From The Editor
“At the recent Global Education and Skills Forum in Dubai, Andreas Schleicher, the OECD director for education and skills, referred to Australia’s poor performance in the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and warned that the country’s previous ranking as a high-equity and high-quality education system was in jeopardy.”
In April 2016, The Conversation asked 20 academics to examine the big ideas facing Australia for the 2016 federal election and beyond. The 20-piece series examines, among others, the state of democracy, health, education, environment, equality, freedom of speech, federation and economic reform. The above quote is from the contribution on education.
See below, Ideas for Australia: Why is Australia falling behind in maths, science and literacy – and what can be done about it? for an extract and links to the other contributions.
Recent research shows that Smartphone apps have potential beneficial effects in mental health through the application of basic principles Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) principles. However, other recent research has raised questions about the efficacy of CBT compared with traditional psychoanalysis. See below, Smartphone Cognitive Behavioral Therapy.
An April 2016 blog gives some interesting ideas on how “Software will disrupt most traditional industries in the next 5-10 years, ” covering Artificial Intelligence, health, autonomous and electric cars, education, 3D printing, agriculture and jobs. See below, Tips: Prepare for future.
“Blockchain is certainly an example of a technology that has the potential to disrupt or change the way not only financial services transactions are carried out, but also those across virtually any other sector, including government.”
The above quote, from a 4 May 2016 Data61 media release, features in an article which looks at how Data61, the Digital Transformation Office (DTO) and Standards Australia are separately gearing up for the Blockchain disruption. See below, The Blockchain Revolution,
Current Issue
Articles in the current Issue cover:
Ideas for Australia: Why is Australia falling behind in maths, science and literacy – and what can be done about it?
“There is no doubt that Australian education standards are slipping. International tests show that Australia has either stagnated or declined in maths, science and reading literacy.”
Smartphone Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
“Freud the man scaled heights of arrogance. But his legacy is a reminder that we shouldn’t necessarily expect life to be all that happy, nor to assume we can ever really know what’s going on inside – indeed, that we’re often deeply emotionally invested in preserving our ignorance of unsettling truths.”
Tips: Prepare for future
“In 1998, Kodak had 170,000 employees and sold 85% of all photo paper worldwide.… Did you think in 1998 that 3 years later you would never take pictures on paper film again?”
The Blockchain Revolution
“This initiative represents a genuine opportunity for Australia to make its mark as a global
hub for innovation”
QESP Blog
In an April 4, 2016 Datamation post, Cynthia Harvey lists 100 Open Source Replacements for Expensive Applications (25 per page.) In some cases, the costs of the expensive applications are “tens of thousands of dollars or more”. The categories cover a wide range of business, educational, recreational and social activities. Each page has useful comments, Q&A and additional open source suggestions. See the QESP Blog page for more details QESP Blog.
Events
ACOSM16 Australian Conference on Software Management
The QESP 2016 Australian Conference on Software Management (ACOSM16) will be held in Sydney on Thursday 23rd June 2016. ACOSM16 is conducted in partnership with the Australian Computer Society (ACS) and the PMI Sydney Chapter. For more details and to register, see ACOSM16.
Quotes
Quote of the Day
“The problem in this business isn’t to keep people from stealing your ideas; it’s making them steal your ideas!” ? Howard Aiken
Quote from Yesteryear
“The Linux philosophy is ‘Laugh in the face of danger.’ Oops. Wrong One. ‘Do it yourself.’ Yes, that’s it.” – Linus Torvalds
Ted Smillie
QESP Chairman