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What’s the future of education technology? Venturing an educated guess is Larry Cuban, a high school social studies teacher for 14 years and a district superintendent (seven years in Arlington, VA), is professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, where he has taught for more than 20 years. His latest book is “Inside the Black Box of Classroom Practice: Change without Reform in American Education.” This post appeared on his blog about school reform and classroom practice.

By Larry Cuban

For the past four years, I have offered predictions of what I see around the corner for high-tech in K-12 schools

But not higher education. So I venture one now.

Last year, was the year of the MOOC. Hysterical predictions of the end of higher education and the transformation of teaching soared through cyberspace and media (see here and here). And then just a few weeks ago, Sebastian Thrun, one of the “godfathers” of   MOOCs who sang the siren song of a revolutionized higher education, warbled goodbye to MOOCs. But MOOCs continue to thrive although the rhetoric has been dialed back (For an overview of the past year for MOOCs in a distinctly skeptical voice, see here).

For those who see MOOCs as a fine example of the Hype Cycle (as I do), I would put MOOCs in the “Trough of Disillusionment” in 2013. Over the next decade, however, I do believe, as others suggest, that there will be a slow crawl–see here–up the Slope of Enlightenment as community colleges and state universities, but not elite institutions, figure out how to incorporate MOOCs into revenue-producing degree programs (there are less than a handful now for the bachelors and masters degrees). No MOOCS, however, for K-12 public schools.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/answer-sheet/wp/2013/12/22/where-education-technology-will-and-wont-take-us-by-2024/?tid=pm_local_pop

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N Chandrasekaran, chief executive and managing director of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest information technology (IT) services company, has always been more upbeat about demand in the IT sector than his peers. With the entire sector starting to report better-than-expected financials, signalling a revival in demand, Chandrasekaran says based on initial discussions with clients, the next financial year is expected to be even better. He shares his thoughts with the media during a chat with the media at the company’s office in Delhi. Edited excerpts:

On the outlook

At the beginning of this financial year, Chandrasekaran said it would be better than the last. The year has been good for the company, he says, adding he expects 2014-15 to be even better. The company is seeing good growth in Latin America, the US, the UK and Asia, and is preparing itself for this. He says initial discussions from clients indicate there will be an uptick in spending, especially in digital. On whether it is safe to assume the worst is over, Chandrasekaran says he doesn’t know for sure. However, “The company is seeing some positive momentum for sure,” he says, adding companies are seeing growth opportunities and an uptick in discretionary spending is also expected.

On digital

While normal business is expected to increase, TCS feels the biggest opportunity will lie in the digital space through the next two-three years, Chandrasekaran says. This includes areas such as social, mobility, cloud and analytics. Companies are re-imaging their business, keeping in mind changing digital trends. To develop new technologies and cater to changing customer needs, the company has opened a centre in Silicon Valley.

On pricing

The pricing environment is stable and some higher-end services such as digital are commanding higher prices, Chandrasekaran says, adding the overall contract size of digital projects has increased from just a few million dollars. Now, TCS is addressing a larger number of contracts in the market due to an expansion in the company’s operations in various geographies. Areas driving customer spending include simplification of technology, risk and compliance, digital push and horizontals such as security, he says.

On India business

Chandrasekaran says while all his projections are based on the assumption that the currency remains constant, it is difficult to predict the rupee’s movement in the near future. The company’s India-centric business continues to be volatile, as it is based on discretionary spending, he says, adding given the general elections are around the corner, delay is expected in government business.

http://www.business-standard.com/article/companies/information-technology-spends-to-increase-next-financial-year-n-chandrasekaran-113121600902_1.html

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Fifty percent believe that mobile technology has 'more influence on global change than countries, governments or corporations'.
Usefulness of social media as a business tool starts to wane.

LONDON, 3 December 2013 – New research by CNBC, the leading business and financial news network, shows that Europe's business elite continue to embrace the latest smartphones, tablets and devices. However when it comes to using social media in business, while a steady 13% of those surveyed consider social media as 'essential to business activities,' a growing proportion 46% now consider social media to be 'neither useful nor essential' to their business (up 16% since 2010).

CNBC's 'Europe's Mobile Elite 2013', an annual study which focuses on the usage of mobile technology and use of social media, shows that although three quarters European business executives believe that they are keeping up with technology change within their sector, less than four in ten feel that their companies are keeping up with technology change.

Device ownership and use
Mobile technology has changed the way business leaders live and work, with 68% of those surveyed agreeing that life is 'easier' as a result and 64% claiming that their lives are more productive and enjoyable. Half of all European executives surveyed agree that mobile technology has 'more influence on global change than countries, governments or corporations.'

The 2013 survey results showed that:
• 90% of Europe's business leaders surveyed own a mobile device (up 7% from last year)
• Apple ownership has slowed with iPhone ownership growing marginally from 41% to 44% in 2013
• Android handsets showed the strongest year-on-year growth, increasing from 28% in 2012 to 35% in 2013, and a fourfold increase since 2010.

Use of tablets and multi-screen use continues to grow and tablets are well integrated into work and social lives:
• Almost eight in ten currently have a tablet at home, or intend to purchase one in the next 12 months
• 46% claimed to own an iPad and 12% an iPad mini
• 72% use their tablets for both work and leisure, up from 39% in 2011
• Two thirds now consider tablets to be a 'useful business tool', increasing from 39% in 2011 and 59% in 2012
• 75% watch TV at the same time as using their tablet, with nine in 10 of these consumers taking some form of action on their tablet as a result of seeing TV content, including a third responding to TV advertising.


http://www.cnbc.com/id/101241424

All business will benefit from an IT company that offers managed services, but only if the company follows through with what they promise.  Some companies only react to IT malfunctions that have already occurred while the best companies proactively try and avoid malfunctions all together.  With a true managed service company downtime will not happen, and if it does their response time is extremely fast.

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http://www.tvgconsulting.com/it-services/server-and-network-management-it-support-los-angeles/

Read this interesting article we found:

What It Is
Barley is a website-management program that allows entrepreneurs to undertake on-screen editing of their sites almost as easily as making changes to a Word doc. Users need only click on a Barley icon on their site, highlight text or photos to be changed, enter the fixes, and they're done.

"We wanted to make it simple for any kind of business that has no knowledge of coding or web development to roll out and edit their own site as quickly as possible," says Jeff Johns, co-founder of Plain, the Carbondale, Pa.-based company that created the system.



How It Started
When Johns joined forces with Colin Devroe and Kyle Ruane in January to launch Plain, their goal was to ease the pain of running a small-business website. "One guy told us he needed to make some important changes to his website, but his developer was out of town," Devroe says. "He tried to go in and do it himself, but it took him hours. People say to us that making website changes needs to be as easy as changing your Facebook status."

Why It Took Off
Barley launched in beta in May. Early adopters include churches, a wood-stove shop and a pizzeria that uses the platform to change menu information daily. And while Plain's target audience was the DIY small-business owner, the company is seeing most of its growth from website developers who can apply their own HTML, CSS and JavaScript files to a Barley-powered site.

That might be Barley's most elegant attribute, according to Mark Koberlein, founder of Parker West, an interactive product-development studio in Pennsylvania's Lehigh Valley. "I can develop a site for someone with my own template and hand it over to a client to manage with Barley and trust that they'll be able to make nearly all of the changes on their own," he says.

The Business Case
Users pay $18 per month for the service, which includes website hosting as long as a site doesn't exceed 350,000 page views per month. "We chose this number because we knew it'd be more than enough for 90 percent of the sites," Devroe says. "If a site goes viral and gets 1 million page views for that month, we'll send them an e-mail congratulating them. If that trend continues, we'll be in touch to discuss a new fee."

What's Next
The Plain team is working to integrate Barley with social media platforms, which will make it easier for users to quickly add photos and videos to their sites via Instagram and YouTube or to link to their Facebook and Twitter feeds.



Read more: http://www.entrepreneur.com/article/227882#ixzz2mMhVN3mN

Technology is relevant in today's society whether we like it or not.  Your business could be hurting if you have not implemented a successful phone system.  This can increase communication between you and your clients as well increase employee productivity.  Easier communication means less time spent on communication by your employees.  TVG Consulting, offers great phone systems like ALLWORX, for small to medium size businesses.

Contact TVG Consulting, an IT support company in Los Angeles, CA, today.

http://www.tvgconsulting.com/how-can-a-phone-system-benefit-my-business/

http://www.tvgconsulting.com/it-services/server-and-network-management-it-support-los-angeles/