Tim Wang's eLearning Blog

Ever tried to search on the word "Failure" via Google? Try it if you havn't! I think this is caused by millions of web pages contain the word "Failure" and pointing to the official white house page.

From GMail to GTalk? Lead by Georges Harik, Google recently launched the new product - Google Talk! What is it targeting? Instance Messaging market of course! When Google announced the 1G mail box, nobody expected the global Gmail registration fever. Now they are squeezing themselves into the crowded IM industry. According to the recent statistics, among the IM providers, AOL has 41.6 million members, Yahoo Messenger has 19.1 million and MSN has 14.1 users. However, there are constantly new IM products and service providers being established constantly. One of the well known is Skype. We have used the tool in our collaborated Pachyderm project developments many times and the quality was great. Skype is taking the market by its unique digital voice compression and IP to Phone features. Google Talk is certainly seeing this as a good idea to compete with the existing IM giants. The program is less than 1M and you can download it at: http://www.google.com/talk/. Since it is from Google, I'd say give it a try!

According to the recent report from IDC (IDC.com), the IT demand in the education industry will be much higher (14.3%) than the IT demands in other areas. The CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of the IT expenditures in the education industry will be a steady growth of 15% annually. By the year 2009, the estimated marketing value of Educational IT industry will reach 4.4093 billion US dollars. This value includes computer hardware, software, network infrastructure, servers, database etc...

An interesting observation I have had in regard to the current Chinese educational IT industry is that the hardware infrastructure is quite advanced in schools. However, there is a high demand in the software, content and service areas. The fiber optical cables have been laid out quite nicely between the education institutes. But many networks are lack of quality online learning content. The market is highly profit driven instead of the learners' demands.

Ever thought about housekeepers can get some professional training using online courses? Shanghai housekeeping union recently launched an online training program to teach the maids with working tips, techniques and essential knowledge on home maintenance tasks. The courses cover how to choose the right tide according to the acidity level; how to properly clean shining metal materials; and identify the common English labels on the medicine bottles. The majority of house keeping jobs in China are being filled by labor forces from country sides with less education. Proper trainings are often needed. However, due to the low income and busy scheduling, it’s almost impossible for these people to attend any kind of face to face training. Online knowledge bases are cheap, up-to-date and easy access (through the owner’s home computers or cyber cafes). Housekeepers that can graduate from the program will receive a certificate which may increase their chances of being employed and a better payment. This reminds me of some non-profit Canadian sites such as

www.weedsbc.ca</code> which can help one identify the weeds, learn how to manage them and find out what can happen if one doesn’t. This site profiles 80 weeds that are currently present in the province or pose a threat to its economy and environment. These community sites will play an important role in training and online education in the near future.