Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012

A learning tool is a tool to create or deliver learning content/solutions for others, or a tool for your own personal or professional learning. (http://c4lpt.co.uk)
Here is the Top 100 Tools for Learning 2012 as voted for by 582 learning professionals worldwide. Below is the slideset available via Slideshare and beneath it the textual list.  Other pages are available as follows:

Startup part 1

There is a notion that “startup” is just a small business and “Entrepreneur” is just a “fancy” name for a small business owner. Small businesses such as grocery stores, restaurants, coffee shops, street food business etc all have owners who start their own business. They work hard and hire people, mostly family members. Some are barely profitable as these small businesses are NOT designed to grow. Their goal is simply to survive and support the family. These people have skills and little capital borrowing from relatives. They are not rich and only survive in the local market. Every country has millions of them. Of course, they can be called “entrepreneur” as they seize opportunities and willing to take risks but their goal is only to feed their family, or create jobs for relatives.

Entrepreneur part 2

There is a new government report on business trends. It found that the current economic recession has been a stimulus for entrepreneurship. By examining the percentage of people who start their own companies, it found that in 2008, there was 3% went up to 6.5% in 2009, then 12% in 2010, and 18.5% in 2011. The interesting fact is a similar situation also happened in 1978. During this economic recession (1978-1982) Steve Jobs started Apple and Bill Gates started Microsoft which stimulated the explosion of the electronic, computer and software industry. The report concluded that economic difficulty tends to stimulate the entrepreneurial spirit.

Entrepreneur part 1

Entrepreneurs can be defined as people who start a small company that create new products or new services and successfully grow that into an enterprise. Of course the term “Entrepreneur” is often associated with famous people like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs or Mark Zuckerberg etc. However, there are thousands of entrepreneurs that people do not even know their names. These people are successful but often lead quiet lives so people may not hear about them.

Inside Amazon Web Services

From storage to payment, the king of clouds is dangling an array of low-cost services. We take a close look at the tools for IT and developers.

Amazon's Web Services (AWS) are based on a simple concept: Amazon has built a globe-spanning hardware and software infrastructure that supports the company's Internet business, so why not modularize components of that infrastructure and rent them? It is akin to a large construction company in the business of building interstate highways hiring out its equipment and expertise for jobs such as putting in a side road, paving a supermarket parking lot, repairing a culvert, or just digging a backyard swimming pool.

The 21st century skills

The 21st century is known as the “Information Age” in contrast to the 20th century as “The Industrial Age”. It is important to know that the skills needed in today's global economy are different from the skills needed in the past. With globalization, the world is becoming an open market where countries and companies are competing for economic advantages. The application of Information Technology (IT) has forced many changes that never happened before. In this “Connected world”, no country is strong enough to withstand the impact of global economy forces. Without knowledge of the global economy, a country cannot defend itself to forces that it cannot control. The same thing also happens to company, without a good strategy it cannot defend itself to competitors that it does not even know.

Trend in Information technology

According to a U.S. government 2011 report: Information Technology fields (Computer Science, Software Engineering and Information System Management) have become the most popular fields of study at U.S. Universities. The enrollment is increasing more than 28% mostly due to the better opportunities in a tight job market.