Monday, March 18, 2013

MOOCs - the wave of the future

MOOCs (Massively Open Online Courses) are all the rage right now in technology and education. They are certainly not lacking in controversy, opportunity, availability or even from proponents and opponents. Here is a great article talking about some of the challenges to extending MOOCs to where it is needed most.

In a recent conversation with a colleague I feel that what we are seeing right now is just the exciting beginning. Lots of stuff out there, some good, some bad - but we haven't really been able to see the full range of possibilities. There will be at least another decade of development and incorporation before we begin to see any kind of massive change to a mixed model. It's a tech toy right now, there needs to be significant changes to infrastructure and culture perception for there to be any real change.

Wednesday, March 06, 2013

Potato chip addiction?

Our bodies respond in ways to junk food that our brains kind of enjoy, and they have very specific types of responses to junk food. Well...rats do anyway. Kind of explains a lot, doesn't it?

Friday, March 01, 2013

Technology and depression

So, you have an iPhone and you have depression. There's an app for that! I have no idea if this functions for any particular reason (although I'm sure the developers have very sound reasons), but I imagine that the placebo effect also plays a strong role. It is, nevertheless, very interesting.