly any meaningful supervision or accountability. One thing I can bet is that a majority of children getting education in rural areas up to secondary level may not be able to tell who the vice President of India or Governor of the State where they are studying is.
In February 2015 Maharashtra held its annual evaluation tests for teachers of government-run schools who teach from class one to eight. Out of 245,800 primary teachers just one per cent passed. Of 142,858 who took the test at the upper primary level, less than five per cent passed. The irony is that we feel good about universal primary education having been achieved with 99 per cent of children from 6-14 years in school. But hardly anyone thinks about how bad these schools are or what will happen to a cast number of our children. Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, UP, West Bengal and Chhattisgarh are states where the scenario is even bleaker than in Maharashtra.
A television journalist in his annual Independence Day programme asked rural people what they would have said in an I-Day speech if they were the Prime Minister. I wish I had been asked that question. My answer would be that first we must generate more money and keep aside largest possible budget for education. Ensure collection of maximum taxes from the untapped and known sources. Employ honest and efficient officers and ethical practices to collect taxes in a friendly and functional way. If the Income Tax and Excise departments do this job with dedication and honesty, I would put the first year’s collection target at Rs 5 lac crore above the previous year.
Second, we must ensure quality education-supportive infrastructure all over the country - schools with space for gardens, recreation facilities, libraries, common room and other amenities. Thirdly to make the school futuristic in thought and direction, and quality minded about everything, I would invite the best graduates of IIT, IIM and other great institute to join as principals of government schools of 100 villages, of course with a salary that befits their real market worth.
I would encourage these principals to start Super 30, Super 50 or Super 100- type coaching institutions in rural areas with active participation of responsible corporates to nurture the best talents. Driven on and inspired by creative ethical values, they will contribute vastly towards the real making of this country.
Fourthly I would go for a teacher-friendly and teaching-supportive policy where every teacher would have to display a certain standard of teaching excellence. The fact is that many of our teachers are ill equipped to impart quality education; they should be made lifelong students to learn the best to teach even better. Making the policy teacher-friendly, I would offer opportunities to all teachers to keep learning while earning. Every teacher would be required to pass a test every five years to qualify for increment and promotion.
Why does not our visionary PM invite the best of people and seek expert suggestions on how best to equip our education system so as to build a value nation that meets a billion aspirations? We have reached such a dangerous situation that even a little delay could be so catastrophic.
This yawning gap between sections of our society must come to end. Quality Education for all should be the mission of our Democracy.
The writer is Chairman, Paras Foundation.

Weblink:
 http://www.thestatesman.com/news/opinion/towards-quality-education-for-all/163433.html