Raising Questions About Why College Is So Costly [NYTimes]
- Published: 27 August 2009
An opinion article in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this week raises interesting questions about why going to college is so expensive, and points an accusing finger at professors and their research work.
The article, titled "The ugly secret why tuition costs a fortune," is by John Zmirak, who is editor-in-chief of "Choosing the Right College" and Collegeguide.org. (A similar article by Mr. Zmirak ran in The San Francisco Examiner last week.)
Mr. Zmirak opens by pointing out: "Tuition, room and board at Sarah Lawrence College just hit $53,166 per year. That's like buying a C-Class Mercedes every year ... except you never get the car."
Full Story: http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/
Lone parent struggles with sums [Independent.ie]
- Published: 27 August 2009
GETTING her daughter back to school without going into debt is a major juggling exercise for Louise O'Neill.
A lone parent from Cabra, Dublin 7, Louise has been struggling to meet all the needs for the new school year for her eight-year-old daughter Gabrielle.
Just a few days before the term kicks off on Tuesday, she says she still hasn't bought everything because she's trying to space out her purchases to cushion the impact. The recent axing of the Book Grant Scheme -- which provided funds to schools to help families buy books -- was a major blow as Louise had been able to avail of this in the past. But she revealed that her daughter's school -- St Columba's in Iona Road, Glasnevin -- had arranged a second-hand book rental scheme, bringing her books bill down to around €35. She estimated that uniform costs would be €150 -- this includes a pinafore only available from a uniform supplier and not from chain stores such as Dunnes or Marks & Spencer, "unfairly" bumping up the costs.
Full Story: http://www.independent.ie/
Google to translate 'as Gaeilge' [IrishTimes.com]
- Published: 27 August 2009
Irish speakers will from today have a useful online tool to translate web pages into their first language, with the expansion of Google's Translate service to include Gaeilge. Google has launched a full suite of translation tools in Irish.
The service can be used to translate specific web pages or text, as well as to search English web pages using Irish keywords. The results can be translated from any of 51other languages into Irish. Google cites the example of an Irish-speaking internet user planning an African safari.
Web results about safari tour companies in English, French or another language can be translated into Irish in "a fraction of a second" using the Google tool. Users can also paste text or a URL for a particular webpage in any of the 51 supported languages and receive a translation in Irish immediately via Google Translate.
Full Story: http://www.irishtimes.com/
Swine Flu - Information for Parents [education.ie]
- Published: 26 August 2009
Information for parents from the HSE as the new school year approaches
click here for further information
Secondary schools students get moodling [siliconrepublic.com]
- Published: 26 August 2009
Secondary schools throughout Ireland can struggle to find a budget to implement a virtual learning environment (VLE) but transition year students can help by developing their own.
ICT firm Enovation Solutions has created a new module that will allow transition year students to literally grow their own VLE with course materials supplied by teachers and technical support available to help with implementation.
The platform for the virtual learning environment is Moodle and it allows teachers and students to collaborate and share materials including multimedia content either within the school network or from home.
Enovation's Moodle4schools also provides a full set of teacher notes to accompany the module for transition year students and comes preloaded with content from leading publishers for Irish secondary schools.
The idea of the Moodle course for transition year students is that it will be self-sustaining with each new transition year group carrying on the legacy and further developing the system.
Moodle is not just for sharing learning material but can also work as a messaging system, allowing teachers to communicate with each other, their classes and individual students.
It also acts as an administration tool so teachers can track student records, attendance, exam results, and upload school calendars and course outlines.
