Props to Ben in Dublin for this one.. [indexed]
11:18:42 PM    

HECS for TAFE: the case for extending income contingent loans. In this paper, a case is argued for introducing an income contingent loan to the VET sector. The economic underpinning is similar to the Higher Education Scheme (HECS) which is identified as a useful guide. It is established that there is significant returns from a VET qualification. For example, diplomas and associated diplomas are associated with rates of return of around 8-10 per cent per annum for men, and about 10-14 per cent per annum for women. These statistics are comparable to those investments that are usually cited for undergraduate higher education degrees. [Recent Items]
11:13:51 PM    

Closer Toward High-yield Fusion Reactor: Revolutionary Circuit Fires Thousands Of Times Without Flaw. An electrical circuit that should carry enough power to produce the long-sought goal of controlled high-yield nuclear fusion and, equally important, do it every 10 seconds, has undergone extensive preliminary experiments and computer simulations at Sandia National Laboratories' Z machine facility. [ScienceDaily Headlines]
11:13:07 PM    

Skills for a nation: A blueprint for improving education and training 2007-2017. In this document the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ACCI) is promoting a series of policies that will help make the education system better, and help power the Australian economy through the first half of the 21st Century. It has sections on early childhood and primary school education, secondary schools, vocational education, and higher education. It also addresses cross-sectoral issues including: Maths and Science; employability skills; literacy and numeracy; careers advice; education as an export; education & training and the tax system; people with disabilities; Indigenous people; and mature aged workers. [Recent Items]
11:04:23 PM    

Skills for a nation: Chapter 4: Early childhood, pre-school and primary school education. Chapter 4 of 'Skills for a nation: a blueprint for improving education and training 2007-2017' states that early years of a child's learning makes a significant difference to the way they develop and go on to learn throughout their lives. Key ACCI proposals are: governments implement policies that avoid fragmentation, inconsistent quality and provide equitable access; governments work towards a national vision and quality standards in the areas of funding formulae, terminology, child ratios, curriculum, costs, delivery hours and models; and a better flow on between preschool and primary school curricula. [Recent Items]
11:04:00 PM    

Kurt Fischer of Harvard University is working to improve education through applying knowledge gained through biology.

Kurt Fischer and his colleagues looked at the revolution in brain scanning, genetics, and other biological technologies and decided that most teachers and students weren[base ']t getting much benefit from them.

Brain scans are now available to watch what[base ']s going on when someone is learning [~] or not learning. Finding genes that are involved in leaning disabilities is a hot area. Why, they asked, aren[base ']t the powers of such technologies helping teachers in classrooms?

"There[base ']s a long history of biology being excluded from education," says Fischer, Charles Warland Bigelow Professor of Education and Human Development. "Not in the teaching sense, but in understanding learning. We are not taking full advantage of how information from neuroscience and genetics can be used to motivate kids to learn, and how to deal with learning problems such as dyslexia and attention deficits."

At first, the idea didn[base ']t go over too well at Harvard. Other faculty members feared that biology could be used to unfairly classify children and to stigmatize slow learners.

Fischer and his team, including Hobbs Professor of Cognition and Education Howard Gardner, put together a program that they called "Mind, Brain, and Education." But resistance was so keen, they jokingly spoke of it among themselves as "Mind [~] blank [~] and Education."

To read the whole story.. go to

Science Daily
5:11:51 PM