Online Learning,Personalized

Online Leaning has know a great success during the five past years. However, something needed to be done in order to make it more popular. That is what Salman Khan, a young math teacher did.

This article discusses the idea brought up by this professor who created the Khan Academy site. It is basically a website that offers a lot of instructional videos and practices exercises in math. Teachers can follow the progress of their students through this website and students are able to practice and to watch the learning material online. The Youtube lessons attracted up to 3.5 million viewers.

I found the concept very interesting since personally I had a lot of issues with Maths when I was in school. I think that this kind of interactive exercises and online explanations would have been helpful at the time. What I found very interesting as well is the fact that even if it is still a small group, the Khan Academy site benefits actually from the support of famous donors such as Bill Gates, the Silicon Valley Community Foundation...

I believe also that this e-learning software will make a real difference in learning, especially when it comes to a course such as math. Indeed, this is a new generation. The ability of students to concentrate is becoming more and more weak. They get easily bored with lectures, especially if the professor does not interact a lot with them.

I really hope this kind of ideas will very soon reach the Moroccan education, because there is a lack of creativity and students are bored with lectures and professors who are just trying to make them learn things by heart.

However, one has to be clear. Computers will never replace teachers. Going to class is the first key element for success. E-learning must be used as an additional element in order to practice or to provide an explanation that the professor has not been able to transmit to the student in the right way.

To conclude, this software remains a great one because it helps the professor to know exactly the weaknesses and strengths of his or her students and to follow their overall progress. This is very important since it allows for both professors and students to be more effective.

The article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/05/technology/khan-academy-blends-its-youtube-approach-with-classrooms.html?pagewanted=1&ref=technology

Billboard Called Anti-Semitic Is Quickly Pulled

The purpose of advertising is to sell a product. However, sometimes in their desire to sell a certain product, advertisers go too far.

This is the case that is brought up by this article. Anti-Semitic meaning has been understood by a billboard and it was quickly pulled. Here, comes the role of gatekeepers that we previously discussed in class while dealing with the control of information in print media. This ad was first criticized on the internet. Hence, although the role of gatekeepers in the print media is generally the most obvious and it is commonly believed that on the internet there is no control of information, this article clearly shows that although the control of information is not done before the data is published, it can still be done after. Besides, I found the concept of shock advertising very interesting and the fact that it is used by brands that are small or do not spend much on marketing very meaningful.

I believe shock advertising might be a good strategy even for successful brands. However, advertisers should carefully use it in order to attract effectively the audience rather than "shocking simply to shock".

The link for the article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/23/nyregion/billboard-ad-for-wodka-vodka-called-anti-semitic-is-pulled.html?_r=1&ref=advertisingandmarketing

http://lexpansion.lexpress.fr/high-tech/hadopi-3-les-approximations-de-sarkozy-sur-le-streaming-illegal_271249.html#xtor=AL-189

Illegal downloading of streaming videos is taking more and more importance in our societies. In France, there is still no legislation against the downloading of streaming videos. The Adopi law covers only peer to peer websites of downloading. A survey has been done showing that there was a decline of 38% of illegal downloading in France. I think that in France the sanctions against individuals who  illegaly download music, movies play an important role in discouraging people to download. However, in Morocco we are still too far from such a progress. Very few people know what is a premium account and most of them prefere to watch their favorite tv shows freely. People are even finding new techniques to avoid having to wait for the 72min before continuing to watch the their TV show. For instance, to shut down the WIFI modem and restart it again... 

http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2011/10/13/e-commerce-ebay-et-facebook-lancent-un-partenariat_1587509_651865.html

The collaboration between E-Bay and Facebook and the integration of its services through the Open Graph is a good idea in personalizing the E-Bay system of online commerce. However, I find that this article does not criticize this collaboration. Indeed, the article clearly mentions the fact that the Open Graph service allows to make the inventory of all the data shared thought Facebook by the users. Hence, E-Bay is using confidential information from users who share them on Facebook for commercial reasons. The question that must be raised is: how far is this collaboration legitime? Where does the privacy of Facebook users go? In class, we talked about different types of integration, this one is only a partnership but too often partnerships do not take into consideration the well being of citizens.

http://www.lemonde.fr/technologies/article/2011/10/31/google-met-a-jour-sa-google-tv_1596313_651865.html

Google launched Google TV with a new interface as well as the integration of Youtube and video websites. It will also offer the possibility for smartphones to benefit from the Google TV application. Google TV application can be accessible from Sony and Logitech television. It is aiming at allowing people to access directly to the internet from their TV in order for example to download movies. Google TV is facing hard times especially because of a problem of content. Indeed, it could not sign contracts with important media corporations such as CBS or News Corp. The other challenge has to do with the competition coming from Apple and Microsoft and the fact that most of the consumers find difficulties to get used to Google TV application.