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A Happy Experience, with Tremendous Empowerment for Their Students and Completely Adorable by All?

    
     Universities, centers of knowledge have been created many years ago. They have for missions to spread, among other virtues, wisdom and true in their communities. There have been many philanthropists that are or were sharing their wealth to create these fascinating places. All of them have rules, timelines, and costs. Some of them are created by national systems and there is no tuition involved, or is just symbolic.

  The poor, the isolated, and the minorities have to struggle with all the deficiencies that their trades have, before they can join without stress the full experience of higher education. Some people can deal with a big amount of stress, others don’t and that has nothing to do with their wealth, gregarious personality, or if they are part of the general population, or normal people (statistically speaking). Nevertheless it helps to have enough money to have acquired a good basic education to pursue a higher one. To be connected to find out the easiest path with the best results, and to be part of the group to work together and enjoy the synergy of learning as part of a team.

   How to know if the course, courses you are taking are going to enrich in an effective way your career? Wow! For that, I have heard so many opinions; you almost can have a book of them. Just some of them are; it doesn’t matter what courses you take as long as you know, you have connections, you must be part of the people with influences so, go to institutions where the children of the top society are. Another opinion is; go where you know the institution has more successful and prestigious alumni and/or professors. Go where you can have personalized guidance and mentoring. Go where you can have the most diverse community, go where you are the opposite of your family values, go where you can afford it, go where moral and religion is first; go as far (or as close) as your parents are. Go where they value the people’s voice. Go where you have the most parties, best installations, best dorms etc, etc, etc… When you are there;

    as a student sometimes you get into the stressful facts of a) a great deal is expected of you and b) you have no control over whether you will perform well; according to Martin Seligman. And well, that is not nice.

  Oh no! What are all those aspects, why is not simply, what are the institutions of knowledge doing?

   Besides the campuses, and personal, they have a master plan for each career. They got into that plan with some key elements; the industry, the government, the professors, and students. They plan for the future, they analyze trends, market, necessities and the most probable scenario that can occur when people graduate.

   As you can see, it is a combination of facts that can be target with accuracy, if you know your data, and you have a good stochastic method to apply; the outcome will have a reasonable, hopeful outcome. We can use the term believe in many statements explaining why an institution decides something over many options. The truth is that there is the technology and mathematical methods to be more precise than ever if we can simulate with enough and correct numbers. The future can be known with a narrow clearance; to a scale so narrow that we can almost said that we are certain of a successful career. And that is why I totally know that the technology used in Udacity to choose the classes, the professors, the amount of time expending, and the grading system is the best. Just take the class of Artificial Intelligence with Sebastian Thrun.

    As a new way of learning, or new system, data is needed. It is not sprouted randomly, they have to collect enough information to create a model, which by this time, it is very optimistic to say but perfectly reasonable to think they do.

    So, Udacity is a center of knowledge, they have rules, timelines and costs. They have philanthropists, a mission, and a virtual campus that is composed by the forums, coffee breaks, hang outs, contests, and other beautiful and useful things, to interact with their community.

     Udacity have the collaboration of not only one university but several, and the industry has a vital presence. They have a verify certification which is a key factor to acknowledge the rigor and recognition of a learned skill.

    When you are a student, you are the product of an educational institution, one of the most stressful things for a mentor, teacher, professor, or educator is the idea that…” The ability of a student to do well in a class has something to do with their class”… a quote from the book Brain Rules by John Medina.

    To solve this anguish statement people go to the statistics and if they have, like at Udacity, a pass rate of 83% surpassing many of other classes in other campuses; it is when we can dance in the rain because we know, they conquered a storm. That is a huge achievement! As a student your concerns of performance are gone, and yes, a great deal was expected from you; you have sweated it and earned it; in a controlled, wonderful, and nice environment; with an assertive amount of stress. Because think of it, you know you did it, and you feel it in your brain, nothing can change that inner satisfaction, that helps to go on and on.

    So, who are the clients in a center of knowledge? Students, their families, communities, countries, and the world are. The students have the duality of being the product and the client, this paradox come from the bare nature of knowledge which is part of the unique trait of being humans and have fun learning and developing our cortex during our existence.

   Many of these thoughts have been evolving in me for many years, due to my experience as a professor of Industrial Engineering, and as an Educator and Tutor; I think this is the time to put them down as a response to a call by Sebastian Thrun for a public discussion about Udacity offerings, and the future of higher education. For the enrolling of many, we can see it as a happy experience, with tremendous empowerment for their students and completely adorable by all Udacian’s Communities.

The Power of Networks | MIT Technology Review

The Power of Networks | MIT Technology Review
 Indeed
“It depends completely on the individuals that form a network or are key members of different organizations,” explains @Wilhelm Woess. “When the most interesting individuals associate with a network, all those who contribute with their own knowledge as humble (or big) it might be, share with others, gain from others’ interesting perspectives and knowledge. But some networks attract only weak knowledge and one-sided prejudice, or plain opinion without much explanation or insight. High quality journalism is a good example how important and indispensable good networks of the right people are.”

We totally agree.

Introduction to Salesforce App Development Yeah!!!! :D :D :D ♥ ♥ ♥

Not Size That Counts Wow!!! An amoeba has more DNA than a Human Being!!!!!

 Come on Team!

To have car insurance is to provide financial protection against physical damage and/or bodily injury resulting from traffic collisions and against liability that could also arise therefore.

To have health insurance is to have coverage that pays for medical and surgical expenses that are incurred by the insurer.

We are part of a state of society were we pursue happiness and safety. The government is, or ought to be, instituted for the common benefit, protection, and security of the people.

After these definitions, let’s check the conversations I heard, I had, I know about…

“… I am healthy; the health insurance is not for me because I take good care of myself so, I can use the money for other things…” Two women in their mid-forties agreeing with the statement.

Another woman same age “… My 17 year old kid had an accident while snowboarding, he was taken by helicopter by a rescue team and hospitalized, now he is wearing a cast for his leg and at home. He was not insured so I need to pay the bills, the only way is to sell my home and to use my retirement savings, and I don’t know what to do…” Two years later she got cancer and died in three months.

We can go on and on telling stories. In general as a country we cannot have people uninsured because it has ripple effects for all of us.

Let’s just imaged that our body carries our self like a car, so, like a car everybody needs to be insured, it does not matter your luck, your genes, and your age… everybody carries a probability to use doctor’s services, dentist’s visits, ambulances, hospitals, rescue teams.

The government does not tell you what to do; the government is there to protect you as a part of society; that is why we build it in the first place.

This entire Congress debacle is just stressing and hurting people. It is a way of polluting humanity, scaring people does not give more votes. Trying to destroy something just because it is not in your side is not part of team work. When we talk about America, we include everybody right now. For hard workers there is the vital necessity to have the comfort of coverage for all of us. In other countries they are looking at us, and a kid just told me, “… I can’t imagine that someone has to sell his house for medical help… I hope this will change one day…” If a kid can understand this, I think Congress can too. We do the best for the team and the name of the team is America, let’s just do it for our own sake and our future generations.

My Thoughts A Year Ago…

In August 2012 I was writing my thoughts while eating, and getting ready for my computer class. It was a sunny day as almost all days in OC California… I had worked in my online courses and I had this vision about what I wanted to have in the near future.

First  I imagined myself composing images, movies, songs, blogs with the perfect fit of my way of thinking. Second, I had thought that most of the time you do not see what is behind  the screen or how the traffic  in the internet is moving or if you can see who stopped by your things, besides the people that you know and commented or sent a signal that they where there. It was like a mysterious box of limited information in plain sight. Also I wanted to share with the internauts, in general, the brands, institutions, organizations, places, that wowed me to glorify and perpetuate their existence. My apps I imaged could be like my personal assistant, trainer, tutor, planner… I wanted to have my special robot to remind me, to advice me , to be my special tool for all the things I knew I will required  precision and accuracy; let’s say my Swiss Army knife of the 21 Century.

Huy! I wanted something that can count and check my calories intake; my weights, and my burning calories, predict my perfect next meal. And do the same counting and checking and predicting for all my activities; the mental and the physical ones. My robot is for me so different as it is portrayed everywhere, it is not an entity but a series of devices, or a device that can include for my body to have my vitals, and for my exercise to record my position, effort and precise movements to induce the maximum potential of my health and brain.

I went farther, while I was typing I wrote, why the typing? When it could be a device which can fetch my thoughts… all my thoughts… the deepest ones… the ones that I don’t even know I have… (Very controversial  now I see) I went on; How about if I can have a conversation with somebody else in my mind… the energy that we can save, the waist that can be avoid… We can be all so synchronized that, we actually can have space for the wilderness, time to restore Nature and pursue the evolution of societies… Well that was then. From a year to today I am totally amazed of how much it has been accomplished!

At my online school, Udacity; I just read an article where the goal is going to be, and I quote; “…the creation of  a piece of artificial intelligence that sits there, watches you learn, and helps you pick the right learning venue or task, so you’re more effective and have more pleasure.” (Sebastian Thrun)

The number of applications downloaded just in December was two billion; the most popular were Google Maps, Facebook, and You Tube. So people, like to know where they are, and where are they going. People like to socialize and communicate with friends. People like to watch videos, to learn, to buy, to entertain, to send messages, and more.

Our phones are our agendas, portal to games, music, movies, conference rooms, learning environment, physical trainer, animate our household, monitor rooms, experiment, situations… This is now; it is a huge non stopping trend. Our watches can have our vitals. Apps can take a pic of a portion of skin and send it to be analyzed for possible cancerous cells. Yes, indeed we are making progress. Maybe I have the same thoughts of many more persons that I had imaged. But I know that we are living in a singularity, so this is what we are expecting according to the analysis of trends… It is fascinating to see what we have foreseen just some months ago.

Tutor planned for Udacity

most-used-smartphone-apps

Sebastian-Thrun-on-the-future-of-learning

2D Tesselation: the Hirschhorn Tile in Google SketchUp

Oh! No! Have you seen the San Jose Newspapers!!!

Have you seen the San Jose Newspapers!!! I was happy, then a black cloud somber my horizon! :(
Oh!!! No!!! What is going on!!! Failure!!! Poor rates!!! Look at the performance!!!
Some Media and their ways of putting things....
Remediation classes… Ha! It is exactly the word that put in a very questionable position the origin of an Olympian, wonderful, and amazing set of tools that Udacity is… It is also an experiment, and the population is a very special one. For one year+ Udacity has delivered in a very concise format a huge amount of knowledge. Udacity is a place to enjoy and learn; if remediation was the challenge then you do not put unreachable constrains if you want good comments from the Press; if your objective is to experiment then go ahead and learn from your experience, and that is a success.
In Udacity or while learning in any arena you need to have time to experiment, explore, try, challenge, dare, improve your abilities; which ones… well let’s see an example; when mankind were learning to play with electronic games some 20+ years ago, first we needed to learn to press the right buttons for any special movement, then it came the combinations; after, you are able to do the series of nested combinations. Nowadays, you can easily point out who has been playing for a long time just because it came natural to them all the micro movements they need to do in the fastest precise way to win over the opponent.
The population for remediation has very different problems to deal with but, the worst pervasive one is the LACK OF TIME as I just read and concurred in Sebastian Thrun post explanation. Next to that one is the pressure to repeat a concept in certain time and with that believe that you are going to assure success. The brain doesn't work like that… it is boring and then the attention to detail is lost in an abyss of boredom. Every single person who needs remediation needs to be diagnosed exactly with the special need or with the located misunderstood concept and start from that or those, people can have many. It needs to have a systematic approach of assistance. That means to diagnose from the beginning what are you dealing with. Or at least have a history of what has been happening.
What I have learned, study and seen in the amazing wonderful universe of learning is that it needs to be INTERESTING. Not long time ago a person told me to repeat courses that I have already taken. Wow! I was furious, and I refused for a long time, then I meditated. If I have already passed them then I can look at them again in another perspective, since I do not have any pressure but my own. I am taking my time and refuel my patience to hear the same things by the same people in the same manner. Well I do not reread books, I don’t see movies twice in a regular basis, it needs to be very, very good to make me do it. It is not the same if you read a book and then you see the movie, or the play of it. Theater is magic because no performance is the same because people behave differently every time, so it is not boring. With this I want you to notice that emotions are there you can not avoid them. Once you fail something you have a sour thought about it, that is stress...
You can learn the same thing in different platforms, or formats; learn with unlimited examples, experiences, games, contexts; the rule is always pursuing to be interesting! I did not invented it, there are many studies that talk about that I just concurred from my experience.
Our knowledge behaves like an onion, it has many layers; they started to form the same day you become alive. According to your experiences is the type of knowledge you have. That is one thing.
Knowledge behaves like energy does; one person can have it or a group of persons without changing the force. The wonderful thing is that a difference of energy, it can be storage. It is not like power, or money; it is really a sharable thing. Everybody gets enriched. You have seen how a student can explain to another student the concept in a particular proper vocabulary and Eureka everything became clear.
When people are stressed, they learn like a Swiss cheese, with holes. Or like with wrinkles in their layers or with jumps between them. So, in order to have perfect onions or layers of knowledge you need to peel the onion and check where the fault is. It can be done with a one on one assistant, or with software. The quality of the remediation outcome lies in the efficiency of the model use to locate the hole and how to fix it. Who does the software? It is People. Who does the tutoring? It is People. In every single origin of knowledge the primal source is People. Who is going to hire you? Who is making jobs? Who is designing courses? Who is putting the standards or conditions to say you know something? Always, the answer is People.
So, why it is this whole debacle idea and the debate about it that the Press is taking out of proportions? Udacity is a proven source of top-notch knowledge. The good thing is that a critical mass of people understands that online education is for the good of Humanity. So, for majority and for leadership we can keep forging in the right direction for a better future. There are many links on the web talking about this with big names and/or wallets that are helping. I just read the Scientific American article of this month about Learning in the digital age. Sebastian Thrun also explained it in the Udacity Global Meetup Day, you can see it in YouTube. Thank you to all of you! I think it is an unstoppable phenomenon. People need to be reassured that everything is going to be absolutely better. And by the way, once you take your course online if you are on the remediation club, you can go back and look in a calm manner what you missed. If nobody helps you, look inside yourself maybe you will find the best answer. A good idea if you find a way to succeed is just to give feedback.
Use Udacity or some other distinct MOOC's as what they are a wonderful source of knowledge. Being a little bit dramatic you can see it as some Prometheuses are giving fire to humanity, Udacity and some of the MOOC's give knowledge to mankind. The good thing is that this time The Gods are dancing of joy because that is the way humans can prevail in the Cosmos.

Africa, Last Part

    

  This is the last part of my trip to Africa. Before I go ahead, let me tell you a curious thing, last year when I went to Australia; it took me three months to put words and pics for you on the blog. I skipped a lot. Maybe I will return to tell you some anecdotes later. For some reason, it happened that people I know about went to the same place and took spectacular photos in the deep ocean with professional cameras and professional everything. I know the ocean; I have been blessing with countless adventures there. What I gave you was the most positive flare of an utmost interesting place. I was not in the pursuit of the best of anything, I was just exploring. For many reasons, I did not dive in the deep waters at that time; I know I did something good for everybody and for everything, sometimes not doing the extreme is the best thing to do.

    For Africa, it has taking several posts and more than half year to put the trip together. It happened because I wanted to picture Africa in a light, sparkling, and candid way as I saw it. I have read so many things in the internet, and magazines, about all the troubles, all the riches, all the rivalry, all the power, all the weakness, sadness, anger and despair. Moreover, powerful and ultra rich people have been there. I cannot refer to the same continent without asking if we can see the magnificent, outstanding, and marvelous places Africa has.   Mankind has in their hands an earthly paradise, how are they going to transform or exploit, preserve or destroy, develop or ruin, enhance or mutilate it? There had been so many mistakes done in the name of goodness, “Let’s do business”, “Indoctrination of religion or political views”, or the righteous order; that is pretty scary. How are all nations going to contribute, to take care, and to help to nurture such a hope for humanity?

      When you have a place to live, you need among many things, a space for Nature. We have there an International Preserve Park were expert people are living there and taking care of it. I did not even mention two plants, only the famous Baobab they have there. I did not see the pervasive Anthrax or other viruses or bacteria around. I did not carry a microscope, and I cannot identify the flora, like many of us, but is there. To say the least, technology can help to optimize the needs and harmonious coexisting life for everybody; we can contribute with all the knowledge we can give to Africa to accomplish it.

While I am writing this there are about 689,000,000 results I can find in Google that are or were talking about Africa. 650,000,000 about Europe. 1, 500,000,000 about North America. 567,000,000 about Latin America. 1 100,000,000 about China. India and Asia numbers are around the 500 millions. Australia 653 millions. These results are just because the name appeared in the search. So, humanity is occupied about it. That is refreshing! :D

    

     You have seen the photos of some of the animals I saw in Zimbabwe, Botswana and Zambia; still I am showing you here the giraffes, the meerkats, dung beetles  hippos, impalas, buffaloes  vultures, birds, crocodiles, monkeys…. Whoa!!! All majestic, all impressive.

     In this trip I can say over all that the weather was perfect, the landscape beautiful, the people so friendly and fun; the culture, the art, the food was superb.

      I tasted so many new things; the ones that I remembered because they were delicious and remained me other exotic places were the worms, toasty squash flower, and the crocodile grilled meat. We have a special drink made out of a special local plant served before meals in one of our party dinners; it was not alcoholic or sedative. It had like the Chamomile effect, but it had a milky aspect, it was tangy, and refreshing. They told us, it was served to us to be in the perfect mood for a celebration, with the feast, music, and dancing.

After dessert, they gave to every person a small drum; I played it until my hands were purple, and I noticed that until the show ended because I felt them so hot and itchy, so I turned to look at them… My palms were so swollen and purple!!! I thought they were going to hurt like for several days, but, no, they didn't. It lasted just for a moment. I was so happy!!!

      All my memories now are melting, even when I have thousands of pics to remember them and in the order taken to evoke every single detail. We took the photos of the big 5, in this post you can see the buffalo, the fifth one, an aggressive one, and we cannot take pics of it as close as we did with the other ones. Buffaloes are unapproachable. I do not hunt; I just took pictures of this mega fauna in their real habitat. Curiously I don’t remember seen zebras or ostriches. On the town’s newspaper I saw a photo of wild dogs, very impressive and the article was in a tone were you understood how extraordinary animals they are and how the people just live their daily lives among extraordinary living things. We visited the Victoria Falls again, but now by helicopter, what a beauty!!! We went over the bridge, some of us did the bungee, others the swing, others the straight jump. I think I said it before, but after the shaking adventure over the bridge, a ginormous baboon was after me! Yes, I remember that as the scariest moment, not the lions, or the leopard, or the elephants or the high altitude I was at the swing, or the kind of vertigo you can feel when you look down at the edge of the falls or above them flying by. The fangs of that baboon and its persistent way of following me was appalling, I was alone, just me and the baboon with its family; it only lasted some minutes, but that was more than enough for me…

We saw the baby elephants; one, only days of being born; walking with mom… other elephants taking a mud bath. Ah!!! The sunsets!!! They were perfect. The river!!! I was transported to all the books about the rivers in Africa were incredible adventures took place.

In the end we went around town several times; over there, another spectacular vision was always in front of us. The mastership, the crafts, the sculptures, the paintings, the musical instruments, awesome! The garments, the clothes, the special attires are so fascinating. Oh! The strong, athletic, and amicable people who showed us their native beautiful land, they talked to us; they showed us photos of their families, they told us about all the things that they were doing, their names and the meanings, the schools they were going, the accomplishments they have achieved, their future expectations; and we knew that we have the same dreams. Oh! Yes! Indeed… The places I visited in the southern part of Africa are great!!!

Here are the links to the other posts about Africa:

http://wp.me/s15GH3-cats 

http://wp.me/p15GH3-N  http://perlajulieta.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/africa-so-adorable-part-i/

http://wp.me/p15GH3-9Z   

http://wp.me/p15GH3-9U

Documentary The Universe Quantum Physics Microscopic Universe

Abril, Pascua, Sabado de Gloria...

Abril, Pascua, Sabado de Gloria…

Recuerdo cuando el agua no era escasa y el Sabado de Gloria era una diversion total con las cubetas, las mangueras, las guerras de globos con agua; eso en la casa pero en toda la ciudad y en Xochimilco desde los transeuntes hasta los carros eran bañados por los vecinos que lanzaban cubetadas de agua… El sabado de Gloria nos despertabamos jugando al jalon de orejas y a almohadazos … era una mañana esperada llena de risas y emocion… despues nos preparabamos para mojarnos en esas primaveras llenas de fresco calor y deliciosa agua templada. Que dias!!! Los huevos de Pascua tambien una gran tradicion, llenos de harina  y pintados de colores con tapas de papel de china de colores tambien, los decorabamos y no faltaba algun gracioso que pusiera un huevo completo que a la hora de la guerra de huevazos un infortunado se batiera de yema y clara que combinados con  la harina se hacia un engrudo fenomenal!! No buscabamos huevos, los preparabamos para tener nuestras municiones listas para terminar completamente enharinados y con toda la risa, alegria y emocion juntas… Habia mas tradiciones pero la de los huevos y el agua eran las que mas me gustaban… Algo lindo tambien eran las flores perfumadas, las palmas entretejidas haciendo diseños preciosos para todas las festividades de la temporada…

La tradicion se fue desvaneciendo conforme fuimos creciendo y habia que cuidar el agua. Hasta que se acabo por completo… Despues de muchos años ya cuando mis peques estaban disfrutando la temporada empezamos con la busqueda de huevos que tenian adentro caramelos y el agua siempre presente era en las albercas, o del club o de Valle… velear es magico… y los huevitos minusculos de chocolate hicieron su aparicion. Ahora despues de  lo que parecen infinitos ayeres empezamos una tradicion muy divertida que viene de Italia… Compramos huevos de chocolate inmensos y el mas joven de la familia tiene que romper el huevo y con ello ver la sorpresa que hay adentro, en este año  salio turron y caramelo. Nosotros tuvimos un segundo huevo para otro joven de la familia que al romperlo le salio lo mismo… he visto las fotos de los huevos italianos y estan lindisisisisisimos!!! Los que nos llegan aqui son muy sencillos comparados con las artesanias que hay en otros lugares. Seguimos con la tradicion de buscar huevos para los chiquitines y comer un buen jamon Virginia esta vez acompañado de una pasta con pesto super deliciosa, estuvimos muy a la italiana, muy a la alemana tambien porque la liebre con la busqueda de huevos llego con los inmigrantes alemanes a America asi que aqui tambien se buscan huevos generalmente de plastico con dulces envueltos todo se ve muy higienico y esterilizado que a estas alturas del partido es muy conveniente. Estuvimos en casa con nuestros divinisimos visitantes, gozando de la playa, el mar, el sol, la briza y una temperatura muy agradable despues de un invierno largo. Las celebraciones forman parte de la alegria que la gente comparte cuando el clima cambia y se renueva como cada año un ciclo de fertilidad, florecimiento, nacimiento…Con las abejitas, las mariposas, los pajaritos y las frescas lluvias abrileñas que caen del firmamento.