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Produced by the American Museum of Natural History in cooperation with NASA, a piece of sky came alive at Heureka’s Vattenfall Planetarium, one of the most modern digital planetariums in Europe. The biggest scientific question tackled in the short narrive was: Is there life anywhere else in the universe? The exciting 3D view took me to a few minutes of historical excerpts of mankind while being told that "people have been searching for signs of life from outer space, with no results so far." The pictures from the American Museum of Natural History provided by Heureka shows the most dramatic, breathtaking images: 

Jupiter and its moon Europa 

NASA’s Pathfinder probe on planet Mars

The amazing recent discovery of exoplanets

The synopsis: “The film begins the search for life from the depths of the oceans where sunlight cannot reach. For a long time people imagined that all living organisms obtain their energy from the sun. This perception was proven wrong in the 1970s after the discovery of the so-called black smokers, deep-sea hydrothermal vents surrounded by a thriving and diverse population of organisms living on chemical energy. If life can thrive on the ocean floor, can it survive in other extreme conditions? “ (Attached in this entry is a scientific paper produced on " Is there life anywhere else in the universe? ")

“Science Changing the World”

Meanwhile, visitors to Heureka will surely appreciate the new agreement it recently forged with European science centres to host an exhibit about the greatest achievements of science and their impact on society and everyday life. The exhibit featuring four scientific themes: Life and Mind, Towards Better Health, System Earth and Beyond the Visible, will also present research processes, scientists, and highlight ethical issues.

One of Heureka’s most famous visitors this year is The Millennium Technology Prize 2008 winner, Professor Robert Langer, who gave a lecture “How to win the Millennium Technology Prize?” (“How my innovation came into existence; the trials and triumphs of a young researcher – The applications of my innovation today and in the future”).

According to his Millennium Technology Prize profile: “Dr. Robert Langer has been cited as one of history's most prolific inventors in medicine. He holds 380 patents, has published 680 articles and 13 books, has licensed products to about 80 companies, and is known as the father of controlled drug delivery and tissue engineering. He also discovered advanced drug delivery systems that have had a significant impact on fighting cancer, heart disease, mental health illnesses and numerous other diseases.”

Professor Langer it seems was interested in educational achievement early on. “I got my degree in chemical engineering in 1974 and almost all my colleagues went into the oil industry, because there were so many jobs there at that time. But I wasn’t so excited about the industry - I was interested in education,” recounted Prof. Langer in the website reference.

At the awards ceremony of the Millennium Technology Prize at Finlandia House, Helsinki, Finland on July 11, 2008. In this photo, the writer with Professor David Payne, Millennium Technology Prize Laureate for "outstanding contributions to telecommunications through the invention and development of the erbium-doped fibre amplifier (EDFA) which enabled the global high-capacity optical fibre network.” In the next photo is Dr. Robert Langer (middle), and an unidentified guest. Dr. Langer is the Millennium Technology Prize Winner "for his invention and development of innovative biomaterials for controlled drug release and tissue regeneration that have significantly improved human health.”

Attached in this entry is the Millennium Technology Prize profile of Dr. Robert Langer. I hope you will enjoy reading them!

"Sometimes, it's easier to get your hand on a mobile phone rather than a school," says Manisan Minocha, Technical Service Manager of a Finnish company and an IT professional based in India.

Certainly, you can learn more about Integrating mobile devices with existing ICT and Learning Strategies using SANAKO solutions.

About 26 days ago,  I posted under the Education and Schools heading at LinkedIn a question, "are students and educational establishments catching up with handheld learning solutions?"

This is related to the general view of transformational learning as the "convergence of consumer electronics, entertainment software, educational technology and learning". The follow-up question is, "are we ready to veer from the traditional learning environment and embrace emerging mobile and ubiquitous technologies for teaching and learning?"

There are three answers altogether; from the Philippines and Canada, and now recenly a comment from India, republished below:

"This seems to make sense in India, wherein the children of remote rural villages may not have access to schooling. But with mobile services, it seems that it may be easier to get your hand on a mobile phone rather than a school," Manish answered. "Well, at least one major mobile operator in India is taking the idea of e-learning and advertising it. The company is Idea Cellular, and you can know more about their campaign. 'Hope the above gives you some clues."

Meanwhile, I found that it's always great to be on good terms with former colleauges around the world, especially when they find precious time to answer your questions at networking sites. Thanks, Manish and more power!

"This question initially seems to be tech-driven and not human-driven. How and why would students gain from hand-held learning solutions? Are hand-held devices and the interactive application therein actually addressing students', teachers' and educational needs? I mean both existing and emerging/latent needs. What human-centred research has been done to support this? (The latter is not a rhetorical question, but asked because I don't know this area at all.)

The 'information' or the 'contents' that I imagine students would want to access will fit many formats. What fits the hand-held format? What needs a wide-screen, or a more immersive, large-view format? A combination of both seems obvious.

Maybe lessons can be learned from e.g. Africa, who regionally leapfrogged to mobile phones and probably can teach us a lot about how handheld devices can REALLY be used in practice and to solve problems, according to personal needs. As 'devices' they are useful, but within limits and within a philosophy of bio(tech)diversity.

We don't NEED better technology per se in learning environments, we need good facilitating/teaching/educating warm people who work with learners, recognising the clear limits of 'traditional' learning environments but also the pedagogical lessons that decades or centuries of 'traditional' environments have given us. The technology should be supportive, invisible and part of the infrastructure. That's my speech. Thank you for listening.

I value Cindy's contribution to this topic, although I tend to look at how adept youngsters are in the latest gizmos, and how they absorb the use of mobile technology as fun, fun, fun!

In the long run, educators will need to make their own decisions based on the readiness of their schools, students, and success stories of integrating education technology solutions not just to daily life but to a serious learning environment.

At "Grasping the Future 2008", schoolchildren devised electronic gadgets such as musical alarm clocks with Finnish Science Museum, Heureka.

Are we educating students with dynamic and necessary skills to answer the challenges and professional expertise needed in the current job market?

This discussion is related to what I heard on the last day of the GTF'08  conference last October 3, where "Learning in the Innovation Society" was presented by Pasi Sahlberg from the European Training Foundation.

On a roundtable forum amongst education experts around Europe, arguments were made regarding Human learning and growth, a topic by Professor Kirsti Lonka under the "Visions of the future" theme.

On these keynote speeches, Professor Lonka emphasized that the learning sciences is important and may not be subject to changes in forces of the economy. In the summary presented by OECD/CERI Analyst Francisco Benavides, it was widely discussed that economic factors, demographics, upheavals, as well as changes in market forces are guiding lights for the education, training, and employment targets for countries who want to remain competitive. 

Thus, the question I posed at LinkedIn received varied answers: Is the current school curriculum in your home country and its school environment answering the ever evolving demands of the job market? For example, are you producing more lawyers and political scientists than engineers or biosciences experts? Or, is your national educational policy inclined to educate surplus of IT professionals than let's say plumbers, nurses, or teachers? Do economic trends in your own country influence the courses offered in universities and higher education?

Jeff Limpert, Instructor/Consultant/CISSP
"Not as a whole though you will find outstanding exceptions. I recently heard an educator on the radio speaking from Britain say that we are teaching students to focus on smaller details and ignore the larger picture. He went on to say that the students are good at answering individual questions, but when tasked to demonstrate the ability to understand or complete an entire process they cannot.

There is a story floating around that society is creating a generation of workers with ADD who only flit from one focus area to another. It reminds me of a satirical short story from the 1930s I read in high school about the attempt to summarize literature. The record for summation was when a Hemmingway novel was shortened to the word “bang.” Welcome to the 21st century.

There is an opinion (http://www.scsv.nevada.edu/~nagelhoe/attwbulletin/spring2005/dombrowski.htm) that the loss of the space shuttle Columbia was due, in part, to the use of PowerPoint presentations. The warnings of the workers we lost as the filtered information moved up through the management chain. Also, we have collectively managed to lose our moral compass and wander around following policies and procedures without taking the time to examine if they are the right policies and procedures; witness the world wide economic scandal we are experiencing at the moment.

In answer to the detail of your question, as recently as the mid 90’s in the U.S. we still had a two pronged educational track for our high school students. One was “college prep” and the other was to be a worker, though it was not called that. Education must return to the task of teaching students to learn rather than focusing on narrow curriculums of specific vocations that there may not be a need for a few years after enter the workforce. I live in the U.S. and think a good part of students’ decisions to enter one career path or another is what they see in the media, their natural strengths, and a career counselor who will give them a test. This may be followed with a recommendation to either attend the same college as the counselor (true) or whisper the word, “Plastics,” or ”MBA” into the ear of the student. <joke>

I can’t count the number of people I have had in my IT classes who started out in a different field; entomologists, biologists, chemists and on and on. The advice a counselor can give to a student is to pick something they are interested and tell them they will most likely change their major once they get to college. The best training schools can give is to be adaptive. The best advice I can give to anyone is to “grow where you are planted” everything else will work out fine after that."

Scott Hewitt, CEO, Real Projects - e-learning developers
"We live in a world of technological change and must be prepared to deal effectively with the ways in which these changes will affect us all. For example it is estimated that students leaving education in 2010 will have more than 20 jobs in their lifetime. As a result of this workers will need to adapt and encompass newly created careers within society.

Traditional methods of teaching involve gathering a group of learners together in a single space where they will be ‘taught’ by individuals using a largely face to face approach. At the end of the session participants travel back home. It has been the same for decades.

We are preparing students for jobs and technologies that do not yet exist. They will be solving problems that we do not recognise as problems yet.

They will need to have a flexible, adaptable and ‘on demand’ system for delivering skills, knowledge and awareness that fulfils their individual needs and aptitudes."

You may follow the post through the link here: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/career-education/occupational-training/CAR_OCT/347831-5946653 or download Pasi Sahlberg's Paper "Learning in competitive world: Beyond creativity and innovation".   

"In a developing country like the Philippines the price of handheld computing technology is still somewhat prohibitive especially when even essential items like school structures themselves still need improvement. Nonetheless, there are many efforts to at least provide significant computer laboratories for the less funded public high schools (not yet K-7).

In the private schools, there is a larger budget however there is still a need to convince the owners and administrators of the benefits of technology applied to their educational methods. A lot of work still needed here as well. We are also starting with thin clients and SW content in these labs as well. Though here the SW is more advanced. Any experience you can share re this would be helpful. Please, email us at paco@narravc.com if you have references and suggestions."

Reference: http://www.linkedin.com/answers/career-education/education-schools/CAR_BUE/342534-5946653 

Thank you, Mr. Sandejas and all the best!

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