Prof. Neil Gershenfeld speaks with Adam Shaw of BBC Horizons about how the fabrication labs he started at the MIT Center for Bits and Atoms have spread around the world. Gershenfeld explains that Fab Labs “are places where ordinary people can go and they can turn data into things and things into data,” adding that they are part of the maker revolution.
A new study co-authored by MIT Prof. Susan Silbey examines why female students leave the field of engineering. When the researchers analyzed "more than 40 engineering students’ twice-monthly diaries, they found that female students often felt marginalized during group activities,” Inside Higher Ed reports.
Writing for The Huffington Post, Richard Freed highlights a study by MIT researchers that found that a student’s academic performance tends to decline when personal computing technology is available. The researchers “compared West Point students’ final exam scores for those who used personal computers and tablets in class to those who didn’t.”
Vijee Venkatraman writes for Al-Fanar about MIT’s Learning International Networks Consortium, which brought together more than 200 practitioners in the field to explore how digital technology can help people in the developing world.
A new study by MIT researchers finds that student use of personal computing technology in classrooms has a negative effect on academic performance, reports Richard Adams for The Guardian. “The researchers suggested that removing laptops and iPads from classes was the equivalent of improving the quality of teaching,” writes Adams.
Bloomberg West broadcasts live from the MIT campus in a special segment highlighting cutting-edge research underway across campus and MIT’s role in driving innovation. “In general, technology can help people,” says Prof. John Leonard. “That’s one of the things I believe as an MIT professor is that technology can make the world a better place.”
During a special live broadcast from the MIT campus, President L. Rafael Reif speaks with Bloomberg’s Emily Chang about MIT’s innovation ecosystem and the future of education. Reif explains that students come to MIT because “they want to use their skills to do something important for the world, to make the world better.”
Writing for The Boston Globe, Jaclyn Reiss highlights that MIT was named one of the most prestigious colleges in the world in a new ranking by Times Higher Education.
Tech reporters Drew Bent and Katherine Nazemi speak with MIT President L. Rafael Reif about the MIT Campaign for a Better World. “We want to be as strong as we can, but for a purpose, and the purpose is to do something good for the world,” says Reif. “That’s very uniquely MIT.”
MIT has been named one of the most reputable universities in the world by the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, reports Karsten Strauss for Forbes.
CIO’s Sarah K. White talks to Bhaskar Pant, executive director of MIT Professional Education, about how cultural differences in the workplace can impact communication. Pant explains that there has been an “explosion in the ability to communicate with people across borders with such great ease."
Inside Higher Ed reporter Carl Straumsheim highlights how the new Online Education Policy Initiative report stresses the central role of faculty members to online learning. Prof. Karen Willcox notes that the report discusses “ways online education can make what we do better.”
Justine Hofherr of Boston.com speaks with Bhaskar Pant about MIT Professional Education’s Innovation and Technology Certificate program, which educates working professionals on how to create innovation within their own companies.
As part of the Chronicle of Higher Education’s special section on tech innovators, Jeffrey Young spotlights the work of Sanjay Sarma, vice president for open learning. Young writes that Sarma is transforming higher education “by pushing the lecture model into the margins and using technology to rethink the professor’s role.”
In a series of articles for Inside Higher Ed, Joshua Kim writes about a new report out of the MIT Online Education Policy Initiative analyzing the current state and future of higher education. Kim writes that the report, “has lots to say about the future of higher education,” adding that, “it really doesn’t get more exciting for us online learning nerds.”