This is the first in a series of articles focusing on video conferencing and education. Part 1: The Teaching Predicament primarily focuses on the dilemma that educational institutes around the world have been facing in terms of teaching.

Over the recent years, visual communication as an effective tool to enhance delivery of education has gained a lot of traction. Educational institutes are constantly faced with the challenge of maintaining consistency and quality of teaching over geographically dispersed branches. For instance, will a student enrolled in an undergraduate business studies program at a top tier American university experience the same teaching quality in the Middle East or Europe? The answer to this question will most likely be ‘not quite’. Although there are a number of variables at play here but the most fundamental challenge is access to the same quality of instructors across geographical regions. Geographical regions can typify different branches in the same city, across cities, countries and continents. Maintaining teaching standards across continents is even a bigger challenge given the social, cultural and ethnic divides.

A traditional approach to somewhat alleviate the problem is to fly in faculty periodically to conduct workshops. However, this can prove to be very costly and cumbersome. Technology has an answer for this common and age-old problem. Although video conferencing solutions have been around since the 1980s, they’ve never been so affordable and accessible as they are today. Visual communication technology has advanced leaps and bounds making it highly immersive and interactive. More importantly, … Read more

Many “invention-minded” individuals and organizations are embarking on a challenge of initiating the development of new technologies that will benefit society and the greater good. New technology projects may sound and look great, but the question is, how are they going to pay for the expenses?

To get these ideas started and transformed into a concrete reality, funding programs and resources are made available to help projects with funding needs even during tough economic times.

Building a relationship

Writing technology grants to get funded is like building a relationship. As a grant seeker, you need to initiate and establish rapport with philanthropic foundations and organizations. You need to communicate with people who can sympathize to your mission and purpose and understand your current need. Ultimately, you need to articulate well your case in a written proposal.

This relationship does not end right after you successfully obtained a funding assistance. As a recipient, you need to maintain open communication, make a follow-up report throughout the funding period, and carry out an evaluation strategy to show how your project has succeeded as planned. Aside from a strong background history, having a long-term communication will definitely earn the trust of funding sources.

Let them realize how your discovery and/or invention helped and will help people become smarter, work better, and more efficient. Let them realize how the financial assistance played and will play a significant contribution.

Developing a plan

As part of your strategic planning, you, as a fund seeker, need to develop … Read more

In the past few decades there has been a revolution in computing and communications, and all indications are that technological progress and use of information technology will continue at a rapid pace. Accompanying and supporting the dramatic increases in the power and use of new information technologies has been the declining cost of communications as a result of both technological improvements and increased competition. According to Moore’s law the processing power of microchips is doubling every 18 months. These advances present many significant opportunities but also pose major challenges. Today, innovations in information technology are having wide-ranging effects across numerous domains of society, and policy makers are acting on issues involving economic productivity, intellectual property rights, privacy protection, and affordability of and access to information. Choices made now will have long lasting consequences, and attention must be paid to their social and economic impacts.

One of the most significant outcomes of the progress of information technology is probably electronic commerce over the Internet, a new way of conducting business. Though only a few years old, it may radically alter economic activities and the social environment. Already, it affects such large sectors as communications, finance and retail trade and might expand to areas such as education and health services. It implies the seamless application of information and communication technology along the entire value chain of a business that is conducted electronically.

The impacts of information technology and electronic commerce on business models, commerce, market structure, workplace, labour market, education, private life … Read more