Obama unveils 'Educate to Innovate'

The White House has unveiled a programme to improve science and math education with a variety of Entertainment Software Association-backed initiatives including a programme to put LittleBigPlanet in libraries as well as a $300 000 game design challenge, states Kotaku. The new push is dubbed 'Educate to Innovate'.

President Barack Obama announced the overarching directive at a White House press conference that furthers the administration's commitment to its STEM programme, an initiative for focusing on science, technology engineering and math education.

Among the participating private-backed initiatives that are part of the programme, is a two-year focus on science on Sesame Street, a commercial-free science programming commitment by the Discovery Channel, a new Web site backed by Time Warner Cable, as well as a variety of video game initiatives.

The Bali administration has unveiled an e-learning project aimed at integrating ICT in daily teaching activities at public schools across the island, reports The Jakarta Post.

The initiative's first phase will see laptops, LCD projectors, projecting screens and educational software sent to 693 schools in all regions in the island. The schools include 136 elementary schools, 231 junior high schools, and 326 of the existing senior high schools.

"After the implementation of the first phase we will review whether this initiative is truly beneficial for the students. If it is indeed giving the students significant benefits then we will continue the initiative until all public schools receive the e-learning package," states Bali governor Made Mangku Pastika.

Catering to adult learners with jobs, families and little time to spare, online courses in continuing education are growing rapidly across Canada, says MetroNews.

“They're growing at a much faster rate than our traditional in-class courses,” says Colin Simpson, dean of the Centre for Continuous Learning at George Brown College. At the school, enrolment in online courses is up about 10%, year after year, and the e-learning milieu is attracting a whole new demographic of students, Simpson said.

They're seeing students from ages 18 to 88, many of whom would never have thought of going to college before. Some of the most popular online courses at George Brown are those that provide technical training for people looking to upgrade their skills and become more competitive in the workplace.