This spring, Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced a $60-million venture to offer free classes online. Just last month the University of California at Berkeley said it would also join the effort. John Hennessy, president of Stanford, recently predicted that a technology \”tsunami\” is about to hit higher education. When justifying their […] … learn more→

For years and years I taught 3D computer modelling and animation to architects and interior designers. As you probably know, when you have been teaching something difficult for a while you start to see the same mistakes over and over again. It’s easy, dangerously easy, to forget that it’s new people making these same mistakes […] … learn more→

Julian Assange has been granted asylum in Ecuador, two months after he sought refuge at its London embassy. But this doesn’t mean he can escape arrest in the UK for violating his bail conditions. Assange risks arrest as soon as he leaves the embassy building – which he will have to do in order to […] … learn more→

Wind power is the world’s leading source of renewable electricity, excluding hydropower, with 238,000 megawatts of capacity installed at the start of 2012. Thus far, almost all of this wind power has been tapped on land; worldwide just 4,600 megawatts of offshore wind farms were operating as of mid-2012. Offshore wind capacity is growing quickly, […] … learn more→

If you’re worried your job could be farmed out to another country, or offered to a cheaper worker in America on a visa, your worries might be warranted. Nancy Folbre, an economics professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, recently wrote in The New York Times, “Since the 1990s, the global supply of skilled labor […] … learn more→

I love being a student. Currently in the throes of my masters degree, I find myself frequently relishing what I see as the perks of remaining in school: my flexible schedule, venues for interesting debates, learning from those smarter than me, having a platform on which to present my ideas and so forth.Despite all of […] … learn more→

The first time that Andrew Kaufman taught in a Virginia prison, a fight broke out while he was being escorted to his classroom. The guard and the chaplain who were accompanying him quickly shuffled him into a room and locked the door, and the three of them spent 30 minutes waiting out the melee. After […] … learn more→

It made the news here, but not for long — ten percent of the world\’s population lost electric power in a single event. Reasons it wasn\’t a major news story? It was on the other side of the earth (India), a lot of the people affected weren\’t affected all that much (their electricity not ordinarily […] … learn more→

A new company is updating the idea of using an inkblot test to help college students choose a career. Researchers at the company, Woofound Inc., have built an application for students that uses their reactions to a series of images to predict their personalities and to suggest careers tailored to their preferences. The creators also […] … learn more→

What do India’s huge blackouts this month have to do with the latest fad for CEOs? Forget guanxi, the Chinese art of networking; forget the Japanese-inspired disciplinary regime, the Six Sigma way. The latest fad to hit the CEO conference circuit is the Indian notion of jugaad. Its supporters include, amongst others, Saatchi and Saatchi’s […] … learn more→