Hair colourist Shaun Pulfrey was mocked by senior business figures when he appeared on British TV show ‘Dragon’s Den’ with an unusual looking hairbrush designed to detangle hair painlessly. Each of the business leaders on the show turned down his request for investment. Unfortunately for them, almost a decade later, Tangle Teezers are sold in over 70 countries. In 2015, the company reported a turnover of over £23 million.
Computer science can often seem opaque, putting potential coders and engineers off what could be a rewarding and interesting career. Luckily Amy Bibwo is on hand to help demystify computer science. Her ‘zines are aimed at people who might not have considered coding before. Using clever stories and hand drawn art these zines break down typically complex concepts, to help get young people, particularly young women, excited about computer science.
Primarily known for her writing, Naomi Alderman might seem like an unlikely addition to our list, but she’s also the co-creator of the running app (and phenomenon) Zombies! Run! The app improves your fitness by having you run away from zombies through all sorts of different storylines. It tapped into people’s desire to improve their fitness in a fun (and scary) way – when it launched it became the the highest grossing fitness app on Apple’s app store.
Continuing on the running theme, next up we having the founder of a worldwide grassroots sports movement Paul Sinton-Hewitt, creator of Parkrun. Parkrun is a free, timed 5k run that takes place in parks all over the world. Sinton-Hewitt founded it in 2004 looking for a more easy-going alternative to club running. 10 years later, Parkrun has a community of over a million runners and happens in 543 parks worldwide. You can read more about how it got started here.
Most of us like to think our powers of memory are fairly good, but in reality giving an accurate witness statement is very difficult. There are a whole host of factors that affect recalling a situation perfectly, including what psychologists refer to as ‘inattentional blindness’ – the inability to attend to something fairly significant that happens right in front of you. For instance, not seeing the moonwalking bear in this video.
Did you know that Spanish is spoken by 575 million people around the world, as a mother tongue or foreign language? And that more than 80% of all Spanish speakers live across the Americas? You know the Americas – the two continents made up of rich cultures and heritages. Put simply – isn’t it time you learnt some Spanish?
Disclaimer: you will probably learn far better coded messages than “the eagle has left the nest” on the World of Spies course. In fact you will test your logic abilities as you explore encryption and code-making and breaking, and find out whether you’re cut out to be a spy.
Explain how there’s “Lots of stratus and cumulonimbus today, even some katabatic drainage!” with Learn About Weather
Talking about the weather is almost a national sport in the UK. But what if you could actually explain why the weather is so hot? Or why that cloud looks a bit like a hippo? What if you could tell your nimbus from your stratus? Or explain why only some places get freezing rain? You could take weather small talk to the next level.
Norwegian has three extra letters than the English alphabet. It also has plenty of interesting sounds to master (including plenty of rolled ‘rrrs’), making it a challenging but rewarding language to get your tongue around. Luckily we’ve got the experts from the University of Oslo to help you. As they say in Norway you’re… “Å være midt i smørøyet”, literally translated “To be in the middle of the butters eye”, not-literally translated “right in the best spot”.
Parliament can often seem far removed from daily life, and shrouded in mystery (and wood-panelling), but it’s here that changes to UK life are forged. Did you know that “lobbying” is regularly done by groups and individuals to get politicians interested in a certain issue or support a certain campaign?
In this post, find out about the exciting things we’ve been up to recently at FutureLearn, including new features, new partnerships and new courses.
Customize your interests
You can now customize your interests, to tell us what subjects you’re interested in and see suggested courses on your interests page. Here’s how it works:
Find the right course by filtering with topics
On some of our category pages, you’ll now see topics. These help you filter courses within a category even further, so it’s easier to find the exact subject you’re looking for.
Celebrate your achievements with new celebration steps
We’ve introduced a new step at the end of each week of your courses. This new step is a celebration of the hard work you’ve done that week and makes it easier for you to share your achievement on social networks.
We’re working with the UK government to help teenagers learn cyber security skills
There’s a big skills gap when it comes to cyber security, so we’re excited to be working with the UK government on the Cyber Schools programme (along with Sans, BT and Cyber Security UK) to help teenagers pick up vital cyber security skills. Read more on Wired.
*To celebrate the program’s first full year on Coursera, new learners can launch their career in IT support with their first month of learning free. Enroll in the Google IT Support Professional Certificate today to get started.
It’s been one year since the launch of the Google IT Support Professional Certificate, and thousands of learners have enrolled to jumpstart their career in IT. This program is designed to help you become ready for an entry-level IT support role in about 8 months, with no prior experience needed to get started. Courses are taught by Google employees, hands-on assessments prepare you for work in the real world, and a video series on resume building and interview prep ensures that you shine in the job search process.
The Google IT Support Professional Certificate program has signed on over 30 top employers –– including Home Depot, Cognizant, GE Digital, H&R Block, Hulu, Intel, Sprint, Walmart, Google, and more –– that are interested in considering those who complete the program for open IT Support jobs. After you earn the certificate, you can share your information directly with these employers.
“I started the Google IT Support Professional Certificate program while I was interviewing with Cognizant Technologies. I believe all the training from the program has helped me better understand IT concepts as well as strengthen my confidence and knowledge, which in turn helped me pass my interviews, secure the job, and grow within the company.” – Gonzalo O.
In 2018, the Google IT Support Professional Certificate also expanded access to the program through community college collaborations throughout the US. For learners looking to continue their learning journey, the University of London and Northeastern University now offer university credit towards an online bachelor’s degree for learners that complete the program. In an effort to provide greater access to the IT Certificate, Google.org has provided grants to leading nonprofits, including a grant to the USO to support transitioning military personnel, military spouses, and veterans.
Now that you’ve learned about the various ways you can access the Google IT Support Professional Certificate, you might be wondering, “What does success look like after completing the program?” Take a look at how other learners who earned the Google IT Support Professional Certificate found careers doing what they love.
Daniel: Night security guard transitions into daytime job as IT Specialist
After completing the Google IT Support Professional Certificate, Daniel went from working night shifts as a security officer at a community college to landing his first job as an IT Specialist. Watch the video to hear the story directly from Daniel:
Konstantin: Recent graduate gains first job as a system administrator
”The Google IT Support Professional Certificate helped me get a system administrator position because the interviewer was specifically looking for someone who understood networks and active directory.”
Konstantin got a job as a system administrator for a supermarket chain in Russia. He now manages the IT infrastructure for two of its stores. Read the full story>>
Piper: A competitive swimmer finds a new lane
“The certificate wasn’t just the foundation for me learning IT — it was the foundation to starting a whole career.”
As a lifelong athlete, Piper never considered a career outside of sports. That changed when six years of school left her with two degrees but no meaningful job opportunities. Without a clear path, Piper decided to take time to explore other options. She took a job in the shipping department of a chocolate factory in Bellingham, Washington, which gave her some exposure to IT. She often had to figure out the company’s shipping software on her own, and the more she experimented, the more she realized that loved working with computers. Piper started searching for online courses to boost her credentials and found Google’s Professional IT Certificate program. The courses expanded her computer knowledge, helped her understand high-level concepts, and gave her experience through hands-on labs. Just two months after finishing, Piper’s new credentials along with her team spirit led to her first job as a lead engineer at an IT staffing company.
Xavier: History major looks to the future with IT Support job at Google
“I don’t know what my career trajectory would have been without the certificate program. It opened up a cornucopia of possible options in a field that I love.”
Despite studying a wide range of subjects in college, Xavier wasn’t sure what career path to pursue after he graduated. He decided to return to one of his first passions as a kid: technology. He had always been good with computers, but had never really considered technology as a career possibility. After starting Linux and Python courses at a community college, he heard about Google’s IT Support Professional Certificate. Seeing a path to an interesting career, he applied for financial aid and enrolled in the program. “It was like a fire hose of knowledge,” Xavier says.
Within two weeks of earning his certificate, a Google recruiter reached out and encouraged him to apply to Google’s Information Technology Residency program. He used what he learned to ace his technical interviews and landed the residency. Xavier is now five months into his new job in IT support at Google’s Ann Arbor office.
The annual Open edX Conference is taking place next month in San Diego, and the conference agenda is now available.
Open edX is the open source software that powers some of the largest MOOC platforms, including edX and the Chinese platform XuetangX. National MOOC platforms such as France’s FUN and Israel’s Campus-Il use Open edX, as do many companies, government entities, and institutions. While the organization is unable to maintain records on how many users have accessed Open edX on all the instances that are operating around the world, current estimates run in the neighborhood of 40 million.
The annual conference offers a chance for the developers, instructional designers, university administrators, and professors who make up the Open edX community to learn from one another in a series of workshops, plenary sessions, and talks. Once again, Class Central will be attending the conference as a media partner.
Keynote speakers at this year’s conference include edX CEO Anant Agarwal, Director of Learning Science at Amazon Candace Thille, and Dean Baker of the Center for Economic and Policy Research. As in previous years, the conference includes both practical workshops for developers, as well as talks of interest to all kinds of stakeholders. This year, the talks are grouped into five distinct tracks: Community and Collaboration, Extending, Learning Ops, Pedagogy, and Platform. The conference organizers created a robust and balanced agenda, in which all of these topics are addressed in multiple sessions.
In addition to providing a forum for partners and users to exchange knowledge, Open edX uses the conference as an opportunity to share what’s new and offer insight on the direction of the organization. One item that is sure to be on Open edX’s list this year is the launch of its new marketplace.
Screenshot of Open edX’s new marketplace
At Class Central, we think of Open edX as the WordPress of course management systems, both because it is free to download and use, and because it is the software of choice for organizations interested in offering a MOOC experience. However, setting up an Open edX instance is not quite as easy as starting a WordPress blog. Several companies now specialize in helping organizations to get Open edX instances up and running. Open edX created its new marketplace to facilitate connections between these companies and would-be Open edX users.
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University of Naples Federico II – Italy | May 20 – 22, 2019. Call for papers now open
Google recently declared that it’s launching an intense learning program to particularly initiate online course provider Udacity (MOOC).
Intense learning is a progressively more admired category of AI (artificial intelligence). Speaking, in general, it entails guiding artificial neural systems on heaps of data — for instance images — and acquiring them to create inferences regarding fresh data founded on what they understand.
One of Google’s chief scientists and technological head of the Google’s Brain team, Vincent Vanhoucke, is instructing the program, which is an element of Udacity’s Nanodegree course for machine learning engineer. The team presses forward the organization’s core intense learning expertise, which can be utilized within numerous Google products.
Undeniably, Google utilizes intense learning in a lot of of its applications, counting, Inbox by Gmail, Google Voice Search, Google Translate and Google Photos.
In November, Google launched TensorFlow, a significant part of intense learning software offered by Google Brain team. Also, not surprisingly, the Udacity program will include TensorFlow, in addition to complex neural networks, continual neural networks, and long term and temporary memory networks, Vanhoucke cited in one of blog posts on the bulletin.
Vanhoucke mentioned that the overall objective of creating this program was to offer the machine learning aficionado a direct and quick path to resolving factual and fascinating problems with intense learning system, and they were extremely thrilled to share what they had created.
Just similar to TensorFlow software, the program is free of cost.
Udacity’s adversary Coursera provides a machine learning program from deep learning celebrity Andrew Ng (former member of Google Brain team).
Separately, Google stated in a blog post that roughly a million people have already registered for Google’s Developer Training programs offered through Udacity.
To assist students looking forward to making the most of their learning time and achieving brilliant grades at school in the coming session, we composed a list of 10 tips that can help your study better.
Make Study Goals: The most essential foundation to studying effectively starts with setting study goals. You won’t know where you are headed if don’t have any destination to reach. Set your goals. Set realistic goals. That are doable and yet challenging. Assess if you need to buck up to achieve them. If you are content with the goals, proceed to the next tip.
Prepare Study Plan: Heard of, ‘failing to prepare is preparing to fail’. Unless you thrive on cramming the day before the exam, create an organised study plan to utilize your time effectively. You have goals to look forward to, so design a study schedule such that all subjects receive equal attention. Calculate the time you have in hand after school (or tuitions, if any) and divide it neatly into a plan accommodating study and practice time.
Adopt Novel Technologies: The handwritten study technique holds immense importance for every student but one must explore other options of learning such as online tools and study apps. These novel technologies are user-centric and infuse fluidity in monotonous study regime. It would be better though, if you abstain from hogging social sites.
Take breaks: Bear in mind, to maintain an adequate concentration level, you must take small breaks in between your study hours. Take a walk, hit the gym, call a friend or gulp some refreshing fluids. Taking breaks increases concentration and improves productivity. Remember to get back to studying once your break is over.
Learn lessons like stories: Stories have the power of entertaining and teaching even the smallest details effortlessly. Apply this to studies by knitting main facts into a story. Make it ridiculous or compose acronyms to remember boring formulae.
Positive attitude: Your learning process is as good as your attitude towards studies. If you’ve accepted that you can’t pull it off, committing to studies or attempting to learn is like fooling yourself. Instead, focus on your strengths and keep a positive attitude towards your goals. When students think positively, their brains display enhanced activity, thereby reducing their nervousness and exposing them to fresh ideas.
Team study: If you keep company with mates who can motivate you to study well, then team study is a great idea. Not only will they encourage you, but help solve doubts or problems in case you get stuck. Also, our minds works better when faced with a competition and your team mates can be your best competitors. We are talking about a healthy competition here, not otherwise.
Testing times: Even had a nightmare of forgetting all your hard learned concepts the moment you see the question paper. Nothing but timely revisions can take away the fear of going blank at the sight of examination hall. Beat the stress of remembering formulae, dates, names, and facts by testing yourself through quizzes. The more you revise and take regular tests, the better are your chances of faring well.
Strike a Healthy Balance: Struggling to get enough sleep or losing out on nutrition! To study better, one has to strike a perfect balance between physical and mental strength. Next time your mom reminds you of eating on time, take her seriously. Eating right and apt will boost your mental vigour besides preparing you to endure exam stress and follow your study plan more effectively.
Study location: Your study location must be quiet and away from distractions. You can try sitting at different places and see which one works for you.
It is scientifically acclaimed that brain-training puzzles and games can increase mind’s capacity besides preventing diseases like Alzheimer’s. There is a variety of games that can keep you engaged for hours or just minutes while your brain storms and grinds.
Get smart with the Top puzzle games to increase mind capacity & boost your brain power:
Dakim: Describing itself as a ‘mind fitness program’, the game presents players a collection of puzzles and problems created to give their brain a complete workout.
The players can access over 100 different brain training activities, created to enhance concentration and deliberation. Such mental tasks have demonstrated to have a role in preventing symptoms related to Alzheimer’s. Visit their website to play Dakim for free.
Lumosity: The game presents an ever-developing array of logical and cognitive games created to enhance your effective memory and kindle your brain day after day. The games are created to strengthen your focus towards the presented task and ignore unimportant things.
Enjoyed by over 60 million people, the game is quite popular worldwide. Download the game from Play store or iOS Store for free.
Cognifit Brain Fitness: The gaming app provides players admittance to an extensive selection of amusing, well-created games that are specially crafted by neuroscientists. You can enjoy features like tracking progress and can even do a cognitive evaluation of your performance.
Add and challenge friends to play games so that the exercise becomes a whole lot fun and competitive. Prove that you are the brainiest of them all by downloading the app from the iOS app store for free.
Clevermind: The reason why Clevermind is different from the rest of the brain-exercising games is that is it specially created for people suffering from Alzheimer’s. Going beyond just an assortment of puzzles, Clevermind acts as caregiver and manages Alzheimer’s by providing more than just mental training.
The game features medical, social, and nutritional tools offered in an accessible interface along with a digital assistant who guides the players. The game can be downloaded from the iOS App Store for $1.99.
Fit Brains Trainer: Providing access to over 360 puzzles and games, Fit Brains Trainer promises to improve your attention, memory, and brain pace. The app is neatly designed to upgrade to the next difficulty once the player gets better in the game.
This ensures that players are constantly exposed to a new challenge ahead of them thereby engaging their brain in an exciting and daring workout. The app is available on iOS App Store and Google Play Store for free.
Brain Metrix: Yet another ‘train your brain’ web service, the app presents a big array of games for enhancing IQ, attention, color, spatial aptitude, remembrance, and imagination ability to bring your brain in shape.
Interested in games that builds up brain’s strength and can avert dementia and Alzheimer’s! Go ahead, Brain Metrix fits the bill.
Eidetic: The tagline of the app, ‘Learn and remember anything’ says it all. Scientific research on brain activity has explicitly proved that ‘repetition’ holds the key to registering an information or data in memory for long-term.
Utilizing the spaced repetition technique, the app helps learn and memorize all kinds of words and facts. This broad yet specific gaming app can be downloaded from iOS App Store for free.
Brain Training: This app presents games that are quick to exercise your brain for memory, decision making, math skills, logical thinking. Games also has left-brain Vs right-brain exercises.
We covered most popular apps to puzzle games to increase mind capacity & boost your brain power. In case, if you find a better app, please let us. we will include them in the list.
Group Discussion (GD) is an important part of the selection process for admission to top business schools. Opinions and thoughts are exchanged and debated upon in a GD. The candidates are divided into groups and each group is assigned a subject for discussion. The idea behind GD is to assess leadership, communication, listening, interactive, analytical, and decision making skills of the candidate. Here are some top things that can make you perfect for the Group Discussion (GD):
Prepare well: More often than not, GDs are based on subjects like gender inequality, reservations in educational institutions, terrorism, poverty, privatization and liberalisation. Preparing these subjects before you appear for GD will give you an edge over others.
Dress formally: Opt for formal and comfortable dressing for GD. No casual or fancy wear. Your dressing infuses positivity in your speaking that comes across quite evidently during the discussion.
Initiate the discussion: Initiating the discussion is the perfect way to gain attention provided you have understood the subject properly and possess sufficient knowledge about it. Once you get the subject, note down points around which you would want to structure the debate. Setting off without understanding the subject is a big NO.
Maintain eye contact: It is important to maintain an eye contact with your group members. This helps to form a connection between you and the members and also lets you put your points across more convincingly. Avoid gazing at the assessors while expressing your views.
Be confident: Positive and confident demeanour is a must for GD. Your body language conveys a lot so maintain a positive stance and prove your interest in the subject. Avoid any attempt to dominate group members.
Let other speak: Do not interject while others are speaking. Even though you disagree with their view, you must never interrupt. Instead, jot down points and clarify your opinion when your turn comes.
Be simple and clear: Speak clearly and use simple and comprehensible words while talking. Express your opinion politely and calmly without turning aggressive in case you disagree with somebody.
Steer the discussion on the right track: If the discussion has lost track or the group has digressed from the subject then steer the discussion on the right track. Ensure that members understand that you all must arrive at a conclusion to close the discussion so simply hold on to the subject.
Talk logically: You must not fret about increasing your speaking duration. Even if you say less, just be relevant and sensible. Dragging your point and talking irrelevantly will not help.
All ears to others: GD tests your listening skills too so make sure you listen more and speak less. Paying attention when other members are speaking will keep you involved in the discussion.
Avoid going into minutiae: It is sufficient to do a basic analysis of the subject but there is no need to quote exact data while making any reference. As GDs are time bound, keeping it simple and short will be just perfect. Your precise thoughts on the subject are more important rather than the minute details.
Last man standing: Bringing the discussion to a conclusion and ending it is an added advantage. Try summarizing the discussion and articulate a conclusion that you and members arrived at.
Succeeding in a GD is as important as clearing the competitive exam. With adequate control you can manoeuvre the discussion and reach to a conclusion. It’s just like driving a car! Hand on steering, push the accelerator and hit the brakes when needed. Be the conscientious driver and drive the discussion in your stride.
Check this https://freevideolectures.com/blog/2015/04/guide-to-improve-communication-skills/ to learn how to improve your communication skills.
Envious of mates who utter fancy words while chatting or colleagues who articulate crisp and fresh sentences at the presentation meeting! Vocabulary becomes particularly important if you are appearing for exams like CAT or TOEFL, or you need to impress your bosses. Now improve your vocabulary with a mobile phone as we present you a list of vocabulary improving apps for Android phones.
PowerVocab: Vocab Word Game
Choose an appropriate meaning for a word by taking ‘Word Challenges’. Every right answer will unlock additional words while the app gives you the right meaning for an erroneous reply. Click ‘Review’ to see the correct meaning, definition, pronunciation, and sentences showing its proper usage.
Vocab Builder
Raise the game by putting your vocabulary to test through this app. Play ‘Match the Word’ section to find the correct answer for a given word. Mind you, only one option fits so choose carefully. Besides its ‘Match the Definition’ section, you can view the endless list of words and their meanings. This app is useful when you want to review your performance for SAT or GRE. The app can be downloaded from Google Play store for free.
Words, words, words
The ‘Learn’ feature shows words with definitions. The ‘Quiz’ feature lets you match a word to its right meaning. The feature lets you track your progress and time taken to solve the quiz. By default, the app is set to Beginner level but you can change the level of difficulty. The ‘Game’ feature offers scrambled words and their definition. Check its pronunciation by tapping on the megaphone icon.
Test your English Vocabulary
This app is essentially a useful tool for reviewing words that are appear in tests like TOEFL, GMAT, GRE, and TOEIC etc. Click on ‘Meaning By Word’ or ‘Word By Meaning’ to review the set of words. You can play games like Code Word, Anagram, Stop Word, Puzzle, and Millionaire. The app comes packed with Listening Tests.
SAT Vocabulary
Enough of challenges and vocabulary tests! Relax; we have SAT Vocabulary for you. The app shows words in white against a black backdrop. Tap ‘Next’ if you know the meaning of the word already. Otherwise flip or tap the word to check the correct meaning. It is a very basic and simple sort of app designed for SAT aspirants. The app is devoid of distracting ads to let you enjoy vocabulary building without interruptions.
Miss Spell’s Class
Matched words with meaning/definitions and unscrambled words! Do you actually know the correct spelling for the word? No! Then download Miss Spell’s Class app from Play Store and get going. Choose the correctly spelt words from the given set of 20 words. For every incorrect spelling your score receives a ten second penalty. ‘Review’ the quiz to learn the correct spellings. You can invite your pals from Twitter or Facebook to play spelling challenges.
English Vocabulary
Want stress free vocabulary learning? Download English Vocabulary on your mobile phone and start learning. The app initially introduces 25 words. Click on any word to see its meaning, pronunciation guide and usage. The ‘Read More’ link at the bottom of the page will connect you tot engvocabindia.blogspot.com where you can learn more about the word. Though the app is quite useful for learning new words, it does not provide any means to review your vocabulary expansion.
uVocab- Vocabulary Trainer
If you want to improve and build your vocabulary for an upcoming exam then this app offers an extensive stock of words that you can learn, listen to its pronunciation, search definitions online, or view its synonyms and usage. Check your growth through the ‘History’ feature.
Go through https://freevideolectures.com/blog/2015/05/best-vocabulary-building-apps-games/ to gather similar information.
