Robots and Drones Take Over Classrooms

The future of education is set to go through a massive change with the deployment of interactive boards, laptops, VR gadgets and online learning plans. It has already being said that this generation of kids are getting much different kind or education in a different medium than their parents or grandparents has achieved in the past. Artificial intelligence is breaking new grounds while robotics has gone through a rapid phase of development which makes it easier to bring it in the classrooms with more confidence than before.

Robots & drones in the schools

In September last year London Design & Engineering University technical college offered a chance to over 180 pupils to have a technology based education experience. Their curriculum of 12 weeks allowed kids to experience education not based on traditional chalk board pattern but with reliance on the technology. One group of students was asked to design their own virtual reality environment right from the scratch which offers a journey to the Ethiopian village. This was used to highlight the need of charity in the Water Aid.

A number of primary schools are convinced with the need of starting learning of coding at the younger age. As a reason a number of after school code clubs has emerged which makes use of DIY computers like BBC’s Micro Bit and the Raspberry Pi for tinkering with the coding and sharpening the skills further. A company worth naming here is Tynker which has brought the elegant coding through gaming philosophy to more than 60,000 schools in US. Quite recently it has started a new project which includes teaching coding through drone lessons in an exciting manner.

A new reality comes to classrooms

We are soon venturing into a future wherein students will be interacting or studying in a virtual reality based environment with the help of a headset. Students will not just grasp the information but they will interact with it in form of holograms explaining the intricate solar system or the space itself. The application of Augmented Reality popularly seen in Pokemon Go mobile game and Virtual Reality can emerge as the next frontier. A number of studies have shown that the use of VR devices helps students in intently performing tasks along with developing the ability to adapt to multiple disciples.

Microsoft HoloLens is creating waves across the world by bringing a mixed reality environment to the users in an engaging fashion. Microsoft has worked in closely with the Case Western Reserve University in order to develop a complete hologram of human body. This hologram will offer a great an enriching way for the pupils to understand the human body by effectively dissecting all the different bones, veins and organs of the body in extreme detail.

Apart from this hologram Microsoft is actively working with Pearson group which is well known education provider to develop more enhanced education resources for its HoloLens. However buying HoloLens will not be feasible for the schools at the moment as it costs a massive £2719 for the developer edition.

Join the Combined Defence Services for an Exciting Career

Every year the Union Public Service Commission conducts, the "Combined Defence Services"Examination (CDS), twice for recruitment into the Indian Military Academy, officers Training Academy, Indian Naval Academy and Indian Air Force Academy.

The Notification for CDS is generally released in the months of October and June, and the examinations are held in February and November respectively.CDS Result will be declared in July 2017. Successful aspirants are taken into the respective Academies after an interview conducted by the Services Selection Board (SSB).

CDS Orientation Training Institutes 

If the candidates clear the interview rounds and according to their merit, they are sent to the following institutes for orientation training:

1.  Indian Military Academy, Dehradun 
2.  Indian Naval Academy, Ezhimala 
3.  Air Force Academy, Hyderabad 
4.  Officers Training Academy, Chennai 
5.  Officers Training Academy, Chennai 21st SSC Women (Non-technical) 

Women are only eligible for Officers Training Academy, Chennai.

A permanent commission is given those who join the first three institutes. Short term service commission is given to cadets passing out of Officers Training Academy. While filling the application form, applicants are required to fill their preferences in the application form.

The SSB interview takes place for approximately a week, throughout which a candidate goes through various physical and psychological tests to determine whether or not he is officer material. Candidates who have applied for Air Force Academy are also tested for Pilot Aptitude Battery Test, apart from the SSB interview. Once all these tests are cleared, candidates go through rigorous medical examination before finally getting admitted into the above-mentioned academies, and only after successful completion of the training program, candidates are inducted into the armed forces.

Career Opportunities

Many exciting career opportunities are offered to young men and women once they enter the Armed forces. Career in the forces, in addition as a career, is also an adventure in itself. To make sure that suitable candidates are chosen, a comprehensive selection process is conducted by the armed forces through Service Selection Board (SSB) interview.

This system of selection is incorporated from the “trait theory” of leadership which assumes that every leader must have some specific and pre-determined leadership traits. The theory,assumesthat such traits can be acquired by a candidate with the passage of time meaning so that a person once rejected in an SSB interview is likely to succeed if he obtains some of the traits with the passage of time.

In addition, psychological and mental strength of the candidate vis-a-vis requirements of the Armed Forces is judged and finally an overall assessment of the personality of a candidate is made by way of exhaustive personal interviews.

The CDS written examination is an offline objective examination. Exam for the Indian Military Academy, Indian Naval Academy and Air Force Academy will be for 300 marks, while Officers Training Academy exam will be of 200 marks. The written exam if for 2 hours, with each section will have 120 questions. For every correct answer the candidate will secure .8 marks, while for every incorrect answer .33 marks will be deducted. The three sections in the examination are:

• English 
• General Knowledge 
• Elementary Mathematics. 

After clearing the written examination, the candidates are eligible for the Interview round. The interview round comprises of two stages:

Stage 1: This stage consists of Officer Intelligence Rating tests and Picture Perception Description Test. The candidates will be judged on the basis of their performance in both OIR Test and PP&DT.

Stage 2: This stage consists of Interview, group testing officer tasks, psychology tests and the conference. This test is conducted over a period of four days.

In personality assessment test the candidate is assessed by three different experts viz the Interviewing Officer, Group Testing Officer and the Psychologist. There is no separate weightage for each test and the marks allotted by the experts are given only after taking into consideration the performance of the candidate in all the tests. The marks are also based on the previous performance of the candidate. Lastly, the candidates are recommended or not recommended by the experts and their word is final.

Concerns Over Cross Device Marketing

With the advances in technology have come advances in the way companies market their products and services. One innovation that is current getting a lot of attention is cross-device marketing. This type of marketing has come under fire due to security concerns, but it has also opened many doors and can be quite useful.

How It’s Used

Cross-device marketing involves monitoring and tracking a consumer’s activities on all the devices he or she uses to access the internet. For companies, this allows them to learn more about your activities. For example, if you see an advertisement while on your smartphone and switch to your computer to buy the item, the company will be able to see that their ad was effective. Without this type of marketing, the company would not have a way to completely track the effectiveness of the ad. Cross-device marketing enables companies to compile a marketing profile for you across all your devices.

Tracking is often done by signing into an account. This allows companies to track your activity and merge your activity on all your devices. So, if you were to put something in a shopping cart while on a site on your computer and you opened that same site on your phone, then your item would be in your shopping cart on both devices. In this way, it is actually beneficial to you, too.

UAB online notes a few things to keep in mind when engaging in cross-device marketing to make the best use of it. This includes creating good landing pages, using keywords smartly and understanding reach and frequency.

Concerns

As with any type of activity tracking, privacy is a concern with cross-device marketing. Knowing a company is always watching can be a little scary. Mainly the concern lies with tracking not related to signing in, called probabilistic tracking, where data collection helps to track consumers. Not making consumers aware they are being tracked is something the FTC has begun looking into. The main consensus is that privacy has to be kept in mind and users need to be aware when companies are using this type of marketing.

The Good News

Because cross-device marketing and tracking can be beneficial to consumer and companies, it is not likely to be abandoned despite concerns. The good news is that this open doors to new jobs in the IT field for those working in cyber security. MVU online notes some things to consider when entering this field. This area of technology is one that you’ll want to explore if you are currently getting an IT degree or you are thinking about it. Cybersecurity is likely to continue to grow, and the need for trained professionals will grow with it.

Cross-device marketing is not really all that new, but it is garnering more attention as privacy concerns are foremost in the mind of internet users. In addition, the increase in multi-device browsing is increasing the use of this type of marketing. New techniques, like probabilistic tracking, are prompting government involvement to ensure consumers are kept safe. Likely, the move will be toward a more transparent use of tracking, so consumers are aware of when their online activities are being monitored.