Tech increases access to education

The days of students relying on printed worksheets and note-taking in university lecture rooms are gone. Technology allows students to study in previously unimagined ways and places, says The Guardian.

This has benefits for all students, but one of the biggest impacts has been on improved accessibility to further and higher education for disabled students and people with learning difficulties.

Sophisticated software now turns speech into written form for the hearing impaired, while printed words are transformed into sounds at the click of a button for the blind. Students with learning disabilities such as dyslexia can change the size or colour of the font on a printed document to make it easier to read.

Jay Cross, the man who coined the term e-learning, believes the Web is revolutionising the way people learn. Not through the kind of e-learning of the 1990s but via the explosion of online communities that effectively democratise the way people learn, says Training Zone.

Cross believes the era of traditional course-led training is coming to an end and that informal, social learning is the way forward.

"The question is not which course do I go on? But, of all the many options for learning, which one do I choose: do I work with an expert, do I want to find it on Google or talk to my friends in the pub, or social network? These are all valid ways of learning."

Canada's Northern Centre for Advanced Technology (Norcat) is plugging into the global grid of advanced research networks by joining Orion, an Ontario-based ultra high-speed fibre optic network dedicated to support research and education in the province, reports Mediacaster.

Orion is providing world-class research connectivity to Sudbury, Norcat's new Innovation and Commercialisation Centre, joining 80 Ontario research and education institutions linked to Orion and partners across Canada and around the world.

“We are very excited about joining the Orion network, and plan to take advantage of its advanced network capabilities to expand our collaboration with innovation partners here at home and abroad,” said Darryl Lake, Norcat CEO, in a release.