Via Instapundit and The Atlantic:
A three-year study examining student performance in a “flipped classroom” — a class in which students watch short lecture videos at home and work on activities during class time — has found statistically significant gains in student performance in “flipped” settings and significant student preference for “flipped” methods.
The Post-Lecture Classroom: How Will Students Fare? - Robinson Meyer - The Atlantic
Via Business Insider:
45% of employers plan to increase training for grammar and other language skills (meaning they're unhappy with the levels now).
11 Common Grammatical Mistakes And How To Avoid Them - Business Insider
Via Business Insider:
The point of all of this analysis is to understand how to interact with people from different cultures, a subject in which Richard Lewis Communications provides coaching and consultation.
"By focusing on the cultural roots of national behavior, both in society and business, we can foresee and calculate with a surprising degree of accuracy how others will react to our plans for them, and we can make certain assumptions as to how they will approach us," Lewis writes.
Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/the-lewis-model-2013-9#ixzz2eEaVKrnZ
Points:
Via NY Times:
The machines, called Texas Hold ‘Em Heads Up Poker, play the limit version of the popular game so well that they can be counted on to beat poker-playing customers of most any skill level. Gamblers might win a given hand out of sheer luck, but over an extended period, as the impact of luck evens out, they must overcome carefully trained neural nets that self-learned to play aggressively and unpredictably with the expertise of a skilled professional. Later this month, a new souped-up version of the game, endorsed by Phil Hellmuth, who has won more World Series of Poker tournaments than anyone, will have its debut at the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas. The machines will then be rolled out into casinos around the world.
Points:
Via Auto News:
Self-driving vehicles have the potential to make immobility among elderly people and those with disabilities a thing of the past, experts say.
Declining vision and other physical impairments will no longer inhibit people from going out to eat or visiting their favorite stores, the experts say.
In the meantime, companies such as Mercedes-Benz, General Motors, Ford and Toyota are laying the foundation for this future with adaptive cruise control, blind-spot monitoring, automatic braking and other semiautonomous functions that could benefit still-mobile seniors.
Via Quartz:
…not all 3D printing technologies are created equal. The revolution in manufacturing that was supposed to come with cheap, desktop 3D printers hasn’t materialized because, frankly, the models they produce are basically novelties, handy for giving you a feel for what something will look like in three dimensions, but not really usable for creating prototypes that can be directly translated into molds for mass production, and certainly not usable for creating finished goods.
With the expiration of patents on laser sintering 3D printing, however, all of that is about to change.
3D printing will explode in 2014, thanks to the expiration of key patents - Quartz
Via PMI:
A project manager creates objectives; the project leader influences people and events to ensure those are met A project manager formulates plans; the project leader provides the vision and enthusiasm to achieve them A project manager monitors results; the project leader recognizes and initiates change to keep the project on track A project manager assigns activities; the project leader provides direction and motivation A project manager solves technical problems; the project leader encourages innovation A project manager puts the team together; the project leader fosters collaboration A project manager asks for feedback and information; the project leader explains how to make the information useful A project manager identifies stakeholders; the project leader analyzes and balances their expectations