Group items tagged

Lower-tier colleges and universities in both India and China suffer from passive learning styles. Design and project work is typically absent, the curricula do not focus on problem solving or building project management and communication skills, and there are no internships or other work experience. ”Engineering education is much more theoretically oriented, and students don’t really get this fully blended education that allows them to think outside the box,” says Denis Simon, a professor at the Pennsylvania State University School of International Affairs, who focuses on technology and education in China. ”They haven’t had the interaction with real live engineering that grads here have, so they’re very green when they come into the workplace.”

The main problem, though, is the sheer mass of students enrolled in engineering classes. ”When you have 100 students per teacher, you really can’t get hands-on and be interactive,” he says.

One of the most interesting findings that we got in the survey, is that although the Internet is by far the most important medium in the lives of consumers, companies continue to under-invest in their online marketing efforts.

In Asia, such a march of tests for young children was regarded as normal, and not evil or particularly anxiety provoking.

Professor Cizek, who started his career as a second-grade teacher, said the prevailing philosophy of offering young children unconditional praise and support was probably not the best prescription for successful education. “What’s best for kids is frequent testing, where even if they do badly, they can get help and improve and have the satisfaction of doing better,” he said. “Kids don’t get self-esteem by people just telling them they are wonderful.”

I would like to begin a discussion today about the future of our global economy and society. Specifically, I'd like to talk about women, and the role women will play in transforming our global economy and society over the next decade. I also want to share some thoughts on the role women will play in helping transform The Coca-Cola Company over the next decade and beyond.

I think there's another way of looking at this as well -- one that goes beyond national comparisons. In fact, I would say that the real drivers of the "Post-American World" won't be China... or India... or Brazil -- or any nation for that matter. The real drivers will be women. Women entrepreneurs. Women business, political, academic and cultural leaders. Women innovators.

The truth is women already are the most dynamic and fastest-growing economic force in the world today. Women now control over $20 trillion dollars in spending worldwide. To put that into context -- that's an economic impact larger than the U.S., China and India economies combined. But there's so much more to the story.

A battle over alleged unfair business practices between Tencent, operator of the popular instant-messaging software QQ, and Qihoo 360, China’s biggest antivirus service provider, escalated this week when Tencent  stopped service to QQ  users whose computers are installed with  Qihoo 360’s software.

The conflict appears to have started two months ago when Qihoo 360, which has 300 million users, alleged that QQ was scanning the private data of its more than 600 million users and released software claiming to block plug-ins that could cause such privacy leaks.

In a statement sent to users Wednesday, Tencent said “Dear QQ users, this email is to inform you that we’ve just made a very difficult decision. Until Qihoo 360 removes the tag-on service and malicious slander against QQ software, we have decided to stop running QQ software on computers that have installed the 360 software. We are fully aware of the inconvenience this may cause you, and we sincerely apologize for it.”