As a countdown to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos, we’re profiling all 30 of our fellow 2011 Tech Pioneer award winners. Check our full profile series to learn more.
GetJar
What they do:
GetJar is an apps store with an open market approach: it delivers applications to telephones across all major platforms. Second only to Apple’s apps store in size, GetJar offers more than 70,000 mobile apps to consumers around the world. GetJar will figure out what kind of phone and platform you have, and allow you to download an application in just one click.
Why it’s cool:
Everyone wants an easy place to buy apps–no matter what kind of phone they have. GetJar eliminates platform-ism by selling “appsolutely everything” (and, oh, how their punny tagline makes us swoon!) The site allows consumers the opportunity to compare their choices and find the app that’s best for them.
As a countdown to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos, we’re profiling all 30 of our fellow 2011 Tech Pioneer award winners. Check our full profile series to learn more.
Layar
What they do:
Point your mobile phone and prepare to be amazed. Layar’s mobile “augmented reality” application uses your phone’s camera, compass, and GPS data to identify your location and field of view. Then, it augments your reality with “layers.” Point your phone at a restaurant to get reviews and menu tips or at a historical building to see its past incarnations; play games based on your surroundings; or peek inside a museum or concert hall to see the art that’s hanging on the wall or get info on the band that’s jamming inside.
Why it’s cool:
As much fun as hallucinogenics may be, they have a tendency to get in the way of a healthy and productive lifestyle. Layar allows you to “augment” your reality in a much less risky–and dare we say, even educational–way. The medium of augmented reality is still in its early stages, but many experts view the technology, which helps users better understand the context of their surroundings, as the next big thing in entertainment and advertising.
If you’re in NYC on Thursday, Jan. 13, stop by the Knewton office for a Meetup hosted by Twilio!
Come on over for snacks, drinks, and a walkthrough of how some of our developers used Twilio’s API to set up a text message-controlled door lock (you know, usual stuff).
Here’s the full program (and check out Twilio’s blog for more Meetup fun):
1. Sri (our Sys Admin) will demo the SMS door lock.
2. Jonathan Gottfried will present on a Twilio-powered game of Humans vs. Zombies he organized (sweet).
3. Pete (our CTO) will show everyone how he used Twilio to make a text message-based GMAT quiz.
Good times!
P.S. We shot a video showing how the team set up the SMS door lock, which we’ll put up early next week. Here’s a preview of how deep Devon had to go into our office wiring. Spoiler alert: he went pretty deep.
As a countdown to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos, we’re profiling all 30 of our fellow 2011 Tech Pioneer award winners. Check our full profile series to learn more.
Aster Data
What they do:
Companies gather a lot of information, about lots of different kinds of things. So much information, in fact, that it can overwhelm traditional databases and render them unable to perform the kind of analysis companies need to improve their products and operations. Enter Aster Data. Aster Data’s new programming framework helps companies store and analyze petrabytes upon petrabytes of data. What’ a petrabyte, you ask? One quadrillion bytes. Or 1000 terabytes. Or 1 million gigabytes. In other words? A helluva lot of data.
Why it’s cool:
There’s a reason they call this the Information Age. But information isn’t helpful on its own–it needs a home (storage) and a purpose (analysis). Aster Data’s customers include MySpace, LinkedIn, and Mint.com–so if you’re that guy who started a online metal band, then needed a real job, then needed a way to keep track of all the actual money you were finally making… Aster Data was with you every step of the way.
This resume tip comes to us from Igor Khayet, founder of My Resume Shop.
As a professional resume writer, one of the most common questions I get asked is how to shorten a resume to one page without losing critical information. This question does not only come from experienced professionals (who have to fit a lot of work experience in a short amount of space), but also from students and young professionals.
Luckily, there are a number of ways to condense a resume without sacrificing quality. The first tip of this series explained how to decrease the number of sections on your resume, while the second tip provided advice on reducing the quantity of bullets.
Check out this week’s tip below, and be sure to stay tuned for the next two pointers!
Tip #3: Cut Excess Language
The resume is not an autobiography of everything you have ever done. Each bullet point should be a succinct representation of a concrete achievement at an organization. Within the bullet itself, focus on 3 main points: Context, Action, and Result (commonly abbreviated C.A.R.).
The Context explains the circumstances around your achievement; the Action describes the important steps you took in completing the task; and the Result answers the question of why the recruiter should care. Remember that the focus of the bullet should be on the action and result, not on the context. Recruiters care about tangible results because they provide insight into what you will be able to accomplish for their organization. Review each of your bullets and cut as much context as you can while still showing clear results.
Another strategy for cutting excess information is to remove unneeded language. The use of bullets on the resume gives you the opportunity to write in fragments and not complete sentences. Use this to your advantage and rearrange the bullet to cut words.
In the example below, notice how the “before” is three lines long and poorly organized. The “after” example is two lines, neatly organized, and succinct.
Example Before:
Established relationships with key television wholesalers, SAMSUNG and mobile phone firmware/flashing companies that enabled 20% growth and sales of over $1 million within a year.
Example After:
Established relationships with television wholesalers (Samsung) and mobile phone companies; led to $1M+ in additional sales (20% growth).
Igor Khayet is the President and Founder of My Resume Shop (www.myresumeshop.com). He is a former Admissions Interviewer for the Yale School of Management and a member of the Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches. Connect with him on Facebook (www.facebook.com/myresumeshop)and Twitter (twitter.com/myresumeshop).
This morning, we’re excited to announce a partnership that brings Knewton’s Adaptive Learning Platform™ to the college campus.
Starting in spring 2011, Arizona State University Online will use the Knewton platform to tackle a growing challenge for schools across the country: making sure students have the core skills they need to stay on track to graduation.
Our adaptive platform currently powers our test prep courses, and starting this year ASU Online will use it to customize learning in two of its core classes: College Algebra and College Math. With the platform’s concept-level reporting and adaptive practice tools, ASU can personalize its course content so it meets the needs of every learner.
This partnership also marks the debut of a new program we’re really excited about: Knewton Math Readiness for College. It’s an interactive video course that creates a unique learning path for everyone who uses it. For students who require additional help when arriving at ASU, Knewton Readiness will provide the exact instruction they need to move on to their core classes.
Today is the HigherEdTECH Summit at the 2011 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. Jose, our CEO, is lucky enough to be in Sin City, participating in a discussion entitled High Tech U, all about how digital tools and services are infiltrating—and improving—modern college life.
Jose is focusing on the potential for Knewton’s adaptive learning engine to revolutionize college-level courses; his talk comes on the heels of our landmark partnership with Arizona State University. Other members of the panel include representatives from technology hardware companies, educational institutions, and security software companies.
There are a variety of other presentations going on at the summit; we’re looking forward to hearing all about them from Jose when he returns! For now, here’s a short round-up of some of the topics to be discussed, and by whom:
Technology Subversives: Millennials at the College Gate
As we all know, education has lagged behind many other industries in its adoption of technology. Instead of settling for the low-tech life, though, today’s college students have taken matters into their own hands. This talk, moderated by Kenneth C. Green, Founding Director of the Campus Computing Project, and given by Dan Coates, President of Youth Pulse, along with local college students, will provide a glimpse into the way college students really use technology in today’s changing landscape.
High Tech Backpack
How have the contents of a college student’s backpack changed since the advent of the technological age? Our prediction: where there once were slide rules, compasses, and abaci, there are now laptops, iPads, and smartphones. The presenters—who include representatives from Kno, Inc., Google Apps for Education, Livescribe, Inc., and Acer Group—will go into quite a bit more detail than that.
Getting to Graduation: Is Technology the Ticket?
As the U.S. slips in postsecondary graduation rates, people are increasingly turning to technology as the pivotal factor in improving college completion numbers. Is technology the way to go—and if so, what will change look like? Josh Fishman, Senior Editor at The Chronicle of Higher Education moderates a panel discussion with representatives from ASU, Foothill-DeAnza Community College District, McGraw-Hill Education, and the Gates Foundation.
From Dewey to Digital
Just because we’ve moved on from cataloguing books doesn’t mean we’re not still learning. Online content, new learning platforms, and innovative assessment methods are disrupting the traditional stalwarts of education—books, in-person classrooms, the dreaded red-pen. Representatives from the Campus Computing Project, CourseSmart, Cengage Learning, and Marvell will discuss how these innovations are bringing learning to the next level.
Keynote: Technology in the Future Tense: Hype, Trends and Predictions
The keynote speech of HigherEdTECH summit is being delivered by Walt Mossberg, a prominent technology reporter at the Wall Street Journal. Mossberg currently writes the newspaper’s Personal Technology column, and is regarded as one of the most influential IT writers out there. In his speech, Mossberg plans to offer his expert insight into the future of digital technology.
Check back soon for a more detailed recap of the conference!
Innovation in education deals with two big questions: how people can learn what they need to learn better and faster, and how they can remember it for a longer time. In an educational world increasingly filled with smart boards, in-class clickers and shiny apps for the teacher, one highly democratic technology is starting to look a bit dusty.
YouTube turned 5 years old in 2010, and in Internet time, that’s… well, a long time. Like television before it, the educational potential of free online video remains largely unfulfilled, and not for lack of trying. At Knewton we’ve always thought that online video has tremendous power as an engaging educational tool; recently we used Youtube to create an interactive, choose-your-own-adventure quiz. Luckily, we’re not alone in seeing video’s potential for engagement — and instructional power.
A recent New York Times article about iPads enhancing classroom learning was yet another reminder that today’s video game-loving, YouTube-watching generation of students is much different from the students of yesteryear. It’s now clear that as students’ personas change to reflect technological changes in society, education has to account for how today’s learners think, feel, and understand.
With this in mind, we’re going to examine some of the online video formats, past and present, that people — not companies! — are using to teach one another. First up, is a series of videos where the content and teaching, not the teachers, are the focus.
First-Person Shooters
One format that has gotten more attention recently is the first-person video, where the “teacher” is not visible and the teaching takes center stage. This is the preferred format of math luminaries like Salman Khan, who is working with the Gates Foundation to bring video back to the forefront of education, Patrick JMT, whose math YouTube channel has over 14 million views, and Denise Robichaud, a Massachusetts math professor who is leading the way in online math video. In their worlds, math is king.
Salman Khan
Salman Khan, creator of the “free classroom for the world” Khan Academy, has already been applauded by Bill Gates for his clear and conversational instructional YouTube videos covering a wide array of subjects. In this CNN article addressing Gates’ enthusiastic support for the project as well as technological advances in education, it’s clear that Khan’s videos have gained widespread popularity even without advertising.
Across the world, both students looking for self-teaching resources and teachers seeking supplements to their in-class instruction have expressed thanks and provided suggestions on Khan’s videos and YouTube channel as to what else they’d like to see from Khan and his creation.
Patrick JMT
PatrickJMT, a seasoned math teacher and tutor, also uses YouTube to create instructional math videos to help students in areas ranging from algebra to calculus. Like Khan, PatrickJMT has garnered praise from students. With over 14 million views on his YouTube channel, he promises to deliver math lessons as efficiently as possible.
As one video commenter note, PatrickJMT’s especially engaging because he places the camera at an angle that allows students to feel like they’re actually doing the math problems with him:
Daniel Rezac
Rezac, a proponent of incorporating technology in schools to enhance learning and improve teaching, created the Mathademics YouTube channel where students can view tutorials on a wide array of mathematical concepts.
Denise Robichaud
Robichaud, a math professor at a community college, creates YouTube videos to further explain concepts she discusses in the classroom. Her YouTube channel lets all students (officially at the school or unofficially all over the world) get extra help at their convenience.
These are four examples of individuals who are using technology to enhance their instruction and reach a wider student audience. In our next post, we’ll look at teachers who are using YouTube to recreate the classroom environment in their instructional videos. Stay tuned!
As a countdown to the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting at Davos, we’re profiling all 30 of our fellow 2011 Tech Pioneer award winners. Check our full profile series to learn more.
ReputationDefender
What they do:
Admit it: sometimes you Google yourself. We all do. The problem is, other people are probably Googling you too. ReputationDefender allows consumers and businesses to shape their online persona by burying less-than-flattering mentions and promoting more positive material in search results. Consumers can also remove personal information like their credit score or mailing address from data aggregation sites; corporate brands and small businesses can ensure that one negative review doesn’t permanently slash their profits.
Why it’s cool:
It’s a jungle out there in cyberspace. Whether your ex has started a blog chronicling your every flaw or a well-networked customer has posted a negative review of your small business, ReputationDefender can help you regain power over your online identity. Their innovative technology prevents against unwarranted online attacks and gives consumers and businesses the ability to maintain their image and protect their privacy online.
Here’s another weekly MBA admissions tip from our friends at Clear Admit. For more advice about the b-school application process, check out their blog.
We often stress that, to present oneself effectively in application essays, it’s critical to think carefully about what a given question is asking and what this might indicate about a specific school’s admissions priorities. Of course, it’s also imperative to communicate clearly and appropriately regardless of the target program or particular inquiry.
As many applicants are feverishly putting the finishing touches on their essays for programs with deadlines this week and next, we wanted to offer a few general guidelines to keep in mind during that final revision. Time is tight, we know, but a few small changes can make a considerable difference, so today we’re going back to basics and offering a few broadly applicable tips on tone and style to keep in mind when polishing the written elements of your applications.
1. Be Professional. While a number of schools ask fun questions and most urge applicants to be themselves rather than submitting “overly polished” materials, it’s important to remember that this is a graduate school application and you should approach your essays with a degree of formality. You do want your unique narrative voice to come through, but even professional writers know to vary their tone based on their audience. As such, you should avoid using slang and conversational speech patterns in your writing.
2. Emphasize Action. A common pitfall for many applicants is lapsing into the passive voice, constructing sentences about how some unseen force or agent acted upon something or someone else (e.g. “we were required to” or “the project was completed”) rather than putting their own thoughts and actions at the fore. By making a conscious effort to write “I/he/she did x” rather than “x was done to y” you can make your comments more informative, dynamic and, often, more concise.
3. Avoid Repetition. It’s often a good idea to give the reader a sense of an essay’s direction through an introduction and to sum up the key ideas through a conclusion, but ideally each sentence of an essay will add some new information to the document or build the reader’s understanding of what you’ve already written. Keeping this rule in mind as you revise can help trim a response down to the word limit and ensure that you are including as much relevant information about your candidacy as you can within the allotted length.
For those of you still struggling with your essays as the deadlines approach, feel free to reach out to Clear Admit by sending your resume to info@clearadmit.com. Our team is ready to help with last minute application reviews. Best of luck to everyone!
