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This paper analyses the role of "disruptive" innovative technologies in higher education. In this country and elsewhere, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) have invested significant sums in learning technologies, with Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) being more or less universal, but these technologies have not been universally adopted and used by students and staff. Instead, other technologies not owned or controlled by HEIs are widely used to support learning and teaching. According to Christensen's theory of Disruptive Innovation, these disruptive technologies are not designed explicitly to support learning and teaching in higher education, but have educational potential. This study uses Activity Theory and Expansive Learning to analyse data regarding the impact of disruptive technologies. The data were obtained through a questionnaire survey about awareness and use of technologies, and through observation and interviews, exploring participants' actual practice. The survey answers tended to endorse Disruptive Innovation theory, with participants establishing meanings for technologies through their use of them, rather than in keeping with a designer's intentions. Observation revealed that learners use a narrow range of technologies to support learning, but with a tendency to use resources other than those supplied by their HEIs. Interviews showed that participants use simple and convenient technologies to support their learning and teaching. This study identifies a contradiction between learning technologies made available by HEIs, and technologies used in practice. There is no evidence to suggest that a wide range of technologies is being used to support learning and teaching. Instead, a small range of technologies is being used for a wide range of tasks. Students and lecturers are not dependent on their HEIs to support learning and teaching. Instead, they self-select technologies, with use weighted towards established brands. The use of technologies

t's spring break and summer is just around the corner, which means vacation season is upon us. From mobile apps to deal sites, people use technology more than ever to help find places to go. Technology also helps vacationers enjoy themselves after they reach their destinations. But just how much is technology changing the way we travel? Nearly one-third of social media users have used a mobile app to find good prices for flights and hotels, and 15% have downloaded an app specific to a certain trip, according to a survey by the market research company Lab42. And just because people are on break, they aren't necessarily taking a break from their devices. More than 80% of international vacationers use their smartphones while abroad. About 70% post photos to a social network while on vacation, and 46% use services like Facebook and Foursquare to check in to restaurants and other places they visit. For the full picture of how technology and social media are changing our travel experiences, check out the Lab42 infographic below. What role do tech and social media play in your trips? Let us know in the comments.

The Internet Age is here.  The effective use of this technology and all that it can provide is a key to success for businesses and individuals.  Knowing this, the Obama Administration seeks to ensure that all Americans have affordable access to broadband Internet services.  Accomplishing that goal, however, requires a set of facts about Internet use that can underpin and guide this policy objective. In Exploring the Digital Nation: Home Broadband Internet Adoption in the United States, the Commerce Department fulfills its promise to provide authoritative, nationally-comprehensive data on access to the Internet throughout the United States.  This new study follows the February 2010 NTIA research preview, Digital Nation: 21st Century America's Progress Toward Universal Broadband Internet Access. Both studies draw on the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey Internet Use Supplement, a survey of approximately 54,000 households conducted over one week in October 2009.  The Census data show increases in adoption of broadband services at home over time for virtually all demographic groups.  The data also reveal that demographic disparities among groups have tended to persist. Persons with high incomes, those who are younger, Asians and Whites, the more highly-educated, married couples, and the employed tend to have higher rates of broadband use at home.  Conversely, persons with low incomes, seniors, minorities, the less-educated, non-family households, and the nonemployed tend to lag behind other groups in home broadband use. The new study takes the analysis to another level.

Recently the Pew Research Center found that 95% of teens ages 12-17 were using the Internet. But their statistics found that a significantly smaller percentage of teens were using video functions like chatting, uploading video and streaming live video footage. The study did find that 80% of teens using the Internet used social networking sites, and video use by teens on sites like Facebook and Twitter was much more popular than teens who didn't have social networking accounts.

""802.11ac is an extension for pure mainstream Wi-Fi," said Sean Coffey, Realtek's director of standards and business development. "It's evolutionary. ... You're not going to see dramatically new use cases." 802.11ac is a development of the current 802.11n standard, producing improved performance on the same 5GHz frequency bands. Some routers using the 802.11ac have already been deployed, and the experts on the panel agreed that it will become commonplace by early 2013. By contrast, 802.11ad adds 60GHz connectivity to the previously used 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, potentially providing multi-gigabit connection speeds and dramatically broadening the number of applications for which wireless can be used."

Just as the company prepares for its close-up, Facebook is the subject of near-hysterical anxiety. "Is Facebook Making Us Lonely?" asks this month's Atlantic cover story, only to answer "you're damn right"-and then heap on the freestyle condemnation in the way that only a fact-free, full-tilt cover story can. Facebook, it turns out, makes us sick, narcissistic and mentally ill.

Venture capital (VC) has delivered poor returns for more than a decade. VC returns  haven't significantly outperformed the public market since the late 1990s, and, since  1997, less cash has been returned to investors than has been invested in VC.  Speculation among industry insiders is that the VC model is broken, despite occasional  high-profile successes like Groupon, Zynga, LinkedIn, and Facebook in recent years.  The Kauffman Foundation investment team analyzed our twenty-year history of venture  investing experience in nearly 100 VC funds with some of the most notable and  exclusive partnership "brands" and concluded that the Limited Partner (LP) investment  model is broken 1 . Limited Partners-foundations, endowments, and state pension  fund-invest too much capital in underperforming venture capital funds on frequently  mis-aligned terms. Our research suggests that investors like us succumb time and  again to narrative fallacies, a well-studied behavioral finance bias. We found in our own  portfolio that: * Only twenty of 100 venture funds generated returns that beat a public-market  equivalent by more than 3 percent annually, and half of those began investing  prior to 1995. * The majority of funds-sixty-two out of 100-failed to exceed returns  available from the public markets, after fees and carry were paid. * There is not consistent evidence of a J-curve in venture investing since 1997;  the typical Kauffman Foundation venture fund reported peak internal rates of  return (IRRs) and investment multiples early in a fund's life (while still in the  typical sixty-month investment period), followed by serial fundraising in month  twenty-seven. * Only four of thirty venture capital funds with committed capital of more than  $400 million delivered returns better than those available from a publicly  traded small cap common stock index. * Of eighty-eight venture funds in our sample, sixty-six failed to deliver expect

Slashdot editor Jeff Boehm visted Maker Works in Ann Arbor, MI, where they not only have an Epilog Helix Laser Cutter/Engraver, but let him use it. Which, of course, he happily did, just as you or I would have done if somebody said, "Here. Borrow my laser cutter and engraving machine." The sound in the video is a little rough, since it was recorded live in a room full of loud machines -- like laser cutters. But it's still fascinating to watch (and hear) the process. The only downside is the "Ooh! I want one of those!" effect. There are used units available out there, but they cost as much as a pretty good used car. Maybe that's why there are so many Maker Spaces, also called Hacker Spaces, out there. Here's a global Hacker Space list. Hopefully, you'll find one near you, so you can do a little laser cutting (and lots of other neat stuff) yourself. Note: Slashdot accepts reader video submissions. Email robin at roblimo dot com for details.

he dramatic advancements in technology over the last 5 years have created an environment that could support learning that surpasses anything we would have seen, experienced or imagined before. While new technologies offer considerable opportunities for improved learning, their use however has remained as a plug-on to traditional teaching methods. In this article, we discuss the impact of reinvigorating two courses where the use of Mobile Web 2.0 (MW2.0) tools was embedded within the learning process with an aim of enabling learner-generated content and context. Students and staff in this collaborative project, from two different courses, were equipped with iPhone 4s and iPad 2s for the duration of the course (n= 36, 16-week semester). A participatory action research method was used to evaluate the project and to scaffold the staff into learning and teaching in the twenty-first century. The pedagogical approach underpinning this project and the design for use of MW2.0 tools are discussed. Examples of artefacts created by the students in the project are outlined and provide an overview of the different contexts students interacted in.

According to "Meaningful Use of Electronic Health Record Systems and Process Quality of Care: Evidence from a Panel Data Analysis of U.S. Acute-Care Hospitals," recently published in Health Services Research, meaningful use of EHRs does improve hospital quality. Hospitals with primitive or limited IT that upgraded to an EHR system satisfying stage 1 meaningful use objectives saw a significant improvement in healthcare delivery, according to the study.

A flood of data is created every day by the interactions of billions of people using computers, GPS devices, cell phones, and medical devices. Many of these interactions occur through the use of mobile devices being used by people in the developing world, people whose needs and habits have been poorly understood until now. Researchers and policymakers are beginning to realise the potential for channelling these torrents of data into actionable information that can be used to identify needs, provide services, and predict and prevent crises for the benefit of low-income populations. Concerted action is needed by governments, development organisations, and companies to ensure that this data helps the individuals and communities who create it.  

"If you are one of the 53.2 million people currently with an iPad, there's a good chance you've already developed habits related to how you best like to use your device. The team at Infographic Labs has put together an infographic that details how users have embraced the iPad over the years, from using it while watching TV to cozying up to it in bed or even using it in the bathroom."

Watch out! Internet connections worldwide may have been slower past weekend! Last weekend hundreds of hackers, programmers, designers and anti-corruption experts and activists in Bogotá, Budapest, Casablanca, Jakarta, Moscow and Vilnius gathered last weekend to develop new ICT tools that can help citizens monitor government and report corruption. Websites like ipaidabribe.com in India and use of twitter in events like the Arab Spring have shown that technology can be a powerful vehicle for people power. Hacks Against Corruption (HAC) is Transparency International's first attempt to bring together technology and anti-corruption specialists to use technology to come up with some of the challenges we face in fighting corruption: visualising the cost of corruption, monitoring complex, massive public budgets and allowing citizens to safely report corruption in their life.

"We live in an age of sharing. As consumers and online, we regularly share personal information, and generate new data through our browsing or purchasing history. Businesses and government are increasingly aware of the value of this information, which can result in better and cheaper services for customers, new sources of income for businesses and improved public services. But the question of who owns this information, and how it is collected, stored and used, is becoming a major consumer rights issue. It is crucial, therefore, that people are at the heart of any new settlement. The Data Dialogue sets out the results of the largest ever poll of public attitudes on personal information and data- sharing. Based on a representative sample of 5,000 adults, the report finds a growing crisis in consumer confidence over how government and business handle personal data, and discomfort about the way in which personal information and data are currently being used. The report argues that this loss of confidence could have a knock-on effect on the economy and on the quality of services available to consumers. However, it also finds that views about sharing change when people are given more control and choice about what data is shared, and when the benefit of sharing that data is made clear to them. It therefore suggests that consumers should be engaged in an honest dialogue about how data are collected and used, and be given meaningful choice and control over the information they share. That will be good for business and consumers alike."

Social media-from Facebook to Twitter-have made us more densely networked than ever. Yet for all this connectivity, new research suggests that we have never been lonelier (or more narcissistic)-and that this loneliness is making us mentally and physically ill. A report on what the epidemic of loneliness is doing to our souls and our society.

Today Amazon Web Services launched AWS Marketplace, an online store that makes it easy for you to find, buy, and immediately start using software and services that run on the AWS Cloud. You can use AWS Marketplace's 1-Click deployment to quickly launch pre-configured software on your own Amazon EC2 instances and pay only for what you use, by the hour or month. AWS handles billing and payments, and software charges appear on your AWS bill.

The use of e-health technologies, including mobile health, is spreading rapidly in low- and medium-income countries around the world, according to a new report from the World Health Organization (WHO). In part, this is because the use of mobile phones and computers is growing in these developing nations, the report said. But less than a quarter of the surveyed health programs used e-health technologies, and their reliance on private donors -- which provided nearly half of their financing -- is one factor limiting their expansion, the WHO report said.

The Government first set out its policy on the use of open source in 2004. This was restated in both 2009 and 2010. The Government ICT Strategy states that "Where appropriate, Government will procure open source solutions."  To support this, Action 3 of the Strategy says that "To create a level playing field for the use of innovative ICT solutions, the Government will publish a toolkit for procurers on best practice for evaluating the use of open source solutions." The following set of documents make up that toolkit: All About Open Source - including FAQs  ICT Advice Note - Procurement of Open Source  Procurement Policy Note on Open Source  OSS Options  CESG Guidance on Open Source - for Government users only Publically accessible summary of the security guidance Total Cost of Ownership  Total cost of ownership of open source software: a report for the UK Cabinet Office supported by OpenForum Europe PPN Open Source The purpose of this toolkit is to ensure that there is a level playing field for open source and proprietary software and that some of the myths associated with open source are dispelled. 

In 2011, the US government rolled out its "International Strategy for Cyberspace," which reminded us that "interconnected networks link nations more closely, so an attack on one nation's networks may have impact far beyond its borders." An in-depth report today from the New York Times confirms the truth of that statement as it finally lays bare the history and development of the Stuxnet virus-and how it accidentally escaped from the Iranian nuclear facility that was its target.

"The decline of DSL in the US has life tough for the phone companies - who in total lost 70,000 subscribers during the second quarter of 2012. Winner: cable companies in general and Comcast in specific as 260,000 new folks signed up for broadband in the US."