April 2014

21st Century Education: 5 Lessons from China

by Catherine Yan Wang, National Institute of Educational Sciences

China has redesigned its education system since embarking on opening up the country and engaging in reforms in the late 1970s. The journey of change started from an ethos of “Orientation Towards the Modernization, Orientation Towards the Future, and Orientation Towards the World” created in late 1970s, went though a three-decade long reflection and debate on quality-oriented education (vs examination-oriented education), gained momentum in an Action Plan for Invigorating Education for 21st ...

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Striving for Equality: Part 2 of 3

Is it possible to be a good wife, a great mother and a successful businesswoman? Have both a family and a career? Is it possible to combine work and family? Yes! But it needs a lot of patience, hard work and, when possible, a partner’s support.

Women always strive to strike a balance between love and work. Many times they need to decide whether they want to stay at work or listen to their heart and follow their love. Many would prefer the latter. Some women feel that their intuition and “sixth sense” somehow already knows what is the best.

Everybody knows what one of the most...

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Striving for Equality: Part 1 of 3

Why do we have such a low percentage of women in leading positions if there are a lot of educated, strong, powerful and successful women around us?

Sheryl Sandberg, COO at Facebook in her book Lean In said: “A truly equal world would be one where women ran half our countries and companies and men ran half our homes.” Yet are we ready for an equal world when there are still some countries that deny women their basic rights?

...

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Consumer Privacy Bill of Rights and Big Data: Response to White House Office of Science and Technology Policy Request for Information

On March 3, the White House Office of Science and Technology policy (OSTP) and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) co-hosted a thought-provoking conference about the state of the art in big-data analytics and privacy technologies. In case you missed it, you can find the MIT webcast here.

As a follow-up, OSTP also released a Request for Information seeking public comment on the ways in which big data may impact privacy, the economy, and...

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Apr 7: "Investigating privacy issues related to mobile devices. Are current transparency mechanisms working?"

Technology in Government (TIG)  and Topics in Privacy (TIP)

4/7/2014 refreshments served at 2:30p, discussion 3 to 4pm in room K354, at 1737 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.  

Title: Investigating privacy issues related to mobile devices. Are current transparency mechanisms working?

Discussant: Ilaria Liccardi, MIT

Many smartphone apps...

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