TaaRay.com: Reasons why eLearning is essential for students!

TaaRay.com: Reasons why eLearning is essential for students!: Students need to be engaged with what they are doing to improve learning outcomes – See  technology engages them. ...

Reasons why eLearning is essential for students!

1. Students need to be engaged with what they are doing to improve learning outcomes – See technology engages them.
   
   
2. Enables students to become thinkers/learners/risk takers in a sheltered environment.
   
   
3. Learn not to rely on the teacher…be accountable themselves…become independent!
   
   
4. Teaches digital literacy.
   
   
5. Valuable employable skills in a digital world are learnt –appropriate online behavior, good digital citizenship, cyber safety, plagiarism, working with virtual teams, self discipline in a virtual world, digital and global entrepreneurship, globalization etc.  
   
   
6. Broadens the horizons of many students as it exposes students to the world outside their city or country town.
   
   
7. Fits in with Rural Education where students in small rural schools need no longer be disadvantaged by distance and isolation, as technology allows them to learn virtually and maintain their subject choices and other specialist subjects to be taught across schools by a virtual teacher.
   
   
8. Allows a mobile learning environment – anywhere, anytime, anyhow!
   
   
9. Inspires students to seek more from school.
   
   
10. Gets kids to go to school!

Rainbow Image of a Dusty Star

Resembling a rippling pool illuminated by underwater lights, the Egg Nebula offers astronomers a special look at the normally invisible dust shells swaddling an aging star. These dust layers, extending over one-tenth of a light-year from the star, have an onionskin structure that forms concentric rings around the star. A thicker dust belt, running almost vertically through the image, blocks off light from the central star. Twin beams of light radiate from the hidden star and illuminate the pitch-black dust, like a shining flashlight in a smoky room.

The Egg Nebula is located 3, 000 light-years away in the constellation Cygnus.

10 Fascinating Facts about How Teens Use Technology in 2013

1-  Among Teens  12-17, social network site growth has slowed particularly Facebook, but Twitter use is growing rapidly.

2- Today's teens are sharing more personal information  online than teens have in the past

3- Today's teens do care about online privacy

4-Today's teens do take active steps to manage their online reputations

5- Parents of teens are very aware that online content can impact their teens' lives

6- Most teens educational environment include the use of at least some digital technologies

7- The internet has fundamentally altered how teens do research, but not necessarily for the worse

8-Digital tools can benefit kids' writing skills and abilities according to teachers.

9- Teachers are divided as to whether "digital natives" are all that unique.

10- A digital divide persists in the area of educational and technology

There are 5 reasons why you can't ignore Google+ in 2014.

Digital Marketing experts have been septic of Google+ ever since its launch. With Google’s previous forays in Google buzz and Google wave, people wondered whether Google+ would crack the social game. Over the past few months, Google has been steadily integrating the experience with its other platforms. Here are 5 reasons, you can’t ignore Google+ for much longer.

Google Local

Search results on Google now show Google+ pages of the listed websites. For example, I Googled ‘spa in Bangalore’ and got 7 results from the local listings- 3 of them had Google+ links showing up next to the listing. This will definitely build traffic and hence social reviews on their respective Google+ pages. With greater traction, the social currency of these listings would improve, thereby leading to a much needed network effect for this social platform.

SEO

SEO experts are unanimous in their opinion that Google+ links are positively impacting SEO results. So if you are want to improve organic traffic, you’ve got to have a Google+ strategy. There were two developments in the recent past which are significant.

First, the new hashtags feature in search results- you search for #hashtag in the search box and it will display the Google+ posts on the right side of the screen. It is granted that people will probably expect to see a Twitter feed there but this does provide some solution to people’s need for searching for real time news. For e.g. During Jacques Kallis’ final test match, here’s what the Google news feed for #Kallis displayed on the right. In terms of real time news, this development was monumental from Google+

Second, Content Authorship. Google SERPs are impacted by authority. Authority is dependent on the author. Google has provided the opportunity for the publisher to declare the author of the article via Google+. All you have to do is to link your domain email address to your Google+ profile at plus.google.com/authorship. Once you sign up, Google recognises you as a named author. As you blog, guest blog and publish more and more articles, Google will account for your domain authority and this will have a positive impact on the SERPs for your articles.

 Youtube

With recent changes, if you want to comment on a Youtube video, you will have to do this via your Google+ account. The comments will show up publicly or privately within your circles depending on the commenter’s choice. Incidentally, this is making some people very unhappy. For most users, they are signed into their Gmail accounts and hence into Google+. This means that commenting is not as anonymous as it used to be. If you feel strongly about this, you can sign a petition against this over here

Picasa

Picture editing has never been easier. Picasa offers features such as ‘Basic Fixes’ and ‘Auto Awesome‘ . These are tremendously useful for amateur photographers (read – almost all of us) and the popularity of the platform is steadily increasing. With a one click share to Google+, picture sharing on this platform is rapidly increasing.  This is sure to attract large traffic as demonstrated by Facebook and Instagram.

Google Hangouts

This video chat feature from Google+ is setting new standards for the industry. It is more intuitive, allows more free participants and has better integration with apps such as Youtube and Google docs. Since participants have to sign in via a Google+ account, it is bound to increase the number of users of Google+. One of the most impressive features is the ‘Hangout on Air’ which basically provides a free Live video streaming platform via Youtube. It’s simply awesome!

Make sure you incorporate Google+ in your 2014 digital marketing strategy.

8 Ways How Schools Can Use Social Media

Social trends over the ages have had profound implications on educational reforms and the use of technology. Since social media is a burgeoning area of interaction amongst our teenagers, educators can’t afford to turn a blind eye to it. Cliché but true!While some schools balk at the idea of promoting the use of social media in the school premises and talk about its pitfalls, other schools are advancing and pacing up to a fever pitch in terms of the quality of education being offered. While most of the schools give the green signal for student engagement with social media in school premises, students as well as teachers continue to learn. On one hand, where digital engagement for teachers used to be a paradox, its other face required them to model ongoing learning as they viewed themselves as life-long learners and that in turn required them to ameliorate their digital engagement in order to show the right path to their students on the internet.
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How is a star born?

A star is born when atoms of light elements are squeezed under enough pressure for their nuclei to undergo fusion. All stars are the result of a balance of forces: the force of gravity compresses atoms in interstellar gas until the fusion reactions begin. And once the fusion reactions begin, they exert an outward pressure. As long as the inward force of gravity and the outward force generated by the fusion reactions are equal, the star remains stable.

Clouds of gas are common in our galaxy and in other galaxies like ours. These clouds are called nebulae. A typical nebula is many light-years across and contains enough mass to make several thousand stars the size of our sun. The majority of the gas in nebulae consists of molecules of hydrogen and helium--but most nebulae also contain atoms of other elements, as well as some surprisingly complex organic molecules. These heavier atoms are remnants of older stars, which have exploded in an event we call a supernova. The source of the organic molecules is still a mystery.

Irregularities in the density of the gas causes a net gravitational force that pulls the gas molecules closer together. Some astronomers think that a gravitational or magnetic disturbance causes the nebula to collapse. As the gases collect, they lose potential energy, which results in an increase in temperature. As the collapse continues, the temperature increases. The collapsing cloud separates into many smaller clouds, each of which may eventually become a star. The core of the cloud collapses faster than the outer parts, and the cloud begins to rotate faster and faster to conserve angular momentum. When the core reaches a temperature of about 2,000 degrees Kelvin, the molecules of hydrogen gas break apart into hydrogen atoms. Eventually the core reaches a temperature of 10,000 degrees Kelvin, and it begins to look like a star when fusion reactions begin. When it has collapsed to about 30 times the size of our sun, it becomes a protostar.

When the pressure and temperature in the core become great enough to sustain nuclear fusion, the outward pressure acts against the gravitational force. At this stage the core is about the size of our sun. The remaining dust envelope surrounding the star heats up and glows brightly in the infrared part of the spectrum. At this point the visible light from the new star cannot penetrate the envelope. Eventually, radiation pressure from the star blows away the envelope and the new star begins its evolution. The properties and lifetime of the new star depend on the amount of gas that remains trapped. A star like our sun has a lifetime of about 10 billion years and is just middle-aged, with another five billion years or so left.

Stars form from the gravitational collapse of large clouds of interstellar material. In fact, the space between stars is not empty; it is nearly empty, but not entirely. Interstellar matter, that found lying between the stars, is made from gas and dust. Granted, only about 10 percent of the mass in our Milky Way galaxy is made up of interstellar matter. But this material, as tenuous as it is, exerts a gravitational force, and as a result, it will begin to pull itself together.

As this accretion continues, the gravity becomes increasingly strong because its strength rises as the mass increases and the distance of the individual atoms decreases. Eventually this interstellar matter entirely collapses in on itself. The material at the very center is compressed by the infalling material on the outside, pushing down to get to the center. And this compression heats up the center of the collapsing cloud. At some point, the temperature gets so extremely high at the center, it triggers a fusion reaction. All the material that has fallen in then evolves into a hot, bright star. The star will continue to shine as long as there is hydrogen gas to fuse through nuclear reactions, and the gravitational pressure pushing inward keeps the atoms very hot and tightly packed at the center.