According to a survey by the European Commission, two out of three EU online providers use geo-blocking, forcing third country customers to pay more for products or not offer their services.
Customers in smaller countries like Malta, Luxembourg, Cyprus, and Slovenia were affected by practices experienced by residents of border regions. They are often unable to order services or goods online from a neighbouring country.
. Link VR content to course outcomes. If you want to VR to succeed in your college classroom, you have to look at how 360-degree audio and video adds value. The forensic-science department, for example, is trying to get a close approximation of a crime scene so that students can acclimate to the job environment and take a real-world approach to investigations. Adding VR without adding value will not be effective. 2. Do a proof-of-concept app first. The history reenactment app was a great starting point, as it was a simple-to-film, single-location shoot that didn’t require much editing. You want to start simple to get an early win. They learned valuable lessons during that shoot, such as best camera placement to minimize distractions.
3. Get buy-in at the highest levels. Marketing students in the capstone project are presenting the final apps to the President, Provost, and other administration officials. Once you get buy-in at an administrative level, it’s easier to secure funding for more equipment and more promotion of your work to other departments.
Common Sense Media recently partnered with the Center for Humane Technology, which supports the development of ethical technological tools, to lay out a fierce call for regulation and awareness about the health issues surrounding tech addiction.
To support educators making such decisions, Common Sense Media is taking their “Truth about Tech” campaign to schools through an upgraded version of their current Digital Citizenship curriculum. The new updates will include more information on subjects such as:
Creating a healthy media balance and digital wellness;
Concerns about the rise of hate speech in schools, that go beyond talking about cyberbullying; and
Fake news, media literacy and curating your own content
What Does ‘Tech Addiction’ Mean?
In a recent NPR report, writer Anya Kamenetz, notes that clinicians are debating whether technology overuse is best categorized as a bad habit, a symptom of other mental struggles (such as depression or anxiety) or as an addiction.
Dr. Jenny Radesky, a developmental-behavioral pediatrician at the American Academy of Pediatrics, notes that though she’s seen solid evidence linking heavy media usage to problems with sleep and obesity, she hesitated to call the usage “addiction.”
Dr. Robert Lustig, an endocrinologist who studies hormones at the University of Southern California disagreed, noting that parents have to see the overuse of technology as an addiction.
n a 2016 survey of higher education institutions (study published by UPCEA and Pearson), one in five institutions now offer the opportunity to earn verified digital badges.
The way we learn is continuously evolving. In the coming years we should expect to see organizations of all kinds start experimenting with the increasing number of badge platforms out there. While Mozilla Open Badges seems to be leading the way in the development of badging, other networks including Badge Alliance, Credly and Digital Me are growing their networks as they launch their own competing platforms. Students and professionals use social networks and other digital platforms daily, and with that comes a different way to showcase professional skills.
The UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, has launched a futuristic pilot project to utilise the cryptocurrency Ethereum to raise money for Syrian children.
the “blockchain” technology associated with the cryptocurrency – the world’s second largest after the controversial Bitcoin – to revolutionise not only how aid organisations raise money but also to increase transparency in their financial transactions.
Blockchain – which emerged as one of the underpinnings of Bitcoin – is a shared record of transactions maintained by a network of computers. It has become a key technology because of its ability to record and keep track of assets or transactions with no need for middlemen.
The World Food Programme (WFP) has used Ethereum to deliver $1.4m in food vouchers, via the use of iris recognition scanners in camp supermarkets, to around 10,000 Syrian refugees in Jordan,
Just as in the 1970s, when antidrug campaigns were scoffed at by the very people they were targeting, anti-bullying campaigns are also losing their effectiveness. I got a taste of this firsthand last year when I spoke about sexting, online safety and cyberbullying at an all-school assembly. When a student blurted out an obscenity during the sexting portion, the students went wild and didn’t listen to a thing I said. I was frustrated and discouraged. Later, I offered an iPad mini to the student who produced the best video and poster. Even that got little response.
The fact is, anti-bullying clichés have become a shut-off switch. What we really need to be doing is giving students actual skills to prevent bullying. To get that conversation going, I pose this question to students: “Will you accept the identity that others give you?”
Moscow appears to have moved quickly into the market of cryptocurrencies and cryptography. Gref earlier warned that companies including Blockchain and Bitcoin should not be banned or hindered in their operations.
Russia’s Finance Ministry legalised cryptocurrency trading on January 25 with the Digital Assets Regulation Bill, despite vocal objections from the country’s Central Bank. The bill defined cryptocurrencies and tokens as digital financial assets that are not legal tender in Russia. The Central Bank, however, argued that digital currency trading rules should only be applied to tokens that would attract financial investments.
It’s working, generally, but it does require a good bit of config tweaking to get it to accurately count. It also needs (I’ve discovered) a certain amount of distance between the door and the camera. We have very low ceilings at our doorways and a single person can span the entire frame which appears to confuse the software. All that being said, it’s very much worth looking into.
Analytics out of the box aren’t great. The only built in report is only the current day’s numbers, but it’s pretty easy to export data. We have Libinsight from Springshare and I’m working on pumping that data into their system. It is tricky because the system basically records two things: a timestamp, and a positive or negative integer depending on whether or not the traffic was going in or out. By default, no generic analytics system seems to understand that well enough to display it the way I’d like, so I may have to create some custom reports using d3.js or similar.
I’m using the Pi 2 and standard camera module from Adafruit. I’d be happy to answer questions.
——-
Mark Sandford Systems Librarian Assistant Professor in the Libraries Colgate University Libraries
