Researcher Bob Godard made this statement in his book On the Way towards Change: Australian International Education. According to this expert, the greatest increase in the number of students should be expected in the developing countries. More than half of all graduates in 2025 will be immigrants from China and India.
Developing countries are experiencing a tremendous demand for higher education, and these states will be compelled to send their young people abroad for educational opportunities that cannot be provided at home. Godard’s forecast is confirmed by statistics – according to the report of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the number of students that study abroad has doubled over the past decade. The OECD report called “Education at a Glance” states that in the period from 2000-2010 the number of students who enrolled in foreign universities increased by 99% (from 2,1 to 4,1 million people). Europe is the most popular destination, attracting 41% of all foreign students. North America is the runner up, providing educational opportunities to 21% of all students who study abroad.
Google introduces its own classroom
Google has opened access to a service called “Classroom” for all users who have an account on Google Apps for Education. The platform is available in 42 languages and provides teachers with an opportunity to test the content management system that allows users to publish homework for students, to manage a list of students, and to receive feedback from them. Classrooms are integrated with Google Drive and Google Docs. According to the developers, it will make students’ lives much easier since they will be able to do homework online on their laptops and e-mail it to teachers. The free service has been tested since May, 2014. So far, more than a hundred thousand people from 45 countries have registered.
Confuse students in order to help them
Derek Miller, Ph.D. at the University of Sydney, says that professors who provide educational material in a short and concise manner are providing more hindrance than help to their students.
He is known in Australia as the creator of the YouTube channel Veritasium, as well as being a television presenter and film director who promotes scientific approaches to education. Miller has conducted a study regarding the perception of new material by students. He showed understandable and plain videos about the laws of physics to one group, while the second group saw a video that contained only probing questions. The end result surprised Miller greatly as the test results of students who saw the clear and concise material were much worse than results of students who watched “confusing materials”. The researcher concludes that confusion has a powerful educational force because it can guide students through deadlocks and puzzles to a deeper understanding of the subject matter. In other words, if teachers want their students to learn really important things, such as comprehending complex texts and modeling complex systems, they have to put students in a confusing situation. Muller compares his methods with a slingshot – the more it is stretched, the greater is the force that can propel students to greater heights of insight. But if you stretch the slingshot band too much it…
Teachers of Minecraft
Instructure, the largest U.S. based company that deals with online training, owns the education management system called Canvas. Its representatives have recently stated that the company is looking for an opportunity to train teachers in Minecraft – a free online game that is very popular among teenagers. The company claims that it makes an effort to provide teachers with tools to implement gamification in classes. Instructure believe that “the main platforms of MOOC (Massive open online courses) have ignored the level of secondary education in the past but, ironically, experiments at this level are the most valuable”. Currently Canvas offers two free web courses in Minecraft, along with a simulator of a mission on Mars, for teachers, students and their parents.
By the way, the University of California offers a course called “Game theory through the example of Starcraft”. According to teachers, the cult real-time strategy game helps to understand the significance of games in modern society. Some lectures are even recorded and posted on YouTube.
You can find more information on the subject of educational games in the following articles of this issue.
Doctors and dentists are getting a better start
The British newspaper The Telegraph compiled a list of the highest paying jobs that are available for graduating students in England. According to the article, young people working in the field of construction and design can bargain for a salary of 21 thousand pounds in the first year. The same figures obtain for employees in the area of computer sciences. Alumni who want to become social workers or have a degree in financial sciences are promised a salary of around 22 thousand pounds per year. Students of mathematics are going to get several hundred pounds more. Graduates of the information systems, physics, and pedagogical faculties will earn more than 23 thousand pounds. Novice nurses are going to receive a paycheck of 24 thousand pounds, whilst economists and engineers will get an extra two thousand. The starting salary for doctors and dentists is 31 thousand pounds or more, which means that they are the leaders in the UK beginning wage ranking.
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